Translated from ‘Cultura Obrera: Organ of the Atlantic Boilermen’s Union‘, January 20, 1912, New York City, edited by Pedro Esteve. Republished in ‘Regeneración‘, February 3, 1912, Los Angeles, California, edited by Anselmo L. Figueroa
The cannon doesn’t cease to rumble on the fields of the earth.
It appears that men are dominated by an inextinguishable fever of domination.
Following chimeras, which, because they are old and discredited, should be far, far away from all enlightened intellects, human beings are everywhere destroyed. The so-called civilized nations, rather than being populated by national people, seem to be populated by brutes. Blood inflames spirits. In Tripoli, in the Riff, in Persia it kills ferociously.
Cursed, a thousand times cursed are the wars of conquest!
Because of them, people suffer hunger and thirst, hospitals are filled, the strongest and healthiest people of the nations perish or become disabled, epidemics break out, men are brutalized, women are degraded, humanity is impoverished.
The reason? The desire to dominate and exploit! The right? That of force! The benefit? That of distracting attention from fruitful emancipatory struggles!
When, when will the wars end? People, when will you understand that your mission is not to wage war? Don’t you see, don’t you understand, that those who incite you are your masters; that they consumed your ancestors, that they wither your energies and weaken your descendants?
Instead of fighting against your own, all those who are the oppressed, why don’t you annihilate your adversaries, who in reality are the ones who plot the wars and who incite you: capitalists, rulers and priests?
P.E. [“Pedro Esteve” in Regeneración]
La Guerra
El cañón no cesa de retumbar por los ámbitos de la tierra.
Parece que los hombres estén dominados por una inextinguible fiebre de dominio.
Tras quimeras que, por añejas y desacreditadas, deberian estar lejos, muy lejos de todo intelecto ilustrado, destrózanse doquiera los humanos. Las naciones llamadas civilizadas, más que de seres nacionales, parecen pobladas de brutos. La sangre enardece los ánimos. En Tripoli, en el Riff, en Persia se mata ferozmente.
Malditas, mil veces malditas las guerras de conquista!
Por ellas se sufre hambre y sed, llénanse les hospitales, perecen ó inutilizanse las gentes más robustas y más sanas de las naciones, desarróllanse epidemias, embrutécense los hombres, degrádanse las mujeres, se empobrece la humanidad.
¿Razón? El afán de dominar y explotar! Derecho? ¡El de la fuerza! ¿Ventaja? La de distraer la atención de las fecundas luchas emancipadoras!
¿Cuándo, cuándo acabarán las guerras? Pueblo, ¿cuándo comprenderás que tu misión no es guerrear? ¿No ves, no comprendes, que los que te azuzan son tus amos; que consumieron á tus antepasados, que agostan tus energías y debilitan tu descendencia?
¿Por qué en vez de luchar contra los tuyos, que lo son todos los oprimidos, no aniquilas á tus adversarios que en realidad son los que las guerras traman y ellas te azuzan: capitalistas, gobernantes y curas?
P.E. [“Pedro Esteve” en Regeneración]
Also:
Anarchism & Indigenous Peoples
Anarchists & fellow travellers on Palestine
Our Colonizations, from Le Révolté (1884)
Military Power, from Industrial Worker (1909)
Cannon Fodder, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1910)
The Purpose of Revolution, by Praxedis G. Guerrero (1910)
The Probable Intervention, by Praxedis G. Guerrero (1910)
The Means and the End, by Praxedis G. Guerrero (1910)
War and the Workers, by the Industrial Workers of the World (1911)
Manifesto to the Workers of the World, by the Mexican Liberal Party (1911)
Rebellion Spreads, Expropriation on Every Tongue, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1911)
Capitalism in Mexico, by Honoré J. Jaxon (1911)
Report of the Work of the Chicago Mexican Liberal Defense League, by Voltairine de Cleyre (1912)
To the Soldiers, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1914)
The Barricade and the Trench, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1915)
Echoes of War, by Estella Arteaga (1916)
Armed / The Conscious Workers, by Juanita Arteaga (1916)
Skirmishes, by Juanita Arteaga (1916)
For Our Country!, by Enrique Flores Magón (1916)
My First Impressions, by Enrique Flores Magón (1916)
The War, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1917)
On the March, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1917)
From Behind the Bars, by Librado Rivera (1923)
The Right of Peoples to Determine Themselves, from Solidaridad Obrera (1936)
The Black Spectre of War, by Emma Goldman (1938)
Every Fellow Worker Knows Joe Hill (2024)
Against the Destruction of Gaza, For the Liberation of Palestine (2023)
“Who can even dream that if Germany is defeated, militarism will end? This war forcibly reinforces militarism everywhere. […]
I doubt if any other war has demonstrated as clearly as this one that war is fought only for interests, not for principles.”
Pedro Esteve, second open letter to fellow anarchist Peter Kropotkin, Cultura Obrera, December 19, 1914
An Archive 