Anselme Bellegarrigue

Anselme Bellegarrigue was a French individualist anarchist, born between 1820 and 1825 in Toulouse and presumed dead around the end of the 19th century in Central America. He participated in the French Revolution of 1848, was author and editor of Anarchie, Journal de l'Ordre and Au fait ! Au fait ! Interprétation de l'idée démocratique.

Not much is known about the childhood and young adulthood of Anselme Bellegarrigue. According to his close friend Ulysse Pic, he went to the Lycée d'Auch for some time, then traveled in order to make his own education: between 1846 and 1848, he visited North America, via New York City, Boston, New Orleans and the West Indies. These travels convinced him of the advantages of democracy and individual liberties.

Catalan historian of individualist anarchism Xavier Diez reports that during his travels in the United States "he at least contacted (Henry David) Thoreau and, probably (Josiah) Warren.".

Anselme Bellegarrigue came back to France on 21 February 1848, the day before the events that would end the reign of Louis-Philippe I. He participated in the revolt but never ceased criticising the direction taken by the movement from the day following the end of the July Monarchy: as a young worker passes by saying "This time, we won't be robbed of our victory!" (a reference to the July Revolution that had failed to install a regime satisfying workers' demands), he responds : "Ah, my friend, the victory has already been robbed: hasn't a temporary government been declared?".

He also participated in the Société Républicaine Centrale (also called Club Blanqui), where he accused all of the political parties of the French Second Republic of having hijacked the popular revolt into more authoritarianism and central concentration of power, calling them "the pox of nations". He refused to call the historical period a revolution, instead saying of it that "the evolution of 1848 has only been a consolidation of what was meant to be abolished" because "a Revolution must be the ruin not of a government, but of all government." While he was participating in a society composed mostly of socialist thinkers, he opposed all authoritarian measures and all social measures because he considered that any governmental intervention can be shown to be slavery of some by some others, or a violent conflict between men: "Anarchy is order, government is civil war."

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