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00:28Transcription by CastingWords
00:38The big names of anarchism wrote, spread, and sowed libertarian thought.
00:44The great migratory waves which had already carried it to the United States of America
00:49also took it to the most remote countries of the earth.
00:53Be it in Palestine or Egypt, amongst Jewish exiles or Indian communities,
00:58within the confines of the African continent as in the east,
01:01and as far as the Empire of the Rising Sun, anarchists were everywhere.
01:06At the beginning of the 20th century, all seemed to be for the best in the best of all possible
01:11libertarian worlds.
01:13Anarchism had become a part of the social landscape,
01:15to the point that libertarians could be seen flying their black flag on the brand new postcards.
01:21And if they were arrested, it was only disguised as nursemaids for the comic purposes of a Pathé Brothers production.
01:30The ultimate irony came in 1910, when Armand Falière, the new president of the French Republic,
01:36even went in person to Besançon to inaugurate, in a lavish ceremony complete with the Marseillais and marching Swiss guards,
01:43a monumental statue dedicated to the father of anarchism, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.
01:48But in the wings, conditions for workers remained very difficult.
01:52And faced with an imminent global crisis, the need for great change was making itself felt more than ever.
01:58And this is how, from France to Mexico, and from Spain to the Ukraine,
02:03in a time full of sound and fury, anarchists set about trying to destroy the old world once and for
02:09all.
02:19However, it wasn't with a revolution that the libertarian 20th century began.
02:24Neither was it in 1907, in Amsterdam, during this international congress,
02:29where the cream of world anarchism managed to more or less come to agreement
02:33on the necessity of organizing the movement into national federations,
02:37capable of setting off a general strike and revolt, should war be declared.
02:43The libertarian 20th century began spontaneously much earlier on,
02:48at a particular time, in a forgotten place,
02:51with this new kind of woman and man creating one of the other great currents of the anarchist movement,
02:58individualism.
03:09Descendants of the Age of Enlightenment and heirs to Romanticism,
03:13individualists were the enfants terribles of their time.
03:16They read Nietzsche and Stirner,
03:19advocated mass conscientious objection,
03:21and insisted on immediately leading a full life,
03:23at odds with the authoritarian principles of society at the time.
03:29I have examined the trajectories of these people one by one,
03:33and what they wanted was to be able to work with their hands,
03:37but also with their heads, to be whole men.
03:40They wanted to lead what they considered to be the good life,
03:43which was far from being an easy life,
03:46and they wanted to lead it here and now.
03:50This global desire for change,
03:52which led individualists to reject work, family, country,
03:55the very foundations of bourgeois morality,
03:58brought them to propose an alternative lifestyle
04:00and new practices of their own invention,
04:03which in turn made revolutionaries of them.
04:06It was to include absolutely all aspects of life,
04:09sexuality, education, clothing.
04:12They advocated nudity.
04:14Women abandoned the concept of corsets, hats, and restrictive clothing.
04:19In place of marriage, they advocated open unions,
04:21or in some cases, free love.
04:25Multiple relationships were possible.
04:27There was no problem in loving several people at once,
04:30neither for women nor for men.
04:31At least, that was the doctrine.
04:32But in reality, of course,
04:34there was much grinding of teeth and suffering.
04:36Being individualists did not prevent these anarchists
04:38from grouping together.
04:39And if they couldn't change the world,
04:41then they decided to change the universe.
04:43In towns, they created libertarian Atheniums,
04:47and in the country, agricultural colonies.
04:49And wherever they went,
04:51they developed coherence in their ideas and actions,
04:54like here in Palestine,
04:55where Jewish anarchists founded Degania, the first kibbutz.
04:59But it was particularly in Latin America
05:01that truly libertarian cities grew up.
05:03There was New Australia and Paraguay,
05:06where, amongst others, Mary Gilmore settled.
05:08And the Colonia Sicilia,
05:10founded in Brazil by Giovanni Rossi
05:12and a group of Italian anarchists,
05:14of which only one image remains.
05:16For four years,
05:17these libertarians abolished hierarchies,
05:20religion, and money,
05:21set up councils,
05:22loved freely,
05:23and sang songs.
05:24I was born in Brazil by Giovanni Rossi.
05:30I was born in Brazil by Giovanni Rossi.
05:33I was born in Brazil by Giovanni Rossi.
05:56But anarchism didn't triumph.
05:59And these colonies,
06:00truly alternative societies,
06:02which were meant to be the seeds of a new world,
06:04closed one after another.
06:06Certain individualists concluded that
06:08in order to change society,
06:10you had to change the individual.
06:11And to change the individual,
06:13evil had to be pulled up at the roots.
06:15In their opinion,
06:17middle-class schooling instilled
06:18authoritarian values in children from the outset
06:20and consolidated all the mechanisms of power.
06:23It needed to be attacked and revolutionized.
06:26They became constructive educationists,
06:29devising teaching methods
06:30which combined ancient Paideia
06:32with libertarian principles.
06:35The task of the anarchist was to educate.
06:37In a way, you could say,
06:39they needed to create the new man
06:40before they could create the new society.
06:43Great emphasis was placed upon intellectual,
06:46sensorial,
06:47and even physical elevation.
06:49No aspect of life was ignored.
06:53Experiments into new forms of education
06:55sprung up all around the world,
06:56such as Sébastien Faure's LaRuche
06:58and Paul Robin's Sompuy Orphanage.
07:01But one of the most comprehensive
07:02was the modern school founded in Spain
07:04and based on the anti-authoritarian principles
07:07of Francisco Ferrer.
07:08Francisco Ferrer was an important anarchist pedagogue
07:13who started something called
07:15the Modern School Movement.
07:17And the idea was to bring secular,
07:19non-religious education to children,
07:23but also to adults.
07:25Tried to create an equal relationship
07:27between the teachers and the students
07:29where the students could choose
07:31what they wanted to learn.
07:32It was integral education.
07:34That is to say,
07:36it had to be both manual and intellectual.
07:38The child needed to know
07:40how to do just about anything.
07:41It was exclusively based on the use of reason,
07:44without imposing anything upon the child
07:46from outside.
07:49We are not afraid to say it.
07:51We want to create men
07:53whose intellectual independence
07:55will be their supreme force,
07:57who will submit before nothing,
07:59capable of discerning what is good
08:01and aspiring to live 1,000 lives
08:04in the space of just one.
08:06Society fears such men,
08:07and we must not expect it ever
08:09to support education
08:11which is capable of producing them.
08:14The fascinating thing when you read
08:16about the anarchist view of education,
08:18and in my opinion,
08:19this is something rare
08:20amongst educational theorists,
08:22is that they are suspicious of themselves.
