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[The struggle against the state and other essays by Nestor Makhno]

16. THE ABC OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ANARCHIST

Anarchism means man living free and working constructively. It means the
destruction of everything that is directed against man's natural, healthy
aspirations.

Anarchism is not exclusively a theoretical teaching emanating from programs
artificially conceived with an eye to the regulation of life: it is a
teaching derived from life across all its wholesome manifestations,
skipping over all artificial criteria.

The social and political visage of anarchism is a free, anti-authoritarian
society, one that enshrines freedom, equality and solidarity between all
its members.

In anarchism, Right means the responsibility of the individual, the sort of
responsibility that brings with it an authentic guarantee of freedom and
social justice for each and for all, in all places and at all times. It is
out of this that communism springs.

Anarchism is naturally innate in man: communism is the logical
extrapolation from it.

These assertions require theoretical support in the shape of assistance
from scientific analysis and concrete facts, so that they may become
fundamental postulates of anarchism. However, the great libertarian
theorists, like Godwin, Proudhon, Bakunin, Johann Most, Kropotkin,
Malatesta, Sbastien Faure and lots of others were, I suppose at any rate,
loath to confine their doctrine within rigid, definitive parameters. Quite
the opposite. It might be said that anarchism's scientific dogma is the
aspiration to demonstrate that it is inherent in human nature never to rest
on its laurels. The only thing that is unchanging in scientific anarchism
is its natural tendency to reject all fetters and any attempt by man to
exploit his fellow men. In place of the fetters of the slavery currently
extant in human society which, by the way, socialism has not done away
with, nor can it - anarchism plants freedom and man's inalienable right to
make use of that freedom.

As a revolutionary anarchist, I shared the life of the Ukrainian people
during the revolution. Throughout its activity, that people instinctively
felt the vital attraction of libertarian ideas and, equally, paid the
tragic price for that. Without yielding, I tasted the same dramatic rigors
of that collective struggle but, very often, I found myself powerless to
comprehend and then to articulate the demands of the moment. Generally
speaking, I quickly came to my senses and I clearly grasped that the goal
for which I and my comrades were calling for struggle was readily
assimilated by the masses fighting for the freedom and independence of the
individual and of mankind as a whole.

Experience of practical struggle strengthened my conviction that anarchism
educates man in a living way. It is a teaching every bit as revolutionary
as life, and it is as varied and potent in its manifestations as man's
creative existence and, indeed, is intimately bound up with that.

As a revolutionary anarchist, and for as long as I retain even the most
tenuous connection with that label, I will summon you, my humiliated
brother, to the struggle to make a reality of the anarchist ideal. In fact,
it is only through that struggle for freedom, equality and solidarity that
you will reach an understanding of anarchism.

So, anarchism is present in man naturally: historically, it liberates him
from the (artificially acquired) slave mentality and helps him become a
conscious fighter against slavery in all its guises. It is in that regard
that anarchism is revolutionary.

The more a man becomes aware, through reflection, of his servile condition,
the more indignant he becomes, the more the anarchist spirit of freedom,
determination and action waxes inside him. That is true of every
individual, man or woman, even though they may never have heard of the word
"anarchism" before.

The nature of man is anarchist: it kicks against anything tending to make
it a prisoner. As I see it, this, man's natural essence, is well expressed
by the scientific term anarchism. The latter, as an ideal of life in men,
plays a meaningful role in human evolution. The oppressors as much as the
oppressed, begin, little by little, to come alive to that role: so the
former aspire by hook or by crook to misrepresent that ideal, whilst the
latter aspire to make it the easier to attain.

Comprehension of the anarchist ideal grows in slave and master alike as
modern civilization grows.

Despite the ends to which the latter has thus far been turned - lulling and
thwarting every natural tendency in man to protest every trespass against
his dignity - it has not been able to silence independent scientific minds
which have exposed the true provenance of man and demonstrated the
nonexistence of God, hitherto considered the Creator of Mankind.
Thereafter, it has naturally become easier to offer irrefutable proof of
the artificial nature of "divine ordinances" on earth and of the
ignominious relations that they establish between men.

