fredag den 23. september 2011

Kropotkin: Appeal to the Young.

Don't let anyone tell us that we—but a small band—are
too weak to attain unto the magnificent end at which we aim.
Count and see how many there are who suffer this injustice.
We peasants who work for others, and who mumble the
straw while our master eats the wheat, we by ourselves are
millions.

We workers who weave silks and velvet in order that we
may be clothed in rags, we, too, are a great multitude; and
when the clang of the factories permits us a moments repose,
we overflow the streets and squares like the sea in a
spring tide.

We soldiers who are driven along to the word of command,
or by blows, we who receive the bullets for which our
officers get crosses and pensions, we, too, poor fools who have
hitherto known no better than to shoot our brothers, why we
have only to make a right about face towards these plumed
and decorated personages who are so good as to command
us, to see a ghastly pallor overspread their faces.

Aye, all of us together, we who suffer and are insulted
daily, we are a multitude whom no one can number, we are
the ocean that can embrace and swallow up all else. When
we have but the will to do it, that very moment will justice
be done: that very instant the tyrants of the earth shall bite
the dust.

- Pyotr Kropotkin, "An Appeal to the Young," 1880

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