the idea is the thing

Multilingual Anarchy Collection

The (Het) Idea (Idee) is the (de)

Thing (Ding

By Alexander Berkman

Translated in Dutch by Philippe L. De Coster, B.TH.,D.D.

Included A. Berkman’s authentic typewritten manuscript, and a

supplement, “The Awakening Starvelings”.

© April 2014 – Ebook Skull Press Publications, Ghent, Belgium

2

The Idea is the Thing

By

Alexander Berkman

Did you ever ask yourself how it happens that government and capitalism

continue to exist in spite of all the evil and trouble they are causing in the world?

If you did, then your answer must have been that it is because the people support

those institutions, and that they support them because they believe in them.

That is the crux of the whole matter: present-day society rests on the belief of

the people that it is good and useful. It is founded on the idea of authority and

private ownership. It is ideas that maintain conditions. Government and

capitalism are the forms in which the popular ideas express themselves. Ideas

are the foundation; the institutions are the house built upon it.

A new social structure must have a new foundation, new ideas at its base.

However you may change the form of an institution, its character and meaning

will remain the same as the foundation on which it is built. Look closely at life

and you will perceive the truth of this. There are all kinds and forms of

government in the world, but their real nature is the same everywhere, as their

effects are the same: it always means authority and obedience.

Now, what makes governments exist? The armies and navies? Yes, but only

apparently so. What supports the armies and navies? It is the belief of the

people, of the masses, that government is necessary; it is the generally accepted

idea of the need of government. That is its real and solid foundation. Take the

idea or belief away, and no government could last another day.

The same applies to private ownership. The idea that it is right and necessary is

the pillar that supports it and gives it security.

Not a single institution exists to-day but is founded on the popular belief that it

is good and beneficial.

Let us take an illustrations; the United States, for instance. Ask yourself why

revolutionary propaganda has been of so little effect in that country in spite of

fifty years of Socialist, I.W.W. and Anarchist effort. Is the American worker not

exploited more intensely than labour in other countries? Is political corruption as

rampant in any other land? Is the capitalist class in America not the most

3

arbitrary and despotic in the world? True, the worker in the United States is

better situated materially than in Europe, but is he not at the same time treated

with the utmost brutality and terrorism the moment he shows the least

dissatisfaction? Yet the American worker remains loyal to the government and

is the first to defend it against criticism. He is still the most devoted champion of

the "grand and noble institutions of the greatest country on earth". Why?

Because he believes that they are his institutions, that he, as sovereign and free

citizen, is running them and that he could change them if he so wished. It is his

faith in the existing order that constitutes its greatest security against revolution.

His faith is stupid and unjustified, and some day it will break down and with it

American capitalism and despotism. But as long as that faith persists, American

plutocraty is safe against revolution.

As men's minds broaden and develop, as they advance to new ideas and lose

faith in their former beliefs, institutions begin to change and are ultimately done

away with. The people grow to understand that their former views were false,

that they were not truth but prejudice and superstition.

In this way many ideas, once held to be true, have come to be regarded as wrong

and evil. Thus the ideas of the divine right of kings, of slavery and serfdom.

There was a time when the whole world believed those institutions to be right,

just, and unchangeable. In the measure that those superstitions and false beliefs

were fought by advanced thinkers, they became discredited and lost their hold

upon the people, and finally the institutions that incorporated those ideas were

abolished. Highbrows will tell you that they had "outlived their usefulness" and

that therefore they "died". But how did they "outlive" their "usefulness?" To

whom were they useful, and how did they "die"?

We know already that they were useful only to the master class, and that they

were done away with by popular uprisings and revolutions.

Why did not old and effete institutions "disappear" and die off in a peaceful

manner?

For two reasons: first, because some people think faster than others. So that it

happens that a minority in a given place advance in their views quicker than the

rest. The more that minority will become imbued with the new ideas, the more

convinced of their truth, and the stronger they will feel themselves, the sooner

they will try to realize their ideas; and that is usually before the majority have

come to see the new light. So that the minority have to struggle against the

majority who still cling to the old views and conditions.

4

Second, the resistance of those who hold power. It makes no difference whether

it is the church, the king, or Kaiser, a democratic government or a dictatorship, a

republic or an autocracy -- those in authority will fight desperately to retain it as

long as they can hope for the least chance of success. And the more aid they get

from the slower-thinking majority the better the fight they can put up. Hence the

fury of revolt and revolution.

The desperation of the masses, their hatred of those responsible for their misery,

and the determination of the lords of life to hold on to their privileges and rule

combine to produce the violence of popular uprisings and rebellions.

But blind rebellion without definite object and purpose is not revolution.

Revolution is rebellion become conscious of its aims. Revolution is social when

it strives for a fundamental change. As the foundation of life is economics, the

social revolution means the reorganization of the industrial, economic life of the

country and consequently also of the entire structure of society.

But we have seen that the social structure rests on the basis of ideas, which

implies that changing the structure presupposes changed ideas. In other words,

social ideas must change first before a new social structure can be built.

The social revolution, therefore, is not an accident, not a sudden happening.

There is nothing sudden about it, for ideas don't change suddenly. They grow

slowly, gradually, like the plant or flower. Hence the social revolution is a

result, a development, which means that it is evolutionary. It develops to the

point when considerable numbers of people have embraced the new ideas and

are determined to put them into practice. When they attempt to do so and meet

with opposition, then the slow, quiet, and peaceful social evolution becomes

quick, militant, and violent. Evolution becomes revolution.

Bear in mind, then, that evolution and revolution are not two separate and

different things. Still less are they opposites, as some people wrongly believe.

Revolution is merely the boiling point of evolution.