All of these happenings have been of considerable assistance to the
conscious development of anarchist ideas. Equally it is true that
artificial notions have come to light at the same time: liberalism and that
allegedly "scientific" socialism, one of the branches of which is
represented by Bolshevism-Communism. However, despite all their vast
influence upon the psychology of modern society, or at any rate upon a
large part thereof, and despite their victory over the classical reaction
on the one hand, and over the individual personality on the other, these
artificial notions tend to slip down the slope leading to the familiar
forms of the old world.

The free man, who achieves consciousness and expresses it around himself,
inevitably lays to rest and always will lay to rest, the whole of mankind's
ignoble past, as well as all that that implied in terms of deceit,
arbitrary violence and degradation. It will also lay these artificial
teachings to rest.

From this moment forth, the individual little by little struggles free of
the carapace of lies and cowardice in which the earthly gods have wrapped
him since birth, and that with the aid of the brute force of bayonet,
ruble, "justice" and hypocritical science - the science of the sorcerers'
apprentices.

In sloughing off such infamy, the individual attains a completeness that
opens his eyes to the map of the world: and the first thing he remarks is
his servile former existence, replete with cowardice and misery. In making
a slave of him, that former existence had done to death everything clean,
pure and worthwhile that he had started life with, so as to turn him either
into a bleating sheep, or an imbecilic master who tramples and destroys
anything good to be encountered in himself or in others.

It is at this point only that man awakes to natural freedom, independent of
everyone and everything which reduces to ashes anything that defies it,
everything that violates nature's purity and captivating beauty, which is
made manifest and grows through the autonomous creative endeavor of the
individual. It is here only that the individual comes to his senses again
and damns his shameful past for once and for all, severing every psychic
link with it that hitherto imprisoned his individual and social life with
the burden of its servile ascendancy and also, partly, through his own
resignation, as encouraged and deceived by the shamans of science.

Henceforth, man makes as much progress from year to year towards a lofty
ethical goal - not to be and not to become a shaman himself, some prophet
of power over others and no longer to tolerate others wielding power over
him - as formerly he was making from generation to generation.

Freed from his heavenly and earthly deities, as well as from all their
moral and social prescriptions, man speaks out against and offers actual
opposition to man's exploitation of his fellow man and the perversion of
his nature, which remains invariably committed to the onward march towards
completion and perfection. This rebel, having become conscious of himself
and of the circumstances of his oppressed and degraded brethren, thereafter
gives expression to his heart and to his reason: he becomes a revolutionary
anarchist, the only individual capable of thirsting after freedom,
completion and perfection for himself and for the human race, as he
tramples underfoot the slavery and social idiocy which has, historically,
been embodied by violence - the State. Against that murderer and that
organized bandit, the free man in turn organizes along with his fellows, so
as to strengthen and espouse a genuinely communist policy in all the common
gains made along the road of creation, which is at once grandiose and
painful.

The individual members of such groups, by dint of becoming members of them,
free themselves from the criminal tutelage of the ruling society, to the
extent that they rediscover themselves, that is, they reject all servility
towards others, whatever they may have been hitherto: worker, peasant,
student or intellectual. In this way they escape from the condition either
of a pack-mule, slave, functionary or lackey selling themselves to
imbeciles of masters.

As an individual, man gets back to his authentic personality when he
rejects false thinking about life and reduces it to ashes, thereby
recovering his real rights. It is through this dual operation of rejection
and affirmation that the individual becomes a revolutionary anarchist and a
conscious communist.

As an ideal of human existence, anarchism is consciously disclosed to each
individual as thought's natural aspiration to a free and creative
existence, leading on to a social ideal of happiness. In our day, the
anarchist society or harmonious human society no longer seems a chimera.
However, like its elaboration and its practical planning, the conception of
it seems as yet little in evidence.

