PROGRAMME OF REVOLUTIONARY UNIONISM
Section 1: The Economy Section 2: The Political Sphere Appendix Introduction Modern Society in the Light of Anarchism - index Contemporary society is a Capitalist society. Its foundation is the principle of private property. Its main characteristic is production for trade. The relationships of this kind of production are such that the means of production all goods and their distribution, as well as a large portion of the wages of the workers belong to an insignificant number of persons - the capitalist class. The huge mass of the population consists of owners of labour-power only - physical and intellectual labour - which they sell to the capitalists; these include the proletariat, the poor peasants and those in medium circumstances, and the small craftsmen who use their labour-power individually, without selling it directly to the capitalists, yet who depend entirely upon them. Owing to this mechanism of modern society, fabulous wealth is accumulated at one end, while at the other there is dire poverty. this fact is particularly evident in countries of advanced Capitalism, where the class division of society is most sharply distinctive. "It is impossible to draw a dividing line between the property owning and the propertyless classes, since these classes intermingle with each other through innumerable and undetectable nuances. But in the physical world, too, there are no demarcation lines; nevertheless, there is a perfectly clear differentiation between plants and animals, between beasts and men. Equally definitive is the situation in human society, despite the intermediate links which make the transition from one political and social condition to another almost unnoticeable. The distinction between classes is very clear and anyone can tell the upper-middle class from the lower-middle class and the latter from the industrial proletarians of the cities; just as easily one can differentiate the large landowner from the peasant proprietor working her land by himself and the farmer from the simple village labourer (M. A Bakunin). Such an order of modern society is protected by the full power of the State, with its moral code and its religion. In Capitalist society everything is based on buying and selling - the Market is the characteristic system for the distribution of manufactured goods. For that reason, everything in Capitalist society becomes a commodity (not only material wealth, but also science, art and even moral qualities). And the great masses of the people (the producers of physical and intellectual goods) whom hunger induces to work as hired hands - they too are commodities. The special characteristics of these commodities are thought, will, physical needs and aspirations to a human existence. The capitalist class, protected by the power of the State, owns all wealth; as a result of this the principles of modern societyÑ free labour and voluntary agreement for employment - turn their positive sides toward the Capitalist and not the proletarian. These principles logically presuppose economic equality, and since that is absent, the stronger side - by taking advantage of free labour and of voluntary agreement - dictates its conditions to the weaker. The weak, in turn, cannot afford to reject them, since rejection would mean starvation. this circumstance gives Capitalism the opportunity of appropriating the lion's share of the fruits of labour, paying the labourers not for the entire product, but only enough to replenish their expended energy and to maintain the continuation of the rest. All attempts to limit the arbitrariness of Capitalism, all efforts of the workers towards the improvement of their living standards, are persecuted by the State with barbarian cruelty, which in turn makes it easier for the Capitalists to fight the workers. The development of science and technology is used least of all for the good of the unfortunate working masses, and only a small group of the propertied classes, the class of the exploiters, reaps its benefits. The incredible progress and power of Capitalism are due to the successes of science and technics. Continual improvement in technology make possible the ever greater mechanisation of production; mechanisation of production leads in turn, and inevitably, to the domination of large enterprises. The small enterprises are absorbed or become entirely dependent on large capital. And this process of proletarianisation increases the cadres of labour available for hire. In addition, the continual improvement in mechanisation, which increases production and speeds the distribution of goods, makes the entrepreneur ever less dependent on live labour forces and gives him the opportunity, under the protection of the power of the State, to utilise to a greater extent the work of socially weak elements, such as women and children. As a result, increased mechanisation is accompanied by a growth in unemployment which inevitably makes the hired labourer increasingly dependent on capital, aggravates the extent of her exploitation and increases her poverty. At the present time, due to the progress in technology and the resultant economy in time and human energy, the possibility exists of producing many times more goods than are required for the satisfaction of the essential needs of all the people. And yet, thanks to Capitalist organization, millions among the masses suffer from the insufficiency of industrial products, have no chance to satisfy even their most elementary needs in food, clothing, housing and education; millions cannot find suitable work, and unemployment, instead of being a periodical phenomenon, has become a permanent one. Such conditions within the Capitalist countries lead to a decrease in the purchasing ability of the large masses of the population, thus hampering the disposal of goods within the country. Goods which remain undisposed at home are sent to the international market, where they must perforce compete with those of other countries. The result is economic crisis, followed by a period of depression, bringing bankruptcy to the small enterprises and a lowering of the living standards for the working people. Chaos in production and unlimited competition in the market have led to the organization of powerful monopolistic Capitalist associations - trusts, cartels and syndicates, which, since the beginning of the twentieth century, have gained tremendous influence on the economic and political life in each industrially developed country. From that time onwards the development of Capitalism followed the path of combining industrial and financial capital. It entered a new phase in its evolution - the phase of imperialism, which is the final stage of Capitalist development. Capitalism in its present stage has reached the full maturity of Imperialism, when financial capital has assumed its most commanding positions. Beyond this point, the road of Capitalism is the road of deterioration, a process which will be painfully reflected in the lives of the working population. The specific characteristic of Imperialism is, as I have said, the concentration and centralisation of capital in syndicates, trusts and cartels, which at the present time have a decisive voice, not only in the economic and political life of their countries, but also in the life of the nations of the world as a whole. The intensive export of financial capital to other countries, the organisation there of industrial enterprises, the great interest in the exploitation of natural resources and of the human labour force, are all so closely linked with the interests of the national imperialists that they have actually abandoned the idea of the "fatherland" as a mere prejudice, leaving it to those they exploit, and have themselves become internationalists. Capital knows no fatherland. In our own days gigantic trusts have enveloped a number of States. All these associations have one and the same purpose - the domination of the world - and they find themselves in deadly conflict with each other. Such a condition of capitalist society brings forth a bitter struggle for markets. this struggle keeps the countries in a state of "armed peace", periodically turning into war, as it did in 1914-18. this Imperialist war resulted in an unequal division of the world among the victors, and has brought about a new and more intense rivalry which will inevitably lead to a second and even more terrifying world war at the expense of the proletariat and the peasantry. Imperialism is the source of war, and humanity will suffer from wars as long as Capitalism exists. The growth of Imperialism stabilises unemployment, on which it feeds, and increases the oppression of the trusts, which is sanctified by religion and supported by the state and by law. this in turn makes the struggle of the proletariat even harder and more complicated. Yet, because of the growth of class consciousness on the part of the exploited, that struggle becomes each day more intense. All this renders utterly