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Quote by Errico Malatesta

“Communism made through the will of a government instead of through the direct and voluntary work of groups of workers does not really appeal to me. If it was possible, it would be the most suffocating tyranny to which human society has ever been subjected.”

Quote by Errico Malatesta

Work

At the Café: Conversations on Anarchism

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Author

Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta

Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarchist philosopher, writer, and activist. Born on December 14, 1853, in Recanati, Italy, he was a prominent figure in the anarchist movement. His work focused on the principles of anarchism, advocating for a society without authority and state. Malatesta was a key figure in the development of anarchist theory and practice, influencing many later anarchists. He passed away on July 22, 1932. more

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“What we want is not a redistribution of overcoats, although it must be said that even in such a case, the shivering folk would see advantage in it. Nor do we want to divide up the wealth of the Rothschilds. What we do want is so to arrange things that every human being born into the world shall be ensured the opportunity, in the first instance of learning some useful occupation, and of becoming skilled in it; and next, that he shall be free to work at his trade without asking leave of master or owner, and without handing over to landlord or capitalist the lion's share of what he produces.”

“When state and government have gone, laws must go. People who speak of 'laws' in a communistic society, think perhaps only of those general rules of sensible and noble conduct which every good man finds it easy to observe. But in that case they use a wrong word. A law is a rule connected with an apparatus to compel obedience. Behind the law stand the court, the sheriff, the police, the hangman, etc., and who wants them? None, we guess.”

“The so-called 'cardinal sins' are never punished with purgatory, always with hell. These include among others 'blasphemy,' perpetrated by word, by writing, or by thought. Consequently, in this direction God permit neither freedom of the press, nor speech, not even of the unspoken thought. This in itself is enough to stamp him from the outset as a successful competitor in churlishness with the basest despots and tyrants of any country or time, but the means and the duration of his punishments augment the baseness of his nature to the utmost. Consequently this God is the most atrocious monster conceivable.”