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

War And Revolution In Europe /277
There is no "country" for the man truly worthy ofthe name; or at least there is
but one-that in which he struggles fo r true right, in which he lives and has his affections;
but it may extend over the whole earth! Humanity is not to be chucked into little
pigeon-holes, wherein each is to shut himself up in his corner, regarding the rest
as enemies. To the genuine individual all men are brothers and have equal rights to
live and to evolve according to their own wills, upon this earth which is large enough
and fruitfu l enough to nourish all. As to your countries by convention, the workers
have no interest in them, and nothing in them to defend; consequently, on whichever
side of the frontier they may chance to have been born, they should not, on that account,
have any motive for mutual hatred. Instead of going on cutting each other's
throats, as they have done up to the present, they ought to stretch out their hands
across the frontiers and unite all their efforts in making war upon their real, their
only, enemies: authority and capital...
Colonization is extending too widely, in the present epoch, for us to neglect to
treat separately of this hybrid product of patriotism and mercantilism combined-brigandage
and highway robbery fo r the benefit of the ruling classes! A private
individual goes into his neighbour's house, breaks everything he lays his hands
on, seizes everything he finds convenient for his own use: he is a criminal; society
condemns him. But if a government find itself driven to a standstill by an internal situation
which necessitates some external "diversion;" ifit be encumbered at home by
unemployed hands of which it knows not how to rid itself; of products which it cannot
get distributed; let this government declare war against remote peoples which it
knows to be too feeble to resist it, let it take possession of their country, subject
them to an entire system of exploitation, force its products upon them, massacre
them if they attempt to escape this exploitation with which it weighs them
down-oh, then, this is moral! From the moment you operate on a grand scale it merits
the approbation of honest men. It is no longer called robbery or assassination;
there is an honourable word for covering up the dishonourable deeds that government
commits: this is called "civilizing" undeveloped peoples ...
It is nothing astonishing that these high feats of arms obtain the approval and
applause ofthe bourgeois world. The bourgeoisie is interested in these strokes of brigandage;
they serve as a pretext fo r maintaining permanent armies; they occupy the
pretorians who, during these slaughters, set their hands to more serious "labour;"
these armies themselves serve to unload a whole pack of idiots and worthless persons
by whom the bourgeoisie would be much embarrassed, and who, by virtue of a
few yards of gilt stripes, are made their most furious defenders. These conquests fa-