Salvador PUIG ANTICH, strangled by garrote vil on the morning of 2 March 1974 in the courtyard of the Modelo Prison in Barcelona, was a scapegoat whom the capitalists dispatched an executioner to murder, an executioner who travelled from the far side of the Spanish State, after a month and a half's suspense, time during which the State mulled over and over the value of such a spectacular measure. In the end it did what it logically had to do.. IT HAS DECLARED REVOLUTIONARIES DENIED THE RIGHT TO SURVIVE WITHIN THE PROCESS OF CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT... obviously, when the enemy of the State is the People's friend, the State must exterminate its enemy. That is nothing more than a new chapter in the Class War raging violently since 19 July 1936.

(..)And so PUIG ANTICH has been done to death. Remember that the cops did their best to do away with him at the time of arrest... and thousands of libertarians have lost their lives for the same reasons ever since THIS revolutionary class war became widespread in 1936. After the physical annihilation of the workers who had fought to defend their collectives and their essays in undiluted Communism, came the Calvary of thousands of exiles through the concentration camps of democratic, Popular Front France, through the Nazi-fascist whirlwind with its death camps and labour camps where the CNT's revolutionary masses lost their lives (perishing under a regimen of the most primitive slavery), at the same time as the internationalist fight put up through the European resistance by numerous comrades who died with their weapons in their hands, after the first stirrings of Iberian workers in the 1940s which were defended by the libertarian guerrillas and coordinated by the CNT-FAI, with the most combative sections of anarchist youth being sentenced to die, mown down in the streets and in the hills in the '40s and '50s, after the interminable prison sentences passed in the '60s on a fresh crop of the libertarian communist movement, as well as the slaughter of an entire libertarian combat group at the start of 1960- Sabate and his friends. After the police frame-up of Granados and Delgado, who were murdered in 1963 by garrote vil (as was comrade Puig) and the criminal gunning down of another anarchist armed group, Ramón Vila Capdevila and his comrades... after a protracted silence punctuated by an avalanche of arrests of Libertarian Youth members (Edo, Alicia, Urbano...) until another upswing in the shape of the present RESURGENCE opened with a series of arrests among student circles in Madrid, the Acratas, the action groups (in 1968), an FUR (Queremos la Universidad), the editorial team from the review Panorama-CNT (in Madrid), the Valencian group of the FIJL (outstanding among them, on account of his being held in intolerable prison conditions, Floreal Rodriguez), the 18 year sentence passed on Francesc Tubau Subira, the youngster from Ampurda, the chicanery against Julio Millan...

In the 1970s, the repression against Iberian anarchism has reached figures that bear comparison with those of the 1940s. Thus, dozens of comrades have been rounded up at demonstrations and in clashes with police: we have the arrests and harassment visited upon Terra Libre Valencia), on three occasions upon the teams from Autogestión Obrera (Madrid), after Andrés Ruiz (Barcelona) and Navarro (L'Hospitalet del Llobregat), David Urbano again (Barcelona), the ex-members of MIL, some thirty youths from Zaragoza (the pursuit of the Acción Directa groups) and in recent weeks the wave of tough repression unleashed against various libertarian organisations in Catalonia even among individualists and sympathisers of a thousand different outlooks. The police communiqué talks of TWENTY TWO comrades, but we reckon that there must have been many more than that, and that this is NOTHING MORE THAN A FRESH POLICE MACHINATION, after the fashion of the State tension in Italy (we now find the Sixth Brigade's Special Social Investigation Anarchist-hunting Squad, one of whom Salvador Puig was fortunate enough to EXECUTE with his gun) aping their Italian colleagues and, should that fail, picking up the telephone and asking for Inspector Bond in London, the inventor of anti-anarchist methods in England). We ask comrades the world over to step up their campaign ON BEHALF OF SALVADOR PUG ANTICH in the light of the recent events in Barcelona, linking the trial of Valpreda and his comrades with that of Marini, the forthcoming court martial of Oriol SOLE SUGRANYES, upon whom they are going to pass another death sentence (the garrote vil having been deployed against us) and the judicial mockeries mounted against Enrique CONDE and Nuria BALLART, as well as against the Italian student who has been languishing in prison for three months now and all the comrades still behind bars.. (...)

