WHAT ANARCHISTS BELIEVE.

Northland Age, Volume VIII, Issue 11, 3 November 1911, Page 8

WHAT ANARCHISTS BELIEVE.

HOW THEY WOULD REVOLUTIONISE THE WORLD. What are they striving for ? What do they hope to gain by committing wholesale crimes ? These questions have probably occurred to the minds of many readers. There are many aspects of Anarchism which have been voluminously dealt with by a number of writers ; but there is one idea common to all Anarchists, namely, that government of man by man constitutes oppression, is an interference with freedom. Anarchists desire liberty for all men. They object to any regular government, and they object to any man possessing more land or capital than another. The latter should, they say, be the common property of society, at the disposal of everyone. The following resolutions, drawn up at an Anarchist meeting some time ago, at which were present delegates from Anarchist societies in all parts of the world, explain the extraordinary aims and objects of Anarchists :

Destruction of the existing class rule by any means. Establishment of a free society, based upon co-operative organisation of production. Free exchange of equivalent products by and between the productive organisations, without commerce and profitmongery. Equal rights for all, without distinction of sex or race.

Regulation of all public affairs by free contracts between the autonomous (independent) communes and associations, resting on a federalists basis. FATHER OF ANARCHISM. It is in order to bring about this state of society that Anarchists form their societies and their clubs and publish newspapers all over the worldj persevering in their propaganda work in spite of the efforts of Governments to suppress them. It is an error, however, to suppose that all Anarchists are of that extreme type who seek to attain their aims by spreading terrorism by assassination. There are moderates as well as extremists, who, in a quiet unostentatious way, spread the teachings of Proudhon, the famous French Socialist and acknowledged father of Anarchism, who died in 1865. There are about fifty genuine Anarchist journals in existence at the present time, but not more than a dozen of these openly preach a doctrine of violence, the majority contenting themselves with denunciations of government and bureaucracy.

AUDACIOUS AND FEARLESS. Concerning Anarchist newspapers, it might be mentioned that London has for the last few years been the headquarters of several Anarchist publications, which are printed for circulation in many other countries besides England. In countries like Spain and Portugal the fearlessness and audacity of Anarchists are strikingly illustrated by the fact that on the anniversary of the murder of King Carlos and his son busts of the murderers were placed on the graves of the two assassins, the celebrations being organised by a leading Anarchist newspaper. In Portugal the Anarchists openly flout the authorities, and it was the campaign of their newspapers which had a great deal to do with the revolution in Portugal which dethroned King Manuel. Money is not lacking amongst Anarchists, but there axe times when funds run short and they are prevented from carrying on their work. And if they cannot obtain money by fair means they resort to foul, as in the case of the Houndsditch affair.