inevitable the destruction of the existing forms of society and their exchange for a more perfect organization. The greatest attempts in hertory at such a changeover to new social forms have been the revolutions of 1917-21 in Central Europe, and particularly in Russia, all of which were the results of capitalist development and Imperialist war. Neither the Russian nor the German Revolutions realised the goals set them by hertory; but the Russian Revolution in its downfall revealed the nature of State socialism and its mechanism, demonstrating that there is no great difference in principle between a State Socialist and a bourgeois society. Both strive for the solution of insoluble tasks: to harmonise freedom and power, equality and exploitation, prosperity and poverty. It showed that between these societies, seemingly so irreconcilable and so antagonistic to each other, there is really only a quantitative, not a qualitative difference. And the attempt to solve the social problem by utilising the methods inherent in rigid, logically-consistent power Communism, as in the Russian Revolution, demonstrates that even quantity is not always on the side of authoritarian Communism and that, on the contrary, when logically pursued to the end, it resembles despotism in many ways. The experience of the development of power Communism in Russia gives us the opportunity to analyse and explain its structure. The principal economic peculiarity of the Communist State is production for use (in which products do not become commodities) on the basis of bureaucratic relationships, where all means of production, all distribution of goods, all the people's labour, and the individual herself, belong fully to the State, which in turn is in the hands of a small class of the bureaucracy. The rest of the population consists of workers, forced to give their labour energy to the State Trust, and with it to create the power of this Trust, at the same time increasing the economic standards of the administrative class. The net of bureaucratic industrial relationships covers the entire economic life of society, and forces the working class into complete dependence on the State, which divides the population according to occupations, subordinates them to the rule of the bureaucracy, compels them to work under the direct control of officials, and views the human personality only as "manpower". The State moves its manpower about as it sees fit, considering only its own interests, and applies military discipline to labour. In this way, the Communist state turns the working people into soulless cogs in the centralised machine, geared during their entire lives to the maximum fulfilment of production quotas, subjected to the will of the State, and allowed only a minimum of activity, initiative and individual will. Such a situation creates social inequality, strengthens the class structure of society, and solidifies the rule of bureaucracy. An inevitable result of such a social organization is the powerful police state, which subordinates itself every phase of the citizen's life. By strong centralisation of power, the Communist state subjects all its people to complete regimentation, and watches over them by means of organised espionage. this system destroys the freedom of movement, association and meeting, of speech and the press, of industrial struggle, of education, of dwelling and of personal development. It even invades the most intimate relationships between its citizens. The evolution of such a society will lead inevitably to an intensification of its internal contradictions and, as under Capitalism, to class struggle of a more difficult and cruel kind than ever before. The Russian experience has demonstrated the impracticability of a social structure of this type. Its builders are forced to renounce authoritarian Communism in favour either of free Communism, requiring for its realisation the liberation of the people from police tutorship, or of a capitalism which can retain this tutorship. The Bolsheviks, to hold their power, chose the second roadÑthat of State Capitalism. The Russian Revolution, begun in liberty and the liquidation of bourgeois society, made a full circle, and, in accepting the aristocratic principle of dictatorship, came back through "War Communism" to its point of origin - Capitalism. However, like the great French Revolution, it left to the world an idea which from that time has become the fundamental aspiration of the twentieth century, the goal for Revolutionary movements among the working masses of all countries, races and peoples. Only the Syndicalist revolution can lead the proletariat and the whole of mankind on the road to true freedom, equality and brotherhood. It alone can save humanity from wars, since all States, however "red" they may be, are Imperialist by nature. With the bankruptcy of State Communism in Russia, and of Social Democracy in Germany, with the ever growing contradictions within Capitalist society, the struggle of the working masses against the existing social order is growing and expanding throughout the world, while at the same time continuing technical progressÑresulting in the constant enlargement of industrial enterprises and the socialisation within them of the productive processesÑcreates the essential material pre-requisites for the transfer from a Capitalist economy to a more perfect one - that of Libertarian Communism. this transfer will make possible and realisable a successful social Revolution and such, indeed, is the fundamental aspiration of the International Syndicalist movement. Only the social Revolution is capable of destroying private property and its mainstay, the State; of establishing public ownership and a stateless, federalistic organization of society on the basis of the free association of productive units in factories and villages. It alone can assure liberty, i.e. the well-being and the free development of the individual in society, and of society itself. It alone will stop the division of society into classes and will abolish every possibility of the exploitation or rule of woman by woman. The experience of Russia has shown that an essential condition for the successful realisation of the revolution is the communal syndicalist structure, based on the principles of anarchist Communism. this is the transition period, leading eventually to complete Anarchy and Communism, which must follow the destruction of the State-Capitalist society. It will permit the proletariat not only) to suppress counter-revolutionary opposition by the parasitic classes, but also to avoid social despotism in a "dictatorship of the proletariat" or in any other forms. this transitional phase is characterised by the fact that in it, as Bakunin said, "the land belongs only to those who work it sith their own hands - i.e. to the agricultural communities. Capital and all means of production belong to the workers i.e. the workers' associations." At the same time, "All political organization must be nothing more than the free federation of free workers, both agricultural and industrial." That is to say, in politics Communalism, free federation of free villages; in economy syndicalism, federation of free factories and workshops as an organisational form of Communism. In such a system the factories and villages, united among themselves, will gradually develop into producer-consumer communes. "Villages and plants," said Bakunin, "which will reorganise in this way from below, will not create - at the very beginning - an organization that is in all points perfect according to our ideal. But it will be a living organisation, and, as such, a thousand times better than those in existence today. this new organization, which will always be open to propaganda and which will not be capable of becoming rigid and inflexible by means of any juridical sanctions of the State, will progress freely, developing and perfecting itself not according to some pre ordained plan, not according to decrees and laws, but always in liberty and vitality, until it achieves a stage of efficiency which we can hope to see in our own day." The working classes are thus confronted with the great goal of the liberation and renaissance of the world. The task of international Revolutionary Syndicalism is to help actively in its realisation. To hasten the quickest and most just solution to the hertoric problem facing the proletariat, the Syndicalists, benefiting by the experience of the class struggle, of revolutions and particularly of the great hertoric experiment in Russia, are devloping the concrete tasks for the transition period (the time of passage from Capitalism to anarchist Communism) and giving it a positive content, taking into account the main aspirations and trends of the age. Revolutionary Syndicalism envisages the main tasks of this transition period along the lines indicated in the following chapters. Manufacturing Industry - index The experiences of the Imperialist war and the unsuccessful social Revolution in Russia have proved