Translated from the Spanish of the original article that appeared in Regeneración, Numero 256, 21 de Abril de 1917
While all those in favor of the war shout that the United States is fighting for freedom, the Senate Judiciary Committee is considering the anti-spying bill. This bill, which will soon be approved by Congress, prohibits criticism of current events, and will only allow criticism of past events.
No one will be able to give their opinion on what occurs. If the government’s actions are absurd, they will remain absurd, because once the well-known bill is approved, it will be a crime of treason to think with one’s own head.
This bill also gives the Postmaster General broad powers to prevent anarchist newspapers from circulating through the mail.
One cannot wish for greater freedom or a greater spirit of justice.
An anarchist newspaper denounces war as a crime, as there can be no greater crime than to make human beings kill each other to sustain exploitation and tyranny. So the newspaper is denied all exemptions, its editors are arrested, and if the government so desires, they are shot.
On the other hand, a bourgeois newspaper stimulates the war of proletarians against proletarians, for the benefit of privilege and tyranny. Well, this newspaper, which fosters hatred between peoples, is given all the exemptions and its editors are showered with honors and distinctions.
There is freedom; but for lies and crime.
Ricardo Flores Magón
See also:
The War – Ricardo Flores Magón (1917)
The Pacification of the Yaqui – Librado Rivera (1927)
Carranza’s Doom – Enrique Flores Magón (1916)
The Death of the Bourgeois System – Ricardo Flores Magón (1915)
The Mexican People are Suited to Communism – Ricardo Flores Magón (1911)
Mexican Workers in the IWW and the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM), by Devra Anne Weber
The Chaparral Insurgents of South Texas, by Aaron Miguel Cantú