WORLD WORLDWIDE CZECH News Journal Update - (en) Czech, CAS: ANARCHIST ORGANIZATION (Matyásh Hodek) (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The organization is the most important agent in the field of solving the

social, revolutionary question, because in the association lies the
strength, in the strength then all the power, in the power of the people
is the complete victory, which has for the social revolutionary question
and its adherents will guarantee a life without masters and slaves. ----
Our anarchist position is not hostile to the organization of the working
class, but it supports and approves of all organizing, because in every
circumstance and in every performance it is necessary to rely on
organization. Of course, this must be healthy and built on solid
foundations. Building an orderly organization is not so easy, and we
need to count on the conditions and the people themselves, because if
the organization is to be built on an anarchist basis, it must not
follow the path of centralization, because then it would lose the value
that is contained in anarchism.

Everyone who has already organized or is organizing knows how great the
obstacles are in the way of organization, because the people are
fanatical and therefore it is difficult to get them excited about our
idea, then the desire for mammon that has taken root in the people and
the eagerness to become to the rich as soon as possible, this wretched
dollar is a high bar to organization, and therefore we find with
difficulty a small percentage of the people who look upon private
property as the greatest evil. As I say, it is difficult to build
organizations, but if even greater obstacles are placed in the way, they
must not deter us. First of all, it is the duty of each of us to
establish and maintain organizations at all times and in every place and
on every occasion. The best agent in the organization is the press, but
the press must be essential. He teaches the people to think, to
recognize truth and lies, and then awakens followers of our idea. Every
careful observer knows that the essential press is one of the most
skillful advocates and organizers, and one of the firmest pillars of our
idea, for it sharpens and refreshes the mind and awakens courage to the
holy struggle for justice and liberty.

We know that the movement here in America is moving at a snail's pace
compared to Europe, because the people there value their press as St.
The Gospels. He supports, reads and spreads it tirelessly everywhere,
whereas in America the working people, especially the English element,
do not have any essential press and do not care about it and read the
capitalist press, where instead of instruction, they fall into even
greater slavery of the spirit. He who does not want to bear the bonds of
slavery any longer and does not feel like enduring hunger and poverty
any longer, certainly feels the necessity of organization, namely that
all the enslaved proletarians from all over the world unite and break
free from the clutches of capital as a whole army.

Of course, it is not possible for us to build such an association one
day, according to the obstacles I have indicated in advance, but the
progress of time must one day bring such an association to the world, or
circumstances and the capitalists themselves are working towards that
goal by constantly improving machines, and the result of this is that
what further, the greater is the throwing out of labor on the pavement.
The people, who feel the weight of their life's difficulties, begin to
think collectively about the future and raise the glove resolutely, as a
sign of the struggle, which the current rotten social system has
insolently thrown into their eyes. Yes, all the oppressed people are
rising up and preparing to respond to the injustice done to them, and
they are joining together today in a dense percentage, so I hope that it
will not be long before the disinherited proletarian will stand in full
armor and with firm convictions on the battlefield where he he swept
away the existing and exploitative system.

It is our duty to establish groups which, through their tireless
activity, grow into larger and larger masses of people until they merge
into a powerful organization.

An organization, if it is to be healthy, must not be commanded by any
individual, or perhaps by a committee, it must be its own commander;
each member of the organization is himself an agent responsible for
himself, but his first duty is to work sincerely and honestly for the
interest of the whole, and to care for and seek like-minded allies, and
to make them aware of the pure principle, as this is in its true essence.

If man's consciousness reaches so far as to recognize these popular
questions, then I hope he will silence the desire for property and
selfishness, the misplaced and purposeless bickering, and in its place a
hatred of the present establishment will take its place, and his
intention and desire will be what in the shortest possible time to
fraternize and eliminate the bestiality perpetrated on us. Perhaps no
science has worked with so many difficulties as the social, and no
science has had so many opponents and enemies as the anarchist. Why?
I'll answer that right away.

First of all, it is a mistake in interpretation, and secondly, the one
who has never felt the shackles of slavery, the misery and hardships of
life, the one who has never experienced fear for his being, who has
never been kicked off the ground and reduced to the level of an animal,
he will never be a friend of the anarchist idea.

Just as it is to place a starving tiger near a pile of good meat, and be
convinced that it will not eat it, so it cannot be a capitalist who
subscribes to this party, where he sees that he will soon cease to feast
at the expense of others, for the zealous herald of our ideas considered.

Any conscious person who has acquired a firm conviction knows that the
present system needs corrections and that it must be completely
transformed. Namely, the old one removed and replaced with a better one
that benefits human society. At the same time, it is his duty to
organize and become the best organizer possible, so that as soon as
possible a large number of organized people will stand, which will then
easily break the bonds that have held them for so long.

Why up to organization, up to freedom and liberty! If we are well
organized and stand as one man, then we will easily overcome the pack of
capitalists and governments who are playing around in this rotten system
and using all kinds of levers to maintain it.

Presented at the "Progress" Literary and Speaking Circle in Chicago.

source: "Dělnické listy" (1896), magazine of Czech anarchist communists
in the USA.

Matyásh Hodek (1856 - 1924) was among the prominent Czech anarchist
communists in emigration to the USA. He worked in Chicago, where he was
involved in local associations of Czech anarcho-communists. He was also
a member of the anarcho-communist national organization International
Workers' Unity - MDJ (1883 - 1900). Later he moves to New York, or
rather to nearby Newark. Here he was a member of the local Czech
Workers' Educational Association, which was part of the MDJ. He
contributed articles to the anarcho-communist magazine "Dělnické listy"
(1893-1898). In 1896, he translated Petr Kropotkin's publication "The
Ant's Anarchy" into Czech, which was then published as a sequel in
"Dělnické Listy" and as a separate publication. In the same year, he
also translated Leo Tolstoy's poems and other texts.

https://anarchiste.org/anarchisticka-organizace-matyas-hodek
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca