Carlo Cafiero
| Carlo Cafiero | |
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| Born | September 1, 1846 Barletta, Apulia (present-day Italy) |
| Died | July 17, 1892 (aged 45) Nocera Inferiore, Kingdom of Italy |
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Carlo Cafiero (September 1, 1846 – July 17, 1892) was an Italian anarchist, champion of Mikhail Bakunin during the second half of the 19th century and one of the main proponents of insurrectionary anarchism and anarcho-communism during the First International.
Carlo Cafiero was born in Barletta, in the Apulia region of southern Italy, into a rich, land-owning family. His father was member of the Carboneria in 1821, one of his brothers and a brother-in-law were deputies, while Carlo Cafiero was always considered the 'black sheep' of the family.
In 1864, he moved to Naples, where he got a degree in law. He then went to Florence to embark on a diplomatic career. Here, he first came into contact with atheist ideas, through the Rationalist movement. At the beginning of 1870 he was in Paris as guest of the painter Giuseppe De Nittis, a fellow townsman who described him as a "beautiful young man, fascinating to women". He then went to London, where he matured, renouncing his diplomatic career, wealth and family to join the revolution and socialism. It seems that hearing the enthralling rally of a shoemaker caused Cafiero to become conscious of the pitiful conditions of the working class. In London, Cafiero made contact with Marx and Engels.
He joined the International Workingmen's Association and was charged with winning Italy over to Marx’s ideology, in a country where workers were under the strong influence of the Republicanism of Giuseppe Mazzini or in some places the Anarchism of Mikhail Bakunin. He re-formed the old branch of the International in Naples, with the help of the young Errico Malatesta. There, during an assembly, he was imprisoned for the first time.
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