08:24They are so wary about illegitimate authority
08:27that their reflections about education
08:29contain a deep analysis
08:30of the dangers of indoctrination
08:32within their own projects.
08:34So you can read things along the lines,
08:37never forget that we're not looking
08:38to produce good little anarchists.
08:40Let us always be wary of the power
08:43which we ourselves have over these children.
08:45We are trying to make free men.
08:46They may think differently from us later on.
08:49That is how we will know
08:50that we have indeed made free men.
08:53These secular and libertarian schools
08:55where children can be seen wearing hoods
08:57naturally stirred up fantasies.
08:59And their success was as worrying for the clergy
09:01as it was for the bourgeoisie.
09:03Francisco Ferrer, their founder,
09:05despite always having been opposed
09:06to any form of violence,
09:07had to be arrested as quickly as possible.
09:10During the tragic week in Barcelona,
09:11an opportunity was found
09:12to wrongfully charge him.
09:14He quickly became a target of repression.
09:16In 1909, he was accused of having instigated
09:19the Barcelona general strike
09:21and was condemned to death.
09:28International solidarity quickly developed
09:31on all the continents,
09:32in the United States, in Australia,
09:35in all the major cities of Europe.
09:39There were demonstrations for a stay of execution.
09:42There were petitions.
09:44There were even governments who intervened,
09:47asking the Spanish government to spare him.
09:49But Ferrer was executed.
09:52And then a few hours after his execution,
09:54crowds started to gather in big cities everywhere,
09:57but particularly in Paris.
10:00The Parisian rampage was to be
10:02the most spectacular of all.
10:05On the 13th of October, 1909,
10:07there was an uprising of extraordinary intensity.
10:10Road workers, who were at that time
10:12the cornerstone of the proletariat,
10:14arrived with pickaxes over their shoulders
10:16and tore up the avenues,
10:18exposed gas pipes,
10:19pierced them and set them alight.
10:21Paris became an inferno.
10:25The assassination of Ferrer
10:27at the hands of Spanish justice,
10:28which provoked the most violent uprising in Paris
10:31since the Commune,
10:32had similar repercussions throughout the world.
10:34There were the demonstrations in Kotoku in Japan
10:37a few months later,
10:39and those of Sacco and Vanzetti in the USA,
10:41which all sparked immense
10:42international solidarity movements.
10:47Faced with this state violence
10:48against innocent humanists,
10:50numerous libertarians took up arms
10:52and attacked what society held most dearly.
10:55Exponents of theft,
10:57which they preferred to call expropriation,
10:59individual reclamation
11:01or revolutionary banditry
11:02attempted to set off in Europe
11:04a revolution which seemed too long in the making.
11:07Anarchists everywhere struck out at property
11:09and burglary
11:10suddenly became a revolutionary strategy.
11:17The problem is very simple.
11:19If I'm a revolutionary opposed to capitalism,
11:21for what mysterious reason
11:23would I not attack a bank?
11:24Why would I not expropriate a bank
11:26to finance the revolution?
11:28Method is another question.
11:30I'm not talking about killing
11:31the little old lady waiting at the teller's window.
11:33I'm talking about a radical assault on capitalism
11:36in the form of a bank robbery.
11:37In the eyes of a revolutionary,
11:39there's nothing scandalous about it.
11:43But as a little aside,
11:44even Stalin did it.
11:46Indeed, that's what all revolutionaries do.
11:49But it was anarchists
11:50who turned these tactics into a system
11:52and associated their names
11:54with the biggest robberies of the time.
11:57There was Buenaventura Durruti,
11:59Spain's leading terrorist
12:00before becoming the leader
12:01of the anarchist revolution in Catalonia,
12:03who along with the Solidarios,
12:05plundered parts of Europe and Latin America.
12:09There was Severino Di Giovanni,
12:12Argentina's public enemy number one,
12:13who pulled off the biggest robbery
12:15his country had seen to date.
12:16In the Ukraine, Nestor Makno,
12:19at the heart of the union of poor workers,
12:20expropriated and redisputed
12:22the confiscated goods.
12:24But in France,
12:25it was Marius Jacob,
12:27striving at the heart of the band of night workers,
12:29who made the greatest impression.
12:32He was very well organized
12:34and very gifted in this domain.
12:36Marius Jacob robbed businesses,
12:38churches, of course,
12:40rich individuals,
12:41but as far as possible
12:43without employing the least violence.
12:45And even with a certain elegance,
12:50he would sometimes leave
12:51little ironic notes
12:52for the people he'd robbed.
12:57Yes, I have stolen a pocket handkerchief from you
13:01worth 250 francs.
13:03Is a 250 franc handkerchief
13:05not an insult to misery?
13:07Marius Jacob,
13:09the anarchist thief,
13:10who despite committing
13:11more than 500 robberies
13:12only kept for himself
13:13enough to live on,
13:14served as Maurice Leblanc's model
13:16in the creation of the character
13:17Arsène Lupin.
13:18But the state,
13:19wanting to send a message
13:20to anarchists tempted by illegality,
13:23arrested him
13:23and despite his eloquence,
13:25inflicted an exemplary punishment.
13:27This man,
13:28who had never shed blood,
13:29was condemned to the bloodless guillotine
13:31of a lifetime's hard labor
13:33and deported to French Guiana.
13:35For revolutionary bandits,
13:37the message was clear,
13:38since authority sends
13:39even the innocents to their deaths,
13:41better to kill
13:42before being killed.
13:44It was in London in 1911
13:46that the first major confrontation
13:48between revolutionary bandits
13:49and the forces of law and order
13:51would be played out.
13:52Over several hours
13:53during what the history of anarchy
13:55would remember
13:55as the Battle of Stepney,
13:57a siege took place
13:58at 100 Sidney Street.
14:01At dawn,
14:03the neighborhood
14:03was completely closed off.
14:05Two anarchists holed up
14:06in a small house
14:07offered fierce resistance
14:08to more than 800 police officers
14:10and members of the Scots Guards.
14:12The operations were overseen
14:14by the Home Secretary,
14:15a certain Winston Churchill,
14:17who could be seen on the left
14:18in a top hat.
14:20Unable to dislodge them,
14:22the artillery was sent for.
14:23The house caught fire
14:25and the two revolutionaries
14:26died in the flames.
14:29Newsreel cameras were sent
14:31to the scene
14:31where a considerable crowd
14:32had gathered to watch the show.
14:35But was this young mechanic,
14:37who legend has it
14:38was Conan Doyle's London chauffeur,
14:41among the curious bystanders?
14:45One thing is sure.
14:47On his return to France
14:48the following year,
14:49he decided to move into action
14:51by forming a gang
14:52which would soon send
14:53a shockwave across Europe,
14:54the Bono Game.