Let the cry rise from every side THEY HAVE KILLED PUIG ANTICH: WE MUST SAVE ORIOL SOLE! as a thousand workers chanted in the streets of Badalona only a few days ago.

In spite of the incessant arrests, in spite of the implacable persecution visited upon our libertarian circles, LET US FORGE AHEAD, for we have nothing to lose, whereas the Spanish and Portuguese States are in crisis. THE WAR CARRIES ON.. THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION OF '36 IS STILL IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION. WE HAVE TO GET TO A WORLDWIDE REVOLUTIONARY EXPLOSION THROUGH OUR EVERYDAY STRUGGLES, ALONGSIDE THE CNT, ALONGSIDE ALL REVOLUTIONARIES AND FOR LIBERTARIAN COMMUNISM.

The Local Federation of Anarchist Groups (Barcelona) March 1974

David Nicoll is one of the enigmatic figures from anarchism's history in Britain. He suffered like so many because of the way his actions mirrored his beliefs. More information on him can be found in:
George Cores: 'Personal Recollections of the Anarchist Past' KSL, 1993
John Quail: 'The Slow Burning Fuse' Paladin, 1978
Hermia Oliver: 'The International Anarchist Movement in Late Victorian London' Croom Helm, 1983.

A particularly sad description of Nicoll in his later years is contained in both 'Pioneers of Anti-Parliamentarism' and 'Dogmas Discarded' (part two) by Guy Aldred (1940). Nicoll's 'Life in English Prisons' and 'The Walsall Anarchists' were among the first pamphlets republished by the Kate Sharpley Library. Any other information or sources on Nicoll gratefully received.

David Nicoll Memorial Meeting

We meet to honour David Nicoll's name.
While yet, of those who worked with him, some few
Still labouring for our great cause, remain
To pay his memory loyal homage due.
His brilliant genius would have won him fame
Had he sought limelight and the world's applause;
But his life's labours owned only one claim :-
To give his work, health, life - All for the cause.
He was a poet- a true pioneer,
A powerful pen he wielded long and well;
He was a Comrade, daring and sincere,
And seeking Freedom gained- a prison cell!
the prison horrors wrecked his hopes and health;
When freed, sore tried, he fought to life's sad end-
With fervent love he served the Commonwealth,
A fearless Comrade and a faithful Friend.
~ E.T.

A meeting in memory of David Nicoll, the Poet, Author of many pamphlets, Editor of the "Anarchist" and for some time of the "Commonweal" was held at 163, Park Lane, Tottenham, on 14th April. It opened with an address by Doris Wess on Nicoll's life of work for the Cause, followed by interesting reminiscences by William Wess, Rose Ruderman and A. G. Barker. George Cores, who unfortunately was unable to be present, sent the following appreciation which was read to the meeting.

I first saw David Nicoll in the eighties of the last century- in 1886. I had left the S.D.F. and joined the Socialist League, David Nicoll was already a public speaker and propagandist in the Socialist League. He had a modest but attractive and persuasive style of address, and always "held" his crowd at an open air meeting. He was already writing his Socialist and Revolutionary songs and a group of young men and women, of whom I was one, used to sing them in Hyde Park at our meetings, there- which used to continue for six or seven hours- and afterwards march in procession along Oxford Street headed a splendid (real) red flag to Clerkenwell Green or to the Socialist League Hall in Farringdon Road. Sometimes Nicoll was with us, all the time as enthusiastic as the rest.

1887 was Queen Victoria's Jubilee year and David Nicoll's song "The Year of Jubilee" to the 'Boulanger March' air was very often sung.
It ran:- (part of it and chorus)
T'was in that lovely time
We wretched men did dare,
Who hadn't got a dime
To meet in that 'ere Square.
Our loud complain t'was heard,
It spoilt the rich man's glee-
But Warren's* heart was hard
To the people's misery.
Oh we'll not forget
The year of jubilee
When Warren broke the people's heads
To soothe their misery!

