Errico Malatesta Archive
Written: 1922
Source: Published online by LibCom.org
Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff
Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021
PIPPO [War cripple]: I've had enough! Please allow me to tell you that I am amazed, I would almost say indignant that, even though you possess the most diverse opinions, you seem to agree in ignoring the essential question, that of the fatherland, that of securing the greatness and the glory of our Italy.
Prospero, Cesare, Vincenzo, and everyone present, other than Giorgio and Luigi (a young socialist), uproariously protest their love for Italy and Ambrogio says on everyone's behalf: In these discussions we have not talked of Italy, as we have not talked of our mothers. It wasn't necessary to talk about what was already understood, of what is superior to any opinion, to any discussion. Please Pippo do not doubt our patriotism, not even that of Giorgio.
GIORGIO: But, no; my patriotism can certainly be doubted, because I am not a patriot.
PIPPO: I already guessed that: you are one of those that shouts down with Italy and would like to see our country humiliated, defeated, dominated by foreigners.
GIORGIO: But not at all. These are the usual slanders with which our opponents try to deceive the people in order to prejudice them against us. I don't rule out there being people who in good faith believe this humbug, but this is the result of ignorance and a lack of understanding.
We don't want of domination of any kind and therefore we could not want Italy to be dominated by other countries, just like we don't want Italy to dominate others.
We consider the whole world as our homeland, all humanity as our brothers and sisters; therefore, for us, it would simply be absurd to wish to damage and humiliate the country in which we live; in which we have our dear ones, whose language we speak best, the country that gives us the most and to which we give the most in terms of the exchange of work, ideas and affection.
AMBROGIO: But this country is the fatherland, that you continually curse.
GIORGIO: We don't curse our fatherland, or anybody else's country. We curse patriotism, that which you call patriotism, which is national arrogance, that is the preaching of hatred towards other countries, a pretext for pilling people against people in deadly wars, in order to serve sinister capitalist interests and the immoderate ambitions of sovereigns and petty politicians.
VINCENZO: Easy, easy.
You are right if you talk of the patriotism of a great many capitalists and a great many monarchists for whom the love of the country is really a pretext: and, like yourself, I despise and loathe those who don't risk anything for the country and in the name of the fatherland enrich themselves on the sweat and the blood of workers and honest folk from all classes. But there are people who are really patriots, who have sacrificed and are ready to sacrifice everything, their possessions, liberty and their life for their country.
You know that republicans have always been fired by the highest patriotism, and that have always met their responsibilities squarely.
GIORGIO: I always admire those who sacrifice themselves for their ideas, but this does not stop me seeing that the ideals of the republicans and the sincere patriots, who are certainly found in all parties, have at this point become out-of-date and only serve to give to governments and capitalists a way of masking their real aims with ideals and swaying the unconscious masses and the enthusiastic youth.
VINCENZO: What do you mean, out-of-date?! The love of one's country is a natural sentiment of the human heart and will never become out-of-date.
GlORGIO: That which you call love of one's country is the attachment to that country to which you have strongest moral ties and that provides the greatest certainty of material well being; and it is certainly natural and will always remain so, at least until civilization has progressed to the point where every person will de facto find their country in any part of the world. But this has nothing in common with the myth of the "fatherland" which makes you consider other people as inferior, which makes you desire the domination of your country over others, which prevents you from appreciating and using the work of so-called foreigners, and which makes you consider workers as having more in common with their bosses and the police of their country than with workers from other countries, with whom they share the same interests and aspirations.
After all, our international, cosmopolitan feelings are still being developed, as a continuation of the progress already made. You may feel more attached to your native village or to your region for a thousand sentimental and material reasons, but it does not mean that you are parochial or tied to your region: you pride yourself on being Italian and, if the necessity arises, you would place the general interests of Italy above regional or local interests. If you believe that broadening the notion of one's country from commune to nation has been on advance, why stop there and not embrace the entire world in a general love for the human kind and in a fraternal cooperation among all people?
Today the relations between countries, the exchanges of raw materials and of agricultural and industrial products are already such that a country which wished to isolate itself from others, or worse, place itself in conflict with others, would condemn itself to an attenuated existence and complete and utter failure. Already there is an abundance of men who because of their relationships, because of their kind of studies and work, because of their economic position, consider themselves and truly are citizens of the world.
Moreover, can't you see that everything that is great and beautiful in the world is of a global and supranational character. Science is international, so too is art, so too is religion which, in spite of its lies, is a great demonstration of humanity's spiritual activity. As Signor Ambrogio would say, rights and morals are universal, because everyone tries to extend their own conceptions to every human being. Any new truth discovered in whatever part of the world, any new invention, any ingenious product of the human brain is useful, or ought to be useful to the whole of humanity.