14:56I prefer to call them
14:57the tragic bandits.
14:59Firstly,
15:00because this wasn't a gang
15:01under the authority
15:02of a leader.
15:03And if there was a leader,
15:04I see no reason
15:05why it would have been Bono
15:06rather than someone else.
15:08They were militant anarchists,
15:10devoutly militant individualists
15:12with a combative past.
15:13The young Octave Garnier,
15:15for example,
15:16had been imprisoned
15:16following a construction workers' strike,
15:18during which he was severely
15:20beaten by the police,
15:21and ended up finding
15:22what he had been looking for
15:24in individualism.
15:27Austere doctrinaires
15:28leading exemplary lives,
15:30these men were strangers
15:31to tobacco, alcohol,
15:33gambling, or brothels.
15:34They frequented
15:35the anarchy newspaper
15:36directed by Victor Serge.
15:38But it was through
15:39their knowledge of mechanics
15:40that they first entered history
15:42by being the first
15:43to use a car
15:44to commit robberies.
15:47The meager takings
15:48were far from being sufficient
15:50to finance a revolution,
15:51but their attacks
15:52were characterized
15:53by indiscriminate violence.
15:55The number of dead
15:57they left behind
15:57soared.
15:59A price was put
16:00on their heads,
16:01with the press
16:02offering a reward
16:03of 100,000 francs
16:04to whoever enabled
16:05their capture.
16:06The brand new Tiger Brigades
16:08were set on their trail,
16:09but far from being afraid,
16:11the bandits
16:12defied society.
16:13With Octave Garnier
16:15going as far
16:16as riding to the heads
16:17of the 3rd Brigade,
16:18known as the Anarchist Brigade,
16:19I know this will come
16:21to an end.
16:22In the ongoing struggle
16:23between society's
16:25impressive arsenal
16:25and myself,
16:27I know that I will be beaten.
16:29I will be the weaker,
16:30but I hope to make you
16:32pay a high price
16:33for your victory.
16:36It ended up
16:37in a siege
16:37between isolated men
16:38and a 1,000-strong troop,
16:41with 10,000 spectators
16:43who had come
16:43to see the capture
16:44of these hunted men.
16:51They fought like lions
16:53to the very end,
16:54knowing full well
16:55that they had
16:56no chance of escape.
17:00I would say
17:01that's what actually
17:02turned them into
17:03propagandists
17:04by the deed.
17:06The tragic bandits'
17:08actions came to an end
17:09on the 28th of April,
17:101912,
17:11in the suburbs of Paris.
17:13Here, too,
17:14the newsreel cameras
17:15were invited to the show.
17:18The police placed bombs
17:20which were set off.
17:23When the operation
17:25was over,
17:25the bodies of the anarchists
17:27were put on display
17:28like hunting trophies.
17:29This affair
17:30left a lasting impression
17:31and momentarily marked
17:33the end
17:33of revolutionary banditry
17:34in France.
17:36Bonneau,
17:36like many illegalists,
17:38gradually became
17:38a controversial figure,
17:40rejected by
17:41or reintegrated into
17:42anarchist thinking
17:43in accordance
17:43with the needs
17:44of the time.
17:47Rather than consider
17:49the actions
17:49of the Bonneau gang
17:50as a genuine
17:51protest movement,
17:54personally,
17:55I tend more towards
17:56the theory
17:56that it was
17:56the manifestation
17:57of a failure.
18:01That is to say,
18:02these are events
18:03which sometimes
18:04attract a sort
18:05of morbid curiosity,
18:07but in reality
18:09they remain
18:09marginal occurrences.
18:11And as far as
18:12the Bonneau gang
18:13was concerned,
18:14it was the marginality
18:15of a group
18:15which was marginal.
18:18The media circus
18:19which had grown up
18:20around the Bonneau gang
18:21was above all
18:22instrumental
18:23in disqualifying
18:24the anarchist movement
18:25in its efforts
18:26to avoid war.
18:28Because in the face
18:29of mass demonstrations
18:30by libertarians,
18:31alongside other socialists,
18:33here, for example,
18:34at the Près Saint-Gervais
18:35near Paris
18:35or during the Red Week
18:37in Ancona in Italy
18:38where Malatesta
18:39managed to spread
18:40the general strike
18:40to the marches,
18:41to Romagna
18:42and as far as Tuscany.
18:43The imperialisms
18:45were above all worried
18:46that the workers
18:46of the world
18:47might come to an agreement.
18:48They had reinstigated
18:50the villainous laws
18:51and made up lists,
18:52like the infamous
18:53B-file in France
18:54which contained
18:55the names of all
18:55suspected revolutionary leaders
18:57to be arrested
18:57should a conflict begin.
19:00But thanks to the fear
19:02generated by the tragic
19:03bandit affair
19:03and faced with the shock
19:05provoked by the assassination
19:06of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
19:08in Sarajevo,
19:09the state had no need
19:10to resort to these methods.
19:12And with the death
19:13of Jean Jaurès,
19:14even some anarchist mainstays
19:16like Kropotkin
19:17ended up rallying
19:18behind the Sacred Union.
19:20And while Europe
19:21was on the point
19:22of engaging in a war
19:23which would kill
19:24millions of workers,
19:25although it's not
19:26always remembered,
19:27anarchists in Mexico
19:28were behind the first
19:29great libertarian revolution.
19:33It's hard to understand
19:34why the Mexican revolution
19:36doesn't have the same
19:39importance attached to it
19:41as the Russian revolution
19:42or the Chinese revolution,
19:43but it was the first
19:45major revolution
19:46of the 20th century.
19:56The Mexican revolution
19:58begins at the end of 1910.
20:01And in its early stages,
20:031910, 1911, 1912,
20:06one of the factions,
20:08the major factions,
20:09fighting within
20:09the Mexican revolution
20:10was the Partido Liberal Mexicano,
20:14the PLM,
20:15which is led by
20:17the Magon brothers,
20:18Enrique and Ricardo
20:19Flores Magon,
20:20who are Mexican anarchists
20:22in exile in the United States
20:24when the revolution breaks out.
20:28Flores Magon and his comrades
20:30played a fundamental role.
20:32As the precursors
20:33of this revolutionary movement,
20:35they created the conditions
20:36necessary for the revolution.
20:38You could say
20:39that they were
20:40a constant inspiration
20:41for all the other
20:42revolutionary factions.
20:43Their propaganda
20:44continuously pushed
20:45the other factions
20:46to be more radical.
20:48Magon, in fact,
20:49regarded the Mexican revolution
20:51as the first act
20:53in the great
20:53worldwide conflagration
20:55which was just
20:55around the corner.
20:57For him,
20:58the global libertarian revolution
20:59was just about
21:01to take off.