Because revolution is evolution at its boiling point you cannot "make" a real

revolution any more than you can hasten the boiling of a tea kettle. It is the fire

underneath that makes it boil: how quickly it will come to the boiling point will

depend on how strong the fire is.

The economic and political conditions of a country are the fire under the

evolutionary pot. The worse the oppression, the greater the dissatisfaction of the

people, the stronger the flame. This explains why the fires of social revolution

swept Russia, the most tyrannous and backward country, instead of America

5

where industrial development has almost reached its highest point -- and that in

spite of all the learned demonstrations of Karl Marx to the contrary.

We see, then, that revolutions, though they cannot be made, can be hastened by

certain factors; namely, pressure from above: by more intense political and

economical oppression; and by pressure from below: by greater enlightenment

and agitation. These spread the ideas; they further evolution and thereby also the

coming of revolution.

But pressure from above, though hastening revolution, may also cause its

failure, because such revolution is apt to break out before the evolutionary

process has been sufficiently advanced. Coming prematurely, as it were, it will

fizzle out in mere rebellion; that is, without clear, conscious aim and purpose. At

best, rebellion can secure only some temporary alleviation; the real causes of the

strife, however, remain intact and continue to operate to the same effect, to

cause further dissatisfaction and rebellion.

Summing up what I have said about revolution, we must come to the conclusion

that:

1. A social revolution is one that entirely changes the foundation of society,

its political, economic, and social character;

2. Such a change must first take place in the ideas and opinions of the

people, in the minds of men;

3. Oppression and misery may hasten revolution, but may thereby also turn

it into failure, because lack of evolutionary preparation will make real

accomplishment impossible;

4. Only that revolution can be fundamental, social and successful, which

will be the expression of a basic change of ideas and opinions.

From this it obviously follows that the social revolution must be prepared.

Prepared in the sense of furthering the evolutionary process, of enlightening the

people about the evils of present-day society and convincing them of the

desirability and possibility, of the justice and practicability of a social life based

on liberty; prepared, moreover, by making the masses realize very clearly just

what they need and how to bring it about.

Such preparation is not only an absolutely necessary preliminary step. Therein

lies also the safety of the revolution, the only guarantee of its accomplishing its

objects.

6

It has been the fate of most revolutions -- as a result of lack of preparation -- to

be sidetracked from their main purpose, to be misused and led into blind alleys.

Russia is the best recent illustration of it. The February Revolution, which

sought to do away with the autocracy, was entirely successful. The people knew

exactly what they wanted; namely the abolition of Tsardom. All the

machinations of politicians, all the oratory and schemes of the Lvovs and

Milukovs -- the "liberal" leaders of those days -- could not save the Romanov

Régime in the face of the intelligent and conscious will of the people. It was this

clear understanding of its aims which made the February Revolution a complete

success, with, mind you, almost no bloodshed.

Furthermore, neither appeals nor threats by the Provisional Government could

avail against the determination of the people to end the war. The armies left the

fronts and thus terminated the matter by their own direct action. The will of a

people conscious of their objects always conquers.

It was the will of the people again, their resolute aim to get hold of the soil,

which secured for the peasant the land he needed. Similarly the city workers, as

repeatedly mentioned before, possessed themselves of the factories and of the

machinery of production.

So far the Russian Revolution was a complete success. But at the point where

the masses lacked the consciousness of definite purpose, defeat began. That is

always the moment when politicians and political parties step in to exploit the

revolution for their own uses or to experiment their theories upon it. This

happened in Russia, as in many previous revolutions. The people fought the

good fight -- the political parties fought over the spoils to the detriment of the

revolution and to the ruin of the people.

This is, then, what took place in Russia. The peasant, having secured the land,

did not have the tools and machinery he needed. The worker, having taken

possession of the machinery and factories, did not know how to handle them to

accomplish his aims. In other words, he did not have the experience necessary to

organize production and he could not manage the distribution of the things he

was producing.

His own efforts -- the worker's, the peasant's the soldier's -- had done away with

Tsardom, paralyzed the Government, stopped the war, and abolished private

ownership of land and machinery. For that he was prepared by years of

revolutionary education and agitation. But for no more than that. And because

he was prepared for no more, where his knowledge ceased and definite purpose

was lacking, there stepped in the political party and took affairs out of the hands

7

of the masses who had made the revolution. Politics replaced economic

reconstruction and thereby sounded the death knell of the social revolution; for

people live by bread, by economics, not by politics.

Food and supplies are not created by decree of party or government. Legislative

edicts don't till the soil; laws can't turn the wheels of industry. Dissatisfaction,

strife, and famine came upon the heels of government coercion and dictatorship.

Again, as always, politics and authority proved the swamp in which the

revolutionary fires became extinguished.

Let us learn this most vital lesson: thorough understanding by the masses of the

true aims of revolution means success. Carrying out their conscious will by their

own efforts guarantees the right development of the new life. On the other hand,

lack of this understanding and of preparation means certain defeat, either at the

hands of reaction or by the experimental theories of would-be political party

friends. Let us prepare, then.

8

Het Idee is het Ding

door

Alexander Berkman

Vertaald in het Nederlands

door

Philippe L. De Coster, B.Th., D.D.

Hebt u zich ooit afgevraagd hoe het komt dat de overheid en het kapitalisme

blijven bestaan ondanks al het kwaad en de problemen die ze veroorzaken in de

wereld?

Als je dat bedacht hebt, dan moet jouw antwoord zijn dat het is omdat de

mensen deze instellingen ondersteunen, en dat zij hen bijstaan omdat ze in hen

geloven.

Dat is de kern van de zaak: de huidige maatschappij berust op de overtuiging

van het volk dat het goed en nuttig is. Het is gebaseerd op het idee van de

overheid en de particuliere eigendom. Het zijn ideeën die omstandigheden

handhaven. De overheid en het kapitalisme zijn de vormen waarin de populaire

ideeën zich uitspreken. Ideeën zijn het fundament; de instellingen zijn het

gebouw waarop het is gevestigd.