As a teaching bearing upon man's new life and its creative development,
individually as well as socially, the very idea of anarchism is founded
upon the indestructible truth of human nature and on the incontrovertible
proofs of the injustice of contemporary society - a veritable permanent
blight. Realization of that leads to its advocates - anarchists - finding
themselves in conditions of semi- or complete outlawry vis--vis the formal
institutions of the existing society. Indeed, anarchism cannot be
acknowledged as quite lawful in any country: this can be explained in terms
of present society's being profoundly impregnated by its servant and
master, the State. That band of individuals which has always lived as a
parasite upon mankind, by cutting its life up into "slices," has thus
identified itself with the State. Whether individually or as a countless
mass, man finds himself at the mercy of this band of drones going under the
name of "governors and masters," when in reality they are nothing but
straightforward exploiters and oppressors.

The great idea of anarchism is not at all to the taste of these sharks who
brutalize and enslave the contemporary world, whether they are governments
of right or left, bourgeois or statist socialists. The difference between
these sharks boils down to the fact that the former are professedly
bourgeois - and thus less hypocritical - whereas the latter, the statist
socialists of all shades, and among them especially the collectivists who
have illegitimately tacked on the label of "communists," namely, the
Bolsheviks, hypocritically hide behind the watchwords of "fraternity and
equality." The Bolsheviks are ready to give the present society a thousand
coats of paint or re-label the systems of domination for some and
enslavement for others a thousand times over - in short, to amend the names
as their programs may require, without thereby altering the nature of the
present society by one iota, even if it means incorporating into their
stupid programs compromises between the natural contradictions that exist
between domination and servitude. Although they know that these
contradictions are insurmountable, they cling to them regardless, for the
sole purpose of not letting appear in life the only truly human ideal:
libertarian communism.

According to their absurd programs, the statist socialists and communists
have decided to "allow" man to emancipate himself socially, without its
thereby being feasible for him to manifest that freedom in his social life.
As for leaving man to emancipate himself completely, spiritually, in such a
way that he may be wholly free to act and to submit only to his own will
and the laws of nature alone, although they touch upon that subject, that
is out of the question as far as they are concerned. This is the reason why
they join their efforts to those of the bourgeois, so that emancipation may
never elude their odious supervision. In any event, we know only too well
the form that may be taken by "emancipation" awarded by any political
authorities.

The bourgeois finds its natural to speak of the toilers as slaves fated to
remain such. He will never give encouragement to authentic labor likely to
produce something genuinely useful and beautiful, something of benefit to
the whole of mankind. Despite the vast capital resources at his disposal in
industry and agriculture, he claims not to be able to devise the principles
of a novel social existence. The present seems quite adequate to him, for
all the powerful kowtow to him: tsars, presidents, governments and
virtually all intellectuals and scholars, all who in their turn reduce the
slaves of the new society to subjection. "Servants!" the bourgeois cry out
to their faithful servitors, "Give to the slaves the pittance which is
their due, keep what is due to you for your devoted services, then hold the
remainder for us!" In conditions like those, life for them could not be
anything other than beautiful! - No, we are not in agreement with you on
the above! retort the state socialists and communists. Whereupon they turn
to the workers, organizing them into political parties, then inciting them
to revolt whilst exhorting them as follows:

Drive out the bourgeois from State power and give it to us statist
socialists and communists, then we will defend you and set you free.

Bitter, natural enemies of State authority, more than of the drones and
privileged, the toilers give vent to their hatred, rise in revolt, carry
out the revolution, destroy the power of the State and drive out those
wielding it, and then, either through naivet or lack of vigilance, they
let the socialists lay hands on it. In Russia, they let the
Bolshevik-Communists lay hands on it like that. These craven Jesuits, these
monsters, butcherers of freedom, thereupon set to work to strangle, shoot
and crush the people, even though they were unarmed, just as the bourgeois
had done before them, if not indeed worse. They shot to break the
independent spirit, whether collective or individual, in the aim of
eradicating once and for all from man the spirit of freedom and the will to
create, to leave him a spiritual slave and physical lackey to a band of
villains ensconced in place of the toppled throne, and not hesitating to
deploy killers to bring the masses to heel and eliminate the recalcitrant.

Man groans underneath the weight of the chains of socialist power in
Russia. He groans in other countries also beneath the yoke of socialists in
cahoots with the bourgeoisie, or even under the yoke of the bourgeoisie
alone. Everywhere, individually or collectively, man groans under the
oppressiveness of State power and its political and economic lunacies. Few
people take an interest in his sufferings without simultaneously having
second thoughts, for the executioners, old or new, are spiritually and
physically very robust: they can call upon huge effective resources to
underpin their hold and crush each and every person who stands in their
way.