21:03The Mexican liberal party,
21:05which was at the origin
21:06of the revolution,
21:06was liberal
21:07and a party
21:08in nothing but name.
21:10But it was well and truly
21:11an anarchist organization
21:13as can be seen
21:14from its manifesto,
21:15written by Ricardo
21:16Flores Magon.
21:17Its place in the purest
21:19libertarian tradition
21:20was not only because
21:21it advocated direct action,
21:22but also,
21:23and above all,
21:24by virtue of its call
21:25for vast agrarian reform.
21:28For it has to be remembered
21:30that since its beginnings,
21:31the anarchist movement
21:32was the only form of socialism
21:33to assign a central role
21:35in the revolutionary process
21:36to farm workers.
21:38furthermore,
21:39this explains its success
21:40in a Mexico
21:41which was still
21:42highly agricultural.
21:43And this concept spread.
21:45It inspired the three other
21:47mass revolutionary organizations.
21:50Emiliano Zapata's
21:51insurrectionary army
21:52in the south,
21:53the house of the world worker
21:54in the capital
21:55in the center,
21:55and the Mexican branch
21:57of the IWW
21:58which it opened
21:59in the north.
21:59And the slogan
22:00which Flores Magon
22:02and the anarchists
22:02of the PLM
22:03placed at the bottom
22:04of their writings
22:04was taken up
22:05by these movements
22:06and became the rallying cry
22:08of the entire revolution,
22:10land and liberty.
22:12They said to the peasants,
22:14grab a Winchester in hand
22:15and take the land
22:17because it belongs to you.
22:19You didn't have to wait
22:21for the working class
22:23to develop.
22:24The peasants
22:25could have their own revolution.
22:27Magon had confidence
22:28in the spontaneity
22:29of an armed populace.
22:31That is to say
22:32that he considered
22:32an armed uprising
22:34a fight to the death
22:35against the system
22:36to be the way
22:37of establishing
22:38a libertarian society.
22:39This call to arms
22:41resounded as strongly here
22:42as it did on the slopes
22:43of the Sierra Madre
22:45and the high ground
22:46of the Chiapas
22:47where peasants
22:47had lived for 400 years
22:49in a state
22:49of extreme misery.
22:51Evangelization.
22:52The encomienda
22:53and smallpox
22:54had done their work.
22:56The native peoples
22:57had been almost
22:57entirely wiped out.
22:59The womb
22:59of the Pachamama
23:00was desecrated daily
23:01and the whole subcontinent
23:03was bled dry,
23:04humiliated,
23:05and corrupted.
23:06Placed under the control
23:08of a handful
23:08of latifundists
23:09who owned all the land,
23:11the vast majority
23:12of workers survived
23:13with no prospect
23:13of betterment.
23:15The day-to-day life
23:16of these men and women
23:17was illiteracy,
23:18famine,
23:19and illness,
23:19and back-breaking work
23:21beneath the blazing sun
23:22which burnt celluloid
23:23and skin alike.
23:25Shouts and blows
23:26were the only encouragement
23:27and confiscation
23:28the only reward.
23:31The slightest gesture
23:32of revolt
23:32was punished
23:33with a whip
23:33and any attempt
23:34to escape,
23:35as in the times
23:36of slavery,
23:37by death.
23:38In 1911,
23:42the Magones
23:43organized
23:44an invasion
23:45of northern Mexico,
23:48of Baja California.
23:50There's a group
23:51of around 50
23:52Italian anarchists
23:54from the United States
23:55and Canada
23:56who crossed the border
23:57to join the PLM's forces.
23:58There are dozens
24:00of members
24:01of the IWW.
24:02There are
24:03African-American radicals
24:05who join.
24:06There's at least
24:06one Chinese partisan.
24:09They invade
24:10the city
24:10of Mexicali
24:12in northern Mexico,
24:14seize it
24:15from federal troops,
24:17maintain control
24:17of it,
24:18and then they also
24:20seize Tijuana.
24:21And for a period
24:23of a few months,
24:24they control
24:24this area
24:25of northern Mexico.
24:28The small army
24:30of the MLP,
24:31surrounded by the IWW
24:32and led by General Mosby,
24:34seen here on horseback,
24:36opened the prisons
24:37and flew the black flag
24:38over the land
24:39and liberty commune.
24:41The libertarians
24:42of the whole world
24:43expressed their enthusiasm.
24:45Emma Goldman
24:45took part in meetings.
24:47Kropotkin wrote
24:48the first theory
24:48on guerrilla warfare.
24:50Jack London
24:51published a collection
24:51of short stories.
24:53In the United States,
24:55in Argentina,
24:56in Cuba,
24:56in Portugal,
24:57in Italy,
24:58the anarchist press
24:59everywhere enthused
25:00about the Mexican uprising,
25:02which would perhaps
25:02overturn the old order.
25:04In this time,
25:06when songs still spoke
25:07of the lives of men,
25:08Joe Hill,
25:09a Swedish expatriate
25:10and rebellious troubadour,
25:12who was a leading figure
25:13in the IWW,
25:14went to participate
25:15in the uprising
25:16in the same way
25:17as the international brigades
25:18would do later.
25:21Should I ever be a soldier?
25:23The song which he wrote
25:24for the occasion
25:25is a musical testimony
25:27to this involvement
25:27and a call to other workers
25:29to join the fight.
25:31It's the crush
25:31of the tyrant's might
25:34Join the army
25:36of the toilers
25:38Men and women
25:40fall in line
25:43Wage plates of the murderers
25:44Do your duty for the cause
25:47For land and liberty
25:50It's the first time
25:52that anarchists
25:54see a situation
25:55in which there is
25:58an army
25:59under anarchist leadership
26:03taking steps
26:05to implement
26:07libertarian communism.
26:09That's the express goal
26:10of the PLM
26:11is to create
26:12a new anarchist society
26:14in Mexico
26:16and then from there
26:17to spread the revolution
26:19to North America
26:20and to the rest of the world.
26:22So anarchists
26:24not just in the United States
26:25but in Europe
26:27people like
26:28Peter Kropotkin as well
26:30view the
26:32the Mexican revolution
26:33in its early years
26:34as a
26:35as potentially
26:36an anarchist revolution
26:37in the making
26:38and the very first one.
26:39But caught in a vice
26:40between Mexican
26:41counter-revolutionaries
26:42on one side
26:43and the Yankee army
26:44on the other
26:44the fight was too
26:46weighted against them.
26:47The communes
26:48were retaken
26:49the Mexican
26:49revolutionaries shot
26:50and the captured
26:52foreigners
26:52were herded together
26:53in camps at the border.