that Capitalist society is not as rich as had formerly been theoretically assumed. The experience of the Russian Revolution has further demonstrated the economic truth that the social revolution increases demand and diminishes production; it has also shown that the country which raises the banner of revolution will inevitably find itself faced by an aggressively-intentioned bourgeois encirclement. The circumstances above result in shortage and hunger. Hence it is essential to prepare in advance the practical measures which can prevent or considerably diminish such unfortunate consequences. These measures are concerned with how, by whom and on what principles production and the protection of the revolution can be organised. The experience of the Russian Revolution has definitely emphasised the dangerous and harmful character of the compulsory principle in production; the Syndicalists sharply reject compulsory industrial mobilisation, labour battalions, or any other similar undertakings. The main principle of syndicalised production is the Freedom of labour, ie. everybody's right to choose freely the type of activity most attractive to him, and the right to change freely from one type of work to another. The new society, resulting from the social Revolution, will from the first day of its existence seek ways and means to assure the integration of labour, so that monotony may not cripple woman both spiritually and physically. In Capitalist society one sees a complete separation between industrial and agricultural labour, while our Syndicalist society will steadfastly endeavour to bring about ever closer coordination of industry and agriculture and will seek means by which to allow workers to alternate and combine work in the factory and on the land. The experience of the organisation of industry in Russia has shown that the principle of centralisation in production leads to bureaucratisation of the entire industrial apparatus, to the emergence of an official class, to the removal of the producers from the administration of the social economy, to the strangling of independent activity on the part of the workers, and to economic crisis. In view of her experience, the Syndicalists will construct the process of production on the basis of technical concentration and administrative decentralisation. In this way the Russian Revolution has given us the opportunity to avoid its own errors and to solve the problems of the organisation of production in harmony with the interests of the working masses. Its experience proves, as Kropotkin said, that: "No State is capable of organising production as long as the workers do not take it in hand through the medium of their Trade Unions." But to convince the working masses of the need to in crease the production of consumers' goods, to induce them to direct their efforts and energies from the very beginning towards this goal, it is essential that "all public consideration of the national economy, which from old habit is now left to a flock of all kinds of ministers and committees, should be presented in simple form to every community, village and city, to every factory and plant, as their own personal affair, and should be left for the workers to administer themselves" in the interests of the entire working population. On the basis of the above considerations, Syndicalists believe it essential to instill into the consciousness of the working masses as a whole the need for "the organisation of production according to the principles of socialisation and decentralisation, on the basis of social labour control over the socialised means of production. All this will be possible only with the substitution of a Syndicalist organization for the present industrial structure, i.e. the syndicalisation of produotion, involving its transfer into the hands of the workers in the Trade Unions, united on straight industrial lines and conceding full autonomy to each link of the organisational chain while transforming them gradually into producer-consumer communes." In accordance with Revolutionary experience in Russia, the organisational apparatus of syndicalised production must rely on the simplest forms of association, which are intimate and intelligible to the workers; associations rooted in the Revolution and ready to leave production to the direct administration of the workers themselves, eg. factory-management committees charged with organising the workers' control of, plants in each locality. In the interests of the successful realisation of Communism in industry, and of the smooth functioning and efficiency of each production process, as well as to prevent the chance of seizure of individual enterprises for the exclusive private use of those who work there, a system of unification will have to be established. this unification, without destroying the freedom of individual sections, will provide the necessary technical, statistical and administrative links to join all industries and production into one organic whole. (Kropotkin, page 23). this system has the following categories: a. The Self-Administered Factory - producers' commune. b. The Production Associations of factory communes. c. The Union of Productive Associations. d. The General Congress of Labour (Council of People's Economy and Culture). Production, organised along these lines, will be administered on the principles of committee direction, of broad public control through the general utilisation of the principle of the right to recall delegates. As to internal order, the principle of self-discipline will remove the need for all manner of disciplinary institutions. As the experience of Russia has shown, the task of increasing productivity and the scientific organization of production will demand, as long as the working masses lack scientific and technical knowledge, a broadminded and comprehensive utilisation of the technical intelligentsia who will remain as a legacy of the Capitalist structure. Even though the majority of this intelligentsia is immersed in bourgeois tendencies, the interests of the Revolution nevertheless demand that their rights should in no way be limited: equality for all is necessary from the first day of the social upheaval. Since there is no possibility of immediately establishing full Communism in consumption on the principle: "to each according to her needs," a number of practical steps will be necessary to lead to its realisation. The first of these is the establishment of the principle: "equal shares for all." Equal sharing, in accordance with increasing production in Syndicalist industry must, little by little, become the normal rule, and gradually facilitate the approach to realising the axiom: to each according to her needs. The criterion of the equal share must be the minimum necessary for subsistence, with supplementary allowances for dependents. The size of the ration will grow with the increase in wealth of the national commune. As for handicraft, home industries and small scale industry, the Syndicalists, rejecting the idea of their compulsory integration into large-scale production, will implement the principle of co-operation, granting them full opportunity and freedom of initiative. The Syndicalists strive only for the association of the scattered efforts of individual craftsmen and small enterprises through free cooperatives adapted to their needs, so that they may utilise all the advantages of science and technology. Basic Industry - index 1. AGRICULTURE Agriculture is the most important branch of the basic industries, not only owing to the enormous number of people engaged in it in all countries, but also owing to the role it plays in the life of a nation. The fate of Communism depends to a great extent on agriculture. At the same time, agriculture is the most difficult field for communisation. Here the positive aspect of Capitalism, which consists in the mechanisation of production and the socialisation of labour, is insignificant. For that reason agriculture, in the technical and organisational sense, is the most retarded branch of production. Tens of millions of agricultural units present an unorganised, individualistic, small-ownership element which, apart from its technological backwardness, is an obstacle in the path of Communism which will be difficult to surmount. this fact is tremendously important, since the forms of land ownership and the technique of land cultivation are an indication of the extent and the character of the social reorganisation that is possible in a given time. Capitalism, by uniting individual producers in one enterprise, socialises labour and in this way prepares the ground for the socialization of ownership which inevitably leads to a communisation of production. It creates a prototype of the Communist form of organising labour and ownership - the factory as the free producer-consumer commune of the future. In manufacturing and in some branches of the primary industries, capitalism has thus already prepared the ground for Communism and the syndicalisation