The Method of Freedom: An Errico Malatesta Reader

by Errico Malatesta, Paul Sharkey (Translator), Davide Turcato (Editor)

For sixty years, Errico Malatesta's involvement with international anarchism helped fuel the movement's radical approach to class and labor, and directly impacted the workers' movement in Italy. A talented newspaper journalist, Malatesta's biting critiques were frequently short and to the point—and written directly to and for the workers. Though his few long-form essays, including "Anarchy" and "Our Program," have been widely available in English translation since the 1950s, the bulk of Malatesta's most revolutionary writing remains unknown to English-speaking audiences.

In The Method of Freedom, editor Davide Turcato presents an expansive collection of Malatesta's work, including new translations of existing works and a wealth of shorter essays translated here for the first time. Offering readers a thorough overview of the evolution of Malatesta's revolutionary thought during his half a century as an anarchist propagandist, The Method of Freedom explores revolutionary violence and workplace democracy, the general strike and the limitations of trade unionism, propaganda by the deed, and the revolution in practice.

Errico Malatesta Errico Malatesta (1853–1932) was an enormously influential Italian anarchist, comrade of Michael Bakunin in the First International, editor of eight newspapers, and author of numerous articles and short works.

Davide Turcato is a computational linguist and an independent historian. He is the author of Making Sense of Anarchism and the editor of Malatesta's collected works, a ten-volume project currently underway in Italy, to be released in English by AK Press.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy, History, Theory, Anarchism, Essays

530 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2013

About the author

Errico Malatesta (December 14, 1853 – July 22, 1932) was an Italian anarchist. 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. He was an enormously popular figure in his time. According to Brian Doherty, writer for Reason magazine, "Malatesta could get tens of thousands, sometimes more than 100,000, fans to show up whenever [he] arrived in town." (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Javier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely text full of 78 pieces written by Malatesta over the course of his life. Very relevant and thoughtful analysis, both theoretically and practically! A pleasure to encounter such a loving, deep mind.

[Micah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We have nothing new to say." So begins Malatesta's "Anarchist Programme" of 1899. Although ideas, and especially tactics, are in Malatesta's hands fluid and mobile, adapting to events, the underlying sentiment - of love, solidarity, and voluntary agreement - is a foundation of steel. Hatred, ressentiment, the illusion of absolute truth, intellectual systems, science-worship, determinism and the denial of passion and will: these lead down authoritarian paths.

It's fantastic to have this collection of complete articles, although I wonder if the selection doesn't give a particular picture? The editor even insists on calling Malatesta a "pragmatist" and "gradualist" - which he may have been in relation to the extremists of his day, but today these terms are misleading. Malatesta didn't think we should immediately stockpile guns always and everywhere, but he did think we should do it as soon as possible. Anarchists will operate as a minority in a revolution that may be anarchistic at best, and their mission is to drive it as far as possible, changing conditions so that "the masses" may eventually become anarchist, and trying to sap the strength of any new government.

At the center is collective expropriation of the "means of life and freedom" (not just "production"), and their placement at the disposal of all. It is what we must do now, not an empty phrase or far-off daydream - to act like an anarchist is to fight for expropriation. "Of course," anarchists today say - but do they really mean it? In the last popular North American movement with anti-systemic potential - Occupy - virtually no one spoke in these terms, despite the small leap from occupation to expropriation. Much more time was spent discussing whether "occupy" was an offensive word to Palestinians or indigenous peoples, or adding it as a tag to anything and everything - "occupy money," "occupy Sandy," "occupy art," etc.

These articles - maybe especially the ones written under fascism - speak to us today, as anarchists in a tiny minority, with few weapons, in a situation where insurrections are sure to break out, at least outside the overdeveloped world, but ones not necessarily leading in a liberatory direction. If one chooses to speak and act as an anarchist, Malatesta's analysis and sense of judgement are a valuable guide.

[Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent anthology which provides a great overview on Malatesta's extensive work. The anthology is laid out in chronological order and covers writings throughout Malatesta's life, allowing you to see the progression of his thought from being heavily influenced by insurrectionary anarchism and Marxist materialism to developing his own flavour of anarchism. The translations are easy to read and the editors provide important historical context in order to better situate the writings. Oftentimes, Malatesta was writing in response to a specific event or piece and the editors provide the necessary historical context in order to understand what he responding to while still not having too much editoralizing and allowing Malatesta's writings to speak for themselves.

This is really a great example of how an anthology should be done and I would recommend it to people who are interested in his work. The works are often critical and self-reflectory on anarchism and, as such, it is not a great introductory text. It is nonetheless not just a historical document and many of his writings still apply to discussions about anarchism and socialism more broadly today and I took many notes during my reading. I would recommend it to anyone interested in leftism.

[Ollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

AK Press has been doing scholars a service these past few years by putting out some pretty stellar anthologies of some of anarchism's greatest writers. First it was Proudhon and the Property is Theft! anthology. Then, there was Kropotkin's Direct Struggle Against Capital. Both edited by Iain McKaye and both informative and thorough. But this anthology on Errico Malatesta takes the cake.

I don't know if it's my experience reading about anarchism, its ideas and history (notice I'm not saying "understanding"), but the writings in The Method of Freedom are consistent, easy to understand, and for a 530 page book, this is a pretty easy read. There are many themes and ideas that Malatesta explores in these writings which range from how to organize (and who to organize with) to what anarchist values should be, to what positions the anarchist have had throughout the years. All are explained very plainly and effectively and very consistently might I add (is this due to the editor picking and choosing, I wonder?). It's also clear that Malatesta was a pretty witty man and it shows in these writings. I don't mind that one bit either.

What I love most about this book is how Malatesta doesn't shy away from putting anarchists (and himself) to task for coming short in their actions and theories, like failing to support strikes, attempting to join governments, and undermining how important it is to teach the multitudes so as to facilitate revolutionary action when the time comes. Also, there's an article here which is almost completely dedicated to raking Kropotkin through the coals and criticizing some of his ideas including his support for the first world war and his lack of realism concerning how much teaching anarchists still have to do. Very gutsy and refreshing in a political environment where anarchists tend to always take the idealistic high road.

It's clear that these anthology books are important. This one also manages to be exciting.

[Linus · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a hard thing to review an anthology of a person's texts. Any person, myself included, finds themselves with this book for a specific reason: to learn from Malatesta and to understand the man a little better. I would not suggest anyone to go buy this as an introduction to Malatesta (At the Café is better for that purpose). For me, having read Malatesta in bits and pieces, this book did much good. I learned a great deal about anarchist history, European history, and anarchist theory. Malatesta had a rare ability of being able to take arguments and dismantle them and propose new ways of thinking very easily. As a frequent writer of op-eds, I find myself in awe of Malatesta who seemed to be able to write these articles with such ease and warmth. A great anthology of a great man.

[blastdamagedays · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're new to anarchist theory, I recommend you read Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta first, then come back to The Method of Freedom once you've become a full-fledged anarcho-nerd and Errico "Chad" Malatesta stan. This is because The Method of Freedom isn't an anarchism 101 book so much as it's an overview of how Malatesta's opinions evolved throughout the years. I'm something of a Malatesta fanboy so I had a lot of fun reading his hot takes on whatever it was that leftists were arguing about at a given time.

There's one article I always go back to and it's The Republic of the Boys and that of the Bearded Men where he tells the story of how he went from being a republican to an anarchist. It's rather adorable:

"By nature affectionate and impassioned, I dreamed of an ideal world in which all would love one another and be happy. Whenever I wearied of daydreams, I succumbed to reality, took a look around me, and saw: here, someone shivering from cold and hunger and meekly seeking alms in the shape of a crust of bread; there, some children crying; and over yonder, some men mouthing curses; and my heart froze in horror.

Later, I was more vigilant and realized that a tremendous injustice—a nonsensical system—was grinding humanity down and condemning it to pain; labor was degraded and almost regarded as dishonorable, the working man dying of hunger so there was food for his idle master’s orgies. As my heart was swollen with rage, I was reminded of the Gracchi and Spartacus and I could feel the spirit of the tribune and the rebel inside me.
...
Oh, how my heart beat in my youthful breast! I imagined myself now as some modern day Brutus, plunging a blade into the breast of a latter-day Caesar; or at the head of a band of rebels; or atop a barricade, scattering the tyrant’s acolytes; or I imagined myself on a rostrum, thundering against the people’s enemies. I measured my height and stroked my lips to see if any whiskers had sprouted; oh, how I yearned to be grown up and to leave high school and commit myself entirely to the republican cause!"

He reminds me of myself in my socdem days.

However, I do have two complaints: first, several articles were included that more or less explain the same ideas. I could do without the redundancy and unnecessary added bulk in a book that's already over 500 pages long. The other thing is it's riddled with typos. I really hope this gets fixed in future editions.

[Samppa Sirnö · Rating 5 out of 5]

Errico Malatesta's short essays about anarchy and anarchism.
Malatesta was called after the I world war, when there was a revolutionary situation in Italy, "the Lenin of Italy".
He refused to accept the siren call of authoritarian socialism and finally the fascists won and the anarchist factory occupation movement lost.
This book gives you the background to understand this history and the ideas of anarchism in general.

[Fetch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential