Propaganda of The Deed: Revolutionary Warfare and the Power of Action

By Fouad Sabry

What is Propaganda of The Deed

Propaganda of the deed is specific political direct action meant to be exemplary to others and serve as a catalyst for revolution.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Propaganda of the deed

Chapter 2: Anarchism and violence

Chapter 3: Alexander Berkman

Chapter 4: History of anarchism

Chapter 5: First Red Scare

Chapter 6: Johann Most

Chapter 7: Luigi Galleani

Chapter 8: Anarchism in the United States

Chapter 9: Preparedness Day Bombing

Chapter 10: History of terrorism

(II) Answering the public top questions about propaganda of the deed.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Propaganda of The Deed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: May 27, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Propaganda of the deed

The term propaganda of the deed (also known as propaganda by the deed, from the French propagande par le fait) refers to a specific political direct action intended to inspire others and spark a revolution.

Although it also had non-violent applications, it is primarily linked to the violent deeds committed by advocates of insurrectionary anarchism in the late 19th and early 20th century, such as the bombings and assassinations directed at the ruling class.

The Italian revolutionary Carlo Pisacane (1818–1857) claimed in his Political Testament (1857) that ideas spring from deeds and not the other way around, making him one of the first people to conceptualize propaganda by the deed. As Francis of Assisi's remarks, Let them show their love by the acts they perform for each other, according to what the Apostle says: Let us not love in word or in speech, but in action and in truth," make clear, the idea has a deep history.

Because we preach not only action in and of itself, but also action as propaganda, certain anarchists, like Johann Most, encouraged the broadcasting of violent acts of reprisal against counter-revolutionaries.

Professor of American history at Yale University Beverly Gage elaborates on the significance of the idea for both outsiders and anarchists:

When bombing and assassination talk suddenly erupted in revolutionary groups in the late 1870s, it appeared to outsiders to be nothing more than a call to bloodshed. Contrarily, the concept of propaganda by deed, or the attentat (attack), had a very clear logic to most anarchists and others. The notion that capitalist society was a site of continual violence—where every rule, every church, and every paycheck were founded on force—was one of anarchism's core tenets. In such a world, doing nothing and watching helplessly as millions of people suffered constituted an act of violence in and of itself. Not whether violence in and of itself could be justified, but rather how violence could be used in the most efficient way possible to destroy, in Most's words, the beast of property that makes people wretched, and gains in brutality and voracity with the progress of our so called civilization.

After 1880, Within and outside of the anarchist movement, the phrase propaganda of the deed has started to be used to describe specific bombs, tyrannicides and regicides.

In 1881, The anarchist London Congress formally accepted propaganda by the deed as a tactic.

In 1886, French anarchist Clément Duval achieved a form of propaganda of the deed, stealing 15,000 francs from a Paris socialite's home, prior to unintentionally lighting the house on fire.

two weeks later, caught, Long live anarchy! he cried as he was hauled from the court, and death sentenced.

Later, Duval's punishment was changed to hard work on Devil's Island, French Guiana.

In the anarchist paper Révolte, Famously, Duval said that, "Only human exploitation of human beings results in theft.

the denial of your existence by society, You have to accept it.

I was detained by the police in accordance with the law, In the name of Liberty, I struck him.

beginning with 1887, A few significant anarchists had started to disassociate themselves from specific acts of violence.

Peter Kropotkin thus wrote that year in Le Révolté that a structure based on centuries of history cannot be destroyed with a few kilos of dynamite.

When he stated that, anarchist historian Max Nettlau offered a more sophisticated definition of propaganda, Since each person is likely to be receptive to a particular style of argument, propaganda cannot be sufficiently varied to reach everyone. All aspects of life, including social and political, domestic and artistic, educational and recreational, should be permeated by it. Propaganda should be done through words and deeds, the press and the podium, the workshop and the domestic sphere, acts of rebellion, and by setting an example with our own lives as free men. Those who agree with each other may work together; if not, they should choose to work independently rather than attempting to convince the other of the superiority of their own approach.

Gustav Landauer, an anarchist from Germany, Errico Malatesta, and Luigi Galleani, anarchists from Italy, were among the later anarchist writers who favored propaganda of the deed. Gustav Landauer defined propaganda of the deed as the development of libertarian social structures and communities that would serve as models for others seeking to reshape society. Propaganda by the deed was defined by Errico Malatesta as violent communal uprisings intended to spark the impending revolution. Malatesta wrote that even if he ultimately believed that violence was necessary, it was an anarchist's responsibility to warn against its risks:

Violence, which is defined as the use of physical force against another person and is the most heinous kind of conflict between men, is obviously corrupting. It has a tendency to stifle the best human emotions and foster all antisocial traits, such as aggression, hatred, retaliation, a spirit of dominance and tyranny, scorn for the weak, and servility towards the powerful.

And when violence is employed to achieve a beneficial goal, this negative propensity also appears. Anarchists who fight against all forms of oppression and fight for the complete freedom of every person—and who, as a result, ought to instinctively shudder at any acts of violence that stop being simply acts of resistance to oppression and start to oppress—are also susceptible to falling into the pit of brutal force.

Many anarchists forgot about their goal and embarked on a path that is the utmost opposition to all anarchist beliefs and ideals due to the excitement generated by some recent explosions and respect for the bravery of the bomb-throwers who faced death.

At the other extreme, the anarchist Luigi Galleani took undisguised pride in describing himself as a subversive, a revolutionary propagandist, and advocate of the violent overthrow of established government and institutions through the use of direct action, i.e., bombings and assassinations. Galleani was perhaps the most outspoken proponent of propaganda by the deed from the turn of the century through the end of the First World War.

Advocacy for the act is also connected to illegality, an ideology of anarchism that originated primarily in France, Italy, Belgium, early 20th century, and Switzerland as a result of anarchist individuality.

The illegalists openly supported crime as a way of life.

Max Stirner's theory on egoism had an influence, the illegalists broke from anarchists like Clément Duval and Marius Jacob who justified theft with a theory of individual reclamation.

Instead, The illegalists said that there was no moral justification for their behavior because they did not commit their crimes in the service of a higher good, however, in the pursuit of one's own goals.

The most prominent group to embrace illegalism was France's Bonnot Gang.

Thus, in order to finance the organization, the deed was propagandized through theft, namely bank robberies dubbed expropriations or revolutionary expropriations, riots, and general strikes that were intended to foster an uprising or even a revolution. These actions were defended as being the essential counterbalance to state repression. Leon Trotsky denounced anarchists' individual acts of violence as little more than a pretext for official punishment as early as 1911. He stated in 1911, "Theoretical considerations and political experience reveal differently. The anarchist prophets of the 'propaganda by the deed' can argue all they want about the elevating and