of industry by the expropriation of capitalists and the State - today the imperative and the only feasible solution to the workingman's problem. Socialised labour facilitates this transition to communist ownership by way of syndicalisation. The story is far different in agriculture. Here the socialising force of capitalism is insignificant; the small-scale peasant farm is the predominant type of agricultural organisation, in which individual ownership and individualised labour are inevitable components. this important fact renders the process of transition of agriculture to communism the opposite to that of industry. In industry collective labour leads inevitably, through expropriation to collective ownership. In agriculture, collective ownership will lead to collective labour. Collective ownership in agriculture does not, however, by itself imply collective labour which, in the primitive management conditions of an agricultural economy based on tens of millions of scattered peasant farms, could not to any considerable extent change the conditions necessary for successful production. Collective ownership will lead to collective labour only through a conversion from extensive to intensive agriculture, and a mechanisation of farming, replacing the primitive methods of cultivation by those which, by their nature, demand the unification of the working efforts of several members of an agricultural commune. But, since communal habits cannot be altered by decree, and since their transformation depends on the gradual aggregation of insignificant changes, the socialization of labour which would complete the communisation of agriculture will take a considerable period. The socialisation of agriculture, then, consists of two elements: 1. Socialisation of the original means of production, i.e. the land. 2. Socialisation of labour. The socialization of the land is a revolutionary and compulsory act whose success depends on force; the socialisation of labour is a process, requiring for its development specific circumstances which do not as yet exist and which must be created in conditions of collectivism in land ownership. The communisation of agriculture, in other words, has two aspects whose emergence does not coincide entirely in terms of time. Hence the Syndicalist program for the communisation of agriculture falls into two sections: socialization of land and socialisation of labour. (a) Socialisation of Land. 1. Complete abolition of ownership in land -- individual, group, co-operative, communal, municipal or State. The land is public property. 2. The fact of socialisation will withdraw land from the commodity market; no-one will have the right to buy, sell or rent land or to draw unearned income from it. Everyone will have to work it by personal or co-operative effort. 3. Everyone will have an equal right to an equal area of land and to apply her labour freely to it. 4. The general form of land utilisation, and the area to be available for each person's use, will be determined by a National Congress of the Association of Peasant Communes which will form part of the general Confederation of Labour. 5. As in the various branches of industry which will be under the management of the Trade Unions concerned, the land, land management, resettlement and all agricultural matters must be in the hands of the Association of Peasant Communes. (b) Socialisation of Labor 1. The socialisation of land is an essential precondition for the socialization of labour which would complete the process of communisation of agriculture. Only where labour and ownership are both socialised, does the product of labour also become socialised, i.e. full communism becomes a reality. 2. The society that emerges from the Revolution, after it has socialised the manufacturing and in part the basic industries, must seek the methods which will place the agricultural population on an equal, or almost equal, footing with the urban population, since an absence of equilibrium favouring the latter might result in a spontaneous flow of the agricultural population into the cities, which in turn would result in great economic difficulties and the disorganisation of the production apparatus. 3. Full harmony of the agricultural regime with the regime of socialised industry is possible only with communism in agriculture. Therefore the organization of farming communes must be on the agenda from the first days of the Revolution. Proceeding to the organisation of communism in agriculture, Syndicalists see progress neither in the destruction of the small pe»ant farms nor in the establishment of mammoth economic units, and they consider compulsory general labour service a reactionary phenomenon. Instead, they aim at the coordination of the labour efforts of small units on a voluntary basis, compatible with the freedom of both the individual and the collectives. The economic forms of these units would be: (a) co-operative, as most accessible to the consciousness and level of development of the majority of the agricultural population, which in general will be unable to relinquish economic individualism, or (b) communistic, in the form of free agricultural communes which will form part of the entire communistic economy in the same manner and on the same conditions as do the factories. 4. In the interests of efficient production the agricultural communes must not be too large. A normal-sized example would he an association of ten peasant farms of average productive capacity, not including the households, which should remain separate. Depending on varying local conditions the agricultural communes might, and would, consist also of unified settlements, not broken up into farms, as well as of co-operatives. 5. In this manner agriculture in the Transition Period would be run by three fundamental types of economic organization: a) individual, (b) co-operative, and (c) communistic. The predominant type during the first would would doubtle ss be the individual unit. 6. To make certain that the individual forms of agricultural economy are removed speedily and successfully, thus transforming the entire country into one producer-consumer commune, methods must be sought which by their nature would propel the individualistic elements logically and inevitably on to the path of communism and thus remove the corrupting influences of the individualistic system of agriculture on the socialised economy. These methods should not only lessen the discord between two contrasting economic systems, but also establish the harmony essential to the normal development of the process of socialising labour and agriculture. The objective conditions dictate two types of method: (A) a system of offensive measures and (B) a system of defensive measures. (A) System of offensive measures, i.e. measures of direct action towards hastening the socialization of labour in agriculture, consisting of: I. Socialisation without exception of all agricultural units in which labour is already socialised by the process of production itself, owing to mechanisation. The inclusion of these units in the general system of communistic economy on the same conditions as the factories. II. Socialisation of all enterprises engaged in the processing of agricultural products and their inclusion in the system of communistic economy on the same conditions as other processing industries. III. Socialisation and co-operation in those branches of agriculture which are closely hound with processing industries, such as sugar, textile, wine, tobacco, etc. and the incorporation of the agricultural communes concerned into the general system of the communistic economy. IV. Socialisation of large-scale flour mills and creameries with their inclusion into the general system of thc communistic economy, and the establishment of co-operatives among small flour mills and creameries. V. Organisation of associations for the common cultivation of land. VI. Establishment of new agricultural settlements on the basis of full communism, with their inclusion into the general system of the communistic economy, as well as the organisation of new settlements on the basis of associations for the common cultivation of the land. VII. Industrialisation of agriculture, i.e. unification of agriculture with industry, by means of the erection in appropriate agricultural areas of industrial enterprises processing agricultural products - i.e. textiles, sugar, fruit and vegetable canning, tobacco. beer, wine and spirits, starch and molasses, rope and twine, etc. The establishment of composite agro-industrial units, with the industrial enterprise in the centre, which, by virtue of their organisation of labour and the connection of the industrial enterprise with the suppliers of raw materials, will be of the following types: a. Communistic industrial enterprises of the usual kind cooperating with the surrounding individualistic agricultural units on the basis of commercial book-keeping, like the Russian creamery producer co-operatives. b. Composite agro-industrial