Magonism

Magonism (Spanish: Magonismo) is an anarcho-communist, school of thought precursor of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. It is mainly based on the ideas of Ricardo Flores Magón, his brothers Enrique and Jesús, and also other collaborators of the Mexican newspaper Regeneración (organ of the Mexican Liberal Party), as Práxedis Guerrero, Librado Rivera and Anselmo L. Figueroa.

Relation to anarchism

The Mexican government and the press of the early 20th century called as magonistas people and groups who shared the ideas of the Flores Magón brothers, who inspired the overthrow of the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz and performed an economic and political revolution. The fight against tyranny encouraged by the Flores Magón contravened official discourse of Porfirian Peace by which the protesters were rated as the Revoltosos Magonistas (i.e. "Magonist rioters") to isolate any social basis and preserve the image of peace and progress imposed by force.

Both of Flores Magón's brothers, like other members of the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM), used the term magonista to refer to the libertarian movement that they promoted. As they felt they were fighting for an ideal and not to elevate a particular group to power, they called themselves "liberals", as they were organized in the PLM, and later "anarchists". Ricardo Flores Magón stated: "Liberal Party members are not magonistas, they are anarchists!" In his book Verdugos y Víctimas ("Executioners and Victims"), one of the characters responds indignantly when he is arrested and judged: "I'm not a magonist, I am an anarchist. An anarchist has no idols.".

Magonist thinking was influenced by anarchist philosophers such as Mikhail Bakunin and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and others such as Élisée Reclus, Charles Malato, Errico Malatesta, Anselmo Lorenzo, Emma Goldman, Fernando Tarrida del Mármol and Max Stirner.