Anarchy’s First Mention

utopiaillustration: Elena Caldera

 

Anarchy was first mentioned by Erasmus
In a collection of proverbs in 1539,
Where he speaks of a “liberty of the multitude”[1]
An idea that to many sounded fine.

Four centuries later an anarchist army
Would defeat Franco’s fascist militia.
A Barcelona veteran said, “Anarchismo e amore.
“That was how we helped build utopia.”

Heathcote Williams

 

[1] “This unleful [sic] liberty or lycence of the multitude is called an Anarchie”,
Richard Taverner, Proverbs, or Adages of Desiderius Erasmus, 1539


By Heathcote Williams

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