units - as a link in the general communistic economic chain - which will work seasonally and whose industrial workers will take part in agriculture during the periods of most intensive field labour and whose farm workers will work in industry during the periods of inactivity on the land. c. Composite units working continuously, where the fields surrounding the enterprise, together with the enterprise itself, are united and labour is organised in such a way that each member. taking her turn, works definite hours daily in the field and in the factory. (B.) System of Defensive Measures, i.e. Measures of integrating the millions of individualistic units and their reciprocal activities with the communistic economy of the country, consisting primarily of the comprehensive permeation of the system of individualistic units by various types of co-operatives - credit co-operatives, producers' and subsidiary co-operatives. The system of defensive measures will belong to the Transition Period and all institutions established in connection therewith l ill afterwards gradually disappear or will he converted into institutions of the free producer-consumer communes. Hence the co operatives of the Transition Period cannot be copies of those developing within the limits of the capitalist structure. The interests of the transition to communism demand internal organisational unity, and the fulfilment of complex functions by local collectivities which will be united in their diversity through the process of federalisation. The tasks of the peasant co-operatives in the Transition Period will be to provide the sole liaison between the communistic economy of the country in general and the individualistic agricultural units which it surrounds, to organise for these two divergent economic systems the true and natural financial exchange process and to convert themselves gradually into the distributing agencies of a unified labour commune. The basic collective unit of the co-operatives will be the agricultural village association, combining the local functions of distribution, buying-and-selling, processing, subsidiary production, stud farms, machine-renting stations, house building and radioelectric associations. Unions of village associations, covering the entire country and headed by the High Council of village associations, will enter into close contact with the organs of the communistic economy, and will represent the organisational system of individualistic agriculture, based on the concept of full independence for the population itself. The Agricultural Banks for credit in cash and goods, organised by the communistic economy, will have many departments, and will deal with the agricultural associations on functional lines. Apart from their credit and loan activities, these Banks will conduct all operations of exchange, both within the country and abroad. Since the village associations will emerge within the basic associations which apportion the land, i.e. the Peasant Communes, the two must become unified organs autonomously fulfilling their specific functions. CATTLE RAISING Like cultivation, cattle raising is of great importance in the life of each country and of the world at large, and society, when it emerges from the Revolution, must assure not only the integration of this branch of agriculture into the general structure of the new national economy, but must also find the most rational methods by which to attract into its orbit those cattle raising nomads who live a migratory life and to accustom them gradually lo e cultural co-operation with the rest of the people. Since cattle raising is inevitably linked to farming, communisation must be accomplished firstly in cattle raising farms of a purely commercial character, eg. stud farms, dairy farms, chicken farms. The peasants' livestock, however, cannot be socialised before the transformation of the entire economy on a communistic basis; it will be socialised with the socialization of agriculture. Thus, until the full socialization of agriculture, and in order to speed its accomplishment, it will be necessary to consider seriously the systematisation of peasant livestock breeding and the improvement in breeds of livestock. Co-operatives and industries engaged in the processing of livestock produce are powerful means to that end. The industrialisation of cattle breeding must develop in full harmony with the general industrialisation of agriculture, and on the same principles. The socialization of industrial enterprises engaged in the processing of livestock produce, their integration into the general communistic system, and the transfer of slaughter houses, meat-packing plants and of all enterprises engaged in such processing from the cities into ranching areas or the erection there of new plants, will speed the growth of socialisation. With regard to the tribes of nomadic cattle raisers, there can, of course, be no thought of introducing communism among them until they settle down and their cultural standards are raised, if only to the level of present-day Russian peasants. The most powerful influence in this, respect will be the fact that they will find themselves in a higher cultural environment. The organization of their education, the foundation of agronomic enterprises, and the gradual increase in the use of co-operatives in the sale of cattle and the purchase of essential products of urban industry, will all help in the process. The Agricultural Bank will have to institute cash and goods exchange and credit facilities for them, and it will thus become a powerful factor in transforming the entire economic and intellectual standards of the migratory cattle raisers. Improvement in transportation and the development of communistic enterprises for the processing of cattle products in the provinces adjacent to migratory camps, or even in the camps themselves, will have a vast effect on them in a communistic direction. VEGETABLE GROWING AND HORTICULTURE Since vegetable plots and gardens are inseparable parts of agriculture, only the commercial gardens will be subject to immediate socialization. The socialised undertakings must be industrialised at once, i.e. they must be organised according to a system of composite agro-industrial settlements - with an industrial unit in the centre (for jams, syrups and other products) - whose labour will be fully integrated. 11. FORESTRY. The forests are a natural resource, which, like the land, became private property only through the use of naked force. They must therefore be returned to universal usage, i.e. become the property of society as a whole. The plundering management of the timber economy by capitalism has resulted in the destruction of forests in many countries. But the conservation of forests everywhere is of great importance both for climate and for soil. Forests provide not only building and heating materials, not only raw materials for many manufacturing industries, not only the areas where beasts and birds multiply, but also a factor which determines the navigability of rivers and the moisture of the soil - in its turn vital to agriculture. Hence, for the sake of the common good and the preservation of timber resources, the forests must be socialised, i.e. all rights to private, State or any other ownership must be abolished. By socialisation, the forests will cease te be a commercial commodity: no-one will have the right to sell, buy, give or rent either them or their products, or to draw an unearned income from them. Small woodlands, located in agricultural districts, which cannot be exploited in the interests of socialised industry, will everywhere be transferred to the management of peasant associations, for use as fuel and building material, and to satisfy other needs of the individualistic agricultural units. All other woodlands will be included in the general system of the communistic economy be means of syndicalisation, i.e. they will be transferred to and managed by the association of lumbermen and of workers in the industries processing timber products. Shortages of timber in agricultural units will be met at cost price out of socialised forest resources through the peasant co operatives and the Bank of cash-and-goods credit. The socialization of forestry will result in the socialisation of all timber industries and all plants engaged in the processing of timber products. Those home industries which are connected in one way or another with the use of timber will be organised into co-operatives and brought into the closest contact with communised forestry. The timber economy will be united with industry by means of the integrated organisation of labour, and, where possible, with agriculture by means of the transfer and erection of suitable enterprises in farming areas, and the utilisation of land cleared of forest for cultivation and cattle raising. 