Itching to defend his rights to life, liberty and happiness, man seeks to
manifest his creative determination by venturing into the maelstrom of
violence. In face of the uncertain outcome of his fight, he sometimes has a
tendency to lower his arms in front of his executioner, at the very moment
when the latter is slipping the noose about his neck, and this when just
one bold glance from him would be enough to reduce the executioner to a
quivering jelly and call the burdensome yoke once more into question.
Unfortunately, man very often prefers to close his eyes at the very moment
when the executioner is slipping a noose around his entire life.

Only the man who has successfully rid himself of the chains of oppression
and seen all the horrors being perpetrated against the human race can be
persuaded that his freedom and that of his neighbor are inviolable, as are
their lives, and that his neighbor is his brother. If he is ready to
conquer and defend his freedom, to exterminate every oppressor and every
executioner (unless the latter renounces his craven trade) then, provided
he does not set himself the target in this struggle against the evils of
contemporary society of replacing bourgeois power with some other, equally
oppressive power - be it socialist, communist or "worker" (Bolshevik) - but
rather aims to achieve a really free society, organized on a basis of
individual responsibility and guaranteeing all a genuine freedom and
equality of social justice for all, that man only is a revolutionary
anarchist. He may without fear look upon the works of the executioner-State
and, if need be, listen to his verdict, and also pronounce his own by
declaring:

No, it need not be so! Revolt, oppressed brother! Rise up against all State
power! Destroy the power of the bourgeoisie and do not replace it with that
of the socialists and Bolshevik-communists. Do away with all State power
and drive out its champions, for you will never find friends among them.

The power of the statist socialists or communists is every bit as noxious
as that of the bourgeoisie. It may even be more so, when it conducts its
experiments with the blood and the lives of men. At this point, it does not
take long to revert surreptitiously to the premises of bourgeois power: it
no longer has any fears about having recourse to the worst of means, lying
and deceiving even more than any other power. The ideas of socialism or
State communism become redundant: it no longer avails of them, laying hands
instead upon any which might help it to cling to power. In the last
analysis, it merely uses new means to perpetuate domination and become more
cowardly than the bourgeoisie which strings the revolutionary up in public
view whilst Bolshevism-communism murders and strangles on the sly.

Any political revolution which has left the bourgeoisie and the state
socialists or communists to fight it out is a good illustration of what I
have just been saying, especially if one considers the examples of the
Russian revolutions of February and October 1917. Having overthrown the
Russian empire, the toiling masses consequently felt themselves to be
half-liberated politically and sought to complete their liberation. They
set about transferring the land confiscated from the great landlords and
the clergy to those who worked it or indeed intended to do so without
exploitation of another man's labor. In the towns, it was the factories,
workshops, printing-works and other social enterprises that were taken in
hand by those who worked there. Embroiled in these healthy and enthusiastic
endeavors, designed to institute fraternal relations between town and
country, the toilers omitted to notice that new governments were being
installed in Kiev, Kharkov and Petrograd.

Through its class organizations, the people yearned to lay the foundations
of a new, free society intended, as it develops without interference, to
eliminate from the body of society all the parasites and all the power
exercised by some over others, these being deemed by the toilers to be
stupid and harmful.

This approach clearly made headway in the Ukraine, in the Urals and in
Siberia. In Tiflis, Kiev, Petrograd and Moscow, in the very heart of the
moribund authorities, a similar tendency surfaced. However, always and
everywhere, the state socialists and communists had, and still have,
supporters aplenty, as well as their hired killers. Among the latter, sad
to say, there were also many workers. Abetted by these paid killers, the
Bolshevik-Communists put paid to the people's endeavors and in a manner so
terrible that even the Medieval Inquisition might feel envious of them!

