Anarchists Uphold the Empire

From ‘The Word: To Rouse the People, To Combat Fascism, and To Speed Commonweal’, March 1942, Glasgow, edited and published by Guy A. Aldred

Owing to the horror felt by Libertarians at the persecution of the Jews and of all cultural thought within the Fascist countries, this war has created more confusion in the minds of the common people than perhaps any previous national struggle. Socialists have forgotten all about the class struggle to become full-time recruiting sergeants and have persuaded their proletarian followers to engage, with will, in the tragic dance of death. Anarchists have overcome their antagonism for authority and the State and turned militarist, if not with glee, at least with ardour.

And so one is not surprised to learn that Rudolf Rocker, one-time editor of The Worker’s Friend has joined the ranks of militarists and empire defenders. Those persons who are opposed to war, and yet call themselves Anarchists, and so busily circulate the writings of Rocker and Kropotkin, should take stock of themselves and realise that Kropotkin upheld the last war and at its conclusion, on his return to Russia, actually spoke as a reactionary militarist; and that Rocker upholds this war. We knew that this was Rocker’s attitude some time ago, as anyone who read his so-called classic work on Nationalism could see. But his Anarchist admirers refused to face the facts and went on boosting his activity.

In another column we reproduce Rocker’s article from the Spanish, which has been translated specifically for these columns. The article is criticised and replied to in the Italian Anarchist weekly, L’Adunata Dei Refrattari, published in New York, for November 22, 1941.

Rocker’s article has appeared in several Spanish journals, published in various parts of America.

Our Italian contemporary, under the heading, The British Empire, writes:

The self-described “anti-totalitarian” journal,“Rumbo,” of Havana, publishes an article from the pen of Rudolf Rocker who for many years has styled himself an Anarchist, in which he acquits England of the “false accusation of being an imperialist country,” Rocker writes:

(Here follows the first four paragraphs of Rocker’s article. There is no point in retranslating from the Italian.)

Our [L’Adunata Dei Refrattari] contemporary comments:

Apparently when Anarchism takes on the garb of the warrior and the defence of the State, there are no half measures! Churchill’s authoritarian anti-fascists are not concerning themselves with justifying English Imperialism nor with explaining that the British Empire is not really an Empire in the strict meaning of the word, but something quite different. Such a justification could only arise if he and his colleagues felt any inconvenience in their new positions. Under such circumstances alone is it necessary to “reform” the dictionary and to rewrite history.

The British Empire, we are told, is not an empire but a federation of independent states. This, despite the fact that Englishmen who really ought to know, talk persistently of the British Empire and that George VI still signs himself “Rex Et Imperator.”

Let us see, then, just how true and just how false is this statement of Rocker’s.

The British Empire has a total population of 485,733,451 million inhabitants. The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) has a population of 46,190,000 million. The population of the six Dominions is 29,800,000 distributed as follows: (1) Australia, 6,700,000; (2) Canada, 10,400,000; (3) Ireland, 2,972,000; (3) Newfoundland 278,000; (5) Union of South Africa, 8,000,000; (6) New Zealand, 1,450,000.

Adding the population of the United Kingdom — about 48,190,000 — to that of the Dominions — about 30,000,000 — we have a total population of 79,190,000 human beings that are, according to Rocker, citizens of indepedent states freely federated.

Just how much in those dominions are in reality independent and freely federated is a matter for discussion. Nevertheless, it should be sufficient to consider: (1) the total population of the Dominion is less than the population of the Motherland; (2) Dominion government is presided over by a Governor-General sent from London, who nominally represents the King and, in effect, the government of the United Kingdom; (3) the Dominions’ payment of taxes to the motherland; (4) The military defence of the Dominions is dependent on the British Fleet; (5) the capitalist class of the motherland owns and exploits, considerably even if not always preponderantly, the natural wealth and labour of the people of the Dominions; (6) as in the motherland the Dominions are ruled by a class, national, British or foreign, who act in accordance with their own interests without bothering about the feelings of the citizen or the aspirations of the majority of the inhabitants.

Truly, one must have lost all conception of liberty and independence if one pretends that the British Dominions are freely federated with the United Kingdom.

But the British Empire is not composed solely of the Metropolis and the Dominions.

Rocker makes one exception to his “federation of British States” — India. And he has said enough! India has a population of 351,400,000 million inhabitants — a population nearly five times that of the federated states and nearly nine times that of the United Kingdom of which it is a dependent. And that is not all. To complete the population of the British Empire there are 59,143,000 million distributed over various colonies and territories. But of those, Rocker says not a word. Even were we to admit that the “Dominions are free and independent countries” there still remains the 410, 543,451 millions living under colonial regime. But what will one not do to sustain the impossible!

With these figures before us, with the knowledge that the British Empire has, at this very moment 37,000 Indian nationals in prison — leaving aside those confined in other countries and all those who are victims of this imperialism, it is absurd to deny that the British Empire is an Empire in the historic meaning of the word. The British Empire is an Empire, as were others, founded by conquest and violence. To deny this is to deny a reality that is as clear as the light of the sun.

In our view, Rocker writes mildly but definitely. His sympathies are Imperialistic, militaristic and evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The attitude is intelligible but a departure from his earlier Anarchist propaganda actually. If he was correct when he opposed Kropotkin for supporting the last war, he is incorrect today. If his present position is sound, the Anarchist movement is in error and should transform its propaganda. Rocker now views the Empire as a stepping stone to world commonwealth and so abandons his anti-militarist position as utopian. Under these circumstances the Anarchist movement should drop its association with him or pass out of existence.