THE SMALLER FRY
Among our present-day Anarchists some, like John Mackay, the author of
"Die Anarchisten, Kulturgemälde aus dem Ende des xix. Jahrhunderts,"
declare for individualism, while others--by far the more numerous--call
themselves Communists. These are the descendants of Bakounine in the
Anarchist movement. They have produced a fairly considerable literature
in various languages, and it is they who are making so much noise with
the help of the "propaganda by deed." The prophet of this school is the
Russian refugee, P. A. Kropotkine.
I shall not here stop to consider the doctrines of the
Individualist-Anarchist of to-day, whom even their brethren, the
Communist-Anarchists, look upon as "bourgeois."[47] We will go straight
on to the Anarchist-"Communist."
What is the standpoint of this new species of Communism? "As to the
method followed by the Anarchist thinker, it entirely differs from that
of the Utopists," Kropotkine assures us. "The Anarchist thinker does not
resort to metaphysical conceptions (like 'natural rights,' the 'duties
of the State' and so on) to establish what are, in his opinion, the best
conditions for realising the greatest happiness of humanity. He follows,
on the contrary, the course traced by the modern philosophy of
evolution.... He studies human society as it is now, and was in the
past; and, without either endowing men altogether, or separate
individuals, with superior qualities which they do not possess, he
merely considers society as an aggregation of organisms trying to find
out the best ways of combining the wants of the individual with those of
cooperation for the welfare of the species. He studies society and tries
to discover its tendencies, past and present, its growing needs,
intellectual and economical, and in this he merely points out in which
direction evolution goes."[48]
So the Anarchist-Communists have nothing in common with the Utopians.
They do not, in the elaborating of their "ideal," turn to metaphysical
conceptions like "natural rights," the "duties of the State," etc. Is
this really so?
So far as the "duties of the State" are concerned, Kropotkine is quite
right; it would be too absurd if the Anarchists invited the State to
disappear in the name of its own "duties." But as to "natural rights" he
is altogether mistaken. A few quotations will suffice to prove this.
Already in the _Bulletin de la Fédération Jurasienne_ (No. 3, 1877), we
find the following very significant declaration: "The sovereignty of the
people can only exist through the most complete autonomy of individuals
and of groups." This "most complete autonomy," is it not also a
"metaphysical conception?"
The _Bulletin de la Fédération Jurasienne_ was an organ of Collectivist
Anarchism. At bottom there is no difference between "Collectivist" and
"Communist" Anarchism. And yet, since it might be that we are making the
Communists responsible for the Collectivists, let us glance at the
"Communist" publications, not only according to the spirit but the
letter. In the autumn of 1892 a few "companions" appeared before the
Assize Court of Versailles in consequence of a theft of dynamite at
Soisy-sous-Etiolles. Among others there was one G. Etiévant, who drew up
a declaration of Anarchist-Communist principles. The tribunal would not
allow him to read it, whereupon the official organ of the Anarchists,
_La Révolte_, undertook to publish this declaration, having taken great
pains to secure an absolutely correct copy of the original. The
"Declaration of G. Etiévant" made a sensation in the Anarchist world,
and even "cultured" men like Octave Mirbeau quote it with respect along
with the works of the "theorists," Bakounine, Kropotkine, the
"unequalled Proudhon," and the "aristocratic Spencer!" Now this is the
line of Etiévant's reasoning:
No idea is innate in us; each idea is born of infinitely diverse and
multiple sensations, which we receive by means of our organs. Every act
of the individual is the result of one or several ideas. The man is not
therefore responsible. In order that responsibility should exist, will
would have to determine the sensations, just as these determine the
idea, and the idea, the act. But as it is, on the contrary, the
sensations which determine the will, all judgment becomes impossible,
every reward, every punishment unjust, however great the good or the
evil done may be. "Thus one cannot judge men and acts unless one has a
sufficient criterion. Now no such criterion exists. At any rate it is
not in the laws that it could be found, for true justice is immutable
and laws are changeable. It is with laws as with all the rest (!). For
if laws are beneficent what is the good of deputies and senators to
change them? And if they are bad what is the good of magistrates to
apply them?"
Having thus "demonstrated" "liberty," Etiévant passes on to "equality."
