Charles Malato

Who was Charles Malato?

Charles Malato was a French anarchist and writer.

He was born to a noble Neapolitan family, his grandfather Count Malato being a Field Marshal and the Commander-in-Chief of the army of the last King of Naples. Though Count Malato ferociously suppressed a popular anti-dynastic insurrection, his son – Charles' father – supported the communards of the Paris Commune, and was banished as a result to the penal colony of New Caledonia, where Charles was born. After the amnesty of anarchists and communists, Charles and his by that time ninety year old father returned to Paris, where they immersed themselves in the anarchist movement.

On his return to France, Malato was condemned to fifteen months imprison for inciting murder, pillage and arson, and instead went into exile in London. Malato collaborated briefly with Victor Henri Rochefort, Marquis de Rochefort-Luçay before they fell out over the Dreyfus affair. He wrote for Georges Clemenceau's L'Aurore, L'Humanité, and the Journal du peuple and partook in a revolutionary committee against nationalist activities.