Een nieuwe sociale structuur moet een nieuwe fundering bezitten, met nieuwe

ideeën aan de basis. Maar u kunt de vorm van een instelling veranderen, waarbij

het karakter en de betekenis onveranderd blijven op het fundament waarop het is

gebouwd. Kijk goed naar het leven en u zult zelf de waarheid van dit

waarnemen. Er zijn allerlei soorten en vormen van overheid (gouvernementen)

in de wereld, maar hun ware aard is overal hetzelfde, daar hun uitwerkingen

dezelfde zijn: het betekend altijd gezag en gehoorzaamheid.

Nu, wat brengt de regeringen tot bestaan? De legers en marines? Ja, maar

blijkbaar alleen zo. Wat ondersteunt de legers en marines? Het is het geloof van

de mensen, van de massa's, dat de overheid noodzakelijk is; en dat is de

algemeen aanvaarde idee dat een overheid nodig is. Dat is de echte en solide

basis van deze inbeelding. Neem het idee of deze overtuiging weg, en geen

enkele regering zou een dag langer bestaan.

Hetzelfde geldt voor privaat eigendommen. Het idee dat het juist en

noodzakelijk is, wordt zoals een pilaar met zekerheid ondersteund.

9

Geen enkele instelling bestaat vandaag, of het is gebaseerd op het populaire

geloof dat het goed en nuttig is.

Laten we eens enkele illustraties nemen; bijvoorbeeld, de Verenigde Staten. Stel

jezelf de vraag waarom revolutionaire propaganda zo weinig effect in dat land

gehad heeft, ondanks vijftig jaar socialistische I.W.W. en Anarchistische

inspanning! Is de Amerikaanse arbeider niet meer uitgebuit dan de arbeider in

andere landen? Is politieke corruptie niet even hard in elk ander land? Is de

kapitalistische klasse in Amerika niet de meest willekeurig en autoritair in de

wereld? Inderdaad, de werknemer in de Verenigde Staten is materieel beter af

dan in Europa, maar hij is niet op dezelfde manier behandeld, namelijk met de

grootst mogelijke brutaliteit en terrorisme vanaf het ogenblik dat hij de minste

ontevredenheid toont? Toch blijft de Amerikaanse arbeider trouw aan de

regering en is de eerste om het tegen kritiek te verdedigen. Hij is nog steeds de

meest toegewijde kampioen van de " grootse en nobele instellingen van het

grootste land op aarde.” Waarom? Omdat hij gelooft dat de instellingen hem

toebehoren, dat hij, als soevereine en vrije burger, hen beheert, en dat hij hen

zou kunnen veranderen als hij dat maar wilde. Het is zijn geloof in het bestaande

bestuur , dat zijn grootste beveiliging tegen revolutie is. Zijn geloof is dom en

ongerechtvaardigd, en op een zekere dag zal het breken en tezelfdertijd het

Amerikaanse kapitalisme en despotisme. Maar zolang dat geloof aanhoudt, is de

Amerikaanse plutocratie veilig tegen revolutie.

Als het gemoed van de mens verruimt en ontwikkelt, als zij naar nieuwe ideeën

vorderen en geloof in hun vroegere geloofswaarheden verliezen, dan beginnen

instellingen te veranderen en uiteindelijk worden die afgeschaft. De mensen

komen tot besef en begrijpen dat hun vroegere standpunten vals en onterecht

waren, dat ze de waarheid niet waren, maar vooroordelen en bijgeloof.

Op deze manier veel ideeën, vroeger aangenomen als zijnde echt, zijn nu

volkomen als verkeerd en slecht beschouwd. Dus de ideeën van het goddelijk

recht van koningen, van slavernij en lijfeigenschap. Er was een tijd dat de hele

wereld geloofde dat die instellingen goed, rechtvaardig en onveranderlijk waren.

In de mate dat die bijgeloof en valse overtuigingen door geavanceerde denkers

werden uitgevochten, waren ze in diskrediet geplaatst en verloren hun greep op

het volk, en uiteindelijk werden de instellingen die deze ideeën verspreidden

afgeschaft. Knappe koppen zullen je vertellen dat “hun nut overleefd zijn” en

dat zij nu dood zijn. Maar hoe hebben ze hun “nut” overleefd? "Voor wie waren

ze nuttig, en hoe zijn ze gestorven?”

We weten al dat ze alleen voor de hoge klasse nuttig waren, en dat ze werden

weggedaan door volksopstanden en revoluties.

10

Waarom zijn oude en afgeleefde instellingen niet "verdwenen" en op een

vreedzame manier gestorven?

Om twee redenen: ten eerste, omdat sommige mensen sneller dan anderen

denken. Zoiets gebeurt omdat bij een minderheid op een bepaalde plek hun

opvattingen sneller werken dan bij de overigen. Hoe meer die minderheid

doordrongen wordt door de nieuwe ideeën, en hoe meer overtuigd van hun

waarheid, hoe sterker ze zich voelen, hoe sneller ze zullen proberen hun ideeën

te realiseren; en dat is meestal voor dat de meerderheid gekomen is het nieuwe

licht in te zien. Zo sukkelt de minderheid tegenover de meerderheid die nog

steeds vastgeklampt zit aan de oude opvattingen en omstandigheden.

Ten tweede, de weerstand van degenen die de macht hebben. Het maakt geen

verschil of het nu de kerk, de koning, of keizer, een democratische regering of

een dictatuur, een republiek of een autocratie is, gezagsdragers zullen wanhopig

vechten om alles te behouden zolang ze kunnen hopen voor de minste kans op

succes. En hoe meer hulp ze krijgen van de langzame denkende meerderheid des

te beter kunnen ze hun strijd voortzetten. Vandaar de woede, opstand en

revolutie.