26:55But although
26:55they had lost
26:56a battle in the north
26:57the anarchists
26:58had not lost the war
26:59and Flores Magon's hopes
27:01turned toward the south
27:02and a rugged
27:03and rebellious army
27:04led by a charismatic general.
27:09Right from the start
27:10Ricardo Flores Magon
27:11considered that Zapata
27:13even if he didn't
27:14regard himself
27:14as an anarchist
27:16in practice
27:16he behaved like one
27:18as did the Zapata's troops.
27:20They commandeered land
27:22without waiting
27:23for any sort of legislation
27:24and distributed it
27:26amongst themselves.
27:30Emiliano Zapata
27:31who represented
27:32the indigenous peoples
27:33had been influenced
27:35by the reasoning
27:36of the Mexican
27:36liberal party
27:37and the Flores Magon
27:40brothers
27:41who knew him well
27:42had an enormous sympathy
27:44with the Zapata's movement.
27:46The Zapatist army
27:48which consisted of nearly
27:4928,000 fighters
27:50at the height
27:51of the revolution
27:51engaged in truly
27:53guerrilla warfare
27:54in the southern states.
27:55As they gradually advanced
27:57they redistributed land
27:58even minted
27:59their own money
27:59and managed to reach
28:01the gates of Mexico City.
28:02Was the libertarian revolution
28:04on the point of triumph
28:05in Latin America?
28:06In their weariness
28:07the jubilant crowds
28:08who watched
28:08the revolutionary troops
28:09going by
28:10were unaware
28:11that Mexico
28:12would become the theater
28:13of a terrible misunderstanding.
28:14A misunderstanding
28:15between anarchists
28:16of the towns
28:17and anarchists
28:18of the fields
28:18between workers
28:20and peasants
28:20which was to weigh heavily
28:22on the history
28:22of the libertarian movement.
28:24Because the Mexican capital
28:25was under the control
28:26of the House of the World Worker
28:27the mighty urban
28:29anarcho-syndicalist organization
28:30which was purportedly
28:3150,000 men strong.
28:35The workers of Mexico City
28:37and the towns
28:38tended to consider
28:39the peasant masses
28:40as reactionaries.
28:42They were of the opinion
28:43that the new world
28:45couldn't be a product
28:46of the backward peasant masses
28:47as they saw them
28:48but rather
28:49the avant-garde
28:51enlightened workers.
28:54The zapatists
28:55turned up
28:57with their rosary beads
28:58in their Virgin
28:59of Guadalupe medallions.
29:02The reaction
29:03of the Mexico City anarchists
29:04was to say
29:05they were under
29:06the influence
29:07of Catholicism.
29:12They said to themselves
29:13they've been manipulated
29:15instead of genuinely
29:16questioning
29:17what they were doing.
29:20What did these peasants do?
29:21They didn't go to mass.
29:23They went with their arms
29:24to take land.
29:27In practice
29:28they reacted like
29:29truly militant anarchists
29:33while the militant anarchists
29:35of the cities
29:35who were more intellectual
29:37regarded them
29:38as the Marxist cliché
29:39of capitalist lackeys
29:41or lackeys of the church.
29:45It was really a wasted opportunity
29:48between anarcho-syndicalism
29:51and zapatism.
29:54You had this terrible break
29:58in 1916
30:00between
30:01where the leadership
30:02of the COM
30:04decided to form
30:06red battalions
30:07to attack the zapatistas.
30:09This was clearly
30:10a class betrayal.
30:13Having completely
30:14lost their bearings
30:15the workers
30:16of the red battalions
30:17turned into auxiliaries
30:18of the bourgeois army.
30:20And thanks to them
30:21the counter-revolutionists
30:22brought down blind repression
30:23on the population.
30:25In Tlalzitapan
30:26where the zapatists
30:27had set up
30:27their staff headquarters
30:29268 peasants
30:30were massacred
30:31including 112 women
30:33and 42 children.
30:35By way of a swan song
30:37Ricardo Flores Magon
30:38published a manifesto
30:39for anarchists
30:40of the world
30:41and workers in general.
30:43But the only ones
30:44to hear him
30:44were the North American
30:45authorities
30:46who arrested him
30:47and condemned him
30:48to end his days
30:48in a high-security prison.
30:50And Zapata himself?
30:51ended up being caught
30:53in an ambush.
30:54This internal war
30:56between different progressive factions
31:00is really what helped
31:03throttle the anarchist content
31:06of the revolution
31:08at what should have been its peak.
31:14Unfortunately, in the end,
31:16no real reflection
31:17went into analyzing
31:18the causes
31:19of the anarchists' failure
31:20during the
31:21Mexican Revolution.
31:25Consequently,
31:26soon afterwards,
31:27the Liberal Party
31:28and Flores Magon
31:30were forgotten about.
31:33As things turned out,
31:35the Mexican anarchists
31:36had no time
31:36to feel sorry
31:37for themselves
31:38to learn any lessons
31:39from what had happened.
31:40But if the Mexican Revolution
31:42was forgotten,
31:43it was because
31:43European libertarians
31:45were caught up
31:45in the worst days
31:46of the First World War.
31:48And their lack of interest
31:50in the results
31:51of this far-off uprising
31:52was deepened
31:53when, in 1917,
31:55at the gates of Europe,
31:56a revolutionary breeze
31:58was felt blowing
31:59from Russia.
32:00Suddenly,
32:01something new
32:02in the East.
32:12was forced.
32:12In February 1917,
32:15there was the first
32:16Russian Revolution.
32:19The Tsar made a run for it.
32:21A certain democracy
32:22was set up
32:23with the Soviets,
32:24the workers' councils,
32:26taking over.
32:29The anarchists
32:31found that wonderful.
32:33An eight-hour day,
32:34the abolition
32:35of the death penalty,
32:36freedom of opinion
32:37and of conscience.
32:39Initially,
32:39the Russian Revolution
32:40attacked injustice
32:41and gave all power
32:43to the Soviets.
32:44In this immense Russia
32:45where homage
32:46was paid to Tolstoy,
32:48where a monument
32:49was built
32:49to the glory of Bakunin,
32:51and Kropotkin
32:52was given ministries,
32:53anarchists could be forgiven
32:55for thinking
32:55that anarchy
32:56was at last
32:57in the process
32:57of triumphing.
32:59The beginning
33:00of the Russian Revolution
33:02helped reinvigorate
33:04the anarchist movement
33:05because it was
33:06the kind of revolution,
33:07it seemed,
33:08that they advocated
33:09a spontaneous insurrection.
33:13The vast majority
33:14saw it as
33:15an extremely positive thing,
33:17that somewhere in the world,
33:19it so happened
33:20to be in Russia,
33:21men and women
33:22had risen up
33:23to say that the former
33:24system of power
33:25was over.
