Alexander Berkman Quotes
Tyranny must be opposed at the start. Autocracy, once secured in the saddle, is difficult to dislodge.
Alexander Berkman, 1870-1936, Lithuanian-born American Anarchist, To the Youth of America
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Iturbide, known also as Agustin I, was the first Emperor of Mexico who was executed by a firing squad.
With so many revolutionary rulers of new nations suppressing all opposition, the history of Ataturk and Turkey is unique. Ataturk was so popular and his People’s Party so successful that there was no opposition and Turkey had one party rule. However, Ataturk was determined to have Turkey become a parliamentary democracy as good as the Western nations of Europe. So a tradition of multi-party democracy was needed. So Ataturk actually went to his friend Fethi Okyar and asked him to start an opposition party and oppose the government. Fethi was a strong supporter of the revolution and generally was in concurrence with Ataturk and the People’s Party on everything. Ataturk however convinced him that they had to start a tradition that would take Turkey through the future, and he did create a new party-- Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası (Liberal Republican Party) and worked hard to find differences with the People’s Party and the Government. One immediate contribution was the oversight that the new party provided—a strong tradition that exists to this day in Turkey.
He fought in Algeria and other counterinsurgencies and then studied them. He wrote the classic book on counterinsurgency warfare. After all the mistakes the U. S. made after the successful invasion of Iraq, his book and doctrine were very influential in the change in strategy and tactics that turned the Iraq War in our favor.
Those who have fought against dictatorial governments for their basic human rights, found after victory and the overthrow of the dictator, that there was another force fighting for control which would deny citizens human rights based on a theocracy. They wanted the end of the dictator so they could use their interpretation of a religion as the excuse to deny all citizens basic human rights.
Alexander Berkman was a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century, famous for both his political activism and his writing.
