Part 6 (1/2)
Let us hear another authority, and quote the now famous book of Jean Grave, ”La Societe 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 inst.i.tutions: the family, religion, property, etc. It has created a vast machinery in order to a.s.sure 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 inst.i.tutions 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 Elisee 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 emanc.i.p.ated 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 doc.u.ments, 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 cla.s.s of revolutionists; the individuals are drowned in the ma.s.s. 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 pa.s.ses 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 dest.i.tute 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 a.s.sociate, 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 compet.i.tion 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.