rivista anarchica
anno 41 n. 364
estate 2011


An important publishing initiative for a comprehensive and thorough knowledge of the figure of the anarchist Errico Malatesta.

In June he released the first volume COMPLETE WORKS

The Complete Works of Errico Malatesta
by Davide Turcato

Malatesta was, without doubt, the most important exponent of Italian anarchist movement. The protagonist of the story movement from the period up to the International Fascism, and their contribution to the theoretical and political debate, and the concrete organizer and agitator, was an inescapable reference point for generations of activists and the different currents of anarchism. A person of humanity, humility and personal integrity, his experience of exile has also contributed, in many countries where it is found to live, work and political activities and union, to make him the hub of a rich network of international relations.

 

Malatesta did not leave his theoretical vision of anarchism, as well as did not want to write his memoirs. The evolution of his thought and the meaning of his biographical path must therefore be reconstructed in the first place, through the great bulk of his writings for newspapers and propaganda pamphlets, interventions at conferences and meetings, the correspondence. Except for a few collections of papers and periodical pamphlets reprinting the most famous and popular, most of the texts of Malatesta are still poorly understood.
Two publishers libertarian, La Fiaccola and Zero in condotta, promote now publishing the complete works of Errico Malatesta.
This, we believe, is a project of great importance both for the meaning in itself and as an important opportunity for cooperation between publishing reality. A project that involves, at the same time, a major challenge in terms of economic and energy for which we ask for concrete support of all interested partners and companions.

In March 1897 Errico Malatesta arrives in Italy from exile in London to direct the Ancona weekly L’Agitazione. It begins a period of original drawing of ideas. In contrast to the wishful thinking insurgency isolation in which the anarchists had gradually fallen, Malatesta advocates a "long and patient work preparation and organization of the people "with whom anarchist socialism grow in the light of the sun as an organized movement that draws its strength from the workers' movement. From the columns of agitation, recognized organ of the current socialist anarchist in Italy, Malatesta stresses the importance of strength alloys; urges anarchists to be at the forefront in the struggles of workers, spreading the new tactics of direct action that have already been affirmed working in England and France, says the legal battle against the house arrest, claims the right of association of anti-parliamentary anarchist and reaffirms as a fundamental pillar of anarchism. The contribution of Malatesta agitation ended with his arrest in January 1898, after the bread riots broke in Ancona. The attitude of Malatesta in front of the judges is documented here with his interrogators and his unusual self-defense at the trial in April. Luigi Fabbri, companion, friend and biographer of Malatesta, define the magazine L’Agitazione as "the most important, historically and theoretically, including those drawn up by Malatesta."

Work Plan

Malatesta's works will be released every one or two volumes per year beginning in June 2011. The work plan provides a total of ten volumes that will collect, in chronological order, the articles published on Malatesta's Italian and foreign periodicals, all the propaganda pamphlets, correspondence and output indexes. The care of the works is entrusted to Davide Turcato, a scholar of the thought of Malatesta, to whom we owe the idea of completing the project that Luigi Fabbri began in the thirties, and the work of collection of texts.

1. "Who is poor is a slave": The period internationalist exile in South America, 1871-1888
2. "Let's go among the people": The Association of London and the years 1889-1897
3. "A long and patient work ...": The anarchist agitation Socialism, 1897-1898
4. "Towards Anarchism" Malatesta in America, 1899-1900
5. "Armed strike": The long exile of London 1900-1913
6. "It is revolution possible?": Volontà, la Settimana Rossa - the Red Week - and War, 1914-1918
7. "Proletarian United Front": The two-year red, Umanita' Nova and Fascism, 1919-1923
8. "Anarchism and viable filmmaker" Pensiero e Volontà, and later writings, 1924-1932
9. "What do anarchists": Brochures, programs, posters and other miscellaneous publications
10. "Your and anarchy ...": The Correspondence of Malatesta


The ten-volume edition of the Works will not follow the chronological order

• Each volume will be independent from the others and will include an introductory essay for the period under review, from time to time assigned to a different scholar.
• The output volume is not expected to strictly chronological order, but will follow the progress of the work.
• The volumes will be available in hardcover format. Discounts for groups and associations will be provided when ordering a certain amount of copies.

In June came the first volume of the complete works dedicated to the collection of writings published on l'Agitazione of Ancona in the crucial period of 1897-1898.

WORK LONG AND PATIENT ...
The social anarchy of the Agitazione (1897-1898)

introductory essay by Roberto Giulianelli pp. 392 € 25.00

Errico Malatesta was born in Santa Maria Capua Vetere December 4, 1853. Internationalist anarchist since 1871, he attended the Congress of St.Imier of 1872, birth of the anarchist movement. It is the protagonist of the moments of intense social struggle of the next half century in Italy: the uprising of 1877, the Matese, the bread riots of 1898, the Red Week of 1913 the red years of 1919-20. He lives most of his adult life abroad in exile and the employee handbook, in countries of emigration of Italian anarchist and presence: France, Belgium, Switzerland and Egypt (1878-82), Argentina (1885-9), United States (1899-1900), England (1889-97, 1900-13, 1914-19) . Beloved by his comrades, respected and feared by opponents from enemies contributes to the anarchist movement with action and thought. Propaganda leaflets as Fra Contadini, L’Anarchia e Al Caffè had countless reissues and translations. However, his thought is particularly committed to the myriad of articles scattered in the anarchist press.
Journals written by him, as L’Associazione (1889–90), L’Agitazione (1897–98), Volontà (1913–14), Umanità Nova (1920–22) and Pensiero e Volontà (1924–26), are among the most significant in the history of anarchist thought. Malatesta died in Rome on July 22, 1932.

We invite groups and individuals to refer requests for the addresses of the two publishing houses:
Associazione culturale “Zero in Condotta”: Casella Postale 17127 – MI 67, 20128 Milano.
Cell. +39 377 1455118 – zic@zeroincondotta.orgwww.zeroincondotta.org

Edizioni La Fiaccola Associazione Culturale Sicilia Punto L: Vico L. Imposa 4, 97100 Ragusa.
Tel. +39 0931 894033 – info@sicilialibertaria.itwww.sicilialibertaria.it.

translation Enrico Massetti