From the zoophytes to men, all beings are provided with more or less
perfect organs destined to serve them. All these beings have therefore
the right to make use of their organs according to the evident will of
mother Nature. "So for our legs we have the right to all the space they
can traverse; for our lungs to all the air we can breathe; for our
stomach to all the food we can digest; for our brain to all we can
think, or assimilate of the thoughts of others; for our faculty of
elocution to all we can say; for our ears to all we can hear; and we
have a right to all this because we have a right to life, and because
all this constitutes life. These are the true rights of man! No need to
decree them, they exist as the sun exists. They are written in no
constitution, in no law, but they are inscribed in ineffaceable letters
in the great book of Nature and are imprescriptible. From the
cheese-mite to the elephant, from the blade of grass to the oak, from
the atom to the star, everything proclaims it."
If these are not "metaphysical conceptions," and of the very worst type,
a miserable caricature of the metaphysical materialism of the eighteenth
century, if this is the "philosophy of evolution," then we must confess
that it has nothing in common with the scientific movement of our day.
Let us hear another authority, and quote the now famous book of Jean
Grave, "La Société mourante et l'Anarchie," which was recently condemned
by French judges, who thought it dangerous, while it is only supremely
ridiculous.
"Anarchy means the negation of authority. Now, Government claims to base
the legitimacy of its existence upon the necessity of defending social
institutions: the family, religion, property, etc. It has created a vast
machinery in order to assure its exercise and its sanction. The chief
are: the law, the magistracy, the army, the legislature, executive
powers, etc. So that the Anarchist idea, forced to reply to everything,
was obliged to attack all social prejudices, to become thoroughly
penetrated by all human knowledge, in order to demonstrate that its
conceptions were in harmony with the physiological and psychological
nature of man, and in harmony with the observance of natural laws, while
our actual organisation has been established in contravention of all
logic and all good sense.... Thus, in combating authority, it has been
necessary for the Anarchists to attack all the institutions which the
Government defends, the necessity for which it tries to demonstrate in
order to legitimate its own existence."[49]
You see what was "the development" of the "Anarchist Idea." This Idea
"denied" authority. In order to defend itself, authority appealed to the
family, religion, property. Then the "Idea" found itself forced to
attack institutions, which it had not, apparently, noticed before, and
at the same time the "Idea," in order to make the most of its
"conceptions," penetrated to the very depths of all human knowledge (it
is an ill wind that does not blow some good!) All this is only the
result of chance, of the unexpected turn given by "authority" to the
discussion that had arisen between itself and the "Idea."
It seems to us that however rich in human knowledge it may be now, the
"Anarchist Idea" is not at all communistic; it keeps its knowledge to
itself, and leaves the poor "companions" in complete ignorance. It is
all very well for Kropotkine to sing the praises of the "Anarchist
thinker"; he will never be able to prove that his friend Grave has been
able to rise even a little above the feeblest metaphysics.
Kropotkine should read over again the Anarchist pamphlets of Elisée
Reclus--a great "theorist" this--and then, quite seriously tell us if he
finds anything else in them but appeals to "justice," "liberty," and
other "metaphysical conceptions."
Finally, Kropotkine himself is not so emancipated from metaphysics as he
fancies he is. Far from it! Here, _e.g._, is what he said at the general
meeting of the Federation of the Jura, on the 12th October, 1879, at
Chaux-de-Fonds:--
"There was a time when they denied Anarchists even the right to
existence. The General Council of the International treated us as
factious, the press as dreamers; almost all treated us as fools; this
time is past. The Anarchist party has proved its _vitality_; it has
surmounted the obstacles of every kind that impeded its development;
to-day it is _accepted_." [By whom?] "To attain to this, it has been
necessary, above all else, for the party to hold its own in the domain
of _theory_, to establish its ideal of the society of the future, to
prove that this ideal is the best; to do more than this--to prove that
this ideal is not the product of the dreams of the study, but flows
directly from the popular aspirations, that it is in accord with the
historical progress of culture and ideas. This work has been done,"
etc....