33:27Initially,
33:28the anarchists believed
33:28that there was
33:29a possibility
33:30that in Russia
33:30they would at least
33:32see the birth
33:32of a truly
33:33communist country.
33:36I nearly said state,
33:37but they didn't want
33:39a state.
33:40They wanted a country
33:41which would turn itself
33:42into a communist society.
33:46Partisans of libertarian communism.
33:49Forgotten was the battle
33:50between Marx and Bakunin
33:51at the heart
33:52of the first international.
33:53They could now see
33:54in the Bolshevik revolutionaries
33:56with whom,
33:56despite disagreements
33:57about methodology,
33:59it would be possible
33:59to team up
34:00and create
34:01the new world together.
34:04Anarchists in Russia
34:06have been
34:06active partners
34:08with the Bolsheviks
34:09and with the socialist revolutionaries
34:12and others
34:12in helping
34:14to overthrow the Tsar,
34:16in organizing Soviets
34:18and factory committees.
34:20The enthusiasm
34:21of libertarian Russians
34:22can also be explained
34:23by the fact
34:24that Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov
34:26alias Lenin
34:27was not at the time
34:28considered to be
34:29a dogmatic Marxist
34:30or an inspiring despot.
34:32His party
34:33did not yet call itself
34:34communist.
34:35The first political treaty
34:36written by him
34:37was entitled
34:37What is to be done?
34:39in reference to the novel
34:40by the libertarian Russian
34:41Chernyshevsky.
34:42He was opposed
34:43to the sacred union
34:44and had demonstrated
34:45an anti-militarism
34:47which had seduced
34:47the libertarian masses.
34:49But above all,
34:50for Russian anarchists
34:51Lenin was still
34:52the little brother
34:53of Alexander Ulyanov,
34:54the propagandist
34:55by the deed,
34:56hanged in 1887
34:57for having prepared
34:58an assassination attempt
34:59against the Tsar.
35:00This glorious genealogy
35:02added to his libertarian pledges
35:04led them to believe
35:05that Lenin
35:05might be sympathetic
35:06toward them.
35:07And the publication
35:08in 1917
35:09of his book
35:10The State and Revolution
35:11seemed to confirm
35:12this hypothesis.
35:19You have to realize
35:20that at one point
35:21Lenin started expressing
35:23radical ideas
35:24pretty far removed
35:25from orthodox Marxism.
35:33He also vehemently
35:35criticized the idea
35:36of the state,
35:37thereby holding out
35:38a hand to anarchists.
35:44We do not, after all,
35:46differ with the anarchists
35:47on the question
35:48of the abolition
35:49of the state
35:49as the aim.
35:50We maintain that
35:51to achieve this aim
35:52we must temporarily
35:53make use of the instruments,
35:55resources and methods
35:56of state power
35:57against the exploiters.
35:58We set ourselves
35:59the ultimate aim
36:00of abolishing the state.
36:03And what's more,
36:04Lenin stands his ground
36:05saying we're going
36:06to be accused
36:07of being anarchists
36:08for saying that.
36:09But all the same
36:10I'd rather be accused
36:11of being an anarchist
36:12now than being confused
36:14with social democrats
36:15who form part of
36:16the governments
36:16of the sacred union.
36:18So that helped
36:19to bolster the illusion
36:20on both sides
36:21that Bolsheviks
36:22and anarchists
36:23actually had the same
36:24objective in mind,
36:25had more or less
36:26the same methodology
36:27in the field
36:28and were only separated
36:29in terms of
36:30internal organization.
36:33This illusion
36:34of a convergence
36:35of points of view
36:36and a similarity
36:37in the objectives
36:38was once more
36:39accentuated in October
36:40when Lenin
36:41put into action
36:42a strategy
36:43directly inspired
36:43from anarchists.
36:45The storming
36:46of the Winter Palace.
36:47For the anarchists
36:48who took part
36:49their moment of glory
36:50had arrived.
36:52Clearly that provoked
36:53an incredible amount
36:54of hope.
36:56Even Malatesta
36:57at the beginning
36:57looked kindly
36:58upon the Russian revolution.
37:00At the beginning.
37:01And even Kropotnik
37:02went back to Russia
37:03because he thought
37:04that the revolution
37:05was going to veer
37:06towards libertarianism.
37:08And along with
37:09Emma Goldman
37:09from the four corners
37:11of the earth
37:12anarchists flocked
37:12to take part
37:13in the revolution.
37:14Libertarian organizations
37:16quickly claimed
37:17the high ground.
37:18Like in Moscow
37:19where the federation
37:20of anarchist groups
37:21controlled part
37:22of the city.
37:22But it was in the Ukraine
37:24that the libertarian movement
37:25showed its potential
37:26thanks to a young peasant
37:27of Zaporozian
37:28Cossack origins
37:29who in taking
37:30the leadership
37:31of the uprising
37:32in northern Crimea
37:32became one of the
37:34major figures
37:34of 20th century
37:35anarchism.
37:37Makno was a peasant
37:39of very humble
37:40extraction
37:40but with immense
37:42military talent.
37:45And he managed
37:46to organize a peasant
37:47and popular uprising
37:49in the Ukraine.
37:52He created anarchist
37:53type communities
37:54pretty much everywhere.
37:56And proved
37:57that a revolutionary
37:58avant-garde
37:59did not necessarily need
38:00to take the form
38:01of a party.
38:05During the months
38:06after leaving
38:06Juliapole
38:07and the fertile plains
38:08of the Ukraine,
38:09the Maknovshina,
38:10the insurrectionary army
38:12which bore the name
38:12of its organizer,
38:13sowed revolution
38:14as it passed.
38:17An anarchist
38:18and peasant militia,
38:19it flew a black flag
38:20with a skull
38:20and crossbones
38:21under which was written
38:22Death to all those
38:24who oppose workers' freedom.
38:30And as it gradually
38:31advanced,
38:32the Maknovshina,
38:33like the legions
38:34of Sparta
38:34Kisavold,
38:35took over the towns
38:36and day after day
38:37expanded its influence.
38:42At its height,
38:43the Maknovshina
38:44controlled a territory
38:45equal in size
38:47to that of an average
38:48European country
38:49in which hundreds
38:50of thousands
38:50of people lived.
38:53When they seized a city,
38:57the first thing they did
38:58was open the jail
38:59and release all the prisoners.
39:02They redistributed
39:07food and whatnot
39:08amongst themselves
39:09and the population.
39:11They drew up plans
39:13for collective ownership
39:16of farms and factories.
39:24Maknovsk army
39:25functioned on a voluntary basis.
39:27Officers were elected.
39:30The peasant communities,
39:31which found it necessary
39:32to defend their land
39:33and liberty with weapons,
39:34sent volunteers
39:35to join the army.
