Miguel Giménez Igualada

Miguel Giménez Igualada (1888, Iniesta, Spain – 1973, Mexico),[1] was a Spanish individualist anarchist writer also known as Miguel Ramos Giménez and Juan de Iniesta.[2]

Life

In his youth, Igualada engaged in illegalist activities.[3] He unsuccessfully proposed the creation of a Spanish Union of Egoists, and from the 1920s was a member of the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo.[4] Among the many means of earning a living he was a street vendor, taxi driver, gardener, manager of a sugar plantation and rationalist teacher at the Libertarian Atheneum at Las Ventas, Madrid.[5]

Between October 1937 and February 1938 he edited the individualist anarchist magazine Nosotros.[6]

Igualada was strongly influenced by Max Stirner. Through his writings he promoted Stirner within Spain, and published the fourth Spanish edition of Stirner's book, The Ego and Its Own, writing its preface. In 1968 he published a treatise on Stirner, dedicated to the memory of fellow anarchist Emile Armand,[7] and wrote and published the tract, Anarchism.[8]

Igualada later lived in Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico,[9] and was present at the First Congress of the Mexican Anarchist Federation in 1945.[10]

Thought

In his major work Anarchism[11] Igualada states that "humanism or anarchism,...for me are the same thing".[12] He sees the anarchist as one who "does not accept the imposition of a thought on us and who does not allows one´s own thought to be imposed over another brain, oppressing it...since anarchy is not for me a mere negation, but a twofold activity of consciousness; in the first instance a consciousness of the individual on its meaning within the human world, defending his personality against every external imposition; on a second instance, and here is present the whole great beauty of its ethic, it defends, stimulates and enhances the other´s personality....[13] He sees that "he who subjects his life to an exterior model cannot have any other loves which are not given by the chosen model, to which he builds an altar in his heart similar to a deity. And so even though it might preach love, it will not be loving; even it might talk about liberty, it will only conceive of a liberty conditioned by this or that which dominates it, and that liberty has every character of slavery: religion which linked his life to an external belief, which subjugates it".[14]

Igualada exposes a radical pacifist view when he thinks that "When I say that through war humanity will never find peace, I sustain my affirmation in the fact that those who are more peaceful are the least believers, and so...one can affirm that the day of happiness in which war (religiosity is bellicosity) is extirpated from consciousness, peace will exists in the home of men, and since from consciousness these beliefs will not be extracted but only through an act of trascendental education, our labor is not of killing, but of education having it well present that to educate is not in any case domestication.[15] And so he argues for an anarchism which will be "pacifist, poetic, which creates goodness, harmony and beauty, which cultivates a healthy sense of living in peace, sign of power and fertility...from there anyone which is un-harmonious (violent-warrior), everyone that will pretend, in any form, to dominate anyone of his similars, is not an anarchist, since the anarchist respects in such a way personal integrity, so that he could not make anyone a slave of his thoughts so as to turn him into an instrument of his, a man-tool."[16]

Igualada´s emphasis was not on economics but his economic views could be understood in the following way. He sees "capitalism is an effect of government; the disappearance of government means capitalism falls from its pedestal vertiginously...That which we call capitalism is not something else but a product of the State, within which the only thing that is being pushed forward is profit, good or badly acquired. And so to fight against capitalism is a pointless task, since be it State capitalism or Enterprise capitalism, as long as Government exists, exploiting capital will exist. The fight, but of consciousness, is against the State.".[17] His view on property and technocracy are as follows "¿Property? Is not a problem. Since when no one works for another, the profiteer from wealth disappears, just as government will disappear when no one pays attention to those who learned four things at universities and from that fact they pretend to govern men. Big industrial enterprises will be transformed by men in big associations in which everyone will work and enjoy the product of their work. And from those easy as well as beautiful problems anarchism deals with and he who puts them in practice and lives them are anarchists...The priority which without rest an anarchist must make is that in which no one has to exploit anyone, no man to no man, since that non-exploitation will lead to the limitation of property to individual needs".[18]

Works

• Dolor, 1944
• Más allá del dolor, 1946
• Lobos en España, 1946
• Un atentado, Los caminos del hombre, 1961
• Anarquismo, 1968
• El niño y la escuela, Salmos, Stirner, 1968
• Trilogía de oratoria, 1968

