Much of the history of mutual aid and the people solving their own problems has been hidden from you.
I figure most of you can't be bothered to even make to it to the end of this lengthy article.
But, some of you might.
For those of you that do, congratulations on the attention span.
Cat videos make reading books near impossible, iyam.
The Anarchists versus the Plague
Malatesta and the Cholera Epidemic of 1884
In 1884, cholera tore through Italy, claiming thousands of lives.
Despite a three-year prison sentence hanging over his head, Errico Malatesta joined other revolutionary anarchists on a daring mission to Naples—the heart of the epidemic—to treat those suffering from the disease.
In so doing, he and his comrades demonstrated an alternative to coercive state policies that remains relevant today in the age of COVID-19.
The following text recounts the story of the outbreak and Malatesta’s intervention, including all the available primary materials about the Italian anarchists’ participation, some of which have not previously appeared in English.
Much of the historical background is drawn from Frank M. Snowden’s excellent Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884-1911.
Thanks to Davide Turcato, the editor of Malatesta’s complete works; the Centre International de Recherches sur l’Anarchisme in Lausanne; and radical archivists and librarians everywhere who preserve anarchist history, enabling us to learn from the past.
This story goes on at some length, but has history you won't find within the matrix of control exerted over you by those that intentionally make you blind.