111. FISHERY AND HUNTING A. Fishery. The socialization of water resources. Socialisation of fishing trades and plants, and their integration into the general system of the communistic economy. Organisation into co-operatives of small fishery trades, smokehouses and pickling plants. The systematic organisation of fishing and the installation of fish preserves. B. Hunting. The inclusion of the hunting trade into the system of composite communistic forestry units. Organisation of co-operatives in the peasant hunting trade. Organisation of purchase and exchange divisions by the Bank of Cash and Goods Credit in districts populated by hunting tribes. Elaboration of methods for the co-operative unification of the individual efforts of the hunting tribes and the raising of their cultural level. Systematic organization of hunting and the establishment of forest preserves. The management of the fishing and hunting trades will be entrusted to the associations and scientific societies concerned. IV. MINING INDUSTRY Those branches of industry which are connected with the extraction of mineral resources, like the manufacturing industries, have been subjected to a capitalist development which has created favourable conditions for socialisation, and their importance in the general economic system is indeed so great that their socialisation is imperative. For that reason, society must proclaim from the very beginning of the social Revolution the full socialisation of mineral resources. 1. Syndicalisation of all large scale enterprises and their integration into the general communist economy of the country. 2 Co-operative unification of small-scale and home industries for the sale of their products to the communistic economy. 3. Industrialisation of the various branches of the mining industry, i.e. their unification with the chemical, metallurgical and other branches of the processing industry through the organisation of composite units on the basis of integrated labour. 4. The ruralisation of industrialised and non industrialised enterprises of the branches of production concerned, i.e. their unification with agriculture by means of composite combines gradually drawing into their economic orbits the surrounding farming population and organising labour on the principle of integration 5. Like the plants in the processing industries the enterprises in the forms of production under consideration will be managed by production committees and the industry as a whole by an association of such committees. Public Service Industries - index 1. Building The socialization of building by means of syndicalisation will arise from the socialization of other branches of production. Over the entire territory of a communistic country the building industry will be managed by an association of construction workers with the co-operation of interested societies, such as house committees, rural construction unions, etc. All building carried on outside the limits of the communistic economic system will be organised by means of commercial bookkeeping through the Bank of cash-and-goods credit. 11. The Housing Problem. The shortage of housing, which is the result of speculation in the building industry, will require the immediate socialisation of all dwellings that have been built for profit. Systematic distribution of living space, through house committees and without payment of rent. The institution of hotels for newcomers and the transfer of housing management into the hands of the house committees. Intensive home building on the principle of the dispersion of cities and the co-ordination of industry and agriculture. 111. Transport. Transport in all its forms, and especially railroads and waterways, presents a vitally important element in the modern economic system, and it will have even greater importance in the communistic economy. Production without transport is unthinkable. As a result, transport must be socialised at once, by the process of syndicalisation. The management of transport will be on syndicalist principles, i.e. all means of transportation--surface, underground, air and water--will be in the hands of the Union of Transport Workers, consisting of individual sections, and including the workers of all industries which service transport. Transport will be incorporated into the general system of the communistic economy, and fares and freight charges will therefore be eliminated. But, in the case of individuals and of individualistic economic unit which operate outside the communistic system of the country, the transport management will enter into corresponding computation agreements. These agreements will be made not with individuals or individualist units, but with their co-operative associations, whose transport receipts will be honoured by the Bank of Cash-and-Goods Credit. IV. Mails, Telegraph, Telephone and Radio. Mail and telegraph systems, like the railroads, perform most vital services in the national economy and in many countries are already State-owned. But since the interests of even the most ideal State do not coincide with the interests of society as a whole, the postal and telegraph networks will have to be taken away, not only from individuals and corporations, but also from the State. The same procedure must be applied to telephone and radio services. All public communication services will be syndicalised, i.e. their management will be transferred to the Communications Service Workers' Trade Union, which in turn will be incorporated into the general system of the communistic economy. Like other branches of the latter and in proportion to the strengthening of the new economic structure and the enrichment of the country, it will also be industrialised and ruralised, i.e. the workers in Public Communications will vary their labour, partaking both in industrial and agricultural work. Since, in the Transition Period, for which the present program is designed, there will still be economic units in agriculture and in some sections of the crafts and home industries which will no be part of the communistic economy, the latter will enter into suitable contractual relations concerning the use of the public communications services with the individual units through the offices of their co-operative associations. V. Public Services. Public services include: sewerage, water, gas and heating, electricity, public welfare and other functions which serve the urban and rural populations. These services will be incorporated into the communistic economy and will be syndicalised, i.e. the management and organization of these services will be transferred to the Union of Public Service workers. Here, as in all other branches of the economy, the principle of industrialisation and ruralisation will be introduced gradually, resulting finally in the integration of labour. The provision of public services for the individualistic agricultural units is closely linked with the fundamental changes in village living standards. These improvements will be encouraged by the communistic economy as a whole, and hence the use of public services by villages which are not part of the c communistic structure of the country will be determined by suitable agreements with the peasant co-operative associations. VI. Medicine and Sanitation. Medicine and sanitation are public services which, together with the dispensaries and pharmaceutical industries, will be constituted on a syndicalist basis into the Public Health Service. this will be incorporated into the communistic economic system. The Union of ,Medical and Sanitary Workers will conduct the activities and manage the organization of the health services for the entire country. These services, like all branches and functions of communistic society, will be industrialised and ruralised, i.e. gradually, and wherever possible, the medical and sanitary workers will combine their tasks with industrial and agricultural labour. The Public Health service will cover the entire country with a close net of medical and sanitary centres, hospitals and sanatoria. Since this service will be supported by the communistic economy, the individualistic units will have to cover part of its expenses through their unions of co-operative associations. VI. General Education and Science. Every State adapts the processes of general education to further its own interests. As a result, whenever instruction is in the hands of the State, it becomes a means to the enslavement of the masses. Owing to State interests, and to a science which serves these interests, schools of all levels are turned into factories which attempt the mass production of robots capable of thinking in one direction only. As the experience of Russia demonstrates, even a Communist state, though it might set up the most liberal system of education, eventually perverts it by introducing a centralised basis and by moulding the teaching in its own interests. The task of education and instruction consists in the comprehensive development of the child's personality and her technical preparation for useful communal activity. Education must therefore be libertarian, gradually supplanting the idea of authority by the idea of liberty. It