De wanhoop van de massa's, hun haat tegen degenen die verantwoordelijk zijn

voor hun ellende, en de vastberadenheid van de heren van het leven om vast te

houden aan hun voorrechten en regels, beide produceren het geweld van de

volksopstanden en oproer.

Maar blinde rebellie zonder een vaste rede en doel is geen revolutie. Revolutie is

rebellie bewust van haar doelstellingen. Revolutie is sociaal wanneer het streeft

naar een fundamentele verandering. Als het fundament van het leven economie

is, de sociale revolutie betekent dan de reorganisatie van het industriële,

economische leven van het land en dus ook van de gehele structuur van de

samenleving.

Maar we hebben gezien dat de sociale structuur op basis van ideeën berust, wat

impliceert dat het veranderen van de structuur gewijzigde ideeën veronderstelt.

Met andere woorden, de maatschappelijke ideeën moeten eerst veranderen

voordat een nieuwe sociale structuur kan worden opgebouwd.

De sociale revolutie is dus geen toeval, niet een plotselinge gebeurtenis. Er is

niets zomaar plotseling, daar ideeën eenvoudigweg plotseling niet veranderen.

Ze groeien langzaam en geleidelijk, zoals een plant of bloem. Vandaar het

resultaat van een sociale revolutie, een ontwikkeling, waardoor het evolutionaire

is. Het ontwikkelt tot het punt waarop een groot aantal mensen de nieuwe ideeën

hebben omarmd en zijn vastbesloten om ze in praktijk te brengen. Wanneer ze

besloten hebben deze in praktijk te brengen en de oppositie tegemoet te komen,

11

dan is de langzame, rustige en vredige sociale evolutie in versnelling, militant en

gewelddadig. Evolutie wordt revolutie.

Onthoudt dan vervolgens, dat evolutie en revolutie niet twee afzonderlijke en

verschillende dingen zijn. Nog minder zijn zij tegenstellingen, zoals sommige

mensen ten onrechte geloven. Revolutie is slechts het kookpunt van de evolutie.

Omdat revolutie evolutie is op zijn kookpunt kun je een echte revolutie niet

vlugger in actie brengen, niet meer dan u het koken van water in een ketel kunt

bespoedigen. Het is het vuur eronder dat maakt het koken: hoe snel het naar het

kookpunt zal komen, zal afhangen hoe sterk het vuur is.

De economische en politieke omstandigheden van een land zijn het vuur onder

de evolutionaire pot. Hoe slechter de onderdrukking, hoe groter de

ontevredenheid van de mensen, hoe sterker de vlam. Dit verklaart waarom het

vuur van de sociale revolutie Rusland wegveegde, de meest tirannieke en

achterlijk land, in vergelijking met Amerika, waar de industriële ontwikkeling

bijna zijn hoogste punt heeft bereikt - en dat integendeel ondanks alle geleerde

demonstraties van Karl Marx.

We zien dus, dat revoluties, hoewel zij niet kunnen gemaakt worden, door

bepaalde factoren ook niet kunnen versneld worden. Namelijk, door druk uit te

oefenen van hoger op: door hevige politieke en economische onderdrukking; en,

door de druk van onderaan: door een grotere propaganda en agitatie. Ze

verspreiden de ideeën; ze vorderen de evolutie en daarbij ook de komst van de

revolutie.

Maar de druk van bovenaf, die de revolutie in versnelling brengt, kan ook tot

mislukking leiden, omdat een dergelijke revolutie geneigd is uit te breken

voordat het evolutionaire proces voldoende gevorderd is. De vroegtijdige komst

ervan, zal als het ware, in opstand uitbarsten; dat wil zeggen zonder duidelijke,

bewuste plan en doel. In het beste geval kan opstand slechts enkele tijdelijke

oplossingen verzekeren; maar de werkelijke oorzaken van de strijd, blijven

echter ongedeerd (zoals het was) en opereren nog op dezelfde wijze, die verder

ontevredenheid en opstand veroorzaken.

Samenvattend wat ik gezegd heb over de revolutie, moeten we tot de conclusie

gekomen dat:

1. Een sociale revolutie is er een die het fundament van de samenleving, de

politieke, economische en sociale aard volledig verandert;

2. Een dergelijke wijziging moet eerst plaatsvinden in de ideeën en

meningen van het volk, in de gedachten van de mensen;

12

3. Onderdrukking en ellende kunnen de revolutie verhaasten, maar kan

daarbij ook tot mislukking leiden, door gebrek aan evolutionaire

voorbereiding die de prestatie echter onmogelijk maakt;

4. Alleen die revolutie kan fundamenteel, sociaal en succesvol te zijn, die de

uitdrukking van een fundamentele verandering van ideeën en meningen

zal zijn.

Hieruit volgt duidelijk dat de sociale revolutie moet worden voorbereid.

Voorbereid in de zin van het bevorderen van het evolutionaire proces, het

verhelderen van de mensen over het kwade in de huidige maatschappij en hen te

overtuigen van de wenselijkheid en mogelijkheid van rechtvaardigheid en

uitvoerbaarheid van een sociaal leven op basis van vrijheid; voorbereid,

bovendien door het aanwakkeren van de massa’s om hen duidelijk te maken en

te beseffen wat ze nodig hebben en hoe het tot stand te brengen.

Deze bereiding is niet alleen een eerste absoluut noodzakelijke stap. Daarin ligt

ook de veiligheid van de revolutie, de enige garantie voor de uitvoering van haar

objecten.

