Francesco Saverio Merlino (9 September 1856 – 30 June 1930) was an Italian lawyer,

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

activist and theorist of

libertarian socialism Libertarian socialism is an anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist political current that emphasises self-governance and workers' self-management. It is contrasted from other forms of socialism by its rejection of state ownership and from other ...

. During his law studies at the

University of Naples Federico II The University of Naples Federico II (; , ) is a public university, public research university in Naples, Campania, Italy. Established in 1224 and named after its founder, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, it is the oldest public, s ...

, Merlino joined the

International Workingmen's Association The International Workingmen's Association (IWA; 1864–1876), often called the First International, was a political international which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, social democratic, communist, and anarchist g ...

, supporting its anarchist wing. He went on to join other anarchist organizations and support their militant movement for more than twenty years. In 1884 he was forced into exile in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

interspersed with some trips to the USA. In 1894 he returned to Italy, where he served two years in prison. At the end of the 19th century, after long disputes with his friend

Errico Malatesta Errico Malatesta (4 December 1853 – 22 July 1932) was an Italian anarchist propagandist, theorist and revolutionary socialist. He edited several radical newspapers and spent much of his life exiled and imprisoned, having been jailed and expel ...

about the relationship between anarchism and democracy, he abandoned anarchist ideas to become a theorist of libertarian socialism.

Life

Merlino was born on 9 September 1856 in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

.Scheda biografica di F. S. Merlino
(Italian). He was raised in the Neapolitan anarchist tradition. Merlino started to participate in the militant anarchist movement in Italy during his university studies. Merlino attended the Anarchist Congress that met in London from 14 July 1881. Other delegates included

Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later s ...

, Marie Le Compte,

Louise Michel Louise Michel (; 29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905) was a teacher and prominent figure during the Paris Commune. Following her penal transportation to New Caledonia she began to embrace anarchism, and upon her return to France she emerged as an im ...

and Émile 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. In 1884, he went into exile in England and also travelled to the United States. After he returned to Italy in 1894, Merlino was arrested and had to spend two years in prison. The Belgian review ''La Société nouvelle'' published articles by Merlino in 1891 that took an anarchist viewpoint in criticizing Marxism and German socialism, but Merino also questioned anarchist principles. In 1897, his book ''Pro e contro il socialismo'' was published, reflecting his thoughts on the subject. In the following years, he developed his theory of

in arguments with his friend

. In 1900, he defended Gaetano Bresci, an Italian-American anarchist who assassinated King Umberto I in response to the Bava-Beccaris massacre. Despite killing the monarch, Bresci was not sentenced to death, making him the only person to ever kill a monarch (without toppling the monarchy) and not be executed. In 1907, the Turin daily ''La Stampa'' published an interview with Merlino, who had recanted his anarchism. The interview, titled "The End of Anarchism", pronounced anarchism an obsolete doctrine, torn by internal disputes, bereft of first-rate theorists and doomed to extinction. Leading Italian-American anarchist Luigi Galleani would attack Merlino in his own article "The End of Anarchism?", adding a question mark. Merlino died on 30 June 1930 in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Major works

* ''Socialismo o monopolismo?'' (1887) * ''L'Italie telle qu'elle est'' (1890) * ''Necessità e basi di un accordo'' (1892) * ''L'individua-lismo nell'anarchismo'' (1893) * ''Pro e contro il socialismo'' (1897) * ''L’utopia collettivista e la crisi del "socialismo scientifico"'' (1898) * ''Formes et essence du socialisme'' (1898) * ''Fascismo e democrazia'' (1924) * ''Politica e Magistratura dal 1860 ad oggi in Italia'' (1925) * ''Il socialismo senza Marx. Studi e polemiche per una revisione della dottrina socialista'' (1897–1930) – Massimiliano Boni (1974), Bologna * ''Il problema economico e politico del socialismo.'' (1948)

References

; Citations ; Sources * * ; Further reading * Francesco Saverio Merlino: Tra anarchismo tradizionale e socialismo liberale. Interview with Gianpiero Landi

* Lucio Gabellini: Merlino: un socialismo "diverso

* Giampiero Domenico Berti: Francesco Saverio Merlino. Dall'anarchismo socialista al socialismo liberale (1856–1930). Franco Angeli Editore Milano. Mailand 1993. * Mirko Roberti: Il "riformismo rivoluzionario" di Saverio Merlino." Un'intelligenza critica tra marxismo e anarchismo. Il basilare dilemma socialista in un tentativo originale di mediare, in una sintesi eclittica e personale, le opposte istanze

* Franco Melandri: Un convegno su Francesco S. Merlin

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merlino, Francesco Saverio 1856 births 1930 deaths 19th-century Italian lawyers 19th-century Italian male writers 19th-century Italian non-fiction writers 19th-century Neapolitan people 20th-century anarchists 20th-century Italian lawyers 20th-century Italian male writers 20th-century Italian non-fiction writers Anarchists from Naples Anarchist writers Anarcho-communists Italian anarchists Italian libertarians Italian male non-fiction writers Left-libertarians Libertarian socialists