This hunt after the best ideal of the society of the future, is not this
the Utopian method _par excellence_? It is true that Kropotkine tries to
prove "that this ideal is not the product of dreams of the study, but
flows directly from the popular aspirations, that it is in accord with
the historical progress of culture and ideas." But what Utopian has not
tried to prove this equally with himself? Everything depends upon the
value of the proofs, and here our amiable compatriot is infinitely
weaker than the great Utopians whom he treats as metaphysicians, while
he himself has not the least notion of the actual methods of modern
social science. But before examining the value of these "proofs," let us
make the acquaintance of the "ideal" itself. What is Kropotkine's
conception of Anarchist society?
Pre-occupied with the reorganising of the governmental machine, the
revolutionist-politicians, the "Jacobins" (Kropotkine detests the
Jacobins even more than our amiable Empress, Catherine II., detested
them) allowed the people to die of hunger. The Anarchists will act
differently. They will destroy the State, and will urge on the people to
the expropriation of the rich. Once this expropriation accomplished, an
"inventory" of the common wealth will be made, and the "distribution"
of it organised. Everything will be done by the people themselves. "Just
give the people elbow room, and in a week the business of the food
supply will proceed with admirable regularity. Only one who has never
seen the hard-working people at their labour, only one who has buried
himself in documents, could doubt this. Speak of the organising capacity
of the Great Misunderstood, the People, to those who have seen them at
Paris on the days of the barricades" (which is certainly not the case of
Kropotkine) "or in London at the time of the last great strike, when
they had to feed half a million starving people, and they will tell you
how superior the people is to all the hide-bound officials."[50]
The basis upon which the enjoyment in common of the food supply is to be
organised will be very fair, and not at all "Jacobin." There is but one,
and only one, which is consistent with sentiments of justice, and is
really practical. The taking in heaps from what one possesses abundance
of! Rationing out what must be measured, divided! Out of 350 millions
who inhabit Europe, 200 millions still follow this perfectly natural
practice--which proves, among other things, that the Anarchist ideal
"flows from the popular aspirations."
It is the same with regard to housing and clothing. The people will
organise everything according to the same rule. There will be an
upheaval; that is certain. Only this upheaval must not become mere
loss, it must be reduced to a minimum. And it is again--we cannot repeat
it too often--by turning to those immediately interested and not to
bureaucrats that the "least amount of inconvenience will be inflicted
upon everybody."[51]
Thus from the beginning of the revolution we shall have an
_organisation_; the whims of sovereign "individuals" will be kept within
reasonable bounds by the wants of society, by the logic of the
situation. And, nevertheless, we shall be in the midst of full-blown
Anarchy; individual liberty will be safe and sound. This seems
incredible, but it is true; there is anarchy, and there is organisation,
there are obligatory rules for everyone, and yet everyone does what he
likes. You do not follow. 'Tis simple enough. This organisation--it is
not the "authoritarian" revolutionists who will have created it;--these
rules, obligatory upon all, and yet anarchical, it is the People, the
Great Misunderstood, who will have proclaimed them, and the People are
very knowing as anyone who has seen,--what Kropotkine never had the
opportunity of seeing--days of barricade riots, knows.[52]
But if the Great Misunderstood had the stupidity to create the
"bureaux" so detested of Kropotkine? If, as it did in March, 1871, it
gave itself a revolutionary Government? Then we shall say the people is
mistaken, and shall try to bring it back to a better state of mind, and
if need be we will throw a few bombs at the "hide bound officials." We
will call upon the People to organise, and will destroy all the organs
it may provide itself with.
This then is the way in which we realise the excellent Anarchist
ideal--in imagination. In the name of the liberty of individuals all
action of the individuals is done away with, and in the name of the
People we get rid of the whole class of revolutionists; the individuals
are drowned in the mass. If you can only get used to this logical
process, you meet with no more difficulties, and you can boast that you
are neither "authoritarian" nor "Utopian." What could be easier, what
more pleasant?
But in order to consume, it is necessary to produce. Kropotkine knows
this so well that he reads the "authoritarian" Marx a lesson on the
subject.
