To the Cuban People – Errico Malatesta (1900)

Translated by Paul Sharkey for ‘The Complete Works of Malatesta Vol. IV‘, edited by Davide Turcato, from the article ‘Al pueblo cubano,’ La Discusión, March 10, 1900, Havana, Cuba

As I prepare to leave this country, to which I was drawn by a powerful feeling of sympathy, permit me to send a greeting to the brave Cuban workers, white and black, born here or elsewhere, who have offered me such a warm welcome.

I have long admired the selflessness and heroism with which they fought for their country’s freedom; now I have learned to appreciate them for their bright intelligence, their progressive spirit, and their truly exceptional culture for a people oppressed for so long. And I depart with the firm belief that they will soon take their place among the most advanced elements that fight in every country of the world for the full emancipation of humanity. I came to Cuba to expound to the workers the ideas of a party persecuted by every Government, insulted and slandered by all who would climb onto the people’s shoulders.

And I knew that Cubans, themselves victims of oppression and slander, could not help but listen with sympathy to an exposition of the ideas for which countless martyrs have suffered and died; ideas for which famous scholars and artists of genius fight alongside the worthiest workers; ideas which all tyrants fight against with prisons, torture, and the guillotine; that all mercenary writers adulterate and misrepresent, but none dare confronting on the civilized terrain of debate. In any case, they would have judged these ideas for what they are worth, since they are certainly smart enough and educated enough to do so.

But the masters of Cuba wanted none of that. The mercenary Press, while arguing that anarchist ideas are absurd and will never make headway with the Cubans, have twisted what little I managed to say and openly did dirty police work by demanding that I be prevented from speaking, thus confessing to the fear of truth felt by those politickers who, with the name of the homeland on their lips, strive for nothing else than their personal gain.

And the present rulers, as if they wanted to prove that the anarchists are right when they say that all Governments are liberticidal by nature, and forgetting that they are in Power as a result of a successful revolution against Spanish rule, banned me from speaking by invoking a law created by the same Spanish government that, from Cuba to the Philippines, from Barcelona to Xeres, earned an infamous reputation for tyranny.

This may be for the better. This way the government has made better propaganda than I could have done myself with my meager capabilities. Today, every Cuban worker who does not like being treated like a child or a slave, will feel the need to find out what this anarchy is, which strikes such fear into every kind of oppressors. And that is all I desire, because I am sure that, once the truth is known, all men with hearts, all who truly want justice and freedom for all, will rally under the redemptive flag of anarchy.

I just recommend workers to search for what the anarchists think in the writings of the anarchists themselves; and not in the enemy Press that, sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes with blatant bad faith, disfigures everything we say.

I myself shall, in another place, set out succinctly what I came here to tell the workers of Cuba. Here I shall limit myself to express my comrades’ thoughts on the issue of independence, which is being used today as an excuse to silence our propaganda.

It has been said that the anarchists are the enemies of Cuban independence; it has even been said that my presence in Cuba hurts the cause.

The truth is that anarchists, being the enemies of all Governments and claiming the right to live and grow in total freedom for all ethnic and social groups, as well as for every individual, must necessarily oppose any actual Government and side with any people that fights for their freedom. If there was any self-styled anarchist who served the Spanish Government, he was simply a traitor; and it would be just as stupid or malicious to conclude that the anarchists support the Spanish tyranny as it would be to claim that the Cubans are the enemies of Cuba ‘s freedom just because some Cuban sold out to Spain.

The fact is that the anarchists, fighting against the existing government, do not do so to put another in its place; and it should be easy to see that if such spirit of hostility and resistance against all Governments, personified by the anarchists, had prevailed in the war of independence, today it would not be possible to impose upon the Cuban people those same Spanish laws that Martí, Maceo, Creci, and thousands of Cubans died to abolish.

As for the American intervention, it is almost certain that those who use independence as an excuse to keep the workers docile and submissive and do not care about their rights, are the same people with a personal interest in the intervention continuing in order to keep foreign troops as protection against the demands of the Cuban proletariat; just as it is certain that the Americans would leave if the Cuban people were to demonstrate a firm determination to drive them out, but they would never do so at the request of the capitalists who seek their protection or of the politicians who ask them for appointments.

We anarchists want Cuba’s freedom, just as we want that of all peoples: we want true freedom, though. And for this we have fought and will continue to fight.

The Cubans can count on us.

ERRICO MALATESTA.