Bonnot Gang - Aftermath

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the collapse of the Bonnot Gang, French authorities used the threat of anarchist violence as the pretext for a substantial expansion in law enforcement power. Hundreds of raids were carried out against known anarchists and sympathizers (similar in scale to the Palmer Raids in the United States). Although the actions of the gang were not widely supported, even within the anarchist milieu, the mainstream press called for a general crackdown on left-wing revolutionary activity.

French anarchist communists attempted to distance themselves from illegalism and anarchist individualism as a whole. In August 1913, the Fédération Communiste-Anarchistes (FCA) condemned individualism as bourgeois and more in keeping with capitalism than communism. An article believed to have been written by Peter Kropotkin, in the British anarchist paper Freedom, argued that "Simple-minded young comrades were often led away by the illegalists' apparent anarchist logic; outsiders simply felt disgusted with anarchist ideas and definitely stopped their ears to any propaganda."

Nevertheless, the Bonnot Gang found some sympathy from the French working-class. As many as one hundred thousand people visited Nogent-sur-Marne (the site of the shoot-out that ended the lives of Garnier and Valet) and merchants in Paris sold souvenirs depicting the bandits.

The Bonnot Gang remains one of France's best known anarchist groups.