References

1. "GIMÉNEZ IGUALADA, Miguel" at Dictionnaire International des Militants Anarchistes
2. La insumisión voluntaria. El anarquismo individualista durante la Dictadura y la Segunda República (1923-1938) por Xavier Díez Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine
3. "Selon l’historien Vladimir Muñoz, son véritable nom aurait été Miguel Ramos Giménez et il aurait participé au début du 20è siècle aux groupes illégalistes.""GIMÉNEZ IGUALADA, Miguel" at Diccionaire International des Militants Anarchistes
4. "GIMÉNEZ IGUALADA, Miguel" at Diccionaire International des Militants Anarchistes
5. "GIMÉNEZ IGUALADA, Miguel" at Diccionaire International des Militants Anarchistes
6. "GIMÉNEZ IGUALADA, Miguel" at Diccionaire International des Militants Anarchistes
7. "Stirner" por Miguel Gimenez Igualada
8. Anarquismo by Miguel Gimenez Igualada, retrieved 16 March 2011
9. "GIMÉNEZ IGUALADA, Miguel" at Diccionaire International des Militants Anarchistes
10. Anarquismo by Miguel Gimenez Igualada, retrieved 16 March 2011
11. Anarquismo by Miguel Gimenez Igualada
12. "humanismo o anarquismo, que, para mí, son una y misma cosa." pg.36 Anarquismo by Miguel Gimenez Igualada
13. "a la de no aceptar que nos sea impuesto un pensamiento y a la de no permitir que un pensamiento nuestro pese sobre ningún cerebro, oprimiéndolo, es a lo que yo llamo anarquismo, ya que anarquía no es para mí sólo una negación, sino una doble actividad de la conciencia: por la primera, consciente el individuo de lo que es y significa en el concierto del mundo humano, defiende su personalidad contra toda exterior imposición; por la segunda, y aquí radica toda la gran belleza de su ética, defiende y ampara y estimula y realza la personalidad ajena, no queriendo imponérsele."Anarquismo by Miguel Gimenez Igualada
14. "El que sujeta su vida a un modelo exterior no puede tener otros amores que los que le preste el modelo elegido, al que levanta altar en su corazón como a deidad. Aunque predique amor, no será amoroso; aunque hable de libertad, sólo concebirá la libertad condicionada por aquél o aquello que lo domina, y esa libertad tiene todo el carácter de esclavitud: religión que ató su vida a credo exterior, que lo subyuga."Anarquismo by Miguel Gimenez Igualada
15. "Cuando digo que por medio de la guerra no hallará nunca la paz la humanidad, fundamento mi afirmación en el hecho de que los más pacíficos son los menos creyentes, por lo que, deduciendo, se puede asegurar que el día feliz y dichoso en que el acto bélico (religiosidad es belicosidad) sea extirpado de las conciencias, la paz existirá en la casa del hombre, y como de las conciencias no se arrancan las creencias sino por un acto trascendentalmente educativo, nuestra labor no es de matanza, sino de educación, teniendo bien presente que educar no es en ningún caso domesticar."Anarquismo by Miguel Gimenez Igualada
16. "anarquismo pacífico, poético, creador de bondad, de armonía y de belleza, cultivador de la sana alegría de vivir en paz, signo de potencia y de fecundidad...De ahí que todo el que sea desarmónico (violento, guerrero), todo el que pretenda, de algún modo o manera, dominar a uno cualquiera de sus semejantes, no sea anarquista, porque el anarquista respeta de tal modo la integridad personal de los seres humanos, que no puede hacer a ninguno esclavo de sus pensamientos para no convertirlo en instrumento suyo, en hombre-herramienta."Anarquismo by Miguel Gimenez Igualada
17. "el capitalismo es sólo el efecto del gobierno; desaparecido el gobierno, el capitalismo cae de su pedestal vertiginosamente...Lo que llamamos capitalismo no es otra cosa que el producto del Estado, dentro del cual lo único que se cultiva es la ganancia, bien o mal habida. Luchar, pues, contra el capitalismo es tarea inútil, porque sea Capitalismo de Estado o Capitalismo de Empresa, mientras el Gobierno exista, existirá el capital que explota. La lucha, pero de conciencias, es contra el Estado."Anarquismo by Miguel Gimenez Igualada
18. "¿La propiedad? ¡Bah! No es problema. Porque cuando nadie trabaje para nadie, el acaparador de la riqueza desaparece, como ha de desaparecer el gobierno cuando nadie haga caso a los que aprendieron cuatro cosas en las universidades y por ese sólo hecho pretenden gobernar a los hombres. Porque si en la tierra de los ciegos el tuerto es rey, en donde todos ven y juzgan y disciernen, el rey estorba. Y de lo que se trata es de que no haya reyes porque todos sean hombres. Las grandes empresas industriales las transformarán los hombres en grandes asociaciones donde todos trabajen y disfruten del producto de su trabajo. Y de esos tan sencillos como hermosos problemas trata el anarquismo y al que lo cumple y vive es al que se le llama anarquista...El hincapié que sin cansancio debe hacer el anarquista es el de que nadie debe explotar a nadie, ningún hombre a ningún hombre, porque esa no-explotación llevaría consigo la limitación de la propiedad a las necesidades individuales."Anarquismo by Miguel Gimenez Igualada