An Ode to Illegalism

The anarcho-communist will advocate that the hungry man steal bread and that the homeless man squat an unused building. The anacho-syndicalist will advocate workers sabotage their employer's equipment if they refuse to meet the workers' demands. Both will have lengthy moral justifications for why the crimes they encourage aren't really crimes at all. Then there's the illegalist. He'll advocate for the same crimes and more. But unlike his anarcho-communist and anarcho-syndicalist brethren, he won't attempt to twist meanings to explain why the crimes he advocates aren't crimes. He won't waste your time explaining why the crimes he advocates are morally just. The only justification he needs to commit a crime is that he desires to do so and society says he can't. This is why illegalism is the most honest branch or anarchism.

Illegalism is a branch of individualist anarchism that developed towards the end of the 19th century. It's largely influenced by Max Stirner's egoism, which means illegalists typically have little or no concern for the laws or morals of society. Adherents blatantly violate them whenever they desire to do so. Where illegalism differs from simple criminality is that there's a philosophical reasoning behind it. The crimes perpetrated by an illegalist serve a purpose. They are a direct attack against the established social systems and thus action taken under the banner of illegalism is a form of propaganda of the deed.

Clément Duval is largely considered the founder of illegalism. As with many of his contemporary French anarchists, Clément fought in the Franco-Prussian War where he suffered significant injuries. Like so many soldiers injured in war, he was discard by his government when he was no longer valuable to it. Left unable to work due to his injuries and discarded by the government he fought for, he turned to theft to support his family. He was then arrest and imprisoned. In prison he became an anarchist. Because he was French and an anarchist, Clément was involved in a few arson attacks. This lead him back to prison a couple more times. Eventually the state tired of his shit and he was sentenced to death, but that was commuted to life at hard labor. Sent to a penal colony, he escaped to the United States after 13 years. His life and especially his final trial inspired several who would go on to become illegalists. To give you an idea of the cojones on this man, here was his opening statement in his final trial:

Yes, I believe that parasites should not own jewels while workers, the producers, have no bread. I regret only one thing: not finding the money I intended to use for revolutionary propaganda. Otherwise, I would not be here on the defendants’ bench—I would be making bombs to blow you up.

No. Fucks. Given.

His statement shows the philosophical side of illegalism. While Clément stole to survive, he also did it for ideological reasons. He viewed his actions largely as acts of individual reclamation and he intended to use the spoils of his crimes to continue waging his war against society. This was the founding of illegalism. Those inspired by his actions would continued his work by perpetrating crimes as a war against society. Probably the most notorious of those inspired by him would be the Bonnot Gang (there's a good book by Richard Parry titled The Bonnot Gang that is freely available on The Anarchist Library).

The Bonnot Gang was interesting for a couple of reasons. First, they identified themselves with illegalism. Second, they made use of technologies that were new at the time. They performed the first bank robberies using automobiles. They were also early adopters of repeating firearms. Local law enforcement in Paris often didn't have access to either so the Bonnot Gang enjoyed a technological advantage over law enforcement for a time. The gang consisted of many anarchists and their eventual target of banks was both practical and ideological. Practical since banks are where the money was and ideological because it was largely an attack against the bourgeois, since they were the ones who held most of the money in the banks. Eventually the gang leaders were arrest and put on trial. Several were executed. But their exploits inspired others to follow in their footsteps. This lead the state to come down hard on anybody espousing illegalist sympathies. Simply stating support for the Bonnot Gang was enough to get you arrested. While the Bonnot Gang didn't topple the French state, it scared the hell out of it. Thus is accomplished more than any group of political activists in history.

I see parallels between illegalists and pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy. Both groups had numerous grievances against their societies. Both groups took direct action in the form of committing crimes that caused direct damage to the societies that aggrieved them. Both groups were driven at least in part by ideology. Illegalists were driven by individualist anarchist ideology. Pirates were driven by a concept of fairness amongst seafarers (this is evident in the constitutions various pirate gangs drew up, which largely ensured all crew members were treated with an equality not otherwise known to seafarers at the time). Neither group spent a lot of time justifying their actions on moral grounds. They took the actions they did largely because they wanted to do so and knew it would damage the social structure that oppressed them.

If you're interested in radical ideology, I can't recommend researching illegalism enough. It's perhaps the most radical of ideologies. It's certainly one of the most straight forward. You don't need to spend months reading tomes written by philosophers. The library of illegalist writings is quite small and to the point. Understanding illegalism is best done by looking into the actions take by its adherents, which makes it much more fun to research than most radical ideologies.