*Warren the S. African butcher.

Those were exciting times, but Nicoll kept steadily on speaking, and also writing a very characteristic and stimulating page of "Labour News" in the "Commonweal."

After Wm. Morris retired, Nicoll became Editor of the "Commonweal." Then, early in 1892 came the Walsall Anarchists case. After their arrest Nicoll and Mowbray wrote to me (I was then working and living in Leeds) and asked me to go to Walsall, which I did.

Then the trial- a thorough scandal- ended at Stafford with savage sentences on Fred Charles and others. The infamous sentences inflamed the sensitive mind and feelings of David Nicoll and he wrote a suitable leading article which appeared in the "Commonweal" of 9th April, 1892. I read first that the published C. W. Mowbray was arrested. I immediately wrote to Nicoll saying "put my name on the imprint,* and say what you like."

But, alas, David Nicoll was also arrested and sent to gaol- 18 months hard labour- so he could say no more till he came out from the mental torture house. The worst blow of all, I am indeed sorry to say, awaited him.

Another man had seized on the Editorship of the "Commonweal" and could not be dislodged at once. Nicoll claimed his right to resume his position as Editor, immediately. He would have no compromise about it. In my opinion he was entirely in the right.

In the concluding years of his life I often met him and I am gratified with the firm conviction that he regarded me as a true friend and comrade till his death, though he was suspicious of so many about him.

The restoration of the Editorship would have saved him from very much mental, moral and physical suffering.

He was truly a martyr. The wretched, petty, greedy vanity of a man was a greater blow to Nicoll than anything the enemy could do, and made the concluding phase of his life a tragedy. No man ever lived who was more idealist, more concerned with the freedom and welfare of humanity than David J. Nicoll.

~ Geo. Cores.

*The imprint on three following "Commonweals" (23rd April, 30th April and 7th May,) is: "Printed and published by Geo. Cores, at 145 City Rd., E.C." -E.T.

from Freedom, May 1931.

With the death of Borghi in 1968, the Italian movement lost one of its finest representatives. Over a 60-year period, Borghi forged relentlessly ahead with his activities with a truly outstanding belief and enthusiasm.

He died at the age of 86. Born in CastelBolognese in the Romagna on 7 April 1882, he embarked upon his activities as an anarchist militant at the age of 16. In his major work A Half-Century of Anarchy he describes with his subtle and sparkling style the ups and downs of his frantic life as an activist and propagandist. He relates how, in 1898, when he was barely 16 years old, and unbeknownst to his parents, he travelled to Ancona to attend the trial of Malatesta on the charges of justifying criminality and plotting against the State that arose from his having published the weekly L'Agitazione in Ancona. It was at this point that Borghi had his chance to view Errico Malatesta in the flesh (as he used to say) in the dock. He conceived a lifelong fondness for Malatesta. From then on, Borghi was up to his neck in activity and in the struggle.

In 1900 he settled in Bologna and there, following the assassination of King Umberto I by Gaetano Bresci (on 29 July 1900) he unreservedly endorsed the heroic act, in contrast to those socialists, republicans and a small clique of Rome-based anarchists who had condemned the killing.

His first arrest came in Bologna in 1902, over anti-militarist propaganda. In April 1903, he won his spurs as a public speaker, again in Bologna, when he was chosen by the anarchists to address a huge rally called to protest at military expenditure. The young anarchist, then just 20, made his mark. He was welcomed to the rostrum by Andrea Costa. It was his very first success as a public speaker. He became the official spokesman of the anarchists at all rallies. A flurry of innumerable arrests and trials followed. His defence counsel at all times was Pietro Gori who always showed up for his trials. Armando Borghi was arrested during a demonstration in 1904 and spent several months in the San Giovanni in Monte prison.

In 1905, he was sentenced again in Ravenna to a five month prison term for "incitement to crime". Between 1903 and 1906, he spent longer behind bars than as a free man. In May 1906 he had barely come out of prison when he was commissioned in Ravenna as editor of L'Aurora, an anarchist weekly, taking over from Domenico Zavaterro. It was from the columns of L'Aurora that he severely upbraided anarchist individualism. It was from the same platform on 9 July 1906 that Borghi marked Gaetano Bresci's assassination. He was indicted over this vibrant article which earned the author as well as the managing editor a year behind bars.

