Pierre Martinet (anarchist)

Pierre Martinet, nicknamed Pol or the Pariah (1848-1919), was a French anarchist and dreyfusard activist. He is best known for being one of the principal founders of European individualist anarchism.

Born into a family of landowners, Martinet committed several crimes in his youth before gradually joining the anarchist movement in the 1880s. In 1884, he gained prominence as one of the key figures in the salle Lévis affair, a meeting where Blanquist socialists and anarchists clashed violently. Months later, he assaulted deputy Achille Scrépel at another meeting and fled France. Pursued by creditors in Switzerland, he returned to France, where he was arrested and imprisoned.

Upon his release from prison in the late 1880s, Martinet rejoined French and Parisian anarchist circles, becoming one of the first militants to self-identify as an individualist anarchist. He published two newspapers, L'Anarchie (1890–1891) and La Renaissance (1895–1896), which were some of the earliest European anarchist individualist publications and engaged in various demonstrations, conferences and gatherings, like the soup-conferences. Known for his reputation as a violent activist, his erratic behavior and surprising financial ease led various French anarchists to suspect him of being a police informant—a charge he denied. Jean Grave, in particular, maintained a deeply contentious relationship with him. Despite these accusations, Martinet remained connected to prominent anarchists of the era, including Charles Malato, Vittorio Pini, and Ravachol, the latter two requesting his intervention at their trials to defend them.

After the Dreyfus affair, where he fought against antisemitism, Martinet gradually withdrew from activism, dedicating himself to acting in and writing theatrical plays. By 1918, Malato noted that he had entirely abandoned anarchism and become a property owner.