The Labor enquirer., 1886-08-14
They Are Always Started by
Minorities, Which Soon
Become Majorities.
The History of France Cited as
Evidence of This
Truth.
Why the French Revolution Of 1883
Was a Success-The Villages
All Aroused.
For The ENQUIRER.

"EverYthlng you state Is most Just,
our opponents often say TO us-"Youl
ideal of fAnsrchistic Communism is ex-
cellent and its realization would bring
in reality well-being and peace upon
earth !; but how few desire it AMI how
few understand it, and how few have
the devotion necessary to work for its
achievement! You are small minority
feeble groups scattered here and there,
lost in the midst of an Indifferent mass.
and you have before you an enemy ter.
rible, we'll organized, possessing arms,
capital, instruction. The contest you
have undertaken is beyond your
strength"
Such is the objection which We con-
tinuallY hear on the part of certain OF
our opponents, and often indeed on the
part of our friends. Let US see then
what amount of truth there is in this OBJ.
lection.
That our Anarchist groups are but a
small minority in comparison with the
tens of millions who people France,
Spain, Italy and Germany,-nothing is
more true. All groups resen ing new
idea have always started by being only
a minority. And it is extremely pro ba
Bile that as an organization we shall re.
main a minority up to the very day of
of the Revolution. BIT is that an argu-
ment against us At this moment it Is
the opportunists who are ths majority
ought we perchance, therefore, to be
come opportunsts also? Up to 1890 it
was the royalists, the constitutionalists
who made the majority the republicans
of the age, ought they, Oh that account
to have renounced their republican
ideas and themselves also have become
royalists, when France was marching
with huge strides to the abolition of
ROYALTY
1t little matters that, as number, we
are q minority. that is not the question
What does matter is to know if the
ideas of Anarchist Communism are in
accord with the evolution which is at
this moment taking place in the human
mind, and above all among the peoples
of the Latin race. But upon this subj 'ct
there can be no doubt. The evolution
is not taking place IN the sense of au
thoritahsm it is taking place in the
sense of the most complete liberty of the
individual, of the group ofproducers and
consumers, of the Commune, of the
grouping together, of the free federation.
The evolution is taking place not at all
in the sense of property individualism,
but in the sense of production and con-
sumption in common. In the great cities
the word Communism frightens no one,
when, of course, tits Anarchlstic Com
munism that is spoken of.
In the villages the evolution is pro-
ducing itself in the same sense, and as
regards some parts of France, placed in
special conditions the peasant is already
advancing, in many respects, to the put
ting IN common the instruments of toll.
This is why, every time we explain to
the masses our ideas, every time we
speak to them in language simple, easy
to be understood, supported by practical
examples, off the Revolution as we un-
derstand it, " . are always greeted with
their applause alike 10 the great indus
trial centers and in the villages.
And could it be otherwise? If An
archy and CommuI ism we're the product
Of philosophical speculations, made IN
the gloom Of their cabinets by savants,
assuredlv these two PRINCIPLES would
fnd no echo. But these two ideas are
born from the very bowels Of the people.
They are the ennuLci ton of what the
workingman and the peasant think and
say when, released one day or other
selves up to dreaming of better future.
They are the enunciation of the slow
evolution which is working itself out IN
mems minds in the course of this CEN
tury. They are the popular conception
Of the transformation which must soon
be worked in order that justice, solldar-
lty, fraternity may be introduced into
our cities and our country districts. Born
ofthe people they are greeted with &C
rlsmslion by the people every time they
are set before them in a COMPREHENSIVE
manner.
There in truth is their real force, and
not in the number of active adherents,
grouped and organized, who are sutt1-
GENTLY courageous to run the dangers OF
the strife, to brave the consequences TO
which whoever works for the peop'e's
Revolution exposes himself. That num-
Der Increases daily, and it will ever 20 on
increasing but it will be only upon the
very eve of the upheavsl that it will be-
come majority. instead of minority
which it is to- day.
History is there to tell US that those
Who were the minority on the eve of the
Revolution, became the predominating
force on the day of the Revolution, Il
they represent the true expression ol
the peoples aspirations, and if-another