A-Infos (en) France, SOCIALISME LIBERTAIRE: CARLO CAFIERO: ACTION (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Carlo Cafiero (1846-1892) - "Let the learned gentlemen not shrug their 
shoulders so much, as if they had to support the whole world: they did 
not invent the revolutionary idea. It was the oppressed who, through 
their often unconscious attempts to shake off the yoke of the 
oppressors, drew the attention of scholars to social morality; and it 
was only later that a few rare thinkers were willing to find it 
insufficient, and later still, others consented to recognize it as 
completely false.

Yes, it was the blood shed by the people that finally forced ideas into 
their heads. Ideas flow from facts, and not the other way around," Carlo 
Pisacane said in his political testament, and he spoke the truth. It is 
the people who bring about progress, as well as revolution: both the 
restorative and the destructive aspects. It is they who are sacrificed 
daily to maintain universal production, and it is they again who fuel 
with their blood the torch illuminating human destinies.

And when a thinker, having thoroughly studied the book of human 
suffering, articulates the formula of a popular aspiration, 
conservatives and reactionaries of every kind throughout the world begin 
to cry out at the top of their lungs: "Scandal!"

Yes, scandal indeed: we need scandal; for it is through scandal that the 
revolutionary idea has made its way. What a scandal Proudhon stirred up 
when he exclaimed: "Property is theft!" But today there is not a person 
of sound judgment and compassion who does not think that the capitalist 
is the worst scoundrel among thieves. More than that-the true thief. 
Armed with the most terrible instrument of torture, hunger, he torments 
his victim, not for a moment, but for his entire life: he tortures not 
only his victim, but also the wife and children of the man he holds in 
his grasp. The thief risks his freedom and often his life, but he, the 
capitalist, or the thief par excellence, risks nothing, and when he 
steals, he seizes not only a part, but all of the worker's property.

But it is not enough to find the theoretical formula. Since the fact 
gave rise to the revolutionary idea, it is still the fact that must 
intervene to ensure its generalization.

At the first congresses of the International, of the French proletariat, 
there were only a few workers who accepted the idea of collective 
ownership. It took the full light cast upon the world by the fires of 
the Commune to reinvigorate and spread the revolutionary idea and to 
bring us to the Congress of Le Havre, which, through the voices of 
forty-eight representatives of French workers, recognized libertarian 
communism as its goal. And yet, we still remember how certain 
authoritarian ideologues, full of gravity and wisdom, repeated, only a 
few years ago, that the Commune had halted the socialist movement, 
giving rise to the most disastrous of reactions. Events have 
demonstrated the profound insight of these "scientific socialists" (most 
of whom possess no scientific knowledge whatsoever) who sought to 
implant the infamous "politics of results" among socialists.

Therefore, what we need is action, action, and always more action. By 
taking action, we work simultaneously for theory and for practice, for 
it is action that generates ideas and it is action that also spreads 
them throughout the world.

But what action shall we take?

Should we go, or send our people, to the Parliaments? Or to the City 
Councils?

No, a thousand times no! We have nothing to do with the machinations of 
the bourgeoisie. We must not get involved in the games of our oppressors 
if we do not wish to participate in their oppression. "Going to 
parliament is to negotiate; negotiating is to make a pact," said a 
former German revolutionary who, since then, has done a great deal of 
negotiating himself.

Our action must be one of permanent revolt, through words, writing, the 
dagger, the rifle, dynamite, and even, sometimes, through the ballot 
box, when it comes to voting for the ineligible Blanqui or Trinquet. We 
are consistent and we use any weapon when it comes to striking as 
rebels. Anything that isn't legal is fair game for us.

"But when should we launch our action, our attack?" friends sometimes 
ask. "Shouldn't we wait until our forces are organized? To attack before 
we're ready is to risk being defeated."

"Dear friends, if we always wait until we are strong to attack, we will 
never attack, and we will be like that good man who swore never to throw 
himself into the sea again before learning to swim. It is precisely 
revolutionary action that develops our strength, just as gymnastics 
develops the strength of our muscles. Certainly, at first, our blows 
will not be lethal; perhaps we will even make the serious and wise 
socialists laugh, but we can always reply to them: 'You laugh at us 
because you are just as foolish as those who laugh at a child who falls 
while taking its first steps. You like to call us children? Well, yes, 
we are, since the development of our strength is still in its infancy.'" 
But by trying to march, we prove by that very act that we are striving 
to become men, that is, a complete, healthy, and robust organism, 
capable of making a revolution, and not mere scribblers, prematurely 
aged, eternally rehashing a science that is never digested and forever 
preparing, in infinite time and space, a revolution that is lost in the 
clouds.

? How to begin the action?

Simply seek the opportunity: it will not be long in coming. Wherever 
there is a whiff of revolt and gunpowder, we must be there. Let us not 
wait, before taking part in a movement, for it to appear with the label 
of official socialism. Every popular movement already contains within 
itself the seeds of revolutionary socialism; we must therefore take part 
in it to give it further development. A clear and precise ideal of the 
revolution is formulated by only a tiny minority, and if we wait, before 
participating in the struggle, for it to present itself exactly as we 
have conceived it in our hearts-we will wait forever. Let us not imitate 
the doctrinaires who demand the formula above all else: the people carry 
the living revolution within them, and we must fight and die with them.

And when the proponents of legal or parliamentary action come to 
reproach us for not mingling with the people when they go to vote, we 
will answer them:-Certainly, we refuse to mingle with the people when 
they are on their knees before their god, before their king, or before 
their master; but we will always be with them when they stand against 
their powerful enemies. For us, abstaining from politics is not 
abstaining from revolution: our refusal to participate in any 
parliamentary, legal, or reactionary action is devotion to the violent 
and anarchist revolution, to the true revolution of the rabble and the 
barefoot.

Carlo Cafiero, The Rebel, December 25, 1880

https://www.socialisme-libertaire.fr/2025/12/carlo-cafiero-l-action.html
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