WHY REVOLUTION. Let us return to your question, " How will Anarchy come ? Can we help bring it about ? " · This is a most important point, because in every problem there are two vital things : · first, to know clearly just what you .want; second, how to attain it. . We already know what we want. We want social conditions wherein all will be free and where .each shall have the fullest opportunity to satisfy his needs and aspirations, on the basis of equal liberty for all. In other words, we are striving for the free co-operative:: commonwealth of Communist Anarchism. How will it come about ? . . . We are not prophets, and no one can tell just how a thing will happen. But the world does not .exist since yesterday; and man, as a reasonable being, must benefit by the experience of the past. Now, what is that experience ? If you glance over history you will see that the whole life of man has been a struggle for existence. In his primitive state man fought single-handed the wild beasts of the forest, and helplessly he faced hunger, cold, darkness and storm. Because of his ignorance all the forces of nature were his enemies : they worked evil and destruction to him, and he, alone, was powerless to combat them. But little by little man learned to come together with others of his• kind ; together they sought safety and security. By joint effort they presently began to turn the energies of nature to their service. Mutual help and co-operation gradually multiplied man's strength and ability till he has succeeded in conquering nature, in applying her forces to his use, in chaining the lightning, bridging oceans, and mastering even the air. Similarly the primitive man's ignorance and fear made lite a continuous struggle of man against man, of familv against family, of tribe against tribe, until men realised that by getting together, by joint effort and mutual aid, they could accomplish more than by strife and enmity. Modern science shows that even animals had learned that much in the struggle for existence. Certain kinds survived because they quit fighting each other and lived ,in herds, and in that way were better able to protect themselves against other beasts. In proportion as men substituted joint effort and co-operation in place of mutual struggle, they advanced, grew out of barbarism and became civilised. Families which had formerly fought each other to the death combined and formed one common group; groups joined and became tribes, and tribes (ederated into 42B1blioteca Gino Bianco
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