To return to isolation, to rivalry and hatred between peoples, to persist in a narrow-minded and misanthropic patriotism, would mean placing oneself outside the great currents of progress which press humanity toward a future of peace and fraternity, it would be to place oneself outside and against civilization.
CESARE: You always speak of peace and fraternity; but let me ask you a practical question. If, for instance, the Germans or the French should come to Milan, Rome or Naples to destroy our artistic monuments, and to kill or oppress our fellow-countrymen, what would you do? Would you be unmoved?
GIORGIO: Whatever are you saying? I would certainly be extremely distressed and would do whatever I could to prevent it. But, note this well, I would be equally distressed and, being able, would do everything to prevent Italians going to destroy, oppress and kill in Paris, Vienna, Berlin... or in libya.#
CESARE: Really equally distressed?
GIORGIO: Perhaps not in practice. I would feel worse for the wrong-doings done in Italy because it's in Italy I have more friends, I know Italy better, and so my feelings would be deeper and more immediate. But this does not mean that the wrongdoings committed in Berlin would be less wrong than those committed in Milan.
It is as if they were to kill a brother, a friend. I would certainly suffer more than I would had they killed someone I did not know: but this does not mean that the killing of someone unknown to me is less criminal than the killing of a friend.
PIPPO: All right. But what did you do to stop a possible invasion of Milan by the Germans?
GIORGIO: I didn't do anything. Actually my friends and I did all we could to keep out of the fray; because we were not able to do what would have been useful and necessary.
PIPPO: What do you mean?
GIORGIO: It's obvious. We found ourselves in a position of having to defend the interests of our bosses, our oppressors, and having to do so by killing some of our brothers, the workers of other countries driven to the slaughterhouse, just as we were, by their bosses and oppressors. And we refused to be used as an instrument of those who are our real enemy, that is our bosses.
If, firstly, we had been able to free ourselves from our internal enemies, then we would have been able to defend our country and not the country of the bosses. We could have offered a fraternal hand to the foreign workers sent against us, and if they had not understood and had wished to continue to serve their masters by opposing us, we would have defended ourselves.
AMBROGIO: You are only concerned with the interests of the workers, with the interests of your class, without understanding that the nation is above class interests. There are some sentiments, some traditions, some interests that unite all the people of the same nation, despite differences in their conditions and all the antagonisms of class.
And then again, there is the pride in one's roots. Aren't you proud of being Italian, of belonging to a country that has given civilization to the world and even today, in spite of everything, is at the forefront of progress?
How is it you do not feel the need to defend Latin civilization against Teutonic barbarity?
GIORGIO: Please, let's not talk about civilization and the barbarism of this or that country.
I could immediately say to you that if the workers are not able to appreciate your "Latin civilization" the fault is yours, the fault of the bourgeoisie that took away from the workers the means to educate themselves. How can you expect someone to be passionate about something about which you have kept them ignorant?
But, stop misleading us. Would you have us believe that the Germans are more barbaric than anyone else, when for years you yourself were admiring anything coming from Germany? If tomorrow political conditions change and capitalist interests are oriented differently, you would once again say that Germans are at the forefront of civilization and that the French or the English are barbarians.
What does this mean? If one’s country finds itself more advanced than another it has the duty to spread its civilization, to help its fellows who are backward and not profit from its superiority to oppress and exploit... because any abuse of power leads to corruption and decadence.
AMBROGIO : But, in any case, you do at least respect national solidarity which must be superior to any class competition.
GIORGIO: I understand. It is this pretense of national solidarity which particularly interests you, and it is this which what we struggle against in particular. National solidarity means solidarity between capitalists and workers, between oppressors and oppressed, in other words acquiescence by the oppressed to their state of subjection.
The interests of the workers are opposed to those of the employers, and when in special circumstances they find themselves temporarily in agreement, we seek to make them into antagonists, given that human emancipation and all future progress depend upon the struggle between workers and owners, that must lead to the complete disappearance of exploitation and oppression of one person by another.
You still try to deceive workers with the lies of nationalism: but in vain. The workers have already understood that the workers of all countries are their comrades, and that all capitalists and all governments, domestic or foreign, are their enemies.
And with this I will say good evening. I know that I haven't convinced neither the magistrates nor the proprietors who have listened to me. But, perhaps I haven't spoken in vain for Pippo, Vincenzo and Luigi, who are proletarians like myself.