Het is het lot van de meeste revoluties - als gevolg van een gebrek aan

voorbereiding – als een zijspoor uit hun hoofddoel, om misbruikt te worden en

geleid in doodlopende steegjes. Rusland is de beste recente illustratie ervan. De

Februari-revolutie, die tot doel had om weg te doen met de autocratie

(dictatuur), was volledig succesvol. De mensen wisten precies wat ze wilden;

namelijk de afschaffing van Tsardom. Al de machinaties van politici, alle

retoriek en schema's van de Lvovs en Milukovs - de "liberale" leiders van die

dagen - kon de Romanov Regime niet redden in het gezicht van de intelligente

en bewuste wil van het volk. Het was dit duidelijk inzicht in de doelstellingen

die de Februari-revolutie een groot succes heeft gemaakt, met, let wel, bijna

geen bloedvergieten.

Bovendien kan noch beroep noch dreigementen van de Voorlopige Regering

baten tegen de vaststelling van het volk om de oorlog te beëindigen. De legers

verlieten de fronten en maakten daarmee een einde aan de onenigheid door hun

eigen directe actie. De wil van een volk bewust van hun doelstellingen overwint

altijd.

Het was weer de wil van het volk, hun vastberaden doel zich aan de bodem vast

te klampen, voor de zekerheid van de boeren die ze nodig hadden te bekomen.

Zo ook voor de werknemers in de steden, zoals herhaaldelijk eerder vermeld, de

bezetting van de fabrieken en van de productie machines.

Tot zover was de Russische Revolutie een groot succes. Maar daar waar de

massa het bewustzijn verloor van een duidelijk doel, begon de nederlaag. Dat is

13

altijd het moment waarop politici en politieke partijen ingrijpen om de revolutie

voor hun eigen doeleinden te exploiteren of hun theorieën daarop te

experimenteren. Dit gebeurde in Rusland, net als in vele eerdere revoluties. De

mensen hadden de goede strijd gestreden - de politieke partijen vochten voor de

buit ten nadele van de revolutie en de ondergang van het volk.

Dit is dus wat in Rusland heeft plaatsgevonden. De boer, die het land

beschermde, beschikte niet over de gereedschappen en machines die hij nodig

had. De werknemers, die de machines en fabrieken in hun bezit hadden

genomen, wisten niet hoe ze verder moesten omgaan om hun doelen te bereiken.

Met andere woorden, ze hadden niet de ervaring die nodig zijn om de productie

te organiseren en ze konden de verdeling van de dingen die ze produceerden

niet beheren.

De eigen inspanningen (van de werknemer, de boeren en de soldaten) - hadden

met het Tsardom afgedaan, verlamde de regering, stopte de oorlog, en schafte de

privé-eigendommen af van grondbezit en machines. Daarvoor was hij jaren lang

voorbereid in revolutionair onderwijs en agitatie. Maar niet meer dan dat. En

omdat hij voorbereid was zonder meer, en waar zijn kennis ophield en zijn

duidelijk doel ontbrak, stapte hij in de politieke partij en nam zaken uit de

handen van de massa's die de revolutie had gemaakt. Politiek had economische

wederopbouw vervangen en daardoor klonk de doodsklok van de sociale

revolutie; voor mensen die leven van brood, door de economie, niet door de

politiek.

Voedsel en voorraden worden niet geproduceerd door decreten van de partij of

de overheid. Wetgevende edicten bewerken niet de aarde (bodem); wetten

kunnen de wielen van de industrie niet doen draaien. Ontevredenheid, twist, en

hongersnood kwamen op de hielen van de overheid, dwang en dictatuur.

Wederom, zoals altijd, de politiek en het gezag bleek het moeras te zijn waarin

het revolutionaire vuur werd gedoofd.

Laten we deze zeer belangrijke les leren: grondige kennis door de massa's van

de ware doelstellingen van de revolutie betekent succes. Uitvoering van hun

bewuste wil door hun eigen inspanningen waarborgt de juiste ontwikkeling van

het nieuwe leven. Aan de andere kant, het ontbreken van dit begrip en van de

voorbereiding betekent een zekere nederlaag, hetzij in de handen van de reactie

of door de experimentele theorieën van de zogenaamde politieke partij vrienden.

Vervolgens, laat ons ervoor waakzaam zijn.

24

The Awakening Starvelings

by Alexander Berkman

Ideas are true liberators. Ideas as distinguished from so-called reason. For in our

work-a-day world there is much reason and too little thought. It is given only to

the seer and poet to conceive liberating ideas - impractical, wild thoughts that

ultimately light the way of practical, blind man to better and higher endeavour.

To "practical" minds the regeneration of the world is an empty dream. To

transform the cold winter of our age into the warmth of a beautiful summer day,

to change our valley of tears and misery into a luxurious garden of joy is a vain

phantasm lacking reason and sanity. But a William Morris sees in his mind's eye

a world of comradeship and brotherhood rejoicing in the plenitude of earth's

bounty, and he challenges "practical reason" to justify the existence of poverty

and antagonism in a society over-rich in all the physical and aesthetic joys of a

full human life.

The incisive genius of a Leonid Andreyev, with a bitter scorn born of intense

love, lashes the exasperating helplessness of the great giant of labour, strong

enough to support the whole world, yet too weak in spirit and thought to tear to

pieces the flimsy network woven about him by the pigmies vampiring on his

great body.

How pathetic the helplessness of the giant, mighty in everything save liberating

thought!

" " "

Ah, indeed, thoughts are not vain phantasies, ideas not an empty dream. Look

about you. On every side is being enacted the terrible tragedy of Andreyev's

"King Hunger". Labour feeds and clothes the world, while himself, poor

Starveling, goes cold and hungry. The Masters of Life tremble in their palaces at

the first rumour of their disaffected slaves. Their anxious ear catches the low

murmur beneath their feet, the ominous rumbling down in the cellar of life; their

faces blanch, and laughter is hushed in the mansions; the temples of Bachanalian

joy are deserted, and the bright chandeliers turned low, for fear the starvelings

might see the light ... and find their way to the palaces.