"The evil of the present organisation is not in that the 'surplus value'
of production passes over to the capitalist--as Rodbertus and Marx had
contended--thus narrowing down the Socialist conception, and the general
ideas on the capitalist regime. Surplus value itself is only a
consequence of more profound causes. The evil is that there can be any
kind of 'surplus value,' instead of a surplus not consumed by each
generation; for, in order that there may be 'surplus value,' men, women,
and children must be obliged by hunger to sell their labour powers, for
a trifling portion of what these powers produce, and, especially of what
they are capable of producing" (poor Marx, who knew nothing of all these
profound truths, although so confusedly expounded by the learned
Prince!)... "It does not, indeed, suffice to distribute in equal shares
the profits realised in one industry, if, at the same time, one has to
exploit thousands of other workers. The point is to _produce with the
smallest possible expenditure of human labour power the greatest
possible amount of products necessary for the well being of all_."
(Italicised by Kropotkine himself.)
Ignorant Marxists that we are! We have never heard that a Socialist
society pre-supposes a systematic organisation of production. Since it
is Kropotkine who reveals this to us, it is only reasonable that we
should turn to him to know what this organisation will be like. On this
subject also he has some very interesting things to say.
"Imagine a Society comprising several million inhabitants engaged in
agriculture, and a great variety of industries--Paris, for example, with
the Department of Seine-et-Oise. Imagine that in this Society all
children learn to work with their hand as well as with their brain.
Admit, in fine, that all adults, with the exception of the women
occupied with the education of children, undertake to work _five hours a
day_ from the age of twenty or twenty-two to forty-five or fifty, and
that they spend this time in any occupations they choose, in no matter
what branch of human labour considered _necessary_. Such a Society
could, in return, guarantee well-being to all its members, _i.e._, far
greater comfort than that enjoyed by the bourgeoisie to-day. And every
worker in this Society would moreover have at his disposal at least five
hours a day, which he could devote to science, to art, and to those
individual needs that do not come within the category of _necessities_,
while later on, when the productive forces of man have augmented,
everything may be introduced into this category that is still to-day
looked upon as a luxury or unattainable."[53]
In Anarchist Society there will be no authority, but there will be the
_Contract_ (oh! immortal Monsieur Proudhon, here you are again; we see
all still goes well with you!) by virtue of which the infinitely free
individuals "agree" to work in such or such a "free commune." The
contract is justice, liberty, equality; it is Proudhon, Kropotkine, and
all the Saints. But, at the same time, do not trifle with the contract!
It is a thing not so destitute of means to defend itself as would seem.
Indeed, suppose the signatory of a contract freely made does not wish to
fulfil his duty? He is driven forth from the free commune, and he runs
the risk of dying of hunger--which is not a particularly gay outlook.
"I suppose a group or a certain number of volunteers, combining in some
enterprise, to secure the success of which all rival each other in zeal,
with the exception of one associate, who frequently absents himself from
his post. Should they, on his account, dissolve the group, appoint a
president who would inflict fines, or else, like the Academy, distribute
attendance-counters? It is evident that we shall do neither the one nor
the other, but that one day the comrade who threatens to jeopardise the
enterprise will be told: 'My friend, we should have been glad to work
with you, but as you are often absent from your post, or do your work
negligently, we must part. Go and look for other comrades who will
put up with your off-hand ways.'"[54] This is pretty strong at
bottom; but note how appearances are saved, how very "Anarchist" is
his language. Really, we should not be at all surprised if in the
"Anarchist-Communist" society people were guillotined by persuasion, or,
at any rate, by virtue of a freely-made contract.
But farther, this very Anarchist method of dealing with lazy "free
individuals" is perfectly "natural," and "is practised everywhere to-day
in all industries, in competition with every possible system of fines,
stoppages from wages, espionage, etc.; the workman may go to his shop at
the regular hour, but if he does his work badly, if he interferes with
his comrades by his laziness or other faults, if they fall out, it is
all over. He is obliged to leave the workshop."[55] Thus is the
Anarchist "Ideal" in complete harmony with the "tendencies" of
capitalist society.
For the rest, such strong measures as these will be extremely rare.
Delivered from the yoke of the State and capitalist exploitation,
individuals will of their own free motion set themselves to supply the
wants of the great All of society. Everything will be done by means of
"free arrangement."
