Graham Gamblin - Infoshop.org

1876; as in Spain there were regional tensions in Italy between syndicalists in the
Marches and Umbria who preferred the strike as a revolutionary tactic, and the
insurrectionists who drew their support from the Romagnole-Emilian Federation of
the Italian International. For the time being however, the debates on
syndicalism/insurrectionism were overshadowed in the International by the debate on
propaganda by deed.
It was the Italian Federation which introduced the concept of propaganda by
deed to the International at the Bern Congress of 1876. What Malatesta and his
comrades understood by the phrase at this time was insurrection by workers and
peasants to seize land and means of production. In a public statement Malatesta and
Cafiero pronounced that:
"The insurrectionary deed, destined to affirm socialist principles by
means of action, is the most effective means of propaganda, and the only
one which...can penetrate into the deepest social strata and draw the living
forces of humanity into the struggle sustained by the International." 44
The Italians were drawing on Bakunin's ideas and the native Italian traditions of
insurrection and guerrilla warfare (Mazzini and Garibaldi) to arrive at their concept of
propaganda by deed. Moreover they knew that a few poorly armed peasants could not
win any immediate struggles but they hoped to make acts of propaganda and
provocation which would find echoes in the population.
Despite the predominance of workers and artisans in the Italian Federation of
the International, 45 its leaders shared Bakunin's belief that the peasants' active support
was necessary to carry through the revolution. Moreover not only were some sections
of the urban workforce subject to the debilitating effects of bourgeois culture, some
had enough security and good enough wages to make them think twice about risking
revolutionary action. Only the very poorest with the least to lose could be relied upon
to take such risks, and in many countries this meant the peasants. Thus the next site
they chose for an insurrectionary attempt was in the Matese mountains, in Benevento
province. Once again the attempt, made in April 1877, was thwarted by swift
government action. Nevertheless, in capturing national attention for several weeks,
the insurrectionists drew notice to the International and to socialism, and according to
44 Bulletin de la Fédération Jurassienne, Dec. 3 1876, quoted in Pernicone, op.cit. p.115
45 Pernicone, op.cit. p.78
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