For sixty years, Errico Malatesta’s involvement with international anarchism helped fuel the movement’s radical approach to class and labor, and directly impacted the workers’ movement in Italy. A talented newspaper journalist, Malatesta’s biting critiques were frequently short and to the point—and written directly to and for the workers. Though his few long-form essays, including ‘Anarchy’ and ‘Our Program, ‘ have been widely available in English translation since the 1950s, the bulk of Malatesta’s most revolutionary writing remains unknown to English-speaking audiences.
In The Method of Freedom, editor Davide Turcato presents an expansive collection of Malatesta’s work, including new translations of existing works and a wealth of shorter essays translated here for the first time. Offering readers a thorough overview of the evolution of Malatesta’s revolutionary thought during his half a century as an anarchist propagandist, The Method of Freedom explores revolutionary violence and workplace democracy, the general strike and the limitations of trade unionism, propaganda by the deed, and the revolution in practice.
Errico Malatesta (1853–1932) was an enormously popular Italian anarchist, perhaps most well-known for his strong support of direct action and the general strike. A talented newspaper journalist and editor, Malatesta spent much of his life exiled from Italy because of his political beliefs.
Davide Turcato is a computational linguist and an independent historian. He is the author of Making Sense of Anarchism and the editor of Malatesta’s collected works, a ten-volume project currently underway in Italy, to be released in English by AK Press.
قائمة المحتويات
I “Whoever is Poor is a Slave”: The Internationalist Period and the Exile in South America, 1871–89
1. Declaration of principles of the Neapolitan Workers’ Federation (1872).
2. Letter to the Bulletin de la Fédération Jurassienne, with Carlo Cafiero (1876).
3. To the comrades of the Ilota (1883).
4. The republic of the youngsters and that of the bearded men (1884).
5. Economic question (1884).
6. Programme and organization of the International Workers’ Association (1884).
II “Let’s Go to the People”: L’Associazione and the London Years of 1889–97
7. About a strike (1889).
8. Propaganda by the deed (1889).
9. Another strike (1889).
10. An uprising is not a revolution (1889).
11. Our intents: The union between communists and collectivists (1889).
12. Revolutionary issues (1890).
13. Anarchy (1891).
14. The products of the soil and of the industry (1891).
15. A bit of theory (1892).
16. Questions of tactics (1892).
17. The First of May (1893).
18. Let’s go to the people (1894).
19. The duties of the present hour (1894).
20. The general strike and the revolution (1894).
21. Anarchy and violence. Liberty (1894).
22. Good by force (1894).
23. Should anarchists be admitted to the coming international congress? (1896).
24. Errors and remedies (1896).
III “A Long and Patient Work…”: The anarchist socialism of L’Agitazione, 1897–8
25. The socialists and the elections: A letter by E. Malatesta (1897).
26. From a question of tactics to a question of principles (1897).
27. A few words to wind up a dispute (1897).
28. Let’s keep up our spirits (1897).
29. The duty of resistance (1897).
30. Organization (1897).
31. The evolution of anarchism (1897).
32. The decline of the revolutionary spirit and the need for resistance (1897).
33. Anarchism in the workers’ movement (1897).
34. Our tactics (1897).
IV “Towards Anarchy”: Malatesta in America, 1899–1900
35. Against the monarchy (1899).
36. Mr. Malatesta explains himself (1899).
37. Our programme (1899).
38. The anarchists’ task (1899).
39. Towards anarchy (1899).
V “The Armed Strike”: The Long London Exile of 1900–13
40. The Monza tragedy (1900).
41. The armed strike (1902).
42. On strikes (1902).
43. The new workers’ International (1902).
44. Bourgeois infiltrations in the socialist doctrine (1905).
45. Anarchism and syndicalism (1907).
46. Anarchists and the situation (1909).
47. Capitalists and thieves (1912).
48. The war and the anarchists (1912).
VI “Is Revolution Possible?”: Volontà, the Red Week and the War, 1913–8
49. Liberty and fatalism, determinism and will (1913).
50. Science and social reform (1913)
51. Is revolution possible? (1914).
52. The general strike and the insurrection in Italy (1914).
53. Anarchists have forgotten their principles (1914).
54. Pro-government anarchists (1916).
VII “Proletarian United Front”: The Red Biennium, Umanità Nova and Fascism, 1919–23
55. The dictatorship of the proletariat and anarchy (1919).
56. Thank you, but that’s enough (1920).
57. Proletarian united front (1920).
58. It’s your stuff! (1920).
59. The two roads (1920).
60. The revolutionary “haste.” (1921).
61. Class struggle or class hatred? (1921).
62. Revolution in practice (1922).
63. Further thoughts on revolution in practice (1922).
64. Interest and ideal (1922).
65. The anarchists’ line of conduct in the trade union movement (1923).
VIII “Achievable and Achieving Anarchism”: Pensiero e Volontà and Last Writings, 1924–32
66. “Idealism” and “materialism” (1924).
67. Ideal and reality (1924).
68. On “anarchist revisionism” (1924).
69. Individualism and anarchism (1924).
70. Syndicalism and anarchism (1925).
71. Gradualism (1925).
72. Let’s demolish, and then? (1926).
73. A project of anarchist organization (1927).
74. Some thoughts on the post-revolutionary property system (1929).
75. The anarchist in the present situation (June 1930).
76. Against the constituent assembly and against the dictatorship (1930).
77. Peter Kropotkin: Recollections and criticisms by one of his old friends (1931).
78. On revisionism (1931).
عن المؤلف
Errico Malatesta: Errico Malatesta (1853-1932) was an enormously popular Italian anarchist, perhaps most well-known for his strong support of direct action and the general strike. A talented newspaper journalist and editor, Malatesta spent much of his life exiled from Italy because of his political beliefs.
Davide Turcato: Davide Turcato is a computational linguist with an interest in history. He is the author of
Making Sense of Anarchism, and the editor of Malatesta’s collected work, a ten-volume project currently underway in Italy, to be released in English by AK Press.