Marie Louise Berneri

Marie Louise Berneri (born Maria Luisa Berneri; 1 March 1918 – 13 April 1949) was an anarchist activist and author. She was born in Arezzo, 50 miles southeast of Florence Italy, the elder daughter of two anarchist parents, Camillo Berneri, an anti-fascist activist, and his wife Giovanna Berneri, a militant libertarian anarchist.^[1] However, she spent much of her life outside Italy, in Spain, France (Paris} and finally in England (London). In London she became a member of the editorial collectives of Spain and the World, Revolt! Incorporating Spain and the World, War Commentary and Freedom, to all of which she contributed many articles. She wrote a survey of utopias, Journey Through Utopia, which was first published in 1950 and re-issued in 2020. Neither East Nor West, a collection of her articles in War Commentary and Freedom, was first published in 1952 and republished in 1988.

Marie Louise Berneri
Born	Maria Luisa Berneri (1918-03-01)1 March 1918 Arezzo, Kingdom of Italy
Died	13 April 1949(1949-04-13) (aged 31) London, England
Education	The Sorbonne
Occupations	Activist author psychologist
Movement	Anarchism
Spouse	Vernon Richards ​ (m. 1937)​
Parents	Camillo Berneri (father) Giovanna Berneri (mother)
Relatives	Giliane Berneri (sister)
Signature

In December 1948 Berneri gave birth at home to a boy, who died shortly afterwards. She died on 13 April 1949 at the age of 31, after having contracted a viral infection during childbirth.^[2] She was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery and her ashes were scattered in a North London park.^[3] Berneri had four languages: Italian, French, Spanish and English. Ward (2014) reflected: 'I have often wondered about the books she might have written but for the tragedy of her death'.^[4]

Early life

Berneri took his family to into exile in Paris, France after Benito Mussolini seized power in 1922. While she was living in Paris, Maria Luisa adopted the French equivalents of her forenames, Marie Louise Berneri.^[5] She passed her baccalauréat and, on the strength of it, began to study psychology at the Sorbonne. While there, with comrades of various nationalities, she attended an informal class on anarchism that was given by the Russian anarchist Volin.^[6] However, in early May of 1937, her father was assassinated by communist gunmen in Barcelona in Spain. Shortly aftwards she left Paris and moved to London.^[7]

Anarchism

Berneri lived in London with fellow anarchist activist Vernon Richards^[8].^[9] Towards the end of the year she married him and consequently became a British citizen. In 1939 she had her first article in War Commentary published. Around 1941 she met George Woodcock, who Herbert Read described her to him as being 'one of the most important members of the Freedom group.'^[10] By the April of 1945 she had become was one of its four editors of War Commentary, who were tried for incitement to disaffection. The editors were worried that, if they all became imprisoned, there would be nobody left to run War Commentary. Consequently Berneri asked George Woodcock, who had contributed articles to it if he would become its editor.^[11] Because her husband was a co-defendant, she was acquitted on a legal technicality that allows that a wife cannot conspire with her husband. Consequently, Berneri was able to join Woodcock to become a co-editor with him.^[12]

In 1948 Berneri attended the first post-war International Anarchist Conference in Paris as a member of the British delegation. Her mother and sister (medical doctor Giliane Berneri) also attended as members of the Italian and French delegations. She received much praise for her Freedom Press pamphlet, the anti-Stalinist Workers in Stalin's Russia (1944).^[13] She was also one of the first people in Britain to promote the ideas of Wilhelm Reich.^[14]

Tributes

Shortly after Berneri's death, her friends formed the Marie Louise Berneri Memorial Committee and in 1949 published the book Marie Louise Berneri 1918-1949. A Tribute^[15], which contains multiple international tributes to her. One tribute, by Anarchist Press Group (pp. 19-27), was subsequently republished in a 1993 issue of The Raven identifying anarchist physician John Hewetson as the author^[16]. Several authors have subsequently quoted the following sentence from the tribute:

'Throughout the war, whether she was in the editorial chair or had temporarily relinquished it to other comrades, she was the principal theoretical influence behind War Commentary, and afterwards Freedom.’^[17]

In 1950, George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumović dedicated their book The anarchist prince A biographical study of Peter Kropotkin to Marie-Louise Berneri, who they described as 'a true disciple of Kropotkin, who died on the 13th April, 1949'.^[18] In 1952 her book Journey Through Utopia was published posthumously with a Forewword by George Woodcock. In 1952 the Marie Louise Berneri Memorial Committee published Neither East Nor West^[19], a collection of fifty-one of her articles from War Commentary, in the foreword to which the editor stated:

'it is, to our knowledge, the only work in print in which the author takes up an uncompromising position in opposition to both the Western Powers and their hangers-on, and the Soviet Union and its satellites.' (R 1952, p. 12.)

In 1977 Philip Sansom paid the following tribute to her: 'She was quite exceptional — as a friend, as a comrade, as a militant revolutionary and as a thinker.'^[20] In 1986 N W and H B observed in their obituary of her: 'From 1936 until her death twelve years later, every activity undertaken by Freedom Press was infused by Marie Louise Berneri's personality.'^[21]

In 2012 David Goodway described her as 'outstandingly gifted'.^[22] In 2018 Kimberly Croswell observed: 'Articulate, insightful, and accessible, Berneri had a readership that spanned the globe. Her influence as a significant critical thinker, radical, and humanitarian continues to this day.' Also: 'Marie Louise Berneri was a woman of her time, yet in addressing the pressing matters of the moment, she asserted the timelessness of the anarchist values of freedom and empathy.'^[23]

Publications

Selected articles

1939

• "Will America rule the world?" (PDF). War Commentary. 1 (2). London: Freedom Press Distributors: 7-8. 1939. Retrieved 24 July 2025.

1940s

• "More documents on the Spanish tragedy" (PDF). War Commentary. 1 (3). London: Freedom Press Distributors: 14-16. 1940. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
• Peter Kropotkin His federalist ideas. London: Freedom Press. 1942 [originally 1922]. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
• "Record of the Third International" (PDF). War Commentary. 4 (15). London: Freedom Press: 10-11. 1943. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
• "Lessons of the Spanish revolution" (PDF). War Commentary. 4 (18). London: Freedom Press: 10-12. 1943. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
• "Italy after 1918 The revolutionary period 1919-1921" (PDF). War Commentary. 4 (21). London: Freedom Press: 10-11. 1943. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
• "The rise of fascism in Italy". War Commentary. 4 (22). 1943. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
• "Sexuality and freedom". Now. 5: 54-60. 1943. Retrieved 29 July 2025.^[24]
• "The historical background: Brenan's Spanish labyrinth". Anarchy 5. July. London: Freedom Press: 137-143. 1961 [originally 1944]. Retrieved 24 July 2025.

Books

• Workers in Stalin's Russia (PDF). London: Freedom Press. 1944. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
• Journey Through Utopia. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. 1950. OCLC 466380107.
• Neither East nor West. London: Freedom Press for the Marie Louise Berneri Memorial Committee. 1952. OCLC 1221495736. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
• Neither East nor West (2nd ed.). London: Freedom Press. 1988. ISBN 0900384425.