As for ourselves, knowing the nature of all State power, we told the
socialist and Bolshevik leaders:

Shame on you! You have written and talked so much about the ferocity of the
bourgeoisie towards the oppressed. You have been so zealous in your defense
of the revolutionary purity and commitment of the toilers struggling for
their emancipation and now, having come into power, you turn out to be
either the same cowardly lackeys of the bourgeoisie or have become
bourgeois yourselves through recourse to its methods, to the extreme that
the bourgeoisie stands astounded and pokes fun at you.

Moreover, through the experiences of Bolshevism-Communism, the bourgeoisie
has been brought to a realization, in recent years, that the "scientific"
chimera of a state socialism proved unable to cope without its methods and
indeed, itself. It has grasped the point so well that it pokes fun at its
pupils who cannot even live up to its example. It has realized that in the
socialist system, the exploitation and organized violence against the bulk
of the laboring population do nothing to do away with the debauched
life-style and parasitism of the drones, that in fact the exploitation
suffers only a name change before growing and being redoubled. And this is
what the facts bear out for us. One has only to register the Bolsheviks'
rapaciousness and their monopolization of all the revolutionary gains of
the people, as well as their police, courts, prisons and armies of jailers,
all of them deployed against the revolution. The "red" army continues to be
recruited by force! In it one finds the same ranks as before, albeit now
given different labels, but even more unaccountable and overbearing.

Liberalism, socialism and State communism are three branches of the same
family, resorting to different approaches in order to exercise their power
over man, with a view to preventing him from growing fully in the direction
of freedom and independence through the devising of a new, wholesome,
genuine principle rooted in a social ideal valid for the whole human race.

Rebel! the revolutionary anarchist exhorts the oppressed. Rise up and
eradicate all power over you and within you. And have no truck with the
establishment of any new power over others. Be free and defend the freedom
of others against all trespass!

In human society, power is particularly exalted by those who have never
really lived by their own labor and a wholesome existence, or indeed who no
longer live by it or have no wish to live by it. The power of the State
will never deliver joy, happiness and fulfillment to any society. Such
power was created by drones for the sole purpose of pillage and indulgence
of their often murderous violence against those who do produce, through
their toil - whether through determination, intelligence or brawn -
everything useful and good in man's life.

Whether that power styles itself bourgeois, socialist or
Bolshevik-Communist or worker-peasant power, it all comes down to the same
thing: it is every whit as damaging to a wholesome and happy individual as
it is to society at large. The nature of all State power is everywhere
identical: it tends to annihilate the freedom of the individual, turning
him, spiritually, into a slave, and physically into a lackey, before
putting him to use for the filthiest tasks. There is no such thing as
harmless power.

Oppressed brother, banish all power from within you and do not allow any to
be established either over you or over your brother, be he near or far!

The really wholesome, joyous life of the individual or group is not built
up with the aid of power and programs that seek to enclose it within
artificial constructs and written laws. No, it can only be constructed on a
basis of individual freedom and its independent creative endeavor, making
headway through phases of destruction and construction.

The freedom of every individual is the foundation of the libertarian
society: the latter attains wholeness through decentralization and the
realization of a common objective: libertarian communism.

Whenever we think of the libertarian communist society, we see it as a
grandiose society, harmonious in its human relationships. It is chiefly
dependent upon the free individuals banded together into affinity groupings
- whether prompted by interest, need or inclination - guaranteeing an equal
measure of social justice for all and linking up into federations and
confederations.

Libertarian communism is a society that is rooted in the free life of every
man, in his untouchable entitlement to infinite development, the
elimination of all injustices and all the evils that have hobbled society's
progress and perfectibility by splitting it into strata and classes,
sources of man's oppression and violence towards his fellow man.

The libertarian society sets itself the target of making everyone's life
more beautiful and more radiant, through his labor, his determination and
his intellect. In full accord with nature, libertarian communism is,
consequently, founded upon man's life made wholly fulfillment, independent,
creative and absolutely free. For that reason its adepts appear to live the
lives of free and radiant beings.

