A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #5-25: Propaganda by the fact. The Italian experience between 1870 and 1874. (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The expression "propaganda by the fact" is generally shrouded in a 
negative aura. I believe instead that it is the first manifestation of 
that coherence between means and ends that has characterized the 
anarchist movement since its appearance; I also believe that the tactic 
put into practice by the organizing anarchist communist tendency is the 
most consequent and complete continuation of this strategy. ---- I 
prefer the expression "propaganda by the fact" to the more common 
"propaganda of the fact" because the latter can be confused with the 
apology of acts that, fully justified in the historical and social 
context in which they took place, lose meaning if considered in an 
absolute sense as an example always and in any case of anarchist action. 
Contrary to propagandizing the fact, the strategy of propaganda by the 
fact aims to make the aspirations of the anarchist movement known by 
carrying out acts in which the strategy of struggle and the model of 
social organization that they advocate are proposed in an exemplary 
manner. This is the precise sense, in my opinion, with which the term 
was proposed within the Anti-Authoritarian International and adopted by 
its Italian Federation. Implicit in this meaning is the understanding of 
the concept that the first fact through which the anarchist movement 
must propagate its ideal was daily political activity, a concept that 
will be developed towards the end of the 19th century.

References to this strategy can already be found in Michel Bakunin. In 
his "Letters to a Frenchman on the Current Crisis" of 1870, he stated 
that the International must spread its principles not with words, but 
with deeds, because this is the most popular, most powerful and most 
irresistible form of propaganda. Another testimony comes from the 
Russian populist Vladimir Karpovich Debagory-Mokrievich, who visited 
Bakunin in Locarno at the beginning of 1874 and was informed that the 
Italian anarchists were planning an armed insurrection. 
Debagory-Mokrievich later recalled that Bakunin had not expected a 
large-scale revolution, explaining that he had conceived of the 
insurrection in terms of the tactic later known as "propaganda by deed."

The insurrection of 1874, which occurred before the term became popular, 
is an example of this strategy, and of the differing positions that 
emerged in the anarchist movement regarding its practical application.

In 1873 and 1874, Italy experienced its worst economic crisis since 
unification. The effects of the beginning of the transition from an 
agricultural/artisanal to an industrial economy were beginning to be 
felt. Draconian fiscal policies implemented by Finance Minister Sella in 
the late 1860s had failed to balance the budget, and the government had 
issued huge amounts of paper money, leading to wild speculation and 
uncontrolled inflation.: Poor harvests in two consecutive years caused 
prices to rise, so much so that by mid-1873 workers in some cities were 
forced to spend up to a third of their daily wages to buy a kilogram of 
bread. Popular discontent grew steadily in the face of rising prices and 
unemployment. Strikes for wage increases and demonstrations against the 
high cost of living multiplied in Florence, Livorno, Pisa, Rome, the 
Neapolitan provinces and central Lazio throughout 1873, and then spread 
north the following spring to Forlì, Imola, Mantua, Parma, Cremona and 
Padua, where troops repressed the rioters. The riots reached their peak 
in June and July 1874, when empty granaries awaited the new harvest and 
the last supplies of wheat and other grains became scarce and more 
expensive. In some twenty cities and towns in Tuscany, Emilia, and 
Romagna, large crowds of demonstrators-often women and 
children-protested against food prices, attacked bakers and grain 
dealers, looted bread shops, and attacked trains loaded with grain. 
Despite the deployment of all available troops and carabinieri, popular 
unrest seemed unstoppable.

Two factors drove the Italian Federation to immediate action in 1874: in 
addition to revolutionary expectations, the fear of losing the support 
of the base, and the need to compete with the Mazzinians and Garibaldians.

Having acquired most of its members from the democrats, the 
International could easily have lost them again if the anarchists had 
not proven themselves worthy successors to the revolutionary traditions 
of the Risorgimento, especially after the inspiring examples of the 
Paris Commune and the Spanish rebellion of 1873.
Andrea Costa, then one of the protagonists of the insurrection and later 
the first socialist deputy, puts the issue even more into focus: the 
popular agitations of 1873 and 1874 convince the anarchists that "the 
opportunity had come if not to provoke the social revolution in Italy, 
at least to give a practical example that would demonstrate to the 
people what we wanted and to propagate our ideas with evidence of facts".

The failure of 1874 should have pushed the Italian Federation to rethink 
its faith in the revolutionary instincts of the masses and the exclusive 
use of insurrectional tactics. Consequently, it should have been open to 
the recommendation to give greater emphasis to trade unionism and 
economic struggle, especially since many anarchists, including Bakunin, 
had long recognized the revolutionary potential of trade unionism. We 
will see instead how the response of the Italian Federation was to 
accentuate intransigence.

Tiziano Antonelli

https://umanitanova.org/propaganda-col-fatto-lesperienza-italiana-fra-il-1870-e-il-1874/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en