Anarchism spread into Belgium as Communards took refuge in Brussels with the fall of the Paris Commune. Most Belgian members in the First International joined the anarchist Jura Federation after the socialist schism. Belgian anarchists also organized the 1886 Walloon uprising, the Libertarian Communist Group, and several Bruxellois newspapers at the turn of the century. Apart from new publications, the movement dissipated through the internecine antimilitarism in the interwar period. Several groups emerged mid-century for social justice and anti-fascism.
Before 1880
The Anti-Authoritarian International
In September 1872, during the Hague Congress of the International Workingmen's Association, the Belgian delegates spoke out against the exclusion of Mikhail Bakunin proposed by the General Council of London, dominated by Karl Marx. In this founding conflict of anarchism, they joined the camp of the "anti-authoritarians" against the "authoritarians". Like Bakunin, the Belgian delegates refused to achieve their objectives by conquering political power and were in favor of a federalist structure of the International, in which the local groups retained a large degree of autonomy. According to them, the revolution would take place quickly and a new society would be built from below.Jacques Gillen, Les anarchistes en Belgique, in Anne Morelli, José Gotovitch, Contester dans un pays prospère: l'extrême gauche en Belgique et au Canada, Peter Lang, 2007, à 35, texte intégral.
From this split was born, at the congress of Saint-Imier on 15 September 1872, an "anti-authoritarian" International known as the Jura Federation. It was around this that the anarchist current was born, which then claimed to be called "revolutionary collectivism", wanting to be the promoter of a self-managed economic system outside all authority, all centralization, all states and giving as objective "the destruction of all political power by the revolutionary strike". The majority of Belgian members of the First International joined this anti-authoritarian International.Marianne Enckell, 1872 : Saint-Imier, berceau de l’anarchisme, Alternative libertaire, nº 220, septembre 2012, texte intégral.La Fédération jurassienne et l’Internationale antiautoritaire, Mémoires d'ici, Centre de recherche et de documentation du Jura bernois, texte intégral .
In the mid-1870s, Belgian socialism was made up of a set of workers' associations anxious to maintain their independence and to stay away from politics. The local federation of Verviers was then the center of the anti-authoritarian International in Belgium. It challenged trade unionism and political action to privilege revolutionary propaganda: the abolition of the state must be the top priority. But the announced revolution was long overdue and the social-democratic tendency, particularly present in Ghent and Brussels, gradually won out over the anti-political revolutionary.
"Compagnon" The term compagnon ("fellow") by which anarchists refer to themselves was first used in Belgium, said Jean Maitron. "When the republicans," cried Tévenin, judged before the Assize Court of Isère, "wanted to designate themselves separately from the monarchists, they took the name of citizen; we who despise the right of citizenship, we looked for an absolutely working-class term and we adopted that of companion; that means a companion in struggle, in misery, sometimes also in a chain". These companions do not belong to a party, but to local groups without structures and living an independent life.Collectif, Un courant autonome, in Les Anars des origines à hier soir, Éditions Alternative libertaire et Éditions du Monde libertaire, 1999, texte intégral.
Personalities Victor Dave, born 25 February 1845 in Jambes and died 31 October 1922 in Paris. He was a libertarian socialist journalist and historian, a member of the Brussels Federation of the International Workingmen's Association. He has published numerous biographies including that of Fernand Pelloutier. Eugène Hins, born in Molenbeek in 1839 and died in Brussels in 1923. Professor of medieval history, he was the founder of the newspaper La Pensée, leader of Belgian free thought and co-founder of the International Workingmen's Association. Lucien Hénault, born in 1870 and died on 18 June 1914. Doctor and libertarian communist, he participated in the Circle of Socialist Students before founding, in 1900, Le Réveil des Travailleurs. In 1901, he published in Liège, Le Parti ouvrier et anarchie. Having become a chief physician at the Saint-Gilles hospital in Brussels, he moved away from militant action but remained active as a free-thinker. In 1913, he was president of the association Les Amis de l'Orphelinat rationaliste.Dictionnaire des anarchistes, « Le Maitron » : notice biographique.René Bianco : 100 ans de presse anarchiste : notice.Fonds Jan Pellering : notice biographique .
From 1880 to 1914
Walloon uprising of 1886 The Walloon uprising of 1886 designated a series of insurrectional workers' strikes that began on 18 March with a commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the Paris Commune, organized by the Revolutionary Anarchist Group of Liège. There were violent clashes between demonstrators and the police, the army was mobilized and the uprising was crushed, causing the deaths of several dozen strikers.
The Friendly Federation of Anarchists (1904)
In 1902, Georges Thonar chaired the "revolutionary congress" of Liège which was a success of participation but gave few concrete results, in particular because of individualism and the fear of any authoritarianism which paralyzed any beginnings of organization. Dispersed in an multitude of trends, the movement proved incapable of implementing its resolutions, of coordinating its action.Maxime Steinberg, A l'origine du communisme belge : l'extrême-gauche révolutionnaire d'avant 1914, Les Cahiers Marxistes, Le Mouvement social, décembre 1970, texte intégral.
