Marie Le Compte was an American journal editor and
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
who was active during the early 1880s.
Early career
Marie Le Compte was of French origin but settled in the United States, where she joined the Socialist movement,
speaking and writing for that cause.
Le Compte was a friend of
John Swinton.
She was an editor and a writer for
Joseph Patrick McDonnell's New York ''Labor Standard''.
According to
Paul Avrich
Paul Avrich (August 4, 1931 – February 16, 2006) was a historian of the 19th and early 20th century anarchist movement in Russia and the United States. He taught at Queens College, City University of New York, for his entire career, from 1961 ...
she was "an exotic and somewhat mysterious figure" with "a special sympathy for outlaws and tramps."
She called herself "Miss Le Compte, Prolétaire".
1881 Anarchist conference
Marie Le Compte attended the Anarchist Congress that met in London from 14 July 1881.
By this time she was middle-aged.
She represented the "Boston Revolutionaries", an obscure group of whom little is known.
Other delegates included
Peter Kropotkin
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activis ...
,
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta (4 December 1853 – 22 July 1932) was an Italian anarchist propagandist and revolutionary socialist. He edited several radical newspapers and spent much of his life exiled and imprisoned, having been jailed and expelled from ...
,
Saverio Merlino
Francesco Saverio Merlino (9 September 1856 – 30 June 1930) was an Italian lawyer, anarchist activist and theorist of libertarian socialism.
Life
Merlino was born on 9 September 1856 in Naples.Louise Michel
Louise Michel (; 29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905) was a teacher and important figure in the Paris Commune. Following her penal transportation to New Caledonia she embraced anarchism. When returning to France she emerged as an important French a ...
and
Émile Gautier
Émile Jean-Marie Gautier (19 January 1853 – 1937) was a French anarchist and later a journalist. He coined the term "social Darwinism".
Life
Émile Jean-Marie Gautier was born on January 19, 1853 in Rennes.
His parents were Jean Marie Gautier ...
.
While respecting "complete autonomy of local groups" the congress defined propaganda actions that all could follow
and agreed that "propaganda by the deed" was the path to social revolution.
''The Radical'' of 23 July 1881 reported that the congress met on 18 July 1881 at the
Cleveland Hall, Fitzroy Square, with speeches by Marie Le Compte, "the transatlantic agitator", Louise Michel, and Kropotkin.
In addressing the congress Le Compte said that revolutionaries should join labor unions in order to radicalize the members.
She supported the idea of having bomb-making manuals published in many languages by local groups.
During her visit to England Le Compte and Kropotkin gave talks to the Homerton Social Democratic Club and to the Stratford Radical and Dialectical Club.
At the Homerton club her topic was "the situation in America".
In October 1881 she gave a talk at
Stratford, London
Stratford is a town in east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. Until 1965 it was within the historic county of Essex. Part of the Lower Lea Valley, Stratford is situated 6 miles (10 km) east-northeast of Chari ...
, in which she praised pirates.
Later career
Benjamin Tucker
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (; April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was an American individualist anarchist and libertarian socialist.Martin, James J. (1953)''Men Against the State: The Expositers of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827–1908''< ...
's ''Liberty'' was the first Anarchist paper in the English language to circulate in England. Marie Le Compte may have introduced it during her 1881 visit.
She wrote several articles for the paper in 1883 reporting on the trial and imprisonment at
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
of several anarchists, including Louise Michel,
Émile Pouget
Émile Pouget (12 October 1860 in Pont-de-Salars, Aveyron, now Lozère – 21 July 1931 Palaiseau, Essonne) was a French anarcho-communist,The Anarchist Papers III, page 97 who adopted tactics close to those of anarcho-syndicalism. He was vice-se ...
and Kropotkin.
In March 1883 she participated in the Paris bread riot and was wounded in a fight with the police.
She fled to Switzerland to avoid being arrested.
She settled in Berne where she translated Bakunin's ''
God and the State
''God and the State'' (called by its author ''The Historical Sophisms of the Doctrinaire School of Communism'') is an unfinished manuscript by the Russian anarchist philosopher Mikhail Bakunin, published posthumously in 1882. The work criticises ...
'' and Kropotkin's ''Appeal to the Young''.
Marie Le Compte ceased to participate in the movement some time after 1883.
Her translation of Kropotkin's ''An Appeal to the Young'' was serialized from 5–26 January 1884 in the San Francisco ''Truth''.
The first number of ''
The Anarchist'' published in 1885 in London by
Henry Seymour held an announcement of a translation by Le Compte of
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (; 1814–1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, socialist and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major founder of the revolutionary ...
's ''God and the State''.
The International Publishing Company announced that the profits from ''God & The State'' would go to the Red Cross of the Russian Revolutionary Party.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Compte, Marie
American anarchists