Tradition
Illegalism
Overview
Illegalism is a tendency within anarchism that emerged in certain parts of Europe, especially Italy and France, in the last decades of the 19th century. Closely linked to and dependent on individualist anarchism, it encompasses anarchists who aim to carry out their struggle through criminal acts using the idea of individual reclamation. This concept is the idea that since capitalists would steal from the people, it would be legitimate to steal back from capitalists. Illegalists are generally characterized by their strong commitment to this principle of individual reclamation.
Historically, illegalism appeared in the 1870s and 1880s following the actions of, among others, Clément Duval, Vittorio Pini, the Intransigeants of London and Paris group, and other organizations. Notable illegalists include Ravachol, who launched the anarchist attacks of 1892-1894, and Marius Jacob with his Travailleurs de la Nuit ('Workers of the Night') group, who inspired Arsène Lupin and industrialized burglary. The Bonnot Gang, comprising members like Jules Bonnot and Rirette Maîtrejean, was a particularly influential illegalist organization in the emergence of modern banditry. Sociologically, illegalists were generally of peasant or working-class origin, and their organizations often included a significant number of women.
While some anarchists viewed illegalism as a legitimate movement, others, such as Saverio Merlino and Jean Grave, severely criticized illegalists. They saw these practices as selfish and useless, arguing that local and individual revolutions could not lead to a global one. They presented illegalism as a deviation from an orthodox anarchist dogma. These perspectives were shared by some 20th-century historiography of the anarchist movement, for example by Jean Maitron, before being re-examined and critiqued by more recent historians like Gaetano Manfredonia.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
In bourgeois society, living labour is but a means to increase accumulated labour. In Communist society, accumulated labour is but a means to widen, to enrich, to promote the existence of the labourer. In bourgeois society, therefore, the past dominates the present; in Communist society, the present dominates the past. In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is…
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
States what Illegalism is.
Much of what is called the "individualism" of the early nineteenth century has in truth little to do with the nature of individuals. It goes back to a metaphysics which held that harmony between man and nature can be taken for granted, if once certain artificial restrictions upon man are removed. Hence it neglected the necessity of studying and regulating industrial conditions so that a nominal freedom can be made…
John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct
States what Illegalism is.
We find them among the ancient Greeks during the time of the Trojan war. Compositions for murder are mentioned in Nestor's speech to Achilles in the ninth Iliad and are called APOINAI. The Irish, who never had any connexions with the German nations, adopted the same practice till very lately; and the price of a man's head was called among them his ERIC; as we learn from Sir John Davis.
David Hume, The History of England, Volume I
States what Illegalism is.
Philosophers who discussed Illegalism
Related ideas
Place in the tradition
Part of Anarchism.