Marxists’ Internet Archive

Errico Malatesta

1853 – 1932

“We want to bring about a society in which men will consider each other as brothers and by mutual support will achieve the greatest well-being and freedom as well as physical and intellectual development for all ...”
– Mutual Aid, 1909

Biography

Born in southern Italy in 1853, into a growing mood of republicanism, Malatesta soon saw the need for a more profound change in society, and in 1871 joined the Italian section of the International, where he linked up with the anarchist faction of the International.

Repeatedly forced into exile because of his political opinions he spent long periods in exile in various European countries, in Argentina and in the United States. In all he spent only about half his life in his native country.

During the First World War he argued strongly that anarchists should not take sides between the capitalist imperaislist powers. In 1919 he was able to return to Italy where he established the first anarchist daily paper, Umanità Nova. Even after the fascist seizure of power Malatesta continued, with difficulty, to bring out a journal, Pensiero e Volontà , until all independent newspapers and magazines were closed down in 1926. He spent the last 5 years of his life under house arrest.

Works:

1891	Anarchy (pamphlet)
1897	Anarchism and Organization
1909	Mutual Aid – An Essay
1913	The Tragic Bandits
1920	The Idea of Good Government
6 Sept. 1921	The Revolutionary “Haste”
16 Sept. 1921	Further thoughts on the question of crime
20 Sept. 1921	Class struggle or class hatred?
26 Aug. 1922	What is to be done?
7 Oct. 1922	Revolution in practice
14 Oct. 1922	Further Thoughts on Revolution in Practice
Mar. 1924	Democracy and Anarchy
10 May 1924	Editorial Mail
Aug. 1924	Note to the article Individualism and Anarchism by Adamas
Apr./May 1925	Syndicalism and Anarchism
Dec. 1925	The Labour Movement and Anarchism
Mar. 1926	Further Thoughts on Anarchism and the Labour Movement
May 1926	Neither Democrats, nor Dictators: Anarchists
Oct. 1927	A Project of Anarchist Organisation
Dec. 1929	Reply to Nestor Makhno
June 1930	The anarchists in the present time
Oct. 1930	Against the constituent assembly as against the dictatorship
1930s	Towards Anarchism

We have so far been unable to date the following texts. We would be grateful for any assistance.

various	Anarchist Propaganda
unknown	Majorities and Minorities
M.I.A. Library