And the Starvelings? They meekly crawl before the trembling masters, the

powerful judges by grace of King Hunger, and plead mercy for stealing a five-

25

pound loaf of bread. But the mighty judges know no mercy. The Starvelings are

doomed to death. In despair they call to King Hungar, "Help us! Tell us what to

do!"

"Revolt" replies Hunger. "Take what is yours".

But how? In the council of the assembled Starvelings, conspiring plans of revolt,

there is even greater poverty of thought and liberating ideas than of worldly

goods. Ah, the helplessness of the stomach, conscious only of its hunger!

Meek in spirit, poor in thought, the Starvelings again appeal to King Hunger for

advice. But he is perfidious, serving with equal impartiality master and slave,

ultimately deceiving both. For the despair of Hunger may flame forth in bloody

revolt, but it needs the inspiration of the liberating idea to become conscious,

triumphant revolution.

" " "

Revolts of hunger, inevitable as they often are, are failures in the larger social

sense. But revolutions inspired by a liberating idea have always been successful

to the degree of their inspiration. And the world progresses. Modern labor is

learning the lessons of its past struggles. It is no longer satisfied with the crumbs

thrown at it from the masters' heavy-laden tables. It voices its demand, ever

more loudly and determinedly, for its full share of life. Over geographical

boundries marches the uprising of the Starvelings. It breaks down national lines,

barries [sic] of religion and caste, and sweeps the world with the revolt of the

international proletariat. In far China, India and Egypt the coolie is awakening to

the new spirit and defying the traditions of centuries. The industrial serfs are

challenging their hereditary lords to combat. Throughout the world is to be

sensed the coming storm. It is no more the revolt of the Starvelings, blindly

following Kind Hunger. It is Revolution, conscious of brotherhood and solitary

unity.

29

An Enemy of Society

Autobiography

of

Alexander Berkman

Timeline

EARLY DAYS: Life at home and school in St. Petersburg. My bourgeois father

and aristocratic mother. Jews and gentiles. I question my father about the

Turkish prisoners of war begging alms in the streets.

OUR FAMILY SKELETON: Strange rumors about my mother and her brother

Maxim. Echoes of the Polish rebellion of 1863. I hear of the dreaded Nihilists

and revolution.

A TERRIFIED HOUSEHOLD: A bomb explodes as I recite my lesson in

school. The assassination of Tsar Alexander II. Secret groups in our class. Police

30

search our house. Uncle Maxim is arrested for conspiring against the Tsar's Life.

The funeral of the dead Tsar. A terrorized city.

FAMILY TROUBLES: Rumours of my beloved Uncle Maxim's execution. My

terrible grief. Death of my father. We lose the right of residing in the capital.

Race prejudice and discrimination. Breaking up our business and home.

PROVINCIAL RUSSIA: The ghetto. Life in Wilne and Kovno. My sister Sonya

and my two elder brothers. In school and university. My rich uncle Nathan --

dictator of Kovno. His peculiar family.

THE TROUBLES OF YOUTH: Class distinctions in school and at home. I am

forbidden to associate with menials. Our warring school gangs on the River

Neman. Boys and girls -- the mysteries of sex. Visiting university students

initiate me into Nihilism. Secret associations and forbidden books.

MY FIRST REBELLION: I defy I my rich uncle Nathan and defend a servant

girl against my mother. Punished in school for my essay, "There is no God",

written when I was 13 years old. Chumming with a factory boy and teaching

him to read. I discover capitalism. I worship my martyred Uncle Maxim.

PLANNING AN ESCAPE: I learn that Uncle Maxim is alive and has escaped

from Siberia. My brother Max is refused admission to universities, because he is

a Jew. My violent indignation. More trouble at school. Max preparing to enter a

German university. I conspire to accompany him. A narrow escape in stealing

our way across the border. I go to Hamburg. Travelling steerage to America.

IN FREE AMERICA: Life on the East Side of New York. A new-fledged

working man at 17. The troubles of a greenhorn. I find friends and a sweetheart.

Wealth and poverty. I meet Russian political exiles and frequent revolutionary

groups in New York. I join the Anarchists. Echoes of the Chicago Haymarket

affair.

THE WORLD OF LABOUR: Factories and machines. I work as cigar maker

and cloak-operator. Friends and enemies. East-side cafés and meetings. The

Great proletariat. The troubles of an emigrant. Prominent revolutionaries.

REALITY VERSES IDEALISM: Life and struggle. Devotion to my ideals. My

intimate comrades and our first "commune colony". Planning to return to Russia

for revolutionary work. John Most and the German anarchist movement in

America. My friends Emma Goldman and Fedya. Love, friendship and

revolution.

31

THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE: The steelworkers of Pennsylvania. Carnegie and

H. C. Frick. the blood- bath on the Monongahela. Andrew Carnegie and his

hired Pinkertons. The whole country shocked. I decide to go to Homestead.

Carnegie escapes to his castle in Scotland. My attempt on the life of Henry Clay

Frick. The travesty of my trial. I am sentenced to 22 years' prison.

IN THE PENITENTIARY: Life in prison. Guards and convicts. I organize a

strike for better food and treatment. Am sentenced to the dungeon. Prison

torture. Attempting suicide and escape. I spend 10 years in solitary confinement.

The grist of the prison-mill. Types of prisoners. Stories of crime. Robbing the

stomach. Fake prison investigations. My prison chums. Love and sex in prison.

MY RESURRECTION: Freedom after 14 years in prison. The shocks of reality.

