A-Infos (en) Mexico, FAM, Regeneracion #19 - Kropotkin and the Manifesto of the 16 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In July 1914, the First World War broke out in Europe. It was the first 
global war, and its magnitude grew with time. The ignorant soldiers of 
the belligerent countries enthusiastically went to the battlefronts, 
thinking it was an exciting adventure, but they changed their minds when 
they began to see the pieces of human bodies everywhere. ---- Within the 
anarchist movement, as is logical to expect, the rejection of the war 
was initially unanimous. Of course, those who bore the brunt of the 
crimes were, for the most part, the population, not the capitalists and 
politicians who harangued in favor of obtaining more blood. Germany took 
its first colonialist steps by attacking the countries of the South to 
form a German empire.
In February 1916, renowned anarchists, including Rudolf Rocker and Emma 
Goldman, published a Manifesto denouncing war crimes. Surprisingly, the 
following month, a new Manifesto appeared, this time signed by Kropotkin 
and Jean Grave, supporting the Allied Powers to defeat Germany not 
through a peaceful agreement, but by force of arms. There's no reason to 
doubt the convictions of both anarchists. It seems to me that the 
Manifesto was a product of the context in which things were unfolding.
Once the Manifesto was signed by 15 people (the name of the city where 
it was signed was mistakenly taken as one more person; but in reality, 
only 15 people initially signed it), it was soon endorsed by almost 100 
anarchists around the world. Among the signatories were other prominent 
anarchists such as Ricardo Mella and his most advanced disciple, 
Eleuterio Quintanilla. For the former, signing the Manifesto meant 
witnessing a series of personal attacks for granting his signature, to 
the point that he was gradually distanced from anarchism, saddened by 
the way he was treated. And even if they were right to demand the 
signing of the Manifesto, passions were aroused to a degree that did not 
please Mella at all.
For Kropotkin, things were no less serious: While Rudolf Rocker 
expressed his disagreement in a firm but friendly manner, and Malatesta 
tried to do so, albeit in harsher terms, others called Kropotkin a 
traitor, an Allied supporter, who had forgotten his anarchist 
principles. The truth is that Kropotkin mistakenly thought that perhaps 
the defeat of Germany by force of arms could open the possibility of 
social change. He did see, however, that Germany represented a grave 
danger to humanity in its colonizing ambitions. How wrong was Kropotkin, 
and how justified were the demands made of him?
In 1918, a revolution broke out in Germany. The socialists and 
communists failed miserably because they failed to channel the movement 
along revolutionary paths and were content to seek a political 
revolution. Other small groups attempted to lead the revolution toward 
an armed and revolutionary socialist path, but were quickly defeated. 
There was, therefore, a path that could lead to social change, although 
it is very difficult to believe that they could lead to anarchism.
In March 1918, the Bolsheviks signed the infamous Treaty of 
Brest-Litovsk. The Russian people indeed wanted to end Russia's 
participation in the war, but not in exchange for submitting, as the 
Bolsheviks had done, to the Germans. Trotsky capitulated on everything 
because, according to the official history of Bolshevism, the Red Army 
was not ready to confront the Germans... it was ready a month later to 
murder 40 anarchists in the assault on the House of Anarchy.
Russia's withdrawal from the war left Germany with a free flank to 
attack Belgium and continue its expansion southward. In November of that 
same year, 1918, the Allies defeated Germany, which had to face the 
consequences of its military actions. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles 
imposed not only military restrictions and the loss of territory Germany 
had conquered. It also imposed serious economic sanctions that would 
bring famine to Germany in the coming years.
A young soldier, quiet and shy, witnessed the effects of the Treaty of 
Versailles and harbored a serious resentment toward those he held 
responsible for the famine Germany was experiencing due to the economic 
sanctions, even though he was mistaken because the economic sanctions 
were the result of Germany's colonialist aspirations in World War I. Be 
that as it may, resentment lingered in the minds of this young soldier 
named Adolf Hitler.
--------------------------------------------
1. On this subject, see my article "Centennial of the Treaty of 
Brest-Litovsk," available online, and in my book "Articles from the 
Anarchist Press," page 214. Anarcho-Syndicalist Editorial Aurora Negra, 
Albacete, Spain, 2022.

