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

286 / ANARCHISM
playing their role as capitalist producers. Whatever any man, even the worker, does
within the structure of capitalism, everything draws him only deeper and deeper into
capitalist entanglement. In this role the workers too are participants in capitalism,
though their interests are not self-selected but are indoctrinated into them by the
capitalists and though in every essential they reap not the advantages but the disadvantages
of the injustice into which they are placed. Liberation is possible only for
those who can step out of capitalism mentally and physically, who cease playing a
role in it and begin to be men.
80. Malatesta: Anarchists Have Forgotten Their Principles (1914)
At the International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam in August 1907, where Malatesta debated
Monatte on revolutionary syndicalism (Selection 60), the delegates passed the following motion:
Anarchists, seeking the comprehensive deliverance of humanity and the
complete freedom of the individual, are naturally, essentially, the declared
enemies of all armed force vested in the hands of the State-be it army,
gendarmerie, police or magistracy.
They urge their comrades-and in general all who aspire to freedom, to
struggle in accordance with their circumstances and temperament, and by
all means, by individual revolt, isolated or collective refusal to serve, passive
and active disobedience and military strike-to destroy root and
branch the instruments of domination.
They express the hope that all the peoples concerned will respond to any
declaration of wctr by insulTeLliun.
They declare their view that the anarchists must set the example. (Anarchisme
& Syndicalisme: Le Congres Anarchiste International d'Amsterdam, 1907, Rennes:
Nautilus, 1997, translated by Paul Sharkey)
After the First World War began in August 1914 and the hoped fo r insurrection did not material
ize, the majority of anarchists remained committed anti-militarists opposed to the war. A fe w
very prominent anarchists adopted a pm-war stance in support of the countries allied against Germany
and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (with even fewer, such as the anarchist historian, Max
Nettlau, supporting Austria and Germany). Kropotkin andJean Grave were among the pro-war,
anti-German group, as was the "revolutionary syndicalist" CGT in France, including Pierre
Monatte. Malatesta published the fo llowing article, "Anarchists Have Forgotten Their Principles, "
in the November 1914 issue of Freedom, the English anarchist paper, in response to this betrayal
(reprinted in Malatesta, Life and Ideas, London: Freedom Press, 1965, ed. V. Richards).