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Charisma and social movements: Errico Malatesta and Italian anarchism
Summary
This article examines the role of charismatic leadership in the Italian anarchist and socialist movements in the period up to the biennio rosso. It focuses on the activities of Errico Malatesta (1853–1932) in 1920 after his return from exile in London. Italian anarchism may have relied upon the informal prestige of leaders such as Malatesta to keep the sinews of its organizations together, however even if Malatesta drew enormous crowds on his return, his oratory was far less demagogic than his maximalist socialist competitors. Malatesta's charisma was a product of the supercharged atmosphere of 1920 and his reputation as the ‘socialist Garibaldi’ or the ‘Lenin of Italy’. In fact his Socratic approach, demonstrated in his written and spoken interventions, was rather closer to the educationalism of Mazzini.
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- Published online: 17 Apr 2008
Author affiliations
- a Department of Social Policy and Politics , Goldsmiths College, University of London , Lewisham Way, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, UK E-mail:
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