"Well, Citizens, let others preach industrial barracks, and the convent
of "Authoritarian" Communism, we declare that the _tendency_ of
societies is in the opposite direction. We see millions and millions of
groups constituting themselves freely in order to satisfy all the varied
wants of human beings, groups formed, some by districts, by streets, by
houses; others holding out hands across the walls (!) of cities, of
frontiers, of oceans. All made up of human beings freely seeking one
another, and having done their work as producers, associating
themselves, to consume, or to produce articles of luxury, or to turn
science into a new direction. This is the tendency of the nineteenth
century, and we are following it; we ask only to develop it freely,
without let or hindrance on the part of governments. Liberty for the
individual!" "Take some pebbles," said Fourier, "put them into a box and
shake them; they will arrange themselves into a mosaic such as you could
never succeed in producing if you told off some one to arrange them
harmoniously."[56]
A wit has said that the profession of faith of the Anarchists reduces
itself to two articles of a fantastic law: (1) There shall be nothing.
(2) No one is charged with carrying out the above article.
This is not correct. The Anarchists say:
(1) There shall be everything. (2) No one is held responsible for seeing
that there is anything at all.
This is a very seductive "Ideal," but its realisation is unfortunately
very improbable.
Let us now ask, what is this "free agreement" which according to
Kropotkine, exists even in capitalist society? He quotes two kinds of
examples by way of evidence: (_a_) those connected with production and
the circulation of commodities; (_b_) those belonging to all kinds of
societies of amateurs--learned societies, philanthropic societies, etc.
"Take all the great enterprises: the Suez Canal, _e.g._, Trans-Atlantic
navigation, the telegraph that unites the two Americas. Take, in fine,
this organisation of commerce, which provides that when you get up in
the morning you are sure to find bread at the bakers' ... meat at the
butchers', and everything you want in the shops. Is this the work of the
State? Certainly, to-day we pay middlemen abominably dearly. Well, all
the more reason to suppress them, but not to think it necessary to
confide to the Government the care of providing our goods and our
clothing."[57]
Remarkable fact! we began by snapping our fingers at Marx, who only
thought of suppressing surplus value, and had no idea of the
organisation of production, and we end by demanding the suppression of
the profits of the middleman, while, so far as production is concerned,
we preach the most bourgeois _laissez-faire, laissez passer_. Marx
might, not without reason, have said, he laughs best who laughs last!
We all know what the "free agreement" of the bourgeois _entrepreneur_
is, and we can only admire the "absolute" naïvété of the man who sees in
it the precursor of communism. It is exactly this Anarchic "arrangement"
that must be got rid of in order that the producers may cease to be the
slaves of their own products.[58]
As to the really free societies of _savants_, artists, philanthropists,
etc., Kropotkine himself tells us what their example is worth. They are
"made up of human beings freely seeking one another after having done
their work as producers." Although this is not correct--since in these
societies there is often not a single _producer_--this still farther
proves that we can only be free after we have settled our account with
production. The famous "tendency of the nineteenth century," therefore,
tells us nothing on the main question--how the unlimited liberty of the
individual can be made to harmonise with the economic requirements of a
communistic society. And as this "tendency" constitutes the whole of the
scientific equipment of our "Anarchist thinker," we are driven to the
conclusion that his appeal to science was merely verbiage, that he is,
in spite of his contempt for the Utopians, one of the least ingenious of
these, a vulgar hunter in search of the "best Ideal."
The "free agreement" works wonders, if not in Anarchist society, which
unfortunately does not yet exist, at least in Anarchist arguments. "Our
present society being abolished, individuals no longer needing to hoard
in order to make sure of the morrow, this, indeed being made impossible,
by the suppression of all money or symbol of value--all their wants
being satisfied and provided for in the new society, the stimulus of
individuals being now only that ideal of always striving towards the
best, the relations of individuals or groups no longer being established
with a view to those exchanges in which each contracting party only
seeks to 'do' his partner" (the "free agreement" of the bourgeois, of
which Kropotkine has just spoken to us) "these relations will now only
have for object the rendering of mutual services, with which particular
interests have nothing to do, the agreement will be rendered easy, the
causes of discord having disappeared."[59]
Question: How will the new society satisfy the needs of its members? How
will it make them certain of the morrow?
Answer: By means of free agreements.
