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

The Mexican Revolution /257
"We are hungry and thirsty for justice." can be heard everywhere; but how many
of those hungry dare to take the bread, and how many of those thirsty risk to drink
the water that is on the way to the revolution
If it seems to you that by walking, you won't reach freedom, then run.
To live in order to be free, or to die in order to stop being slaves.
For some sensitive spirits it is more painful and barbarian to see a thousand
men die in the revolution than to see millions of men, wo men. and children live and
die in the jails and in exploitation.
The features of the tyrant represent a description ofthe people who obey him.
Who is more responsible: the tyrant who oppresses the people. or the people
who created him
If you fe el the urge to bow down before a despot, go ahead, but pick up a rock
to finish the salutation with dignity.
A cause does not succeed because of its kindness and its justice: it succeeds because
of the efforts of its supporters.
There are many thieves in Mexico. There are people so degenerate that steal the
insignificance of a piece of bread, when they could afford the luxury of starving to
death.
The Purpose Of TIle Revolution
"Why, if you want freedom, do you not kill the tyrant and thus avoid the horrors of a
major fratricidal war Why do you not murder the despot who oppresses people and
who has put a price on your head"-I have been asked many times. Because I am not
an enemy of the tyrant, I have replied; because if I were to kill the man, tyranny would
still be left standing, and it is the latter I combat; because if! were to blindly hurl myself
against him, I would be doing what a dog does, when it bites a rock, hurting itself,
but not knowing nor understanding where the pain comes from.
Tyranny is the logical result of a social disease. whose present remedy is the
Revolution, since the pacific resistance ofthe doctrine of Tolstoy would only produce
in these times the annihilation of the few who might ever have understood or practiced
its simplicity.
Inviolable laws of nature rule over all things and beings; cause is the creator of
effect; the environment determines in an absolute manner the appearance and the
qualities of the product . .. However bloodthirsty and ferocious they may be, tyrannies
and despotisms cannot break that law, because it has no loopholes. They exist, therefo
re, in a special environmental state that prevails around them and from which they
are the result. If they offend. if they cause harm. if they obstruct, we must seek their