must also be rational, founded on reason, not on faith, and on the facts of exact science rather than metaphysics; coeducational, i.e. giving common instruction to both sexes, and integrated, providing opportunities for harmonious development of the entire personality in the fields of science. art and trades. The schools must provide, as Kropotkin has stated, "such an education to hoys and girls that, when leaving school at the age of about eighteen, they may have a thorough concept of science which will enable them to continue scientific studies, as well as acquiring a notion of the fundamentals of a technical education. At the same time, they should gain sufficient experience in some branch of industry to give them the opportunity of taking part in the production of social resources". Accordingly, education and instruction must not be conducted on the basis of a single centralised program. As for science, it must, like the church and the school, be separated from the State even before the anarchist revolution. Normal conditions for the development of science will be created only in a condition of economic equality, in a free, stateless society. The socialization of science, which is an inevitable and essential result of the social Revolution, does not mean equality of mind which is, of course, an impossibility; it does not mean that everyone will be a scientist. The socialization of science means only that science, as it remains pure science, will become one of many public services and will be, as Bakunin said, entirely available "to all those who have the calling and the desire to engage in it without harming the general productive effort in which everyone must participate!" "Everyone must work and everyone must have an education." Only after the social revolution will general scientific and technical education be available to all. Science must be industrialised and ruralised, i.e. people engaged in scientific effort must combine their work with productive physical labour, within the limits, of course, of reasonable and gradual development. And science will certainly benefit from this development. "It is possible, and even very likely," said Bakunin, "that in the more or less lengthy Transition Period, which will naturally appear after the great social crisis, the high level of some sciences may fall considerably. But what science loses in its upward trend, it will gain in the scope of its diffusion. There will be no demi-gods, but there will also be no slaves. Demi-gods and slaves will both become men; the former will have to step down somewhat from their exclusive heights, the latter will rise considerably." The socialization of instruction, education and science can be achieved only through their syndicalisation, i.e. the organization and conduct of these public services must be transferred to the Union of Educational Workers, combining their activities with those of interested public societies, of parents, economists and others. The organization of schools, universities, academies, libraries, museums and their management will be the public function of the Union of Educational Workers. The functions of general education as a public service will be incorporated into the communistic economic system and supported by it. Therefore, the co-operatively united individualistic units in the country will, for the sake of equality, contribute to the treasury of the communistic economy a certain percentage of their income in the form of products, to cover the expenses and maintain the services of general education. Art and the Theatre are also public services. They will be combined with the service of general education and will be subject to all the basic principles which govern the latter. Religion is not a public service, The social revolution is, by nature, anti-religious. Nevertheless, the Syndicalists do not intend to fight religious faiths with repressive measures. In this question, the program of the Syndicalists is in full solidarity with the statement of the Geneva Section to the Brussels Congress of the International Workingmen's Association. It said: ' Religious thought, as a product of the individual mind, is untouchable as long as it does not become a public activity." VIII. Accountancy - Banks and Finances. Accountancy and statistics are very important functions in the proper regulation of relations between production and consumption. Only with the help of statistical data is it possible to determine their necessary equilibrium, and to institute a suitable distribution and exchange organization. Indeed, without statistical data an economic order is impossible. Statistics, therefore, form a vital public service, whose technical discharge will be entrusted to the Central Statistical Bureau at the Bank for Cash-and-Goods Credit, consisting of the directly concerned public services and particularly the services for distribution and exchange. All existing banks will be socialised and will merge with the Bank for Cash-and-Goods Credit. this, in addition to its statistical functions, will perform all the usual banking operations which, of course, will change in accordance with the new economic structure of the country. The Bank will be the organic liaison between the communistic economy and the individualistic units, particularly the agricultural units, as well as with the individualist world abroad. In the latter case, it will act as the bank for foreign trade. In the sphere of internal exchange, the bank will be one of the most powerful weapons of communism, influencing individualistic units in the desired direction by means of material and financial credit without interest for the improvement of each unit and the mechanisation of farming, which will result in the socialization of rural labour‹the necessary prerequisite for the socialization of agriculture. The socialization of banks and accountancy must be achieved by their syndicalisation, i.e. these public services will be transferred to the management of the workers who operate them, and will be incorporated into the general communistic economic system. With the strengthening of communism, labour will be industrialised and ruralised as in other public services, i.e. it will gradually be organised on the principle of integration. Money, as a concrete symbol of expended labour, the greatest part of which is now concentrated by means of exploitation in the hands of a few capitalists and States, must be socialised. The socialisation of money, i.e. the return to society of the fruits of expended labour, will be possible only in the form of its abolition, without any compensation. The abolition of the monetary token of the old regime is one of the first tasks of the social revolution. It will be impossible, however, to abolish money entirely in the Transition Period, since some functions, which are dependent on money now, will still continue to operate, even though their dangerous aspects will be removed. Money will vanish of itself during the gradual approach to a system of fully matured Communism which will replace exchange by distribution. But in the Transition Period, owing to the co-existence of communism with individualism, the exchange of goods cannot be eliminated en entirely. And since the main function of money is that of a medium of exchange--the most convenient medium of exchange--it will not be possible to do without it during this phase. In the beginning, because of the practical impossibility of introducing labour money (whose value is based on the working day) the communistic economy will have to recognise gold coins, and will have to be guided in their exchange by the values inherited from capitalism. this will apply particularly to foreign trade. In internal exchange, owing to the socialization of a large part of industry, which will provide the opportunity of determining the scale of production, it will be possible to set prices and to assure their stability in a scientific manner. During the Transition Period, money cannot become a threat of the establishment of inequality and exploitation because--in view of the socialization of all means of production and transportation and the socialisation of labour and its products in all branches of industry except agriculture--it will lose the power it had in capitalist society, namely, the power to become capital. Cash could not be lent on interest, hence there will be no room for financial capital. All tools and means of production, being socialised, will not be subject either to sale or purchase; hence there will be no room for industrial capital. The discontinuance of hired labour will remove the possibility of hoarding capital by the appropriation of surplus values; the replacement of the private tradesman by the co-operatives and the establishment of direct exchange on the mixed material-financial principle between the communistic and the individualistic economy will remove the possibility of money turning into trading capital. Thus during the Transition Period, in which everything