Propaganda of the deed
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Propaganda of the Deed was an anarchist doctrine that promoted the decisive action of individuals to inspire further action by others. It was thought that a spectacular action, such as a political assassination, would ignite a revolutionary fervor among the working classes. Peter Kropotkin, an early proponent of propaganda by the deed, wrote that "A single deed is better propaganda than a thousand pamphlets."
It is likely that this attitude was a result of the difficulty anarchists were having fermenting revolution through traditional means. For instance, the fall of anarchist terrorism in Spain coincided with the rise of the more successful anarcho-syndicalist movement. In the early twentieth century, anarchism became a strong force within the labor movement (particularly in Spain and Italy, and to some extent in the United States through the Industrial Workers of the World), and its proponents began to focus more on revolutionary labor organization than on political violence.
As a doctrine-in-practise, its heyday was the period between 1881 and 1901, starting with the assassinations of Russian tzar Alexander II and ending with that of United States President William McKinley. Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of McKinley, explained his motivation shortly before his execution: "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people! I did it for the help of the good people, the working men of all countries!" Most anarchists condemned the act on either moral or tactical grounds, but some, including Emma Goldman, expressed sympathy for Czolgosz. It is also important to note that Czolgosz was a registered Republican who voted in at least one Republican primary. His status as an anarchist has been disputed, both at the time and presently.
Anarchists during this time period, notably Johann Most in his pamphlet The Science of Revolutionary Warfare, advocated the use of assassinations and terrorism to further the cause of anarchism. Most was an early influence on American anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Berkman attempted propaganda by the deed when he tried to kill industrialist Henry Clay Frick following the deaths of several striking workers. Other theorists advocating propaganda of the deed included Luigi Galleani and Errico Malatesta.
Arguably it was in this period that modern-day international terrorism was born. The invention of dynamite, and its widespread distribution the 19th century, gave enormous power to anyone able to obtain it. The widespread use of bombs by assassins often caused indiscriminate death. For example, an anarchist attempted to assinate Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1906, but succeeded only in killing a number of innocent bystanders. The Wall Street bombing, which killed 40, was blamed on anarchists although likely this is not the case. Regardless, this incident and others caused a popular fear and hatred of anarchists as bomb-throwers and terrorists: precisely the opposite reaction that propaganda by the deed was supposed to provoke. Many anarchists, including Alexander Berkman, came to believe that the use of violence was not an effective method of propaganda after observing the public reaction to the bombings and assassinations anarchists had carried out.
By the mid-1890s it was clear that "Propaganda of the Deed" was a failed strategy, and most revolutionary anarchists, including Peter Kropotkin and Errico Malatesta, distanced themselves from the idea. A fringe continued the practice for a few years more. Today, acts of violence against human beings by anarchists are exceedingly rare, though most are not pacifists in the strictest sense. Despite this, a popular association of anarchism with violence remains.