Question: Will production be possible if it depends solely upon the free
agreement of individuals?
Answer: Of course! And in order to convince yourself of it, you have
only to _assume_ that your morrow is certain, that all your needs are
satisfied, and, in a word, that production, thanks to free agreement, is
getting on swimmingly.
What wonderful logicians these "companions" are, and what a beautiful
ideal is that which has no other foundation than an illogical
assumption!
"It has been objected that in leaving individuals free to organise as
they like, there would arise that competition between groups which
to-day exists between individuals. This is a mistake, for in the society
we desire money would be abolished, consequently there would no longer
be any exchange of products, but exchange of services. Besides, in order
that such a social revolution as we contemplate can have been
accomplished we must assume that a certain evolution of ideas will have
taken place in the mind of the masses, or, at the least, of a
considerable minority among them. But if the workers have been
sufficiently intelligent to destroy bourgeois exploitation, it will not
be in order to re-establish it among themselves, especially when they
are assured all their wants will be supplied."[60]
It is incredible, but it is incontestably true: the only basis for the
"Ideal" of the Anarchist-Communists, is this _petitio principii_, this
"assumption" of the very thing that has to be proved. Companion Grave,
the "profound thinker," is particularly rich in assumptions. As soon as
any difficult problem presents itself, he "assumes" that it is already
solved, and then everything is for the best in the best of ideals.
The "profound" Grave is less circumspect than the "learned" Kropotkine.
And so it is only he who succeeds in reducing the "ideal" to "absolute"
absurdity.
He asks himself what will be done if in "the society of the day after
the revolution" there should be a papa who should refuse his child _all
education_. The papa is an individual with unlimited rights. He follows
the Anarchist rule, "Do as thou wouldst." No one has any right,
therefore, to bring him to his senses. On the other hand, the child also
may do as he likes, and he wants to learn. How to get out of this
conflict, how resolve the dilemma without offending the holy laws of
Anarchy? By an "assumption." "Relations" (between citizens) "being much
wider and more imbued with fraternity than in our present society, based
as it is upon the antagonism of interests, it follows that the child by
means of what he will see passing before his eyes, by what he will daily
hear, will escape from the influence of the parent, and will find every
facility necessary for acquiring the knowledge his parents refuse to
give him. Nay more, if he finds himself too unhappy under the authority
they try to force upon him, he would abandon them in order to place
himself under the protection of individuals with whom he was in greater
sympathy. The parents could not send the gendarmes after him to bring
back to their authority the slave whom the law to-day gives up to
them."[61]
It is not the child who is running away from his parents, but the
Utopian who is running away from an insurmountable logical difficulty.
And yet this judgment of Solomon has seemed so profound to the
companions that, it has been literally quoted by Emil Darnaud in his
book "La Société Future" (Foix. 1890, p. 26)--a book especially
intended to popularise the lucubrations of Grave.
"Anarchy, the No-government system of Socialism, has a double origin. It
is an outgrowth of the two great movements of thought in the economical
and the political fields which characterise our century, and especially
its second part. In common with all Socialists, the Anarchists hold that
the private ownership of land, capital, and machinery has had its time;
that it is condemned to disappear; and that all requisites of production
must, and will, become the common property of society, and be managed in
common by the producers of wealth. And, in common with the most advanced
representatives of political Radicalism, they maintain that the ideal of
the political organisation of society is a condition of things where the
functions of government are reduced to a minimum, and the individual
recovers his full liberty of initiative and action for satisfying, by
means of free groups and federations--freely constituted--all the
infinitely varied needs of the human being. As regards Socialism, most
of the Anarchists arrive at its ultimate conclusion, that is, at a
complete negation of the wage-system, and at Communism. And with
reference to political organisation, by giving a farther development to
the above-mentioned part of the Radical programme, they arrive at the
conclusion that the ultimate aim of society is the reduction of the
functions of governments to _nil_--that is, to a society without
government, to Anarchy. The Anarchists maintain, moreover, that such
being the ideal of social and political organisation they must not
remit it to future centuries, but that only those changes in our social
organisation which are in accordance with the above double ideal, and
constitute an approach to it, will have a chance of life and be
beneficial for the commonwealth."[62]
Kropotkine here reveals to us, with admirable clearness, the origin and
nature of his "Ideal." This Ideal, like that of Bakounine, is truly
"double;" it is really born of the connection between bourgeois
Radicalism, or rather that of the Manchester school, and Communism; just
as Jesus was born in connection between the Holy Ghost and the Virgin
Mary. The two natures of the Anarchist ideal are as difficult to
reconcile as the two natures of the Son of God. But one of these natures
evidently gets the better of the other. The Anarchists "want" to begin
by immediately realising what Kropotkine calls "the ultimate aim of
society," that is to say, by destroying the "State." Their starting
point is always the unlimited liberty of the individual. Manchesterism
before everything. Communism only comes in afterwards.[63] But in order
to reassure us as to the probable fate of this second nature of their
Ideal, the Anarchists are constantly singing the praises of the wisdom,
the goodness, the forethought of the man of the "future." He will be so
perfect that he will no doubt be able to organise Communist production.
