#The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore

[majestativa]

I should be clear: I possess a heart and a sword, and enjoy being as generous with the one as with the other.

— Renzo Novatore, The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[dailyanarchistposts]

Anarcho-Nihilist Critique of Organizations

Organizations, legislative bodies, and unions: Churches for the powerless. Pawnshops for the stingy and weak. —Renzo Novatore, 1920

By holding a stupid pistol, we have only taken one step in many for escaping from the alienation of “Now is not the moment” and “The times are not ripe.” —OLGA Cell FAI/IRF

The anarcho-nihilist critique of organizations stems from a common frustration with the bureaucratic and managerial role of formal organizations in radical spaces. Though this frustration is not new in anarchism,[193] it has certainly seen a renewed, and perhaps more fierce articulation in recent years from both insurrectionary and nihilist voices.[194] Many contemporary anarchists have sought to sever themselves completely from the model of formal organizations and to orient themselves towards more wild and joyous forms of coordinated action. One of the primary themes of this critique is the extent to which organizations tend to defer action until the emergence of a mass movement. Because nihilists seek the destruction of everything that comprises society, and because that aspiration will never be shared by a majority (or even a substantial portion) of the population, to wait for mass consensus is tantamount to defeat. The UK chapter of the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI) writes: “With all the billions of people who live in the world, there will never be a time when a particular act against the State and Capital is felt by all or even the majority of people to be appropriate, good, or desirable.”[195] Rather than spend our lives preparing for a mass awakening that likely will not happen, better to attack now and see where it takes us. (It is worth noting here a difference between “deferred” action and “patient” action, for in planning each of the bombings, shootings, and arsons that have defined the nihilist stance, a great deal of patience has indeed been required — let’s not mistake urgency for impatience.) A different cell of the FAI writes: “We don’t even give a minute of our life in the hope that the multitude will suddenly become aware and wake up! If the oppressed are not ready to raise the hatchet, this is a problem of the oppressed.”[196] Thus, nihilism represents a strong anti-social turn in anarchism, whereby instead of working to mobilize the masses and build a wide-based movement, it prioritizes immediate attack rooted in individual desires. This “aristocratic contempt for the common people,” as critics have labeled it, severs nihilists from the task of rousing the “sheeple,” and allows for a different set of priorities.[197]

In its most basic expression, the anarcho-nihilist critique of organizations boils down to a tension between the individual and the collective, whereby the nihilist individual refuses to compromise any of their insurrectionary desires for the sake of an imagined collective. To understand this tension, we can think back to 2012 when the CEO of an Italian nuclear power company was shot in the kneecap by two anarcho-nihilists who claimed the attack under the banner of the FAI. After the attack (which was partly inspired by the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima), the pair released a communique pointing to the various atrocities committed in the name of nuclear power and calling for an all-out attack on the nuclear industry.[198] In response to that action, the Anarchist Federation in Italy (a formal Marxist organization with no relationship to the FAI) issued a response that condemned such a renegade action: “... we strongly criticize individualist and vanguardist tactics that do not come out of a broad-based class-struggle movement. We condemn actions that put workers in danger without their knowledge...”[199] According to this perspective, the individual acting without the validation of a formal collective, and without respect for working class solidarity, has no place in an anarchist movement. In counter-response to this (and other condemnations), insurrectionary and nihilist keyboards ignited with scathing indictments of this breed of “civil anarchism” that tries to restrain individual attacks behind the “working class” banner. Venona Q, in one such essay titled “Scandalous Thoughts: A Few Notes on Civil Anarchism”, writes: “The issue for me here is the same denial of individuality that the State imposes — some herding of unique human beings into some utilitarian category by pedagogues and masters who find the individual unwieldy and dangerous, but find an abstract ideological cage immensely comfortable.”[200] Venona Q’s article diagnoses a long-term, cyclical process whereby every so often a new generation of anarchists need to shed the constrictive skin of the collective in order to reassert the role of the individual, and thus manage the tension of “the patriarchal voice of ‘political reason’ against the wild rebel spirit.”[201] Anarcho-nihilism is, in this light, a fierce and unwavering shedding of that skin.

The way that this same tension played out in Auschwitz is fascinating, and we can cautiously say it seems to bolster the nihilist critique. For all intents and purposes, the statement issued by the Anarchist Federation in Italy could have been written by the Fighting Group Auschwitz, which saw the renegade actions of the Sonderkommando as being reckless. Whereas the Fighting Group was working towards the liberation of the whole camp (i.e. mass movement) and condemning anything that might endanger the other inmates (i.e. class solidarity), the Sonderkommando represented a smaller affinity group, which although not inherently hostile towards the other inmates, could not wait for them or the outside world to act. By refusing to defer their attacks until a mass mobilization could be organized, by pushing back against a Marxist organizing body, and by acting with a “wild rebel spirit” in a totally hopeless situation, the actions of the Sonderkommando resonate deeply with the anarcho-nihilist tendency.

