Expropriative anarchism
Encyclopedia
Expropriative anarchism is the name given to an anarchist practice carried out by certain anarchist affinity group
s in Argentina
and Spain
which involved theft, robbery, scams and counterfeiting currency
. The robberies done were called "expropriations
on the bourgoisie". It had its major peak between 1920 and 1935, being some of its most famous executioneers Buenaventura Durruti
, Francisco Ascaso
, Severino Di Giovanni
and Miguel Arcángel Roscigna. It was different from French ilegalism because it was not thought of as a way of life but as a way of reaching political ends such as financing revolutionary activities, anarchist propaganda and the release of anarchist prisoners.
(“Solidarity”), also known as Crisol (“Crucible”), was a Spanish
anarchist armed-struggle group founded in 1922 or 1923 in Barcelona
, as a reply to the dirty war
strategy used by the employers and government against trade unions. It was created as a successor to a previous group called Los Justicieros (“The Avenging Ones”), created in Zaragoza
. The group was instigated by anarcho syndicalists, and it set up a network in order to buy and store guns, with which to attack members of the Sindicato Libre, (“Free Trade Union”), an employer-obeying organization. Los Solidarios are considered responsible for bank robberies, such as the Bank of Spain Robbery (September 1923), and for the murder of the Zaragoza cardinal Juan Soldevilla y Romero
(1923).
After that, and pressured by the Primo de Rivera
dictatorship, Buenaventura Durruti
, Francisco Ascaso
and other members fled to France
, and then to Latin America, where they were charged with more robberies. They returned to Europe, settled down in France, and were charged with making an attempt on the life of Alfonso XIII on a visit to Paris, so they had to live clandestinely. They were expelled from France and settled down in Belgium
, where they were allowed to stay. With the advent of the Spanish Second Republic (1931), some of the members that had been able to return to Catalonia
decided to enter the Federación Anarquista Ibérica
(“Iberian Anarchist Federation”), as a group called Nosotros (“Us”), holding more radical points of view than those of the FAI itself. When the Spanish Civil War
broke out, the group dissolved as such, but they kept working inside the FAI.
n Germán Boris Wladimirovich in 1919. The purpose was to obtain financing for pamphlets which could explain the situation of the Russian Revolution. The robbery failed and Wladimirovich was arrested along with his collaborator Andrés Babby.
Miguel Arcángel Roscigna and Andrés Vázquez Paredes, who had collaborated with Buenaventura Durruti
and Los Solidarios
when they were in Argentina, later executed a series of bombings against USA interests in response to the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti
. In this campaign, the notorious Italian expropiator Severino Di Giovanni
joined in. Roscigna y Vázquez Paredes along side Antonio Moretti and Vicente Moretti carried out a robbery on the Rawson Hospital of Buenos Aires in October, 1927, where they obtained the amount of 141.000 pesos. According to historian Oswaldo Bayer, Roscigna, with this money they financed the counterfeiting of argentinian currency.
The Moretti brothers and three Catalans recommended by Durruti decided to rob the Cambio Messina in Montevideo
, with an outcome of 3 deaths and only 4000 pesos. They ended up being arrested but shortly put in practice a spectacular jailbreak. Di Giovanni started publishing a magazine called Culmine and anarchist propaganda, all of which was financed partly by robberies. The anarcho-syndicalist publication La Protesta started criticizing Di Giovanni and his group in strong terms even going as far as accusing him of being a spy and a police agent. Rosigna continued the expropriations but with the purpose of aiding anarchist prisoners. This money was used for liberating the anarchists in the Punta Carretas prison. The expropiative anarchists also carried out reprisals against police and state agents who attacked the anarchist movement. Before being arrested Di Giovanni published Anarchia also with "expropriations". He ended up being executed alongside Paulino Scarfó.
Lucio Urtubia
Jiménez is a living Spanish anarchist famous for his practice of expropriative anarchism. At times compared to Robin Hood
, Urtubia carried out bank robberies and forgeries throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In the words of Albert Boadella
, "Lucio is a Quijote that did not fight against wind mills, but against a true giant".
Affinity group
An Affinity group is usually a small group of activists who work together on direct action.Affinity groups are organized in a non-hierarchical manner, usually using consensus decision making, and are often made up of trusted friends...
s in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
which involved theft, robbery, scams and counterfeiting currency
Counterfeit money
Counterfeit money is currency that is produced without the legal sanction of the state or government to resemble some official form of currency closely enough that it may be confused for genuine currency. Producing or using counterfeit money is a form of fraud or forgery. Counterfeiting is probably...
. The robberies done were called "expropriations
Confiscation
Confiscation, from the Latin confiscatio 'joining to the fiscus, i.e. transfer to the treasury' is a legal seizure without compensation by a government or other public authority...
on the bourgoisie". It had its major peak between 1920 and 1935, being some of its most famous executioneers Buenaventura Durruti
Buenaventura Durruti
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange was a central figure of Spanish anarchism during the period leading up to and including the Spanish Civil War.-Early life:...
, Francisco Ascaso
Francisco Ascaso
Francisco Ascaso Abadía was a prominent Anarcho-syndicalist figure in Spain.A baker and waiter, Ascaso joined the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo and one of its armed groups, Los Justicieros...
, Severino Di Giovanni
Severino Di Giovanni
Severino Di Giovanni , was an Italian anarchist who immigrated to Argentina, where he became the best-known anarchist figure in that country for his campaign of violence in support of Sacco and Vanzetti and antifascism.- Italy :Di Giovanni was born on March 17, 1901, in the town of Chieti, in the...
and Miguel Arcángel Roscigna. It was different from French ilegalism because it was not thought of as a way of life but as a way of reaching political ends such as financing revolutionary activities, anarchist propaganda and the release of anarchist prisoners.
