Rebelled Because It Was My Right

January 1887. Brief summary of the examination:

After the usual formalities — the comedy — first and last names, occupation, etc. I was accused of robbery, arson, and attempted murder.

"In 1878 you were sentenced to one year in prison."

"Yes, and I take full responsibility for this conviction."

"In 1883 you were sentenced to forty-eight hours in jail for rebellion against police officers."

"Yes, I rebelled against your police because it was my right."

"You stand accused of illegal entry, of breaking and entering into the residence of Madame Lemaire, a person of private means, and taking from her fifteen thousand francs' worth of jewelry on the night of October 4, 1886."

"Yes, parasites should not have jewelry when the workers, the producers do not have bread. I have only one regret: that I did not find the money that I was intending to use for revolutionary propaganda, otherwise I would not be here in the hot seat, but busy making devices to blow you all up."

"The prosecution has shown that you had an accomplice and you said that his name was Turquais and that he was in England to sell the jewelry. This Turquais is a figment of your imagination or else tell us where he is."

"Let your snitches go look for him!"

"Didier and Houchard are your accomplices."

"No. Both are completely unaware of the provenance of the brooch I gave Houchard to sell as a jeweler since I needed money right away for ... He's an idiot, he used go-betweens and he's the reason I'm here."

"The pliers they found were rather extraordinary. You said to the examining judge that you made them yourself."

"Yes, I also said that I had made them a long time ago, I was just waiting for the right time to use them because I had been convinced for a long time that the workers were powerless to fight with their own resources and that only on the day when they would have the courage to smash the safes of their masters and exploiters would they come out of the struggle victorious ..."

Bérard des Glajeux, the presiding judge, rattled his bell because he did not want to listen to such truths anymore and he threatened to throw me out for proudly proclaiming in open court the right to steal. The rat, he knew better than anyone that I was invoking the right to insurrection. Yes! In this century of the worship of the Golden Calf all means are good for anarchists to bring about the triumph of the grand ideal of social renovation and regeneration based on liberty, equality, morality, and justice. Yes, rotten and corrupted bourgeoisie, your gold is needed to wage war against you, to annihilate forever the class struggle of which it is the main cause, and not to enjoy it. Vile metal that we despise and will destroy after the struggle, just like the qualifications of private income and property, in order to share between everyone. That is what I had to say, which Bérard did not want to hear.

"So, for you it wasn't robbery?"

"No, it was a just restitution. This money, I repeat, was bound to be used for revolutionary propaganda. I know only two kinds of theft: theft through the exploitation of man by man in business — legal theft; and that which strips the bourgeoisie, the thieves, in order to enjoy it instead of them. But then that thief in turn becomes a parasite and consequently an enemy. That's who the thieves are. As for me, no one who has known me closely since my youth will criticize me for any dishonest act. But to serve the revolution — I got over all kinds of prejudices a long time ago.

"You were demoted from the rank of corporal for insubordination."

"I was named corporal in spite of myself and a bunch of times I wanted to turn in my stripes, but they wouldn't let me. See, at the time I was an anarchist without knowing the theories, only through natural common sense — I hated authority. You criticize me for having been demoted from the rank of corporal, but you don't talk about the two wounds I got during the war, idiot that I was! Just like the rheumatism, an awful sickness, that I got in that murderous comedy of 1870 [against the Prussians]."

"You are accused of having set fire, in two different places, to the residence of Madame Lemaire on the night of October 4. You told the investigating judge that it was Turquais who lit the two fires and that you had done everything possible to prevent him from doing this, your reason being that it was a nice, very comfortable house and that you should keep it safe for the day of the Revolution when the workers would leave their slums, and that in this house there was room for eight or ten families to live there comfortably. But being angry that he did not find what he was looking for he didn't want to listen to you and avenged himself by trying to harm the parasites who lived in the house."

The Presiding Judge: "It is an act of horrendous vandalism."

"Yes, those are the reasons I gave to Turquais before he lit the fire because the parasites weren't in the house to be grilled. But don't think because of this that I renounce arsonists. On the contrary, I approve of the labor slave who burns the prison where they exploit him; by this he destroys the symbol of servitude and slavery ..."

My last words were not heard by the public. Glajeux rattled his bell and spoke so loudly to shut me up that he drowned out my voice.

"You are accused of the attempted murder of Sergeant Rossignol. When this officer was investigating Didier with the chief of detectives, Didier's wife pointed you out as Duval to the officer. He asked you to follow him to talk to the chief of detectives. You answered that you had no business with him and he wasn't one of your friends. Seeing this, the officer identified himself as a sergeant of the police and arrested you in the name of the law. You answered him: 'Ah! Scum, in the name of freedom I'll strike you down!' And you stabbed him eight times with a handmade dagger, intending to kill him."

"I only struck Sergeant Rossignol twice and not eight times. If I'd stabbed him eight times, being all worked up by the surprise at being arrested as I was, he would probably not be here to testify. It was a scratch, a scrape that he got when we fell off the sidewalk. Unfortunately, he dragged me down with him in his fall, otherwise neither he nor Officer Pelletier, who was with him, would have arrested me."

"So, you would have killed them both?"

"No, I would have defended my freedom. But I couldn't. Officer Pelletier right away took advantage of my fall by grabbing me by my throat and my private parts; and Rossignol was able too get hold of my right thumb and bite it."

* * *

Mr. [Fernand] Labori summoned...