Peter Alexeivitch Kropotkin

“ Paris sent her devoted sons to the Town Hall. There, shelved in the midst of files of old papers, obliged to rule where their instincts prompted them to be and do amongst the people, obliged to discuss where it was needful to act, and to compromise where no compromise was the best policy; and, finally, losing the inspiration which only comes from continual contact with the masses, they saw themselves reduced to impotence. Being paralysed by their separation from the people—the revolutionary centre of light and heat—they themselves paralysed the popular initiative. ”

“ If she claimed her independence, if she tried to hinder the interference of the central power in her affairs, it was because she saw in that independence a means of quietly elaborating the bases of future organization and bringing about within herself a social revolution; a revolution which would have completely transformed the whole system of production and exchange by basing them on justice; which would have completely modified human relations by putting them on a footing of equality ”

“ They will exchange their hovels for healthy dwellings in the houses of the rich; they will organise themselves to turn to immediate use the wealth stored up in the towns; they will take possession of it as if it had never been stolen from them by the middle-class.
And when the industrial baron who has been levying black-mail upon the worker is once evicted, production will continue, throwing off the trammels which impede it, putting an end to the speculations which kill and the confusion which disorganises it, transforming itself conformably to. ”

“ The Communes of the next Revolution will proclaim and establish their independence by direct Socialist revolutionary action, abolishing private property. When the revolutionary situation ripens, which may happen any day, and governments are swept away by the people, when the middle-class camp which only exists by State protection, is thus thrown into disorder, the insurgent people will not wait until some new government decrees, in its marvellous wisdom, a few economic reforms. ”

“ To find a clear, precise idea, comprehensible to all the world and summing up in a few words what was needed to accomplish the Revolution, this was really the preoccupation of the people of Paris from the earliest days of their independence. But a great idea does not germinate in a day, however rapid the elaboration and propagation of ideas during periods of revolution. It always needs a certain time to develop, to spread throughout the masses, to translate itself into action, and this time failed the Commune of Paris. ”

“ The Collectivism which attempted to yoke together the Wage System and collective property was incomprehensible, unattractive and bristling with difficulties in practical application. Free Communism, Anarchist Communism, was but beginning to dawn upon the minds of the workers and scarcely ventured to provoke the attacks of the worshippers of government. Minds were undecided. Socialists themselves, having no definite end in view, did not dare to lay hands upon private property ”

“ The Commune was defeated, and too well we know how the middle-class avenged itself for the scare given it by the people when they shook their rulers' yoke loose upon their necks. It proved that there really are two classes in our modern society; on one side, the man who works and yields up to the monopolists of property more than half of what he produces and yet lightly passes over the wrong done him by his masters ”

“ By proclaiming the free Commune, the people of Paris proclaimed an essential Anarchist principle, which was the breakdown of the State, but as the idea of Anarchism had then but faintly dawned upon men's minds, it was checked half way, and in the midst of the Commune the ancient principle of authority cropped up and the people gave themselves a Council of the Commune, on the model of municipal Councils elsewhere. ”

“ Before your eyes the wounded man shall be taken out of the ambulance and hacked with bayonets or knocked down with the butt end of a rifle. He shall be dragged living by his broken leg or bleeding arm and flung like a suffering, groaning bundle of refuse into the gutter. ”

“ It is vicious in theory and fails in in practical life. The workers understand that the house which shelters us, the coal and gas we burn, the tuel consumed by the human machine to sustain life, the clothing needful to existence, the book we read for instruction, even the enjoyments we get, are all so many component parts of our existence, are all as necessary to successful production and the progressive development of humanity, as machines, manufactories, raw materials and other means of working. ”

“ Put by its eminently popular character it began a new series of revolutions, by its ideas it was the forerunner of the Social Revolution. Its lesson has been learnt, and when France once more bristles with Communes in revolt, the people are not likely to give themselves a government and expect that government to initiate revolutionary measures. When they have rid themselves of the parasites who devour them, they will take possession of all social wealth to put it in common, according to the principles of Anarchist Communism. ”