Spain
Los SolidariosLos Solidarios
Los Solidarios , also known as Crisol , was an Spanish anarchist armed-struggle group founded in 1922 or 1923 in Barcelona, as a reply to the dirty war strategy used by the employers and government against trade unions....
(“Solidarity”), also known as Crisol (“Crucible”), was a Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
anarchist armed-struggle group founded in 1922 or 1923 in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, as a reply to the dirty war
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
strategy used by the employers and government against trade unions. It was created as a successor to a previous group called Los Justicieros (“The Avenging Ones”), created in Zaragoza
Zaragoza
Zaragoza , also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain...
. The group was instigated by anarcho syndicalists, and it set up a network in order to buy and store guns, with which to attack members of the Sindicato Libre, (“Free Trade Union”), an employer-obeying organization. Los Solidarios are considered responsible for bank robberies, such as the Bank of Spain Robbery (September 1923), and for the murder of the Zaragoza cardinal Juan Soldevilla y Romero
Juan Soldevilla y Romero
Juan Soldevilla y Romero was a Spanish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Zaragoza from 1901 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1919.-Biography:...
(1923).
After that, and pressured by the Primo de Rivera
Primo de Rivera
Primo de Rivera is a Spanish family prominent in politics of the 19th and 20th centuries:*Fernando Primo de Rivera, Spanish politician and soldier, 1831-1921*Miguel Primo de Rivera , dictator of Spain from 23 September 1923 to 1930...
dictatorship, Buenaventura Durruti
Buenaventura Durruti
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange was a central figure of Spanish anarchism during the period leading up to and including the Spanish Civil War.-Early life:...
, Francisco Ascaso
Francisco Ascaso
Francisco Ascaso Abadía was a prominent Anarcho-syndicalist figure in Spain.A baker and waiter, Ascaso joined the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo and one of its armed groups, Los Justicieros...
and other members fled to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and then to Latin America, where they were charged with more robberies. They returned to Europe, settled down in France, and were charged with making an attempt on the life of Alfonso XIII on a visit to Paris, so they had to live clandestinely. They were expelled from France and settled down in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, where they were allowed to stay. With the advent of the Spanish Second Republic (1931), some of the members that had been able to return to Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
decided to enter the Federación Anarquista Ibérica
Federación Anarquista Ibérica
The Federación Anarquista Ibérica is a Spanish organization of anarchist militants active within affinity groups inside the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo trade union. It is often abbreviated as CNT-FAI because of the close relationship between the two organizations...
(“Iberian Anarchist Federation”), as a group called Nosotros (“Us”), holding more radical points of view than those of the FAI itself. When the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
broke out, the group dissolved as such, but they kept working inside the FAI.
Argentina
The first robbery in Argentina for anarchist political ends was executed by the RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Germán Boris Wladimirovich in 1919. The purpose was to obtain financing for pamphlets which could explain the situation of the Russian Revolution. The robbery failed and Wladimirovich was arrested along with his collaborator Andrés Babby.
Buenaventura Durruti
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange was a central figure of Spanish anarchism during the period leading up to and including the Spanish Civil War.-Early life:...
and Los Solidarios
Los Solidarios
Los Solidarios , also known as Crisol , was an Spanish anarchist armed-struggle group founded in 1922 or 1923 in Barcelona, as a reply to the dirty war strategy used by the employers and government against trade unions....
when they were in Argentina, later executed a series of bombings against USA interests in response to the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti
Sacco and Vanzetti
Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men during a 1920 armed robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts, United States...
. In this campaign, the notorious Italian expropiator Severino Di Giovanni
Severino Di Giovanni
Severino Di Giovanni , was an Italian anarchist who immigrated to Argentina, where he became the best-known anarchist figure in that country for his campaign of violence in support of Sacco and Vanzetti and antifascism.- Italy :Di Giovanni was born on March 17, 1901, in the town of Chieti, in the...
joined in. Roscigna y Vázquez Paredes along side Antonio Moretti and Vicente Moretti carried out a robbery on the Rawson Hospital of Buenos Aires in October, 1927, where they obtained the amount of 141.000 pesos. According to historian Oswaldo Bayer, Roscigna, with this money they financed the counterfeiting of argentinian currency.
The Moretti brothers and three Catalans recommended by Durruti decided to rob the Cambio Messina in Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, with an outcome of 3 deaths and only 4000 pesos. They ended up being arrested but shortly put in practice a spectacular jailbreak. Di Giovanni started publishing a magazine called Culmine and anarchist propaganda, all of which was financed partly by robberies. The anarcho-syndicalist publication La Protesta started criticizing Di Giovanni and his group in strong terms even going as far as accusing him of being a spy and a police agent. Rosigna continued the expropriations but with the purpose of aiding anarchist prisoners. This money was used for liberating the anarchists in the Punta Carretas prison. The expropiative anarchists also carried out reprisals against police and state agents who attacked the anarchist movement. Before being arrested Di Giovanni published Anarchia also with "expropriations". He ended up being executed alongside Paulino Scarfó.
More recent examples
Lucio Urtubia
Lucio Urtubia Jiménez is a Spanish anarchist famous for his practice of expropriative anarchism. At times compared to Robin Hood, Urtubia carried out bank robberies and forgeries throughout the 1960s and 1970s...
Jiménez is a living Spanish anarchist famous for his practice of expropriative anarchism. At times compared to Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
, Urtubia carried out bank robberies and forgeries throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In the words of Albert Boadella
Albert Boadella
Albert Boadella Oncins is a Spanish actor and director, one of the founders of the well-known theatre company Els Joglars.- References :...
, "Lucio is a Quijote that did not fight against wind mills, but against a true giant".