Borghi saw imprisonment again in Ravenna and then in Piacenza. He was freed early in July 1907. It was at this point that he agreed to take up a post as trade union agitator. He was invited to join the secretariat of the Bologna and District Construction Union. However, he was not converted either to trade unionism or to anarcho-syndicalism but remained comprehensively and full-bloodedly anarchist. But he found it useful to mix with the workers in order to fight for their emancipation. The Bologna Construction Union was not affiliated to the CGL (General Confederation of Labour), but belonged, as did many another organisation, to the National Direct Action Committee.

Borghi stayed in Bologna as secretary of the Construction Union for over three years and, along with Giuseppe Sartini, represented the old Chamber of Labour which was independent of the CGL. But even then he did not neglect anarchist propaganda. When, on 13 October 1911, trooper Augusto Masetti fired a gunshot in the parade ground of the Cialdini barracks in Bologna at his colonel by way of a protest at the war in Libya while shouting out 'Down with the war! Long live Anarchy!', Armando Borghi and Maria Rygier immediately composed a special edition of L'Agitatore welcoming the action of the rebel soldier.

Borghi's article was entitled "Anarchist revolts shines through the violence of war". The newspaper was impounded and a round-up of anarchists began. Maria Rygier was the first to be arrested. Borghi got away by the skin of his teeth and fled to Paris.

He stayed abroad until the end of December 1912, involving himself in active anti-militarist propaganda, giving lectures in France and Switzerland. After the Italian government offered an amnesty to mark the conclusion of a peace treaty with Turkey, he returned to Italy. In the autumn of 1912, the Italian Syndicalist Union (USI) had been launched in Italy. It ought to be noted that Borghi, in exile in France at the time, had no hand in the launching of the USI but affiliated to it in his capacity as organiser for the labour unions independent of the CGL.

Which brings us to the "Red Week". A national campaign committee had promised protest rallies all across Italy in protest against militarism, the disciplinary battalions and to press for the release of Augusto Masetti. These were scheduled for the first Sunday in June.

Following a rally in Ancona - addressed by Malatesta - there were clashes between the crowd and the police and three young demonstrators were killed. A general strike was called in all of the big cities in Italy. In the Marches and in the Romagna region, the strike took the form of out and out insurrection. Betrayal by the leaders of the CGL prevented the revolutionary uprising from scoring the success it deserved. The government backlash soon gained the upper hand. Malatesta managed to evade arrest and fled to London. On 7 June Borghi was speaking in Florence. The moment he heard of the deaths of the three young people in Ancona he made for the Romagna to do his bit in the uprising. To his great surprise, on this occasion he was not arrested.

In August 1914, the Great War erupted. In keeping with his basic anarchist principles, Borghi immediately declared his opposition to the war.

De Ambris, Corridoni and Masotti and other USI leaders hoped to 'convert' the USI-affiliated unions to the interventionist cause. They called a general congress of the USI in Parma in September 1914. Borghi steadfastly argued the need for the USI to come out against the war. The USI branches endorsed Borghi's resolution by an overwhelming majority. Borghi took up the secretaryship of the Italian Syndicalist Union. The USI relocated its headquarters to Bologna and thereafter Armando Borghi's time was entirely consumed by anti-war propaganda. But not for long - because after May 1915 - when Italy entered the war - he was interned in Impruneta, a small town near Florence and later in Isernia in the Abruzzi.

When the war ended in November 1918, Borghi resumed his activities as USI secretary and director of the weekly Guerra di Classe. Ever by his side as a priceless collaborator and beloved spouse was Virgilia D'Andrea. Very active during the cost of living campaigns in July 1919, Borghi was an active, zealous agitator, not merely in his trade union organiser capacity but also, indeed primarily, as a fervent anarchist.

