The bourgeois provoke us. They strive to drive us to despair by all means, thinking, not without much reason, that it would be very good for their interests to force us to wage war with them today. ---They slander and insult us in their newspapers; they distort, misrepresent, and invent facts, counting on the sympathies of their public, who will forgive them everything, as long as the bourgeois, the bosses, are exonerated and the workers slandered. Secure in this impunity and this sympathy, the Journal de Genève, above all, the devoted liar, surpasses itself in lies.
They are not content with provoking and insulting us through their writings; impatient to make us lose our patience, they resort to violence. Their sad children, that golden youth whose corrupt and shameful idleness detests work and workers; These academics, learned in theology and ignorant of science, these liberals from the wealthy bourgeoisie, take to the streets, as they did last year, and crowd into cafes, armed with revolvers poorly concealed in their pockets. One would say that they fear an attack by the workers and believe themselves forced to keep them away.
Do they seriously believe this? No, absolutely not, but they pretend to believe it in order to have a pretext to arm themselves and a plausible reason to attack. Yes, to attack us, for last Tuesday they dared to beat some of our comrades who, provoked by all the insults, responded with truths that were quite unpleasant, no doubt, to ears as delicate as theirs, but which they didn't even lay a hand on. They allowed themselves to be detained and mistreated for several hours, until a commission sent by the International Association to the City Hall came to fetch them.
What do these bourgeois think? Do they really want to force us into the streets with weapons in hand? Yes, they do. And why do they want it? The reason is quite simple: they want to kill the International.
Just read the bourgeois newspapers, that is, almost all the newspapers of all countries, to be persuaded that if there is one thing today that, more than anything else, is an object of fear and horror for the bourgeoisie in Europe, it is the International Workingmen's Association. And, as we must be fair, above all, fair even in relation to our most bitter adversaries, we must recognize that the bourgeoisie has a thousand times reason to abhor and fear this formidable association.
All bourgeois prosperity, we know, as exclusive prosperity, is founded on the misery and forced labor of the people, forced not by law, but by hunger. This slavery of labor is called, it is true, in liberal newspapers such as the Journal de Genève, the freedom of labor. But this strange freedom is comparable to that of an unarmed and naked man, who would surrender himself to the mercy of another armed from head to toe. It is the freedom to be crushed, to be slaughtered. - Such is bourgeois freedom. It is understandable that the bourgeois adore it and that the workers absolutely cannot tolerate it; for this freedom is wealth for the bourgeois, and misery for the workers.
The workers are tired of being slaves. No less than the bourgeois, more than the bourgeois, they love freedom, because they understand very well, they know from painful experience that without freedom there can be no dignity or prosperity for man. But they understand freedom only in equality; because freedom in inequality is privilege, that is to say, the enjoyment of some founded on the suffering of all. - They want political and economic equality simultaneously because political equality without economic equality is a fiction, a deception, a lie, and they want no more lies. Workers, therefore, necessarily tend towards a radical transformation of society which must result in the abolition of classes from both an economic and political point of view, and in an organization in which all men will be born, develop, educate themselves, work, and enjoy the goods of life under conditions equal for all. Such is the desire for justice, such is also the ultimate goal of the International Workingmen's Association.
But how to go from the abyss of ignorance, misery, and slavery in which the proletarians of the countryside and cities are today immersed, to this paradise, to this realization of justice and humanity on earth? For this, workers have only one means: association. Through association, they educate themselves, inform each other, and put an end, through their own efforts, to this fatal ignorance which is one of the main causes of their enslavement. Through association, they learn to help each other, to get to know each other, to support one another, and will eventually create a force more formidable than that of all bourgeois capital and all political powers combined.
The Association has therefore become the watchword of workers in all industries and all countries, especially in these last twenty years, and all of Europe has found itself endowed, as if by magic, with a multitude of workers' societies of all kinds. This is undeniably the most important and at the same time most consoling fact of our time - the infallible sign of the imminent and complete emancipation of labor and workers in Europe.
But the experience of these same twenty years has proven that isolated associations were approximately as powerless as isolated workers, and that even the federation of all the workers' associations of a single country would not suffice to create a force capable of fighting against the international coalition of all the capital exploiting labor in Europe; economic science, on the other hand, has demonstrated that the question of the emancipation of labor is absolutely not a national question; That no country, however rich, powerful, or important, can, without ruining itself and condemning all its inhabitants to misery, undertake any radical transformation of the relations between capital and labor if this transformation does not occur equally and simultaneously, at least in a large part of the most industrious countries of Europe; and that, consequently, the question of the liberation of workers from the yoke of capital and its representatives, the bourgeoisie, is an eminently international question. It follows that the solution is only possible on the international stage.
