Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

Anarchist Communism / 123
It has been firmly established that the labour organizations, those that are managed
by somnolent conservatives, as well as the red ones led by the so-called revolutionary
syndicalists, recognize and consent to the existing economic system in all its
manifestations and relations. They limit their demands to immediate and partial improvements,
high salaries, shorter hours, old-age pensions, unemployment benefits,
social security, laws protecting women's and children's working conditions, factory
inspections, etc., etc. They are the main purpose fo r which the organization was established,
and it is clear that an anarchist cannot assume the responsibility fo r sponsoring
aspirations of this kind ... without denying all his anarchist and revolutionary
convictions, without aligning himself with the reformist crowds whose spearhead he
pretends to be.
Our place is in opposition, continually demonstrating with all possible vigilance
and criticism the vanity of such aims, the fu tility of such efforts, the disappointing results;
relentlessly pointing out, in contrast, the concrete and integral emancipation
that could be achieved quickly and easily with different ways and other means.
The outcome of every agitation, of every union struggle would confirm the fo resight
and the fa irness of our criticism. Even if it is not easy to hope that an organization
might soon follow our suggestions, it is nevertheless believable that the more
intelligent and bold among its members would be inclined to favour our point of
view. They would form a nucleus ready to fight with passion in the struggles of the future,
attracting their fellow workers to shake the authority of their union leaders .
... {WJe, ourselves, !Jave to start t!Je revolution from wit!Jin ourselves, by discarding
old superstitions, selfishness, self-imposed ignorance, fo olish vanities and moral deficiencies.
We are children of the bourgeois regime, heirs to all its degradations, materially
and actually incapable of shedding its bestial yoke at this time, except fo r a few,
and we are revolutionary only w!Jen and insofa r as we know !Jow to resist and react against
the wickedness, corruption and violence of oLir environment. And, when, through experience,
we have become worthy of the cause, we will be able to arouse the same need
of moral elevation and freedom that will spread in an ever-widening concentric
movement, reaching those groups fa rthest from us, like the effect of a stone cast into
a pond.
The revolution cannot be made by the anarchists alone, at a pre-established
time and by pre-arranged movements; but if a movement should burst out tomorrow-no
matter where-they could place themselves in the fo refront, or near it,
with the sole aim of pointing it towards decisive positions or solutions, and in so do-