We must honour and remember all those fearless warriors of the class struggle, those who dedicated their lives and in many occasions gave their life, in the cause of freedom and justice for all, anarchist to the very fibre of their being. It is 100 years this year since the state murder of Ricardo Flores Magón, killed in a cell in Leavenworth prison in Kansas America, November 21st 1922. Our capitalist state would have us forget these individuals and plaster our cities with statues of nobility, blood stained generals and greed driven "captains of industry", all defenders of wealth power and privilege, pointing to these as the people we should honour. However, these are the enemies of the people and their desire for freedom and justice.
Let every man and woman who loves freedom and the anarchist ideal, propagate it with determination, with tenacity, without concern for mockery, without measuring the danger, without regard to consequences; let’s get to work comrades, and the future will be our anarchist ideal
Farewell!
We cannot break our chains with weak desire,
With Whines and supplicating cries.
'Tis not by crawling meekly to the mire
The free-winged eagle learns to mount the skies.
The gladiator, victor in fight,
On who the hard-contested laurels fall,
Goes not in the arena pale with fright
But steps forth fearlessly, defying all.
O victory, O victory, dear and fair
Thou crownest him who does his best,
Who perishing, still unafraid to bear,
Goes down to dust, thy image in his breast.
Farewell, O comrades, I scorn life as a slave!
I begged no tyrant for my life, though sweet it was;
Though chaines, I go unconquered to my grave,
Dying for my own birth-right- - - and the world's.
We cannot break our chains with weak desire,
With Whines and supplicating cries.
'Tis not by crawling meekly to the mire
The free-winged eagle learns to mount the skies.
The gladiator, victor in fight,
On who the hard-contested laurels fall,
Goes not in the arena pale with fright
But steps forth fearlessly, defying all.
O victory, O victory, dear and fair
Thou crownest him who does his best,
Who perishing, still unafraid to bear,
Goes down to dust, thy image in his breast.
Farewell, O comrades, I scorn life as a slave!
I begged no tyrant for my life, though sweet it was;
Though chaines, I go unconquered to my grave,
Dying for my own birth-right- - - and the world's.
Ricardo Flores Magón
This poem was written before his death while incarcerated in the federal prison, Leavenworth, Kansas. Ricardo Flores Magón was an active Mexican rebel, and at the behest of the Mexican Government, the US Government seized him, its agents beat him up fiercely and afterwards held him for years until his death.
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