39:40They freely supplied horses,
39:42chariots and food.
39:52They formed an army
39:53of up to 40,000 men
39:56with all that that entails.
40:00Administration services,
40:01medical teams.
40:05At one point,
40:06they even had an armoured train.
40:11An armoured train like Trotsky's,
40:13except that theirs
40:14had anarchy written on it.
40:17It allowed Batko Makno,
40:19Father Makno,
40:20as his supporters called him,
40:21and these are the only
40:22filmed images of him,
40:23to transport his cavalry
40:25from Huliapoli
40:26and Aleksandrovsk,
40:27Kharkov,
40:28and even as far as Kiev,
40:29the whole length of a front
40:31which stretched
40:31over 1,000 kilometers.
40:37In this way,
40:38his troops could carry out
40:39a veritable war
40:40of harassment
40:40on the planks
40:41of Petliura's
40:42counter-revolutionary forces
40:44and behind the terrible
40:45white armies
40:46of General Denikin.
40:47And in the month
40:48of October, 1919,
40:49the second anniversary
40:50of the uprising,
40:51at a moment
40:52when everything seemed
40:53lost for the Bolsheviks,
40:54Makno and the anarchists
40:56saved the Russian Revolution.
41:00The population in the Bolsheviks
41:02had begun to take flight.
41:05Here's a really good example
41:07of the efficiency
41:08of the Makvovshina,
41:09which didn't just sit around
41:10in its own backyard.
41:12Makno was capable
41:13of thinking of the common interest,
41:14thereby saving the revolution.
41:18That particular moment
41:19at the beginning of 1919
41:20was his hour of glory,
41:22when he organized an alliance
41:23with the Red Army,
41:24an alliance which was voluntary
41:26on both sides,
41:27and which was immortalized
41:28in front of the cameras.
41:29There's the Bolshevik,
41:31Dibenko,
41:31with his impressive stature
41:33and Makno looking
41:34so small beside him.
41:36It's a bit like looking
41:37at two conceptions
41:38of the same revolution,
41:39the hardline Bolshevik one
41:41and then Makno,
41:42who has the air
41:43of a somewhat romantic
41:44revolutionary leader
41:45about him.
41:48But in Moscow,
41:49where Lenin had just
41:50decreed war communism,
41:51the anarchists' actions
41:52had started to be
41:53frowned upon,
41:54as had the criticisms
41:55which they were already
41:56voicing at the very heart
41:57of the new capital,
41:58concerning dictatorship
41:59over the proletariat.
42:02For most other anarchists,
42:03that is the signal
42:05that the Bolsheviks
42:06are not true revolutionaries,
42:08that they are not interested
42:10in the well-being
42:12of the working masses,
42:14that they are not friends
42:15of the anarchists
42:17or anyone else
42:18who is not a Bolshevik.
42:20This was essentially
42:21a moment when the Bolsheviks,
42:22who were basically
42:23a revolutionary group
42:24amongst others,
42:26found themselves
42:27politically isolated
42:28in attempting
42:29to stabilize their power,
42:33notably by trying
42:34to eliminate those
42:35who had the same sort
42:36of militarized groups
42:37as themselves.
42:40So it was a question
42:41of who was going to win.
42:43against others.
42:45In the face of criticism,
42:47Trotsky,
42:47who had just taken
42:48over leadership
42:49of the Red Army,
42:50decided to,
42:50as he put it,
42:51rid Russia of anarchism
42:53with an iron broom.
42:54But he first
42:55had to invent consent.
42:57Aware of the potential
42:58of a new weapon
42:59of mass propaganda,
43:01the Bolsheviks
43:01went about producing,
43:02for the fledgling cinema,
43:04films denouncing
43:04the dangers
43:05of middle-class disorganization
43:07and of anarcho-banditry.
43:23The Bolsheviks
43:24did not attempt
43:25any revolution
43:26in their methods
43:26of communication.
43:28They simply recycled
43:29the same worn-out cliches
43:31used by the bourgeois
43:32European press,
43:33which had portrayed
43:34libertarians
43:34as inebriated,
43:35provocative arsonists,
43:37to be crushed.
43:39This brought about
43:40a genuine rupture
43:41between anarchists
43:42and the Bolsheviks,
43:44who were very quickly
43:46to become the most
43:47dangerous adversaries
43:48that the anarchist
43:49movement had ever had.
43:53But when Kropotkin
43:55died in 1921,
43:56the authorities
43:57suddenly decided
43:58to organize
43:58a national funeral.
44:00Were the Bolsheviks
44:01feeling remorse?
44:04All the country's cameras
44:06were mobilized
44:07were mobilized
44:07to capture this homage
44:08paid by the revolution
44:08to one of the fathers
44:10of anarchism.
44:14Emma Goldman,
44:15who can be seen here,
44:17even delivered a eulogy
44:18at the service.
44:19When Kropotkin died
44:21in 1921,
44:22many anarchists
44:24were already in prison.
44:26the Bolshevik
44:27allowed them to be released
44:29so that they could
44:30attend the funeral.
44:31There were thousands
44:32of them.
44:33But immediately afterwards,
44:35they were sent back
44:35to prison.
44:36the Bolshevik
44:36made in prison.
44:41These measures were
44:42extremely cynical.
44:44The Bolshevik regime
44:45manufactured a
44:46disconcerting lie.
44:48On the one side,
44:49they were celebrating
44:50someone who was by
44:51any standards a great
44:52Russian.
44:53And on the other,
44:54they were taking measures
44:55against his philosophy.
45:01The ceremony was hardly
45:02over when,
45:03under the direct orders
45:04of Lenin,
45:05the libertarian poet
45:06Lev Czerny,
45:07and the militant Fanny
45:08Baron were shot dead
45:09in the cellars of the
45:10Cheka prison,
45:10along with seven other
45:11anarchists.
45:15And in the following
45:16weeks,
45:16the Bolsheviks decided
45:17to purge the last two
45:18strongholds of anarchism
45:19in the Soviet Union.
45:21The Ukraine would be
45:22later,
45:22but first,
45:23it was Kronstadt,
45:24where the sailors,
45:25formerly known as
45:26Glory and Honour
45:27of the Revolution,
45:28had formed a commune.
45:31For the Central Committee,
45:33the threat was too close
45:34and the symbol too dangerous.
45:37Despite Emma Goldman's
45:39offer to mediate,
45:40Trotsky sent in
45:40the Red Army,
45:41which crushed the
45:42small island under its
45:43bombs.
45:52The end of the suppression
45:53of the Kronstadt uprising
45:55was on March 18th, 1921,
45:58which corresponded both
45:59with the Bolshevik Party
46:00Congress and the anniversary
46:01of the Paris Commune.