In late December 1919, Errico Malatesta returned to Italy and in Milan he ran the daily newspaper Umanita Nova. Borghi and Malatesta were on the same wavelength and their respective propaganda drives brought the Italian people to crucial revolutionary accomplishments such as the factory occupations in August-September 1920.

Armando Borghi was not in Italy at that time. In May 1920, he had left for Russia at the invitation of the Bolshevik leadership, keen to talk with a representative of the USI and, if at all possible, with its secretary. It was a particularly adventuous trip, as detailed in A Half-Century of Anarchy. In Moscow Borghi had an audience in the Kremlin with Lenin. Lenin asked him if he were opposed to centralism and Borghi replied: "You have that right. How could any anarchist be in favour of centralism?" To which Lenin retorted: "Freedom ought not to be the death of the revolution." Borghi countered with: "In the absence of freedom, the revolution would be a horror." Their conversation proceeded quietly.

Learning of the factory occupations back home, Borghi scurried homewards. This second journey brought him to Milan by 20 September, by which time the reformist trade union organisations had ordered the factories to back down on 17 September. There was nothing that he could do by then, but he declined an invitation from the government that he join, as representative of the USI, a commission drafting a law on workers' control. Meanwhile, the government was cracking down heavily again.

In October, Borghi, Malatesta and other anarchists were rounded up on no particular charges. In the San Villore prison in Milan, on 14 March 1921, Malatesta, Borghi and Quaglino launched a hunger strike to force the court authorities to set a trial date. After nine months in prison on remand, by late July 1921, they were brought for trial to the Assizes in Milan. All of those charged were freed. Malatesta and Borghi had offered a zealous defence of themselves.

Fascism was now in the ascendant and the lives of antifascist militants were in the balance. Borghi and Virgilia D'Andrea were continually receiving death threats.

Armando Borghi fought against the fascists by promoting the "Labour Alliance" in an attempt to erect an obstacle in the path of the fascist victory. But after the March on Rome in October 1922, all attempts to fight fascism were in vain. Along with Virgilia D'Andrea, Borghi had to leave Italy in 1923 and they went into exile, first in Berlin and then in Paris.

In France he carried on his fight against fascism. He penned his first volume of memoirs Italy Between Two Crisis. It was published in Paris in July 1924. In October 1926, Borghi left France for the United States. He arrived to find the campaign for Sacco and Vanzetti at its height. At the invitation of their support committee, he gave many talks and appeared at meetings. But even in the States he could not escape arrest and trial and was often released only on payment of huge bail bonds. An active contributor to L'Adunata dei Refrattari he often signed his articles with a pseudonym, with the police forever on his trail. Virgilia D'Andrea was always at his side. She was an active propagandist and a fine public speaker. But on 12 May 1933 she died while still quite young.

In the United States, Borghi struck up friendships with Gaetano Salvemini and Arturo Toscanini and his son, Walter. After the downfall of fascism he returned to Italy, landing in Naples in October 1945. Immediately embarking upon a frantic lecture tour.

In 1946, he visited all the major cities of Italy - Rome, Bologna, Ancona, Milan, Carrara, etc. In December that year his car crashed into a lorry. He came away with serious head wounds and some broken ribs but his travelling companions emerged unscathed. He spent a long time in hospital in Ravenna, followed by a lengthy convalescence. He stayed in Italy until March 1948, involving himself in active propaganda and affording his comrades the benefit of his long experience and his thorough knowledge of the many issues confronting the anarchist movement. Then he felt the urge to return to the United States, weary from his frantic, restless lifestyle in Italy. He stayed in the USA until 1953 returning to Italy that year and he was in perfect health when he took part in the March 1953 congress of the Italian Anarchist Federation (FAI) in Civitavecchia.

Once again, Armando was the centre of the Italian anarchist movement which was experiencing a promising revival. He settled in Rome, assisting Gigi Damiani and Umberto Consiglio in bringing out Umanita Nova. He stayed in Italy after that and his activities were genuinely beneficial to the movement. For twelve years up until October 1965, the presence of Armando Borghi in Umanita Nova in the shape of his lively, vivacious articles, left an indelible mark. He died on 21 April 1968.

