Intransigents of London and Paris

The Intransigents of London and Paris, or in short, the Intransigents (in Italian: Gli Intransigenti di Londra e Parigi), was an individualist and illegalist anarchist group founded in the 1880s in Paris. Initially bringing together Italian anarchist activists in Western Europe, including Vittorio Pini and Luigi Parmeggiani, the group engaged in a series of thefts and armed robberies in France and welcomed other anarchists, such as Placide Schouppe. Alongside Clément Duval, the members of this group were among the first to align themselves with the emerging ideology of illegalism and played a key role in inspiring later illegalist groups. Furthermore, the members published texts and manifestos and used the profits from their thefts and robberies to finance anarchist groups, actions, and newspapers—founding their own printing press for this purpose.

After Pini's arrest, his trial saw him theorizing individual reclamation and providing a philosophical justification for this practice while also asserting the political nature of all his armed robberies. This development sparked intense debates within the anarchist movement in France and the United Kingdom, which had to take a stance on this new practice. Some groups and activists accepted it as legitimate, arguing that it allowed them to reclaim from the bourgeoisie a portion of what it had stolen from the people. Others, like Francesco Saverio Merlino, viewed it as an egoist or futile practice, maintaining that the anarchists’ goal should be to generalize the revolt against the entire system rather than engaging in a series of localized and individual uprisings. In general, these debates reflected the ongoing distinction between individualist anarchists and anarcho-communists, a divide that was particularly pronounced in France.

Parmeggiani, who, unlike Pini, kept a significant portion of his profits for himself rather than for the anarchist cause, continued his thefts and publications for some time before abandoning anarchism a few years later. Although Pini was arrested and Parmeggiani renounced anarchism, they left a lasting mark on the anarchist movement in France during this period through their use of revolutionary banditry, which persisted after them, culminating with the Bonnot Gang.