Intelligent workers-German, English, Belgian, French, and Swiss-founders of our fine institution, understood this. They also understood that, to accomplish this magnificent work of the international emancipation of labor, the workers of Europe, exploited by the bourgeoisie and crushed by the States, had only themselves to rely on. Thus was created the great International Workingmen's Association.
Yes, great and formidable, truly! It is only four and a half years old and already encompasses several hundred thousand adherents, scattered and closely allied in almost every country in Europe and also in America. A thought and an enterprise that produce such fruits in such a short time can only be a healthy thought, a legitimate enterprise.
Is it a secret thought, a conspiracy? Undoubtedly. If the International conspires, it does so openly and tells whoever wants to listen. And what does it say, what does it demand? Justice, nothing but the strictest justice and the right of humanity, and the obligation of work for all. If this thought seems subversive and abject to present-day bourgeois society, so much the worse for that society.
Is it a revolutionary enterprise? Yes and no. It is revolutionary in the sense that it wants to replace a society founded on iniquity, on the exploitation of the vast majority of men by an oppressive minority, on privilege, on idleness, and on an authority that protects all these fine things, with a society founded on equal justice for all and the freedom of all. In short, she wants an economic, political, and social organization in which every human being, without prejudice to their natural and individual particularities, finds an equal opportunity to develop, educate themselves, think, work, act, and enjoy life as a human being. Yes, she wants this, and, once again, if what she wants is incompatible with the current organization of society, so much the worse for that society.
Is the International Association revolutionary in the sense of barricades and a violent overthrow of the political order currently existing in Europe? No: it is very little concerned with this kind of politics, and indeed, it is not concerned with it at all. Thus, bourgeois revolutionaries hold it very dear for the indifference it shows towards their aspirations and all their projects. If the International had not long understood that all bourgeois politics, however red and revolutionary it may seem, tends not to the emancipation of the workers, but to the consolidation of their enslavement, the lamentable role currently played by the Republicans and even by the bourgeois socialists in Spain would suffice to open its eyes.
The International Workingmen's Association, completely disregarding all current political intrigues, knows only one policy at this moment: that of its propaganda, its extension, and its organization. The day the great majority of the workers of America and Europe have joined and are well organized within its ranks, there will be no more need for revolution; justice will be done without violence. And then, if there are broken heads, it is because the bourgeois willed it so.
A few more years of peaceful development and the International Association will become a force against which it will be ridiculous to want to fight. This is what the bourgeoisie understands all too well, and this is why they are provoking us to fight today. Today, they still hope to be able to drive us away, but they know that tomorrow will be too late. They want to force us to fight with them now.
Shall we fall into this crude trap, workers? No. We would greatly please the bourgeoisie and ruin our cause for a long time. We have justice and right on our side, but our strength is not yet sufficient to fight. Let us therefore suppress our indignation in our hearts, let us remain firm, unwavering, but calm, whatever the provocations of the arrogant and impertinent youths of the bourgeoisie. Let us endure a little longer; are we not accustomed to suffering? Let us suffer, but let us not forget anything.
And, while we wait, let us continue, redouble, and expand ever more the work of our propaganda. It is necessary that the workers of all countries, the peasants as well as the factory and city workers, know what the International Association wants, and understand that, outside of its triumph, there is no other serious means of emancipation for them; that the International Association is the homeland of all oppressed workers, the only refuge against the exploitation of the bourgeoisie, the only force capable of overthrowing the insolent power of the bourgeoisie.
Let us organize ourselves, let us expand our Association, but, at the same time, let us not forget to consolidate it so that our solidarity, which is all our strength, becomes more real every day. Let us be ever more united in study, in work, in public action, in life. Let us join together in common enterprises to make our existence a little more bearable and less difficult; Let us form everywhere, and as far as possible, those societies of consumption, mutual credit, and production which, although incapable of emancipating us in a sufficient and serious way under current economic conditions, accustom workers to the practice of business and prepare precious seeds for the organization of the future.
That future is near. May the unity of slavery and misery that today embraces the workers of the whole world be transformed, for all of us, into unity of thought and will, of purpose and action - and the hour of liberation and justice for all, the hour of vindication and full satisfaction will sound.
* This text concludes the series of writings by Bakunin published by FACA between February and March 2026.
https://federacaocapixaba.noblogs.org/post/2026/03/26/a-dupla-greve-de-genebra/
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Link: (en) Brazil, Capixaba, FACA: The Double Strike in Geneva* By Mikhail Bakunin (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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