Errico Malatesta was born in Capua near Naples in 1853. In his teens, while studying medicine at the university of Naples, he came under the influence of Mazzinian republicanism, and later, in 1871, partly through his enthusiasm for the Paris Commune and his friendship with Carmelo Palladino he joined the Naples section of the International Working Mens' Association. The following year he became aquainted with Bakunin and participated with him in the St Imer congress of the International.

Between 1872 and 1876, working closely with Bakunin, Cafiero and Costa, Malatesta helped spread Internationalist propaganda throughout Italy. For this he was imprisoned for 6 months in 1873 and again for a year between 1874 and 1875.

In April 1877 Malatesta, Cafiero, the Russian Stepniak and 30 other comrades began an insurrection in the province of Benevento. The armed group, with a large red and black flag at their head marched into the Matise mountains and soon took the village of Letino without a struggle where they were greeted with great enthusiasm. Arms and expropriated goods were distributed amongst the people, tax money was returned and official documents destroyed. The following day the village of Gallo was taken in similar fashion. Unfortunately, as they were leaving Gallo the Internationalists were surprised and surrounded by government troops and all were arrested. Held in prison for over a year before being brought to trial all the accused were eventually aquitted.

After his aquittal Malatesta returned to Naples, but constant surveillance by the police forced him to leave Italy. From Naples he went to Egypt only to be expelled after a short time by the Italian Consul. Working his passage on a French ship he finally landed at Marseille after being systematically refused entry into Syria, Turkey and Italy. From Marseille he made his way to Geneva where he helped Kropotkin to produce La Revolte. Expelled from Switzerland Malatesta worked for a while in Romania before travelling to London, via France and Belgium, where he arrived towards the end of 1880. In London he worked as an icecream seller and later as a mechanic, a trade he was to return to several times in later life. While in London he participated in the 1881 congress of the International which gave birth to the Anarchist International.

Leaving London in 1882 Malatesta went to Egypt where he fought with the Egyptians against British colonialists. The following year he returned clandestinely to Italy. Settling in Florence he founded the weekly La Questione Sociale, the first serious anarchist newspaper to be published in Italy. It was in La Questione Sociale that Malatesta's most popular and widely read pamphlet Fra Contadini appeared in 1884. That same year he was arrested and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment, and while waiting to serve his sentence he went to Naples and helped to nurse the victims of a cholera epidemic (as did many other anarchists and socialists).

Forced once again to flee Italy in order to avoid prison Malatesta went to South America. From 1885 to 1889 he lived in Buenos Aires (apart from several trips to Montevideo) where he resumed the publication of La Questione Sociale and was instrumental in founding the Bakers Union, the first militant workers' union in Argentina.

Returning to Europe in 1889 he stayed for a while in Nice where he published a new newspaper called L'Associazione before being forced to flee to London. For the next 8 years he made London his base, making frequent clandestine to France, Switzerland and Italy, and undertaking two lecture tours of Spain with Tarrida del Marmol. While in London he wrote several important pamphlets including In tempo di elezione and L'Anarchia (Anarchy).

In 1897, thanks to an amnesty given to him by the Italian government Malatesta was able to return openly to Italy. Settling in Ancona he began a new newspaper L'Agitazione. The following year however he was arrested and sentenced to six months' imprisonment followed by 5 years banishment to a penal island. Taken first to the island of Ustica he was later transferred to Lampedusa from which he made a dramatic escape, returning to London via Malta in 1899. That same year he spent several months in the USA, resuming the publication of La Questione Sociale in Paterson New Jersey. Later, while addressing a meeting in West Hoboten he was shot in the leg by an individualist anarchist who disagreed with him on his approach to organisation. From the USA Malatesta returned to London by way of Cuba.

Once again in London he resumed his trade of mechanic, running a small workshop in Islington. Between 1900 and 1913 he founded several newspapers, always in Italian, the most important of which were Cause ed effeti (1900), L'Internazionale (1900) and La rivoluzione sociale (1902). In 1907 he participated in the International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam where he vigourously opposed Monatte on the question of revolutionary syndicalism. In 1912 Malatesta was sentanced to 3 months imprisonment and recommended for deportation for criminal libel. Only a massive public outcry prevented the latter sentence from being carried out.

In 1913 Malatesta returned again to Italy where he published Volontà in Ancona until the outbreak of war in August 1914 forced him to return to London. While in Italy though he met the future Fascist dictator, Mussolini, then editor of the socialist paper Avanti.

The war years brought much confusion to the anarchist movement with prominent figures, notably Kropotkin and Grave, openly supporting the allies. Malatesta, as always remaining loyal to his anarchist ideals vigorously opposed the war and never ceased to denounce it. He was one of the signatories of the International Anarchist Manifesto against the war and responded to Kropotkin's position with such articles as Pro-Government Anarchists and Have Anarchists Forgotten their Principles.

IN 1919 Malatesta returned for the last time to Italy, landing at Genoa where his arrival was greeted with great enthusiasm. At once he threw himself into the struggle. Settling in Milan he accepted the editorship of the newly founded daily Umanità Nova which soon had a circulation of 50, 000. In July 1920 he participated in the second congress of the Union Anarchica Italiana which enthusiastically adopted a programme he had written for it. The following month he supported the factory occupations in Turin and Milan. At the end of the year he was arrested together with 80 other militant anarchists and held in prison for almost a year before being brought to trial and aquitted.

On his release he moved to Rome and continued to edit Umanità Nova until it was forced to close down after Mussolini's 'March' on Rome (during which a portrait of Malatesta was burnt by the fascists in the Plaza Cavour).

With the closure of Umanità Nova Malatesta opened a small workshop undertaking mechanical repairs and electrical installations, but this was forced to close when the police started to molest his clients.

In 1924 he began to edit the bi-monthly review Pensiero e Volontà which contained some of his best writings until it was closed down in 1926 together with other anti-fascist publications.

At the end of 1926, after several months of police harassment, Malatesta was placed under house arrest. Virtually imprisoned in his flat he still managed to contribute articles to the anarchist press mainly Le Reveil of Geneva and L'Adunata dei refrattari of New York. Early in 1932 he became ill with a respiratory complaint and died in July 1932 at the age of 79 years.

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