He will be so perfect that one asks oneself, while admiring him, why he
cannot be trusted with a little "authority."
FOOTNOTES:
[47] The few Individualists we come across are only strong in their
criticism of the State and of the law. As to their constructive ideal, a
few preach an idyll that they themselves would never care to practise,
while others, like the editor of _Liberty_, Boston, fall back upon an
actual bourgeois system. In order to defend their Individualism they
reconstruct the State with all its attributes (law, police, and the
rest) after having so courageously denied them. Others, finally, like
Auberon Herbert, are stranded in a "Liberty and Property Defence
League"--a League for the defence of landed property. _La Révolte_, No.
38, 1893, "A lecture on Anarchism."
[48] "Anarchist-Communism; its Basis and Principles," by Peter
Kropotkine, republished by permission of the Editor of the _Nineteenth
Century_. February and August, 1887, London.
[49] _l.c._, pp. 1-2.
[50] "La Conquête du Pain." Paris, 1892. pp. 77-78.
[51] Ibid., p. 111.
[52] As, however, Kropotkine was in London at the time of the great Dock
Strike, and therefore had an opportunity of learning how the food supply
was managed for the strikers, it is worth pointing out that this was
managed quite differently from the method suggested above. An organised
Committee, consisting of Trade Unionists helped by State Socialists
(Champion) and Social-Democrats (John Burns, Tom Mann, Eleanor Marx
Aveling, etc.) made _contracts_ with shopkeepers, and distributed
stamped tickets, for which could be obtained certain articles of food.
The food supplied was paid for with the money that had been raised by
subscriptions, and to these subscriptions the _bourgeois_ public,
encouraged by the _bourgeois_ press, had very largely contributed.
Direct distributions of food to strikers, and those thrown out of work
through the strike, were made by the Salvation Army, an essentially
centralised, bureaucratically organised body, and other philanthropic
societies. All this has very little to do with the procuring and
distributing of the food supply, "the day after the revolution;" with
the organising of the "service for supplying food." The food was there,
and it was only a question of buying and dividing it as a means of
support. The "People," _i.e._, the strikers, by no means helped
themselves in this respect; they were helped by others.
[53] "La Conquête du Pain," pp. 128-129.
[54] Ibid., pp. 201-202.
[55] Ibid., p. 202.
[56] "_L'Anarchie dans l'Evolution socialiste._" Lecture at the Salle
Levis, Paris, 1888, pp. 20-21.
[57] Ibid., p. 19.
[58] Kropotkine speaks of the Suez Canal! Why not the Panama Canal?
[59] "La Société au lendemain de la Révolution." J. Grave, 1889, Paris,
pp. 61-62.
[60] Ibid., p. 47.
[61] Ibid., p. 99.
[62] Anarchist Communism, p. 3.
[63] "L'Anarchia è il funzionamento armonico di tutte le autonomie,
risolventesi nella eguaglianza totale delle condizioni umane."
L'Anarchia nella scienza e nelle evoluzione. (Traduzione dello
Spagnuolo) Piato, Toscana, 1892, p. 26. "Anarchy is the harmonious
functioning of all autonomy resolved in the complete equalisation of all
human conditions." "Anarchy in Science and Evolution."--Italian,
translated from the Spanish.