The Venice Connection

Originally published in 1984, Bertolo reflects upon what he calls the “Venice connection”. This, he warns, does not merely refer to the 1984 conference as an event in itself. Instead, he argues, it should be seen as a signifier for identifying anarchism(s) as a constellation of experiences and as a truly international community. In this light, anarchism is a crucible for different anarchist cultures, a symbolic common ground for the blending of intellectual work and activist experience, of pragmatism and of deep-rooted traditions, of lucidity and passion, of good sense and utopia. By referring to “Before, During and After” Venice, Bertolo understands the space opened up by the conference as a threshold in the space-time continuum of anarchism “from which we can look at ourselves and our surroundings and ask ourselves Who are we?” After 1968 and the experiences of the 1970s, Bertolo calls for a qualitative leap of anarchism, that “will transform it into a true agent of social transformation”.