The Trial of the 66, also known as the Great Trial of the Anarchists (), was a French political trial held in January 1883 against dozens of anarchists accused and sentenced for participating in the Black International. As a significant episode of repression against the anarchist movement, which was then in the process of formation and growth, the trial sought to decapitate the movement's structure in France, with very limited success.
Since the crushing of the Paris Commune during the Bloody Week and the banning of the Anti-authoritarian International (1872–1881) in the country and elsewhere, anarchists had been gradually evolving by adopting new strategies, such as the use of propaganda of the deed, and growing in numbers. In 1881, at the London Congress, a number of them supported the refounding of the International on anti-organizational and insurrectional principles, giving birth to the Black International. Peter Kropotkin, in connection with the Lyon Revolutionary Federation, subsequently undertook several trips across France, where he visited various groups and individuals. At the same time, the situation in France became increasingly unstable for the State, with the activities of the Black Band in Saône-et-Loire during the Montceau-les-Mines troubles, followed by the Assommoir bombing. The French State reacted with great violence, arresting dozens of anarchists and accusing them, during the trial held in early 1883, of belonging to this International, using various types of evidence, most notably the anarchist press itself.
For their part, the accused anarchists maintained that these allegations were false and that the trial was primarily intended to destroy the anarchist movement. Among them, Kropotkin, Toussaint Bordat, Joseph Bernard, and Émile Gautier were the primary figures the justice system sought to imprison. Almost all were convicted, eventually leading to the demonstration of 9 March 1883, followed by their appeal, where the sentences of a certain number were reduced. After their release, French authorities engaged in illegal stratagems aimed at incarcerating some of them once more. Far from marking the death of the anarchist movement in France, this period of repression did not interrupt its growth, a point that several of the accused, including Gautier and Kropotkin, had emphasized during the trial.
History
General context: propaganda of the deed, Black International and anarchism in France
Following the crushing of the Communes in France by the nascent French Third Republic and the massacre of the Bloody Week, the emerging anarchist movement faced heavy repression both in France and abroad. In 1872, the Dufaure Law was passed, banning membership in the Anti-authoritarian International (1872–1881), their first and main organization during this period, and punishing any French citizen holding a position within the organization with five years in prison. Moreover, the anarchist movement, which was born roughly at the same time as the French Third Republic, developed a series of strategies and methods of action. One of these, propaganda of the deed, was theorized during the late 1870s. It involved using spectacular actions to incite the people to revolt and spark the revolution. This strategy was extensively debated within the anarchist movement.
In 1881, anarchists from the Anti-authoritarian International and other socialist factions met at the London Congress. There, they voted to re-establish (or perpetuate) the International on a basis that ensured group autonomy. They dissolved all visible structures except for a central correspondence bureau and enshrined propaganda of the deed and the recourse to insurrection as a central aspect of the organization. This marked the birth of what historiography has termed the Black International.
In parallel with these global dynamics, in France, new political events, specifically the amnesty of the Communards (1879–1880) and their return from exile or deportation, were giving fresh momentum to revolutionary and more specifically anarchist circles. According to historian Dominique Petit, the amnesty potentially led anarchists to believe that the State was more reluctant to relaunch a crackdown based on the Dufaure Law of 1872, which had been used at the time to suppress the Commune - explaining why they would have been less keen in hiding the International.
During this period, the anarchist movement was growing rapidly in Lyon and the surrounding regions, aided by the split within the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (FTSF) between anarchists, such as Toussaint Bordat and Philippe Sanlaville, on one hand, and reformist socialists on the other. It also saw the birth of the first period of the Lyon anarchist press (1882–1884). Peter Kropotkin, who had been the delegate of the Lyon Revolutionary Federation to the London Congress, came back to France, traveled a lot and met several anarchists who were setting up groups, some in private meetings and some in more public ones.
Furthermore, republican paramilitary organizations, such as the Comité de la rue de Grolée in Lyon or the Black Band in Montceau-les-Mines, composed of armed and radical members accustomed to monitoring security forces and possessing networks across the country, gradually evolved toward anarchism and bolstered the anarchist ranks, causing a surge of activity for the movement in this region and deeply penetrating French territory.
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In Lyon itself, these riots and insurrections were met with waves of repression and arrests, as the Lyon Revolutionary Federation was accused of being behind the Black Band. In October, Fanny Madignier and at least two other anarchists carried out the Assommoir bombing to avenge these waves of repression, which in turn led to a new and much more significant crackdown. The arrests and raids took place following the Assommoir bombing and affected hundreds of anarchists across France. These actions were not based on charges related to the bombings themselves, for which the defendants' guilt could be difficult to prove, but rather by reusing the Dufaure Law. At the end, there were 66 accused, and their list was as follows :Arrested: Louis Bardoux, André Courtois, Joseph Bruyère, François Dejoux, Jean-Marie Dupoizat, Eugène Farges, Louis Landeau, Joseph Trenta, Jules-Hyacinthe Trenta, Félicien Bonnet, Régis Faure, Louis Genet, Antoine Gleyzal (known as Garnier), Emile Hüser, Jacques Peillon, Pierre Pinoy, Michel Sala, Philippe Sanlaville, Charles Voisin, Jacques Zuida, Joseph Genoud, Étienne Faure, Jules Morel, Félix Tressaud, Pierre Michaud, François Pautet, Auguste Blonde, Dominique Crestin, François Péjot, Antoine Desgranges, Jean Ricard, Pierre Martin, Octave Liégeon, Joseph Bernard, Toussaint Bordat, Emile Gautier, Peter Kropotkin, Michel Chavrier, Jean Coindre, Joseph Cottaz, Joseph Damians, Nicolas Didelin, Victor Berlioz-Arthaud, Émile Hugonnard, Charles Sourisseau, Emile Viallet, and Louis Champalle.In flight: Georges Fabre, Louis Dejoux, Antoine Cyvoct, Henri Borréas, Auguste Ebersold, Georges Garraud (known as Valadier), Jean Baguet (known as Bayet), Joseph Bontoux, Jean-Marie Bourdon, François Chazy, Adolphe Dard, Jean Joly, Jean Renaud, and Emile Maurin.
Trial (8-19 January 1883) The trial was held from 8 to 19 January 1883, and was presided over by Judge Jacomet, alongside three other judges named Dieu-Labrasserie, Groz, and Vallet. The prosecutor was Mr. G. Regnault. Most of the defendants did not hire lawyers; the others were defended by maîtres Maillard and Laguerre, of the Paris Bar, and maîtres Arcis, Boutier, Huguet, Minard, Roche, de Leiris, and de Lagrevol, of the Lyon Bar.
Accusations levelled against the anarchists
The anarchists indicted during the trial were accused of having participated in the Black International, that is, of having subscribed to the London Congress and thereby participating in the International, which was prohibited under the Dufaure Law. The prosecutor focused heavily on the London Congress, its decisions, its ideology, etc. He sought to prove that the defendants subscribed to this congress, notably by utilizing the anarchist press, including La Révolution sociale, Le Droit social, L’Étendard révolutionnaire, or Le Révolté, a vast array of seized correspondence between the individuals and groups, but also on the official congress proceedings for the London, 4 June 1882 Lausanne and 13-14 August 1882 Geneva Congresses, the manifestos and circulars shared by the groups, the 24 private meetings of the Lyon Federation - in which he had been able to have information through a snitch, according to the anarchists.