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

448 / ANARCHISM
basis of civilization worthy of the name. In this time of white and red dictatorships, of
authoritarian madness, the desperate fa ith of the masses in the "totalitarian state"
has been deceived a thousand times. The state appeared to them to be the only way
out of the present chaos which seemed to be nothing else but the end of civilization
itself. At this time, therefore, we need to construct the idea ofthe total man who in all
senses liberates himself from the yoke of authority by beginning to build society
from below, by means of new fo rms of work and distribution of the wealth created,
without relying fo r one moment once and for all on those who promise happiness in
exchange for political power being handed over to any boss or party, whatever they
are called. As long as this lesson is not learned from the fa ilure of Marxism in Germany,
the painful events of central Europe will serve fo r nothing and the German
people will continue its martyrdom under the emblem of the swastika or that of any
other dictatorial organization or totalitarian and anti-human state that may follow
the present regime. (Translation © Richard M. Cleminson)
120. Bart de Ligt: The Conquest of Violence (1937)
Bart de Ligt (1883- 1 938) was a revolutionary pacifist and libertarian socialist active in the
international anti-militarist and peace movements. De Ligt was imprisoned in his native HoIland
during the First World War as a result ofhis anti-militarist and pacifist activities. He became
a well-known advocate of nonviolent direct action. TheJuly 1934 conference of the War
Resisters International adopted his "Plan of Campaign against All War and All Preparation
for War, " whic/l setforth a detailed plan fo r nonviolent resistance to militarism, war and war
preparations. The following excerpts are taken from his book, The Conquest of Violence:
An Essay on War and Revolution (London: Pluto Press, 1989; originally published 1937,
with an introduction by Aldous Huxley).
TO THE ESSENTIALLY PARASITIC BOURGEOISIE, the use of ... violence comes naturally,
as we have said. On the other hand, the Bolsheviks, Socialists, Syndicalists and
Anarchists, who wish to do away with every kind of parasitism, exploitation, and oppression,
are battling for a world from which every form of brutal violence will be
banished. That is why, when once the old means of violence are used by them there
appears a flagrant contradiction between such means and the goal in sight.
For it is a fixed law that all means have their own abiding end, proceeding from
the fu nction for which they came into being, which can only be subordinated to
other, loftier ends as fa r as the latter are attuned to the essential and, as it were, innate
end. Besides, every end suggests its own means. To transgress this law inevitably
brings about a tyranny of the means. For if these lead away from their intended