Great expectations and crushing disillusionment. How the world had changed.

Old-time friends and new actualities. Afraid of meeting people. My first lecture

tour. I am in Frick's stronghold again. A visit to Homestead . I disappear: either

dead or kidnapped by Frick.

A NEW LEASE ON LIFE: Police brutality and the arrest of my comrades. I am

roused to work and fight. The Labour and new revolutionary movement.

Russian political refugees: echoes of the Russian revolution of 1905. By new

activities. I start a cooperative printing shop. The "Americanised" East Side.

Labour leaders, Socialists, I.W.W., Bundists, and Anarchists. I am editor of

MOTHER EARTH, Emma Goldman's anarchist publication. Trouble with

Comstock. Illiberal American liberals and muddle-headed radicals. I organize

the first Anarchist Federation in America. Trouble with the police. Free-speech

fights.

STRUGGLES OF LABOUR: The beginning of American imperialism and my

first anti-war work. The Industrial Workers of the World and the Amarican

Federation of Labour. Outstanding personalities. I help to found the Francisco

Ferrer Association for libertarian education. My new role as a radical Sunday-

school teacher. I write my prison memories’. The unemployed movement;

taking possession of churches. The Ludlow massacre; strikes and great labor

trials. Big Bill Haywood, Hillquit, Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, Gurley

Flynn, Tresca, and other personalities. The Union Square tragedy. I defend the

McNamra brothers. The Los Angeles TIMES explosion. General Otis. Mother

Jones and martial law. Clarence Darrow gets acquitted and convicts the

McNamara brothers, his clients. Golden-rule Lincoln Steffens is double-crossed

at his own game. We fight it out with the police at Union Square. I lead the siege

of Tarrytown, home of Rockefeller. The inside story of some explosions. I am

charged with inciting to riot and face prison again.

32

ON THE COAST: A lecture tour across the country. The Mexican revolutionists

in California. I meet a descendant of the Aztecs. THE BLAST, my revolutionary

labour paper in San Francisco. Persectuion by the Catholic Church. The

Mexican Revolution. THE BLAST editorial: "Wilson or Villa -- which the

greater bandit?" THE BLAST suppressed, but continues to circulate. The

American war hysteria. The Preparedness Parade bomb explosion in San

Francisco. The arrest of Tom Monney, Billings, and other labour men. I

organize their defence. The conspiracy against Mooney. Fremont Older and the

labour leaders assure me Mooney is guilty. I tour the country in his behalf and

work for Mooney in New York.

THE WAR: America enters the war. Jingo Quakers and radicals. The NO-WAR

campaign and my fight against conscription. Exciting mass meetings. I break my

leg and talk on crutches. Defying police and soldiers. The Revolution breaks out

in Russia and I plan to go there. I am arrested for obstructing the draft. In the

Tombs. California demands my extradition in connection with the Mooney case.

The Kronstadt (Russia) sailors threaten the life of the American ambassador

Francis in case I am extradited to California. Wilson sends a confidential

messenger (Colonel House) to the Governor of New York. The Governor

refuses to extradite me. My trial for "conspiracy to obstruct the draft".

THE ATLANTA PENITENTIARY: Two years in the Georgia State Prison.

"Politicals worse than criminals". Conscientious objectors and Eugene V. Debs.

Our chain-gang Warden. I protest against and officer shooting a negro in the

back and killing him. Punished in the dungeon and solitary for the rest of my

time.

DEPORTATION: First deportation of politicals from the United States. The hell

of Ellis Island and our kidnapping in the dead of night. The leaky boat "Buford"

and its passengers. A near-mutiny. Sailors and soldiers offer to turn the ship

over to me. The "sealed orders of the captain". We make demands and gain

them. In danger of landing in the country of the Whites. Travelling in Finland

under military convoy. Finnish soldiers steal our provisions. Crossing the

border.

IN THE SOVIET RUSSIA: The Revolution day by day. Meeting Bolshevik

leaders: Lenin, Tchicherin, Lunatcharsky, Zinoviev, etc. Trying to work with the

Communists. The Tcheka and the counter-revolution. Trotsky and military

communism. Bolshevik policies verses revolutionary aims. The madness of

power. Discrimination and terror. My work in Russia. Adventures on the

western frontier. Up and down through the country. The fourteen changes of

33

government in the Ukraina. The uprising of the Kronstadt sailors. Trotsky

massacres them. The new economic policy of Lenin. I break with the Bolsheviki

and leave Russia.

FROM PILLAR TO POST: Arrested in Latvia: the revenge of a Tchekist.

Spending Christmas in prison with Emma Goldman and another friend.

Liberated with apologies and "advised" to leave the country. Chasing for visas.

Danger and fun. Invited to Sweden by Prime Minister Branting.

I KEEP GOING: I write an article for a Stockholm paper in behalf of the

persecuted politicals in Russia. Result: the bourgeois press attacks Prime

Minister Branting for offering the hospitality of Sweden to "dangerous

anarchists". We are requested to leave. Refused a visa by several countries, I

stowaway on a tramp steamer during a great snow-storm. I manage to get to

Hamburg and lose no time reaching Berlin.

Life in Germany during the inflation. I have suddenly become a millionaire. Six

billion marks for one dollar. I rechristen myself "Dr. Schmidt" and try I to

explain where and why I was born. The adventure of living without

"documents". Discovery in Bavaria and my timely escape.

Paris and Montparnasse. Types and doings. The Latin quarter: artists,

bohemians, and their various "movements". The expatriated of the world. I am

suddenly expelled from France. Mysterious enemies. An involuntary journey to

Belgium and my arrest on the border. I am ordered to leave but remain

"underground". Adventures with diamond speculators and contrabandists. A

perfect stranger risks his wealth and liberty for my sake and refuses my thanks.