One of the differences between the situation of the FAI and the Sonderkommando is the degree of severity to which their actions would implicate others. While the FAI uses incendiary methods knowing that other anarchists will experience such repercussions as arrests, house raids, and grand jury indictments, the Sonderkommando acted knowing that it would result in the slaughter of hundreds of people. This remains a real tension in contemporary nihilism and has led some people to a place of paralysis. The authors of the journal Attentat (a word that refers to political assassinations and similar violent acts) conclude that the repercussions of political violence in today’s world are perhaps too great to justify: “It is not our central proposition that attentats can, will, or should be the way to confront the state. We are not capable of the horror show that would require.”[202] Even without the constrictive role of organizations, nihilism still wrestles with the implications of collective responsibility.

The other two major uprisings to be discussed both happened in extermination camps, where long-term political organizing was an impossibility. These two events will lead us into an exploration of nihilist forms of organizing.

[gett-merkedd]

“I do not want to unite with the multitude of those who flatter the proletariat, excusing them, praising them, adorning them with wreathes. No, oh distinguished windbags, your verve disguises nothing. The “people” is always there, idiotic, cowardly, resigned. And I, who consider myself superior, desire to be so, and both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat will pay for my superiority”

— Bruno Filippi, The Rebels Dark Laughter

Bruno Filippi was born in Livorno, Italy, into a large family, the first of six brothers, and his father was a typographer. His family moved to Milan when he was still a child and in 1915, he already had trouble with the local police forces. That same year, he was arrested during an anti-militarist demonstration where he had a warm gun without bullets.

While still an adolescent he discovered the philosophy of Max Stirner and so he embraced it. Filippi was a regular contributor to the Italian individualist anarchist journal Iconoclasta! where he collaborated with the notorious individualist anarchist Renzo Novatore. In 1920, the editors of the paper printed a booklet with many of his articles entitled Posthumous Writings of Bruno Filippi.

After the war, in 1919, the biennio rosso events exploded in which he participated. On September 7, 1919, he died in Milan, while trying to explode a bomb directed at a meeting of the richest people in the city. Renzo Novatore wrote an article dedicated to him called "In The Circle of Life. In Memory of Bruno Filippi." There he said that Filippi "immolated himself in a fruitful embrace with death because he madly loved Life. We have the need and the entitlement to. say of him that which was said of the D'Annunzian hero: “That the slaves of the marketplace turn around and remember!”"

Contemporary American insurrectionary anarchist Wolfi Landstreicher translated some of his writings into English in a collection he titled The rebel's dark laughter: the writings of Bruno Filippi. Landstreicher says about Filippi that "His essays, stories and prose poems show no mercy for either domination or subservience in any form, and he was as harsh in his assessment of the slaves who resigned themselves to their slavery as to the masters who exploited and oppressed them. He could be faulted, like — Renzo Novatore, for his lack of class analysis. But when watching the masses of the poor and working people go out without protest to slaughter each other at the orders of their masters, it must have been difficult for the few who did refuse this slaughter not to be disgusted by such sheep — like behavior. In 1919, when there was an uprising in Italy, Filippi was out there fighting with the insurgent exploited, clear about who was the enemy."

[leftpress]

Thoughts and Sayings

| April 22nd 2017 | The Anarchist Library

Author: Renzo Novatore Title: Thoughts and Sayings Date: 1917 Notes: Translated by Wolfi Landstreicher. Source: The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore

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[majestativa]

This is the dark hour of my black melancholy.

— RENZO NOVATORE ⚜️ The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[majestativa]

To live all battles, all defeats, all victories, all dreams, all sorrows, and all hopes intensely and dangerously.

— RENZO NOVATORE ⚜️ The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[majestativa]

The eyes of our dead tell us the “why” of life.

— RENZO NOVATORE ⚜️ The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[majestativa]

Blood requires blood. That is ancient history! It can turn back no more.

— RENZO NOVATORE ⚜️ The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[majestativa]

As the poet transforms his lyre into a dagger.

— Renzo Novatore, The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[majestativa]

Because we are lovers of danger; the reckless ones in all undertakings, the conquerors of the impossible, the promoters and precursors of all “endeavors”!

— RENZO NOVATORE ⚜️ The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[majestativa]

We heat our pen in the volcanic fire of our negating spirit. We dip it in our vigorous heart, full of rebellious blood.

— RENZO NOVATORE ⚜️ The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[majestativa]

Wrapped only in the cloak of our raging passions.

— Renzo Novatore, The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[majestativa]

Because we hear the voice of the blood that cries from underground.

— Renzo Novatore, The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[majestativa]

You still want to go on living on your knees. But I have understood life. And anyone who understands life cannot live on his knees.

— Renzo Novatore, The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[majestativa]

Don’t speak, and allow me to look into your eyes where I will read your innermost being.

— Renzo Novatore, The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)

[majestativa]

They looked into each other’s eyes. The fire of love flashed in each of their pupils like volcanic lava. They then understood what the Teacher had told them and, recognizing each other as “kindred spirits.”

— RENZO NOVATORE ⚜️ The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore, transl by Wolfi Landstreicher, (2012)