By Maurice Colombo, (Le Monde Libertaire, Paris, No 725,10 November 1988)

"Openly Classist" is a working class publishing group. Our aim is to get into print valuable working class writing. We have just published "the Enemy Is Middle Class" by Andy and Mark Anderson.

We are working on "Spectacular Times", the writings of Larry Law. This will include an interview with Larry's wife. It will be funded by AK Press, and is a joint venture with them.

"Educating Who About What part 2" is under construction and discussion at the moment. It will be planted at around October/ November, and we promise it will not disappoint.

"The Conspiracy Of Good Taste" is the fourth of our projects. This will be a reprint of the book by Stephan Szczelkun (Working Press). We can only put this out after "Spectacular Times" (unless someone can send us two thousand pounds or so- Any takers?

We offer books free to prisoners. We wish to communicate with other working class projects. We hope to have a website before too long (a class verification system will make it a no-go for anyone other than working class.)

Contact us at:
"Openly Classist" PO Box 10, mcr m19, Manchester, Northern England

It would indeed be a pity if the intellectual and emotional energies thus wakened should exhaust themselves in mere indignation and unprofitable speculation concerning the unimportant details of Ferrer's personality and life. Protest meetings and anniversary commemorations are quite necessary and useful, in proper time and place. They have already accomplished, so far as the world at large is concerned, a great educational work. By means of these the social consciousness has been led to realize the enormity of the crime committed by the Church and State of Spain. But "the world at large" is not easily moved to action; it requires many terrible martyrdoms to disturb its equilibrium of dullness; and even when disturbed, it tends quickly to resume its wonted immobility. It is the thinking, radical elements which are, literally, the movers of the world, the intellectual and emotional disturbers of its stupid equanimity. They must never be suffered to become dormant, for they, too, are in danger of growing absorbed in mere adulation of the martyr and rhetorical admiration of his great work. As Ferrer himself has wisely cautioned us; "Idols are created when men are praised, and this is very bad for the future of the human race. The time devoted to the dead would be better employed in improving the condition of the living, most of whom stand in great need of this."

These words of Francisco Ferrer should be italicized in our minds. The radicals, especially, -of whatever creed- have much to atone for in this respect. We have given too much time to the dead, and not enough to the living. We have idealized our martyrs to the extent of neglecting the practical needs of the cause they died for. We have idealized our ideals to the exclusion of their application in actual life. The cause of it was an immature appreciation of our ideals. They were too sacred for everyday use. The result is evident, and rather discouraging. After a quarter of a century - and more -of radical propaganda, we can point to no very particular achievement. Some progress, no doubt, has been made; but by no means commensurate with the really tremendous efforts exerted. This comparative failure, in its turn, produces a further disillusioning effect: old-time radicals drop from the ranks, disheartened; the most active workers become indifferent, discouraged with lack of results.

It is this the history of every world-revolutionizing idea of our times. But especially is it true of the Anarchist movement. Necessarily so, since by its very nature it is not a movement that can conquer immediate tangible results, such as a political movement, for instance, can accomplish. It may be said that the difference between even the most advanced political movement, such as Socialism, and Anarchism is this: the one seeks the transformation of political and economic conditions, while the goal of the other includes a complete transvaluation of individual and social conceptions. Such a gigantic task is necessarily of slow progress; nor can its advancement be counted by noses or ballots. It is the failure to realize fully the enormity of the task that is partly responsible for the pessimism that so often overtakes the active spirits of the movement. To that is added the lack of clarity regarding the manner of social accoutrements.

The Old is to give birth to the New. How do such things happen? as little Wendla asks her mother in Wedekind's Frühlings Erwachen. We have outgrown the stork of Social Revolution that will deliver us the newborn child of ready-made equality, fraternity, and liberty. We now conceive of the coming social life as a condition rather than a system. A condition of mind, primarily; one based on solidarity of interests arising from social understanding and enlightened self-interest. A system can be organized, made. A condition must be developed. This development is determined by existing environment and the intellectual tendencies of the times. The causation of both is no doubt mutual and interdependent, but the factor of individual and propagandistic effort is not to be under-estimated.

