propaganda by deed

Ernesto Bonomini was born on 18 March 1903 at Pozzolengo in Italy. From a very young age he became interested in socialist ideas and became an active antimilitarist. He trained as a tailor, in which trade he was expert.

With the fascist repression against the workers’, socialist and anarchist movements, Ernesto was forced to emigrate to France in 1922.

See also our biography of Gaetano Bresci

See also 1900: The assassination of King Umberto I of Italy

Feb 2003

It was the significance of the young Dutch council communist Van der Lubbe's torching of the Reichstag (27 Feb. 1933), more than Hitler's coming to power, which focused the debates within Dutch council communism. The latter was profoundly divided on the question of 'exemplary acts' and of individual violence against symbols of bourgeois order.

Despite the fact that his "crimes" were not legally punishable by death, Schirru was executed by firing squad.

The plot was hatched in anti-fascist Italian exile circles in the south of France. And not just by anarchists but also members of the Giustizia e Libertá groups of the Action Party and others of differing persuasions - all convinced of the need to eliminate the fascist leader physically.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, anarchists were in the middle of what was known as the ‘Propaganda by the Deed’ period. The idea was that by killing members of the ruling order, not only would the ‘fear of God’ be put into them but that it would eventually inspire the masses into rising up against their masters.

Kotoku Shusui
Born 4 November or 23 September 1871 - Japan, died 24 January 1911 - Japan

An extract of Stuart Christie's book Granny Made Me An Anarchist which describes his involvement in an attempt to assassinate Spanish dictator General Franco. He describes his experiences from picking up the plastic explosive in France to his arrest by Franco's police in Spain. This extract first appeared in The Guardian newspaper on Monday August 23, 2004

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A short account of a little known political death in New Zealand. In 1982, an anarchist punk rocker attempted to blow up the Wanganui police computer. He blew himself up in the process

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Angelo Pellegrino Sbardellotto
Born 1 August 1907 - Mel, Italy, died 17 June 1932 - Rome, Italy

Kurt Gustav Wilckens
Born 3 November 1886 - Germany, died 15 June 1923, Argentina

Simon Radowitzky
Aka Szymon Radowicki, born 10 September or November 1891 - Ukraine, died 29 February 1956 - Mexico

Szymon Radowicki (more usually known in Argentina as Simon Radowitzky) was born on either the 10th of September or November 1891 into a workers family in the Jewish community in the little Ukrainian village of Stepanice (Stapanesso).

Born in 1900 in the anarchist stronghold of Carrara, Gino Lucetti had a highly individualistic outlook compared to many of his more anarchist-communist comrades. He was an outstanding figure of local – and indeed nationwide – anti-fascism.

Anton Pannekoek writes on the burning of the Reichstag by council communist Marinus Van Der Lubbe.

Louis Emile Cottin
Nicknamed Milou, born 14 March 1896 - Creil, France, died 8 September 1937 - Farlete, Spain

Born 14th March 1896 at Creil, Emile Cottin was raised at Compiegne in a working class family, becoming a carpenter-cabinet maker. He starting reading Zola and became interested in libertarian ideas.

Not many people have heard of Emile Henry, which is surprising really.

He was born in 1872 in Spain, the son of an exiled Paris Communard. He returned to Paris with his family, and became a student at the Prestigious Ecole Polytechnique. However, he chose to abandon his studies in favour of "propaganda by deed".