Years later, Hitler would gradually and through unprecedented violence 
rise up against the German labor movement, a powerful movement that was 
taking over Germany. Hitler would not forget the hunger that Germany had 
suffered since 1919, and although at first he made socialist and 
anti-capitalist declarations, this discourse was soon forgotten when 
German capitalists financed the Nazis to continue undermining the labor 
movement and erase the danger of a new revolution like that of 1918.
Once established in power, Hitler would launch a fight against rotten 
democracies, never forgetting to try to avenge Germany for the 
humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles, which they had forced him to 
sign. In 1939, World War II broke out, largely due to Hitler, and, as if 
wishing to repeat the German actions of 1918, he launched an invasion of 
countries in the east, south, and later also in the west. The Nazis 
signed a Non-Aggression Treaty with the Russian Bolsheviks, by which 
both sides pledged not to attack each other and to divide Poland. They 
did so hand in hand in September 1939. Thus, Stalin didn't believe the 
information he'd received when Hitler invaded Russia was real. They had 
signed a Pact; how could he betray it?
Once again, Germany represented a danger to humanity, as in Kropotkin's 
time. Here, we must ask ourselves: How wrong was Kropotkin, and how far 
did he see the danger that Germany's colonialist aspirations represented 
for the world 20 years in advance? Clearly, his commitment to one side 
of the conflict (that of the Allies) was a mistake, but seeing Germany 
as a danger to humanity was no mistake in light of the events of World 
War II. Kropotkin was harshly criticized not only by socialists but also 
by his fellow anarchists. In 1939, as the Nazis were preparing for war, 
Spain was being crushed by fascist Francisco Franco. Countless anarchist 
fighters were imprisoned in concentration camps in Spain, and those who 
were able to escape to France were also imprisoned in French 
concentration camps, while thousands more were taken to concentration 
camps in Nazi-ruled Germany.
In 1945, the Allied Forces once again defeated Germany, with the amusing 
image of the Bolsheviks, who had previously signed a Non-Aggression Pact 
with the Nazis, now used as an image of anti-fascism. The Normandy 
landings marked the end of the German occupation of France, where 
thousands upon thousands of anarchists had enlisted in the resistance 
forces, often coordinated with the Allies. The moment was one of supreme 
danger for humanity, as Germany once again attempted to impose itself 
through terror and death. Anarchists shed their blood generously to 
fight the Nazis, and the Ninth Company, composed mostly of anarchists 
from the former Durruti Column, was the first to enter Paris to liberate 
it from Nazi occupation in August 1944. Why did no one call on 
anarchists to fight alongside the Allied forces to fight the Nazis? The 
answer is clear: at the time Germany was committing its atrocities, the 
movement was a logical one, and no one said anything, contrary to the 
attacks Kropotkin received when he signed the Manifesto of the 16. Both 
Kropotkin and, at the time, the anarchists exiled in France were pushed 
to positions distant from their ideas due to the extremely serious 
events taking place.
Anarchism is anti-militarist par excellence, and when it has been pushed 
toward war, it has been because it recognized a serious danger to 
humanity (in the case of Kropotkin) or because it was driven by the 
circumstances of the moment, as with the Spanish anarchists. All wars 
are disastrous, and as anarchists we don't support any side, but at a 
time when the blood of working people was spilling in the streets, 
Kropotkin warned of the danger in 1916, and by 1940, anarchists knew 
their proper place in history. It's time to forgive Kropotkin for a 
position that, while not the most correct, had some foresight.

Erick Benítez Martínez. July 2025.

https://www.federacionanarquistademexico.org/
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