Errico Malatesta Quotes
If we do not carry on to the end, we will pay with tears of blood for the fear we now instill in the bourgeoisie.
There were massive strikes in Italy. These strikes began in the engineering factories and soon spread to railways, road transport, and other industries. The strikers, however, did more than just occupy their workplaces, they seized them for themselves. Soon 500,000 strikers were at work, producing for themselves. See {616351} for a description. The question was what next. Malatesta and others recommended that they go on and take over the government and not just try and have better labor conditions and factory operations. He warned that the capitalists and middle class bourgeoisie had been so frightened by the successful national strike that they would even ally with the Fascists who they did not like either. That is how Mussolini and his Fascists came to power.
Errico Malatesta, 1853-1932, Italian Anarchist, Warning to his fellow strikers, 1920
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There were massive strikes in Italy. These strikes began in the engineering factories and soon spread to railways, road transport, and other industries. The strikers, however, did more than just occupy their workplaces, they seized them for themselves. Soon 500,000 strikers were at work, producing for themselves. The question was what next. Malatesta and others recommended that they go on and take over the government and not just try and have better labor conditions and factory operations. See {616350}. He warned that the capitalists and middle class bourgeoisie had been so frightened by the successful national strike that they would even ally with the Fascists who they did not like either. That is how Mussolini and his Fascists came to power.
The word “smashing” is a literal translation from the Khmer language. It is not used in the metaphorical sense as we are used to. To save money, arms, bullets and resources the Khmer Rouge method of execution was to “smash” the victim’s head in with a shovel or other implement. This slogan told people literally to murder their political enemies in this brutal way.
And as the leader of the exploited, after his revolution he became a dictator himself, albeit a very popular one amongst most Cubans.
The slogan was made famous by James Larkin, 1875–1947, Irish trade union leader who used it frequently and whose memorial statue in Dublin contains the quotation in French, English and Irish.
Mengustu seized power in a coup. However his Marxist Dictatorship was very unpopular and a civil war soon started. The poorly armed opposition used guerrilla warfare insurgency techniques. Since the government was hated by most people there was much support for the guerrilla in the villages and countryside. Mengustu adopted a policy of genocide. The areas of the country which were sympathetic to the revolutionaries were then systematically starved by the government withholding food and attacked by allies who he armed.
Vladimir Lenin
The occasion for the speech was the 60th birthday of Russian Premier, Joseph Stalin.
- Born: December 14, 1853
- Died: July 22, 1932
- Nationality:
- Profession: Revolutionary, Activist, Writer
Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarchist and revolutionary socialist. He spent much of his life exiled from Italy and in total spent more than ten years in prison. Malatesta wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of Mikhail Bakunin.
