«Ten little anarchists», a tribute to Swiss emigrants

The bouquins du mardi - Alexandre Wälti

«The anarchist attitude is our wisdom. For the centuries to come, we envisage neither a world free of all power nor one finally enlightened by universal anarchy. Instead, we imagine them populated by anarchists. Revolt will give meaning to their lives, just as it has given meaning to ours.»

So speaks Valentine Grimm, Daniel de Roulet's narrator. It implies a possible response and a plausible attitude among others: to question and profoundly change an unequal, patriarchal, voracious and predatory economic system that is running out of steam, before it collapses once again as it did in 2008. A necessity which, as in the days of the Imier writer's ten little anarchists, has never been more topical than it is today: the gilets jaunes in France, the climate marches in Switzerland, the #MeToo phenomenon worldwide, Occupy Wall Street in the USA, the 15-M movement in Spain, and so on.

Admittedly, all the civil mobilizations of recent years have not always shared the same demands, but they do demonstrate a growing fed-upness with a certain conception of human existence. As Valentine, Colette, Juliette, Emilie, Jeanne, Lison, Adèle, Blandine, Germaine and Mathilde express so well throughout the novel. Thinking about another reality is what they all agree on.

A documentary novel

Daniel de Roulet today received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Literature Commission of the Cantons of Berne and Jura. All the more reason to discover Ten little anarchists. On the one hand, this novel is based on historical documents; on the other, it demonstrates a clever inventiveness, in that it directly questions the reader about what surrounds him today.

What are we talking about? Firstly, the lives of ten Swiss emigrants, and then their shared desire to experiment with the freedoms and attitudes theorized by Bakunin and Kropotkin. Kropotkin, for example, proposed a definition of anarchist philosophy in his Moral«Don't bow to no authority, however respected; accept no principle, so long as it is not established by reason.»

It's the XIX^th century in Saint-Imier, a valley then prospering thanks to the watchmaking industry. Ten women left the region to find a new way of life. They fled certain institutions such as marriage, which was a life goal for part of the population, and the Church's stranglehold on daily life, as well as on the education of young Imériens. Colette and Juliette were the first to escape this restrictive, dogmatic context and live their love freely, without having to hide or risk condemnation. The other eight women followed this impulse, despite the tragic disappearance of the two lovers, and boarded a ship with their children for Punto Arenas in Patagonia. A tough crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, during which Emilie loses her life in childbirth.

«As Émilie was a free-thinker, we didn't want the priest from Haute-Saône to get involved. So several of us wrote a few lines, which Mathilde read to the assembled passengers. Not: »Dear Emilie, goodbye in heaven. Just: "You deserved to see Patagonia, we'll take your memory with us.»

They arrive in Punto Arenas and find that there is only a Chilean military barracks, a few dwellings, other landless immigrants, the biting Patagonian wind and prisoners, mostly communards. They ignore the authoritarian local government and organize themselves to survive in spite of everything. What may seem like an initial disillusionment to the reader, however, soon proves to be an additional driving force behind their shared determination to live differently.

From then on, they built their own homes, lived freely with their sexuality, raised their children as they wished, and earned a living thanks to the skills they had acquired in the Saint-Imier watchmaking factories. They eventually set up a bakery cooperative, convincing one resident after another. The little money they earned in this way enabled them to continue the anarchist experiment and form a libertarian colony on the island of Robinson Crusoe, before facing the repression of police chief Falcon's troops in the streets of Buenos Aires. It is in this same city that they finally discover the truth about Colette and Juliette's disappearance, without for a second denying their anarchist attitude.

«Liquidation des liquides,” announces Mathilde, raising her glass high before reading us an extract from Benjamin's last letter. In fine form, this one: ”To be governed is to be, at every operation, at every transaction, at every movement, noted, registered, counted, priced, stamped, tooted, quoted, assessed, patented, licensed, authorized, apostilled, admonished, prevented, reformed, rectified, corrected.» We raise our glasses to the health of our eternal fugitive."

Daniel de Roulet does justice to these ten women, most of whom really existed but have been partially forgotten by history, like all the often tragic but hopeful destinies of Swiss emigrants in the 19th century.^th century - like all those who still emigrate today, whether by choice or by force. He takes his reader on a tough, fabulous journey, thanks to his fluid, dense writing. The fluidity is to be found in his storytelling, which at times resembles a fairy tale, and is both obvious and inspiring. At the same time, the author builds real density through the many avenues of reflection he opens up to the reader. As a result, he invites us to think more actively about our times, as he recounts the destinies of ten women eager for freedom.

Daniel de Roulet
Ten little anarchists
Buchet/Chastel
2018
135 pages

Write to the author: alexandre.waelti@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Alexandre Wälti for Le Regard Libre