The French Anarchists in London, 1880-1914

Abstract

This book recounts the story of the 500 or so French anarchists exiled in London between 1880 and 1914. As the anarchist movement went through a terrorist phase which was especially bloody in France, the drastic repression that followed forced hundreds of ‘companions’ (the nickname of anarchists) out of the country. As most European countries closed their borders to political refugees – and above all the highly-stigmatised anarchists – at the end of the nineteenth century, Britain remained the one country offering shelter to such dissident and potentially dangerous groups, and therefore became the rallying point for international radical exiles, an unrivalled militant hub. It provided a much-needed harbour to these French militants, enabling them to redefine the goals and strategy of the movement at a critical time. The book explores the daily lives of the French anarchist groups in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, their international networks, political activism, rumoured or actual terrorist activities, the polemics which their presence triggered and the controversial police surveillance surrounding them.