The Moral Basis of Anarchism

In this 1904 pamphlet, italian anarchist composer and poet, Pietro Gori considers the moral and ethical evolution of human society from its origins to the present day. Gori challenges the bourgeois media's negative representation of anarchism as synonymous with disorder and violence:  i.e., propaganda by authoritarian institutions and bourgeois vested interest groups intended to demonise anarchists and anarchism. For Gori violence is anathema and indeed, originates with power and provokes popular struggle as an inevitable response. The moral foundations of anarchy, then, lie in the dawn of a new future, founded on new principles, such as mutual aid and solidarity.