Labor, universally fraternal relations, love of life, the passion for free
creation of beauty, all these values animate the life and activity of the
libertarian communists. They have no need of prisons, executioners, spies
and provocateurs, whom the statist socialists and communists employ in such
huge numbers. As a matter of principle, the libertarian communists have no
need for the hired brigands and killers of which the prime example and
supreme chief is, in the last analysis, the State. Oppressed brother!
Prepare yourself for the establishment of that society, through reflection
and organized action. Except, just remember that your organization must be
solid and consistent in its social activity. The sworn enemy of your
emancipation is the State: it is best embodied by the union of these five
stereotypes: the property-owner, the soldier, the judge, the priest and the
one who serves them all, the intellectual. In most instances, the
last-named of these takes it upon himself to demonstrate the "legitimate"
entitlement of his four masters to punish the human race, regulate man's
life in its every individual and social aspect, and in so doing, distorting
the meaning of the natural law in order to codify "historical and
juridical" laws, the criminal outpourings of pen-pushers on a retainer.

The enemy is very strong because, for centuries past, he has made his
living from rapine and violence: he has the accumulated experience of that,
he has overcome internal crises and now he puts on a new face, being
threatened with extinction through the emergence of a new science that
rouses man from his age-old slumbers. This new science frees man from his
prejudices and equips him for self-discovery and discovery of his true
place in life, despite all the efforts of the sorcerers' apprentices from
that union of the "five" to block his progress down that avenue.

Thus, such a change of face on the part of our enemy, oppressed brother,
can be noted, say, in everything that emanates from the chambers of the
State's erudite reformers. We have watched a typical example of such a
metamorphosis in the revolutions we have witnessed at first-hand. The union
of the "five," the State, our enemy, seemed at first to have vanished
completely from the face of the earth.

In reality, our enemy merely altered his appearance and found himself new
allies who schemed criminally against us: the example of the
Bolshevik-Communists in Russia, in the Ukraine, in Georgia and among many
Central Asian peoples is very edifying in this regard. This is a lesson
that will never be forgotten by the man fighting for his emancipation, for
the nightmarish criminality will be engraved in him.

The sole, the surest weapon available to the victim of oppression in his
battle against the evil that binds him is the social revolution, a profound
leap forward in the direction of human evolution.

Although the social revolution occurs spontaneously, organization smoothes
its passage, eases the appearance of breaches in the ramparts erected
against it and speeds its coming. The revolutionary anarchist beavers away
in the here and now along these lines. Every victim of oppression become
sensible of the yoke weighing him down, realizing that this ignominy is
crushing the life out of the human race, should come to the aid of the
anarchist. Every human being should be aware of his responsibility and see
it through by casting out of society all the executioners and parasites
from the union of "five," so that mankind may breathe free.

Every man and above all the revolutionary anarchist - as the pioneer
inciting struggle for the ideal of freedom, solidarity and equality - ought
to bear it in mind that the social revolution, if it is to evolve
creatively, requires adequate means, especially ongoing organizational
resources, particularly during the phase when, in a spontaneous outburst,
it tears slavery up by the roots and plants freedom, affirming every man's
entitlement to free and unbounded development. This is the very time when,
coming alive to the freedom within and surrounding them, individuals and
masses will make bold to act upon the gains of the social revolution, and
that revolution will have most need of such organizational resources. For
example, revolutionary anarchists played a particularly outstanding role in
the Russian revolution, but, not being possessed of the requisite means of
action, were unable to see their historical mission through. Moreover, that
revolution demonstrated to us the following truth: after having rid
themselves of the bonds of slavery, the masses of humanity have no
intention of creating new ones. On the contrary: during times of
revolution, the masses fetch about for new forms of free associations
capable not only of responding to their libertarian instincts, but also of
defending their gains should the enemy mount an attack.

Observing this process at work, we were constantly drawn to the conclusion
that the most fruitful and most valuable associations could not be other
than the commune-unions, the ones whose social resources are conjured up by
life itself: the free soviets. Basing himself on that same belief, the
revolutionary anarchist hurls himself into selfless action and exhorts the
oppressed to join the struggle for free associations. He is convinced that
not only must the essential creative organizational precepts be
demonstrated: there is also the need to equip oneself with the wherewithal
to defend the new life-style against hostile forces. Practice has shown
that this has to be pursued most firmly and supported by the masses
themselves, in person and on the spot.