My faith in humanity grows 100 per cent. Back in France. Soon again requested

to leave. Expelled again, and again. Must get off the earth, but am still here.

Nowhere to go, but awaiting the next order.

INTERESTING PERSONALITIES: Some men I have met and I have known.

Love and friendships. How the world keeps turning round.

Alexander Berkman

22, Avenue Mon Plaisir

Nice (A.M.)

34

Manuscript

37

One lost page No. 4

41

Evidences (Photographies, Documents)

Some glimpses

We were led into a large, bare room in the upper part of the building. Helter-

skelter the men crowded in, dragging their things with them, badly packed in the

haste and confusion. At four in the morning the order was given to start. In

silence we filed into the prison yard, led by the guards and flanked on each side

by city and Federal detectives. It was dark and cold; the night air chilled me to

the bone. Scattered lights in the distance hinted of the huge city asleep.

42

See page 30

43

Glimpses of the book

Prison Memoirs is one of those great works which somehow get lost and wait

for time to find again. First published in 1912 by Emma Goldman's Mother

Earth press, the book has had an underground reputation, but not many people

know it. Why it may now find an audience is obvious enough. From Newsweek

to I. F. Stone's newsletter, one finds references to Narodniks and Nihilists and

Anarchists in editorials on the arson and bombing and terrorism which afflict

our daily lives. Inevitably, we have the customary American reflex, a plenitude

of panels and commissions.

45

Emma Golden his spouse

At leisure

46

How magazines were in those day

47

An arrest for the sake of freedom

Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman at leisure

48

Assassination attempt

49

Alexander Berkman’s escape tunnel

Nothing to do with above escape tunnel, but the following thoughts are

charming:

The thought of affection, the love of woman, thrills me with ecstasy, and colours

my existence with emotions of strange bliss. But the solitary hours are filled

with recurring dread lest my life forever remain bare of woman's love. Often the

fear possesses me with the intensity of despair, as my mind increasingly dwells

on the opposite sex. Thoughts of woman eclipse the memory of the prison

50

affections, and the darkness of the present is threaded with the silver needle of

love-hopes.

I want to tell you about Anarchism.

I want to tell you what Anarchism is, because I think it is well you should know

it. Also because so little is known about it, and what is known is generally

hearsay and mostly false.

I want to tell you about it, because I believe that Anarchism is the finest and

biggest thing man has ever thought of; the only thing that can give you liberty

and well-being, and bring peace and joy to the world.

I want to tell you about it in such plain and simple language that there will be no

misunderstanding it. Big words and high sounding phrases serve only to

confuse. Straight thinking means plain speaking.

51

But before I tell you what Anarchism is, I want to tell you what it is not.

That is necessary because so much falsehood has been spread about Anarchism.

Even intelligent persons often have entirely wrong notions about it. Some people

talk about Anarchism without knowing a thing about it. And some lie about

Anarchism, because they don't want you to know the truth about it.

Anarchism has many enemies; they won't tell you the truth about it. Why

Anarchism has enemies and who they are, you will see later, in the course of this

story. Just now I can tell you that neither your political boss nor your employer,

neither the capitalist nor the policeman will speak to you honestly about

Anarchism. Most of them know nothing about it, and all of them hate it. Their

newspapers and publications - the capitalistic press- are also against it.

Even most Socialists and Bolsheviks misrepresent Anarchism. True, the

majority of them don't know any better. But those who do know better also often

lie about Anarchism and speak of it as 'disorder and chaos'. You can see for

yourself how dishonest they are in this: the greatest teachers of Socialism - Karl

Marx and Friedrich Engels - had taught that Anarchism would come from

Socialism. They said that we must first have Socialism, but that after Socialism

there will be Anarchism, and that it would be a freer and more beautiful

condition of society to live in than Socialism. Yet the Socialists, who swear by

Marx and Engels, insist on calling Anarchism 'chaos and disorder', which shows

you how ignorant or dishonest they are.

The Bolsheviks do the same, although their greatest teacher, Lenin, had said that

Anarchism would follow Bolshevism, and that then it will be better and freer to

live.

Therefore I must tell you, first of all, what Anarchism is not.

It is not bombs, disorder, or chaos.

It is not robbery and murder

It is not a war of each against all

It is not a return to barbarism or to the wild state of man.

Anarchism is the very opposite of all that

Anarchism means that you should be free; that no one should enslave you, boss

you, rob you, or impose upon you.

52

It means that you should be free to do the things you want to do; and that you

should not be compelled to do what you don't want to do.

It means that you should have a chance to choose the kind of a life you want to

live, and live it without anybody interfering.

It means that the next fellow should have the same freedom as you, that every

one should have the same rights and liberties.

It means that all men are brothers, and that they should live like brothers, in

peace and harmony.

That is to say, that there should be no war, no violence used by one set of men

against another, no monopoly and no poverty, no oppression, no taking

advantage of your fellow-man.

In short, Anarchism means a condition or society where all men and women are

free, and where all enjoy equally the benefits of an ordered and sensible life.

'Can that be?' you ask;'and how?'

'Not before we all become angels,' your friend remarks.

Well, let us talk it over. Maybe I can show you that we can be decent and live as

decent folks even without growing wings.

53

Contents

The Idea is the Thing 2

Het Idee is het Ding 8

Alexander Berkman’s manuscript, “The Idea is the Thing”. 14

The Awakening Starvelings 25

Alexander Berkman’s manuscript, “The Awakening Starvelings” 26

An Enemy of Society – Autobiography of Alexander Berkman 30

Alexander Berkman’s manuscript (one page no 4 lost) 34

Evidences, Photography’s and Documents 41

Contents 53

© April 2014 – Ebook Skull Press Publications, Ghent, Belgium

Non-Commercial