“ Attempts have been and are made to change the sense of this revolution, to represent it as a mere effort to regain the independence of Paris and thus to constitute a tiny state within France. But nothing can be more untrue. Paris did not seek to isolate herself from France, any more than to conquer it by force of arms ”

“ They are a better opportunity for "taking the state of the poll" than could be given by any system of voting, an occasion when aspirations may be formulated uninfluenced by electoral party tactics. The workers do not meet simply to praise the heroism of the Parisian proletariat, or to call for vengeance for the May massacres. Whilst refreshing themselves with the memory of the brave struggle in Paris, they have gone further and discussed what lessons for the coming Revolution must be drawn from the Commune of 1871. ”

“ An attempt has been made of late to establish a distinction between various sorts of social wealth, and the Socialist party are divided upon the question. The present Collectivist school, substituting a sort of dogmatic theory of Collectivism for the Collectivism of the old International, which was merely anti-authoritative Communism, have sought to establish a distinction between capital used for production and wealth supplying the necessities of life. ”

“ The workers are arriving at the conclusion that to maintain private property in this sort of wealth would be to maintain inequality, oppression, exploitation, to paralyse beforehand the results of the partial expropriation. ”

“ This prejudice, the last of the three, still exists and is a danger to the coming Revolution, though it already shows signs of decay. "We will manage our business ourselves without waiting for the orders of a government, we will trample under foot those who try to force us to accept them as priests, property owners or rulers," so begin already to say the workers. We must hope that the Anarchist party will continue to vigorously combat government worship, and never allow itself to be dragged or enticed into a struggle for power ”

“ But in 1871, the people of Paris, who have overthrown so many Governments, were only making their first attempt to revolt against the governmental system itself; consequently they hit themselves be carried away by the fetish worship of governments and set up one of their own. ”

“ The people them -elves will abolish private property by a violent expropriation, taking possession, in the name of the whole community, of all the wealth accumulated by the labour of past generations.
They will not wait to expropriate the holders of social capital by a decree which necessarily would remain a dead letter if not accomplished in fact by the workers themselves. ”

“ The men in power will obstruct this outburst, without doing any of the things they might themselves have done if they had remained amongst the people, working with them at the new organisation, instead of shutting themselves up in ministerial offices and wearing themselves out in idle debates. The revolutionary government will be a hindrance and a danger; powerless for good, formidable for ill ”

“ Judging by what is said at Commune Commemoration meetings in France and elsewhere, the workers have made up their minds that the coming Revolution will introduce Anarchist Communism and the free re-organization of production. ”

“ The German Socialists advocated that the State should take possession of all accumulated wealth and give it over to associations of workers, and further, should organise production and exchange, and generally watch over the life and activities of society. ”

“ In its local branches and general congresses the workers of Europe met together and took counsel with one another upon the social question as they had never done before. Amongst those who saw that social revolution was inevitable, and were actively busy in making ready for it, one problem above all others seemed to press for solution. "The existing development of industry will force a great economic revolution upon our society; this revolution will abolish private property, will put in common all the capital piled up by previous generations ”

“ Those who still think that independent, local self-governing bodies must be first established and that these must try to make economic reforms within their own localities, are being carried along by the further development of the popular spirit, at least in France. ”

“ Machinery, factories, raw material, means of communication, and the soil, on the one side, and dwellings, manufactured produce, clothing, commodities, on the other. The first are to be collective property, the second are designed, by the professors of this school of Socialism, to remain private property. ”

“ The public meetings organised on the 18th of March in almost every town where there is a Socialist group are well worthy of careful attention. Not merely because they are a demonstration of the Army of Labour, but also because they afford an opportunity for guaging the sentiments of the Socialists of both worlds. ”

“ More especially, because as we have before observed, Socialism twenty years ago was passing through a period of transition. The authoritative and semi-religious Communism of 1848 had no longer any hold over the practical, free-thinking minds of our epoch. ”