However Thonar continued his project of organizing anarchism. To clarify the positions, he drew up a manifesto, What anarchists want, which excluded from the outset those nostalgic for propaganda of the deed and the "originals" who were not conformist.
For him, anarchism was located in "an active propaganda, purely theoretical and without phrases", aiming at "integral education" through study circles, schools, conferences, newspapers and brochures. To ensure "the development of personal dignity, of the spirit of independence and of feelings of solidarity", such was the immediate objective of group action. Direct action was not neglected, but anarchism knew that "riots" and "revolutions" are not created "artificially"; that "governmental arbitrariness and capitalist exploitation will push the masses that must be educated as a consequence to a gigantic general strike, the prelude to the social revolution". He did not reject any idea of reform because "the educational action of the struggle waged to obtain them is useful to the working class."Georges Thonar, Ce que veulent les anarchistes, Liège, Publications de L’Insurgé, 1904.
In October 1904 in Charleroi and on this basis, Thonar, assisted by Émile Chapelier, brought together a libertarian communist congress of around a hundred fairly representative militants who unanimously adopted his text and laid the foundations for a Friendly Federation of Anarchists.Fonds Jan Pellering : Anarchisme in België van 1880 tot 1914, texte intégral .
The objectives were, on the one hand, to bring together the anarchists by means of an organization which allowed them to act more methodically, and, on the other hand, to take concrete measures to develop propaganda, whether through conferences, publications or libraries. The organization project, entirely developed by Georges Thonar, in a way leader of the movement at the time, speaks of a libertarian federalism based on voluntary collaboration: each group and each individual retains its autonomy, and no one imposes decisions (which makes it possible to overcome the reluctance of those who fear the appearance of a certain authoritarianism). The organization of the federation was based on three types of gathering: local sections, study and propaganda circles, intended to train members through conferences on both social and scientific subjects; concentration groups meeting monthly and finally the free federation, without statute, holding an annual congress. The publication of a newsletter informs about the state of propaganda and new publications, and its production is carried out each time by a different group in order to develop contacts and avoid excessive centralization. Thonar was appointed secretary,* Dictionnaire international des militants anarchistes : Georges Thonar. but he was quickly disappointed because, apart from the holding of an annual congress, few actions were organized collectively.
The libertarian community L’Experience (1905–1908)
In July 1905, the libertarian L’Experience community in Stockel, was founded by Émile Chapelier and his partner Marie David (Joseph Jacquemotte's sister).Dictionnaire international des militants anarchistes : David, Marie, Valentine. It had five to fifteen people, wanting to be an alternative to propaganda of the deed – what they called "propaganda by example". Victor Serge, Jean de Boë and the Esperantist activist Eugène Gaspard Marin, notably stayed there.Vinz Otesanek, L’Expérience. Une communauté anarchiste à Boitsfort à la Belle-Époque, La Gazette de Bruxelles, 8 avril 2010, lire texte intégral .L'Éphéméride anarchiste : Communauté communiste-libertaire "L'Expérience".
The libertarian communist colony was the Brussels section of the Libertarian Communist Group founded on 25 July 1905 with a view to structuring the movement to carry out joint action and sustained propaganda. Until then, individualism and the fear of authoritarianism had always pushed anarchists to refuse any form of organization.Jacques Gillen, Chapitre 1 : Eugène Gaspard Marin et l’anarchisme en Belgique, in Les activités en Belgique d’un anthropologue anarchiste : Eugène Gaspard Marin (1883–1969), Mémoire de Licence en Histoire contemporaine, sous la direction de Anne Morelli, Université libre de Bruxelles, 1996–1997, texte intégral .
The project was the implementation of libertarian communism: common property, communal work (gardening and poultry farming essentially) and consumption according to the principle of "From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs". It relied on the principle of mutual aid developed by Peter Kropotkin. It was an open environment, integrated into the Belgian and international anarchist movement, and multiplying activities for those who came to visit it: newspapers, active theater, conferences, etc. On 22 July 1906, the second Belgian Libertarian Communist Congress was held there, which launched the idea of an anarchist international. The colony published multiple brochures, which helped reactivate Belgian and international anarchism, on revolutionary syndicalism, neomalthusianism, Esperanto, free love, etc. It was an assumed experimental environment, not wanting to appear as a model, nor as a fixed structure.Michel Antony, Communes Libertaire et Anarchiste en France, Laboratoire Urbanisme Insurrectionnel, texte intégral.Jacques Gillen, Les objectifs de la colonie, in Les activités en Belgique d’un anthropologue anarchiste : Eugène Gaspard Marin (1883–1969), Mémoire de Licence en Histoire contemporaine, sous la direction de Anne Morelli, Université libre de Bruxelles, 1996–1997, texte intégral .
A showcase for anarchism, the colony was open to visitors on Sundays, lectures and plays were given there. The community published many brochures in its collection.René Bianco, 100 ans de presse anarchiste : Bibliothèque de la colonie communiste libertaire L’Expérience. On 11 August 1906, it published the first number of the weekly L'Émancipateur.