A visit to L’anarchie

&Eacute;. Armand assumed the editorship of L&rsquo;Anarchie from April 4$th$, 1912 to September of the same year.

These dates are inscribed in his own handwriting on a questionnaire which he had filled out at the request of Alain Sergent (Andre Mahe) at the time when Sergent was gathering documentation to write his &ldquo;Historie de &lsquo;Anarchie&rdquo;, of which one volume has so far appeared.

Here is a picturesque public report by the &ldquo;Temps&rdquo; of May, 1912, where this brief period in &Eacute;. Armand&rsquo;s life is captured. It is not without interest to see how the anarchists of 1912 are depicted in one of the best-known journals of the time.

* * *

A Visit to L&rsquo;Anarchie

&ldquo;L&rsquo;Anarchie&rdquo; is located in the quartier Saint-Paul on an old and narrow street which bears the picturesque name rue du Grenier-sur&rsquo;l&rsquo;Eau. Above the door hangs a sign, &ldquo;L&rsquo;Anarchie: On both sides of the door are leaflets announcing &ldquo;a great and controversial public meeting&rdquo; on a current subject: &ldquo;Bandits: those high and those on low&rdquo; by Andre Lorulot, one of the anarchists arrested last week and immediately released.

The storefront where one enters is dimly lit. Two men are occupied with typesetting. Four young women, in a kitchen to the right, are preparing the mid-day meal. In the back of the room is a bed. The scene has a family-like atmosphere of intimacy.

A man, bare-headed with long locks of hair pulled back, clean shaven with blue eyes and a gentle expression peering behind a set of small wire-frame glasses is seated in front of a cabinet filed with brochures, books and journals. This is Monsieur Armand, the director &mdash; if this title can be used in a libertarian milieu &mdash; of the journal &ldquo;L&rsquo;Anarchie&rdquo;.

Mr. Armand explains the ideas of the different schools of anarchism to us, from &ldquo;Les Temps Nouveau&rdquo; edited by Jean Grave, to S&eacute;bastien Faure&rsquo;s &ldquo;Libertaire&rdquo; to Lorulot&rsquo;s &ldquo;Idee Libre&rdquo;, he speaks about the foreign groups, the Italian individualists and their organ &ldquo;Le Novatore&rdquo;, the &ldquo;illegalists&rdquo; of the United States. etc.

&ldquo;L&rsquo;Anarchie&rdquo;, he says, &ldquo;was founded in 1905; its first number appearing on April 13. It provoked a sort of reaction against the traditional anarchism of Kropotkin and Jean Grave, against sentimental anarchism.

Around us was found Libertad, a man of action, with a violent temperament and who sought in public meeting to urge the individual to rebel. At the beginning it was marked by the influence of Paraf-Javal, who was himself preoccupied with scientific education.&rdquo;

&ldquo;At the same time, L&rsquo;Anarchie was anti-syndicalist.&rdquo;

&ldquo;Then comrades knew of Stirner and Nietschze. One was not concerned with a future society always promised and which never came; the economic and social point of view was put to the side. Individualism was a permanent struggle between the individual and their surroundings, the negation of authority, law and exploitation and its corollary, authority.&rdquo;

&ldquo;But all this is theoretical. How can one reject authority and exploitation in practical life? Very simply &mdash; by living without authority and exploitation.&rdquo;

The name of the bandits entered into our conversation.

&ldquo;Bonnot?&rdquo;, said Monsieur Armand to us. &ldquo;It is very possible that Bonnot and his comrades could have been a product of anarchist-individualism. They were not satisfied with the social contract and they rebelled against its arbitrariness. They were outsiders, illegalists.&rdquo;

An anarchist who was assisting with our interview interjected:

&ldquo;At the bottom, they were caught in an impasse. They could not get out of it any other way.&rdquo;

Monsieur Armand continued:

&ldquo;I did not know Bonnot, I did not know Garnier. I knew Carouy, who had frequented &ldquo;L&rsquo;Anarchie&rdquo;. We do not ask of those who come around us if they live on society&rsquo;s margins or not. We are concerned only with knowing whether they are good or bad comrades. As for me&rdquo;, finished Armand, &ldquo;I was a Tolstoyan at first. Within me remains a loathing of bloodshed.&rdquo;

And he added:

&ldquo;Oh! It is not to protect myself that I say that. It is because I think it.&rdquo;