The social life of man is a centre, as it were, whence radiate numerous intellectual tendencies, crossing and zigzagging, receding and approaching each other in interminable succession. The points of convergence create new centres, exerting varying influences upon the larger centre, the general life of humanity. Thus new intellectual and ethical atmospheres are established, the degree of their influence depending, primarily, on the active enthusiasm of the adherents; ultimately, on the kinship between the new ideal and the requirements of human nature. Striking this true chord, the new ideal will affect ever more intellectual centres which gradually begin interpreting themselves into life and transvaluing the values of the great general centre, the social life of man.

Anarchism is such an intellectual and ethical atmosphere. With sure hand it has touched the heart of humanity, influencing the world's foremost minds in literature, art, and philosophy. It has resurrected the individual from the ruins of the social debacle. In the forefront of human advance, its progress is necessarily painfully slow: the leaden weight of ages of ignorance and superstition hangs heavily at its heels. But its slow progress should by no means prove discouraging. On the contrary: it evidences the necessity of greater effort, of solidifying existing libertarian centres, and of ceaseless activity to create new ones.

The immaturity of the past had blinded our vision to the true requirements of the situation. Anarchism was regarded, even by its adherents, as an ideal for the future. Its practical application to current life was entirely ignored. The propaganda was circumscribed by the hope of ushering in the Social Revolution. Preparation for the new social life was not considered necessary. The gradual development and growth of the coming day did not enter into revolutionary concepts. The dawn had been overlooked. A fatal error, for there is no day without dawn.

The martyrdom of Francisco Ferrer will not have been in vain if, through it, the Anarchists- as well as other radical elements- will realize that, in social as well as in individual life, conception precedes birth. The social conception which we need, and must have, is the creation of libertarian centres which shall radiate the atmosphere of the dawn into the life of humanity.

Many such centres are possible. But the most important of all is the young life, the growing generation. After all, it is they upon whom will devolve the task of carrying the work forward. Just in the proportion that the young generation grows more enlightened and libertarian, will we approach a freer society. Yet in this regard we have been, and still are, unpardonably negligent; we Anarchists, Socialists, and other radicals. Protesting against the superstition-breeding educational system, we nevertheless continue to subject our children to its baneful influence. We condemn the madness of war, yet we permit our offspring to be inculcated with the poison of patriotism. Ourselves more or less emancipated from false bourgeois standards, we still suffer our children to be corrupted by the hypocrisy of the established. Every such parent directly aids in the perpetuation of dominant ignorance and slavery. Can we indeed expect a generation reared in the atmosphere of the suppressive, authoritarian educational régime, to form the cornerstone of a free, self-reliant humanity? Such parents are criminally guilty toward themselves and their children: they rear the ghost that will divide their house against itself, and strengthen the bulwarks of darkness.

No intelligent radical can fail to realize the need of the rational education of the young. The rearing of the child must become a process of liberation by methods which shall not impose ready-made ideas, but which should aid the child's natural self-unfoldment. The purpose of such an education is not to force the child's adaptation to accepted concepts. but to give free play to his [and her] originality, initiative, and individuality. Only by freeing education from compulsion and restraint can we create the environment for the manifestation of the spontaneous interest and inner incentives on the part of the child. Only thus can we supply rational conditions favorable to the development of the child's natural tendencies and his latent emotional and mental faculties. Such methods of education, essentially aiding the child's imitative quality and ardor for knowledge, will develop a generation of healthy intellectual independence. It will produce men and women capable, in the words of Francisco Ferrer, "of evolving without stopping, of destroying and renewing their environment without cessation; of renewing themselves also; always ready to accept what is best, happy in the triumph of new ideas, aspiring to live multiple lives in one life."

Upon such men and women rests the hope of human progress. To them belongs the future. And it is, to a very considerable extent, in our own power to pave the way. The death of Francisco Ferrer were in vain, our Indignation, sympathy, and admiration worthless, unless we translate the ideals of the martyred educator into practice and life, and thus advance the human struggle for enlightenment and liberty.