46:03So, from a symbolic point
46:04of view,
46:04it was very impressive.
46:06In the spring of 1921,
46:09only the Maknofshina
46:10were left to oppose
46:11the Bolsheviks.
46:13It was on the shores
46:14of the Black Sea,
46:15amid alcohol fumes
46:16and Cossack dancing,
46:17that the anarchist army,
46:19apparently unaware
46:19of the famous phrase
46:20inspired by the Aeneid,
46:22Timio Bolshevico et Dona Ferentes,
46:24beware of Bolsheviks bearing
46:26gifts,
46:26was decimated by the Red Army.
46:29The cavalry and the
46:30Maknofshina officers
46:31were with the Red Army
46:32near to Sebastopol.
46:34They threw a huge banquet
46:36to celebrate a victory.
46:40As you know,
46:41Leninism was very well
46:42organized.
46:46And during the night,
46:48all the Maknovist officers
46:49were shot dead.
46:59The final pages
47:00of the Makno saga
47:01are tragic.
47:05It's a desperate race,
47:07a battle with no hope
47:08of victory,
47:09the struggle
47:10of a wounded beast.
47:21The Russian Revolution
47:22was catastrophic
47:23for anarchism.
47:26The anarchist movement
47:28totally ceased to exist
47:29in Russia.
47:33Its last representatives
47:35died in Stalin's camps
47:36or in exile.
47:40But the executions
47:41and the deportation
47:42of anarchists
47:43to the Solovki Islands
47:44had the principal objective
47:45of reducing libertarians
47:46to silence.
47:48Because at the very moment
47:49when it was attempting
47:50to make the workers' world
47:51believe that socialism
47:52was being built
47:53within its borders,
47:55the Bolshevik authorities
47:56could not take the risk
47:57that testimony
47:57from frontline revolutionaries
47:59might tear aside
48:00the veil of the workers' illusions.
48:03That's why the assassinations
48:04were accompanied
48:05by the total censure
48:06of anarchists' words.
48:09And since that day,
48:10and even more so
48:11after the rise to power
48:12of Stalin,
48:13for whom, as we know
48:13from his early writings,
48:15anarchism was a long-term
48:16preoccupation,
48:17the Marxist history books
48:18have made no mention
48:19of the role played
48:20by libertarians
48:21in the Russian Revolution.
48:25It has taken many years
48:26for the new generations
48:27in the East,
48:28as well as a large part
48:29of the West,
48:30to be able to hear
48:31the total criticism
48:31of the Soviet regime
48:32which was first formulated
48:34by anarchists.
48:36The anarchists
48:37were the first
48:37to raise this critique
48:39of the fact
48:41that this would in fact
48:42be state capitalism.
48:43That the state
48:44would become
48:45the sole landlord.
48:47The state would become
48:48the sole capitalist.
48:49And this would not,
48:50in fact,
48:51change capitalist relations
48:52with the working class
48:53at all.
48:55Other than that,
48:56than the fact
48:56that the working class
48:57really would then
48:58have nowhere to hide.
48:59If they had no place
49:01to hide,
49:01it was because
49:02during the immediate
49:03aftermath of the war,
49:04the capitalist bourgeoisie
49:05also tried to repress
49:06the anarchists'
49:07revolutionary attempts
49:08wherever they could,
49:09with no lesser barbarity
49:11than the Bolsheviks
49:11had done.
49:13Like in Germany,
49:14where the libertarian leaders
49:15of the Bavarian Soviet
49:16Republic,
49:17Erich Musam,
49:18Ernst Toller,
49:19Reit Marut,
49:20were imprisoned,
49:21hunted down,
49:22or lynched by a mob
49:23like Gustav Landauer,
49:25whose body was left
49:26by the authorities
49:26to rot in the street
49:27for several days
49:28by way of an example.
49:30In Bulgaria,
49:31the uprising of the 23rd
49:32of September,
49:331923,
49:34which was intended
49:35to establish a government
49:36of workers and peasants,
49:37ended up in a white terror,
49:39during which the very orthodox
49:40King Boris III
49:42purportedly had the head
49:43of George Chetanov,
49:44the young Bulgarian
49:45anarchism theorist,
49:46delivered to him on a tray.
49:49The tragic week
49:50which brought to an end
49:51the hopes raised
49:52by the great demonstrations
49:53in La Fora in Argentina
49:54found an echo in Colombia
49:56with the Banana Massacre,
49:57when the United Fruit Company
49:59assassinated hundreds
50:00of anarcho-syndicalists.
50:04These repressive waves
50:06flowed as far as China,
50:07where the movement
50:08of May 4th, 1999,
50:10inspired by Liu Shifu,
50:11the first Chinese anarchist,
50:13was broken up by the warlords.
50:14A young teacher,
50:15present in Tiananmen Square
50:17in Peking,
50:18a certain Mao Zedong,
50:19witnessed the brutal repression
50:21of students
50:21and was deeply marked by it.
50:23This terror of anarchism
50:25sent a tremor
50:25as far as the slopes
50:26of Mount Fuji,
50:27where the imperial
50:28Japanese authorities
50:29arrested and beat to death
50:30Sakai Osugi
50:32and Ito Noe,
50:33as well as their
50:34six-year-old nephew,
50:35whose unrecognizable bodies
50:36were thrown
50:37to the bottom of a well.
50:39Let's not forget Italy,
50:40which came to the brink
50:41of revolution.
50:43Capitalism also
50:44re-established its order here,
50:45thus fulfilling
50:46the prophecy of Malatesta,
50:47who can be seen here
50:48on the left,
50:49haranguing the crowd.
50:50The bourgeoisie
50:51will make the proletariat
50:52pay for its attempts
50:53at revolution
50:54with tears of blood.
50:56Yes,
50:57wherever anarchism
50:58has tried to make
50:59its ideas triumph,
51:00its militants
51:01have been arrested,
51:02persecuted,
51:02and assassinated.
51:04Even in the United States
51:05of America,
51:06another historic land
51:07of anarchism,
51:08the revolutionary movement
51:09was fought against.
51:11And this fight
51:12would culminate
51:12in the condemning to death
51:13of two innocents.
51:18Because our sun is black,
51:22Notre drapeau rouge est noir
51:26Notre étoile jaune est noire
51:28Notre vie en rose est noire
51:32Oui, notre sang bleu est noir
51:36Notre drapeau rouge est noir
51:40Notre étoile jaune est noire
51:43Notre vie en rose est noire
51:47Oui, notre sang bleu est noir
51:51The dark on blue and white
51:54The dark on blue and white
51:57The dark on blue and white
52:05Black
52:08Black
52:12Black
52:12Black
52:15Black
52:17And we're black
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