In carrying through the revolution, under the impulsion of the anarchism
that is innate in them, the masses of humanity search for free
associations. Free assemblies always command their sympathy. The
revolutionary anarchist must help them to formulate this approach as best
they can. For instance, the economic problem of the free association of
communes must find full expression in the creation of production and
consumer cooperatives, of which the free soviets will be the sponsors. It
is through the good offices of the free soviets while the revolution is
rippling outwards, that the masses will themselves lay hands upon the
entirety of the social heritage: the land, forests, workshops, factories,
railways and seaborne transportation, etc., and then, banding together on
the basis of interests, affinities or a shared ideal, they will rebuild
their social life along the most varied lines to suit their needs and
wishes.

It goes without saying that this will be a vicious struggle; it will cost a
huge number of lives, for it will pit free humankind against the old world
for one last time. There will be no room for hesitation or sentiment. It
will be a life or death struggle! At any rate, that is how any man who
places any store by his rights and the rights of humankind should think of
it, unless he wishes to remain a beast of burden, a slave, as he is
compelled to be at the moment.

When healthy reasoning and love of oneself and of others alike gain the
ascendancy in life, man will become the authentic author of his own
existence.

Organize, oppressed brother, summon all men from plow and workshop, from
school and university desk, not forgetting the scholar and the intellectual
generally, so that he may venture beyond his chambers and help you along
your daunting course. It is true that nine out of ten intellectuals may
fail to answer your call or, if they do respond, will do so with the
intention of pulling the wool over your eyes, for remember that they are
the faithful servants of the union of the "five." Even so, there will be
that one in ten who will prove your friend and will help you puncture the
deceit of the other nine. As far as physical violence, the brute force of
those who govern and legislate, is concerned, you will see it off with
violence of your own.

Organize, summon all your brethren to join the movement and insist of all
who govern that, of their own volition, they cease their craven profession
of regulating the life of man. Should they refuse, rise up, disarm their
police, militiamen and the other guard-dogs of the union of the "five."
Arrest all governors for as long as need be, tear up and burn their laws!
Tear down the prisons, once you have annihilated the executioners and
eradicate all State power!

Many paid killers and assassins are in the army, but your friends, the
draftees, are there also. Call them to your side and they will come to your
aid and help you neutralize the mercenaries.

Once you have all come together into one big family, brethren, we will
march together down the path of enlightenment and knowledge, we will leave
the shadows behind and stride towards mankind's common ideal: the free and
fraternal life, the society wherein no one will be a slave any longer, nor
humiliated by anyone.

To the brute violence of our foes we will make reply through the compact
force of our insurgent revolutionary army. To incoherence and
arbitrariness, we will make reply by erecting our new life upon a
foundation of justice, on a basis of individual responsibility, the true
guarantor of freedom and social justice for all.

Only the blood-thirsty criminals of the union of the "five" will refuse to
join us on the path to innovation: they will try to oppose us so as to
cling to their privileges, thereby signing their own death warrant.

Long live this clear, firm belief in the struggle for the ideal of general
human harmony: the anarchist society!

   Probuzdeniye No. 18, Jan. 1932, pp. 57-63 and no 19-20, Feb.-March 1932,
                                                                pp. 16-20.

Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter

1. Great October in the Ukraine
2. On the 10th Anniversary of the Makhnovist Insurgent Movement in the
Ukraine
3. On Defense of the Revolution
4. A Few Words on the National Question in the Ukraine
5. To the Jews of All Countries
6. The Makhovshchina and Anti-Semitism
7. In Memory of the Kronstadt Revolt
8. The Idea of Equality and the Bolsheviks
9. The Paths of "Proletarian" Power
10. "Soviet" Power - Its Present and Its Future
11. The Struggle Against the State
12. The First of May: Symbol of a New Era in the Life and Struggle of the
Toilers
13. Anarchism and Our Times
14. Our Organization
15. On Revolutionary Discipline
16. The ABC of the Revolutionary Anarchist
17. Open Letter to the Spanish Anarchists
18. On the History of the Spanish Revolution of 1931 and the Part Played by
the Left and Right-Wing Socialists and the Anarchist
19. Bibliographical Afterword

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