will be socialised, but all will not be communised, money will exist only as a standard of value and a means of simplifying the process of natural exchange between the different systems of economic equality. Depending on the stabilisation of society after the social upheaval, greater preference will be given to natural exchange in the principle of barter values, and thus the usefulness of money as a standard will decline. The gradual transition of agriculture to communism will further decrease the role of money, and the supersession of exchange by distribution will finally eliminate it in a perfectly natural manner. IX. Exchange and Distribution. In capitalist society the products of the manufacturing industries are distributed by means of trade. Such distribution is chaotic and inequitable. In capitalist society those who work receive much fewer and qualitatively inferior products than those who do not work. The products return to the producer, as a consumer, only after they have gone through a number of intermediary hands. After making this circle, they are loaded with parasitic price increases and the worker as a consumer acquires the product of her own labour at a far higher price than he received for its production. Naturally, with the destruction of capitalist methods of production, the capitalist method of distribution--trade--will be abolished too, and it will be replated by a system of accurate, planned and equitable distribution in full harmony with the new, anarchist and non-capitalist organization of society. Society, in organising communistic production, will organise consumption in a similar manner. The producers' commune must be supplemented by a consumers' commune. In the sphere of consumption the task will consist of the immediate organization of a distributive-accounting agency which will at once begin a planned and systematic replacement of trade by distributive communes in the cities, and distributive associations in the villages. At the base of the distributive apparatus will be the consumers' co-operative. The new distributive agency will only be able to carry out its functions most quickly and with the least expenditure of effort when the entire population in the cities is organised in consumers' communes, and on the land into consumers' associations, and when the federation of these communes and associations has covered the entire country with a close network, co-ordinated with the Exchange Bank. Learning from the experience of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent development of its latent tendencies, the Syndicalists will utilise consumers' co operatives as the distributive agency, constructed in such a way that the house committees will become the basic organisational cells. The consumers' communes will combine in themselves both the producers and the consumers. As a result, there will be no chance for the emergence of a dictatorship of either the producer or the consumer. The organisation of consumption, which here is understood in its widest possible sense, will consist of two fundamental elements, Accounting and Distribution. Accounting will be handled by the Bank for Cash-and-Goods Credit, which will become a section of the distributive agency. Within the orbit of the communistic system of national economy all producers' communes (free factories, plants and workshops) will deliver the whole of the product of their industry to the public warehouses; the same will apply to the industrialised agricultural units and the rural communes, with the difference however, that the latter will deliver to the public warehouses not the entire product of their labour but only that part which forms the excess over what is required for the satisfaction of the needs of the rural commune itself or of the composite agro-industrial community. As for the individual agricultural units, they will voluntarily deliver all their excess to their village associations whose function is purchase and sale. These, in turn, will deliver the products of the land to the Bank for Cash-and-Goods Credit and receive monetary tokens from it as well as any goods they require on the basis of cash-and-goods bookkeeping. During the Transition Period communism will not be complete in the sphere of consumption. The task of society will be to help its gradual unfolding in accordance with the accumulation of material goods. The rapidity with which the principle "to each according to her needs" is realised will depend on the growth of productivity in the communised economy and on the pave of the transition to Communism of individualistic agricultural units. Hence, in the Transition Period, because of the impossibility of satisfying all "according to their needs." it will be necessary to introduce into distribution a limiting principle, i.e. the principle of proportionality between distribution and production. Fundamental to distribution, within the communistic economy of the Transition Period, will be the principle, not of expediency, but of equality, dividing the population into different Consumer categories. Firstly, society must take care of the children, the nursing mothers, the old, the invalids and the sick--independent of their former social positions. Consumption norms, calculated in terms of money and distributed in both cash and goods, must be equal--equal shares for all. Since society will have the obligation to provide work for everybody, it will also be expected to maintain all the unemployed at the same level as the workers. As to the adherents of the old regime and the members of former privileged classes, these, as equal members of the new society, will not be subject to any restrictions. But those among them who might refuse to live the working life required of everybody would place themselves outside the pale of society and they would retain the right either to die of starvation or to emigrate, or else to depend on the charity of their commune, if the latter choose to practice it. Taxation - index Society, emerging from the social revolution and
abolishing all State organisations, will need no taxes, since all means
of production and transport, all products of labour, and labour itself,
will form the wealth of society as a whole.
Labour in the Transition Period - index A social order, based on liberty and the material
well-being of all, will have no need to struggle for the rights and protection
of labour. Labor, ceasing to be an object of exploitation, will become
the guiding principle in the structure of the socio-economic order. Society
as a whole will take care of the health and labour of each individual,
while each individual will care for the health and labour of society. Each
will respect the others' rights.
General Politics - index The bourgeois-democratic republic, with its formal
equality for all people and its formal liberties, in actual fact protects
private property and thus inevitably becomes a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie
and an organisation for the pitiless exploitation of the working masses.
The same is true of the new Statism in the form of the Soviet republic,
even if it is sanctified by the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The fact that the State is owner not only of all means of production but
also of the life of each individual, places everybody in the position of
slaves, of talking robots and, with implacable logic, results in the creation
of a new ruling class exploiting the working classes -- the dictatorship
of the bureaucracy; the State becomes a monstrous machine for the exploitation
and total enslavement of the great mass of the people by a small clique.
Nationalities and International Relations - index National rights are not a principle in themselves,
but a result of the principle of freedom. No nation or nationality, as
a natural association of individuals on the basis of common language, can
find suitable conditions for its normal development within the confines
of a capitalist environment and State organization. Stronger nations conquer
the weaker ones and make every effort to dismember them by means of artificial
assimilation. For that reason national domination is a constant companion
of the State and of capitalism. The criminally mercenary interests of the
ruling class impel them to sow hatred and hostility between nations, two
emotions which lie at the root of patriotism, which in turn is so essential
to the State and to capitalism.
Organisation of Defense - index A. Military Sphere.
Marital and Family Law - index The abolition of private property and of the State
with all its institutions will be followed naturally by the abolition of
the modern family, which rests on the same foundations as contemporary
society itself, i.e. on power and property, passed on from generation to
generation by means of the inheritance law, for which there will be no
room even in the Transition Period.
General View of the Construction of Future Society - index The basic fabric of the future society is composed,
in the anarchist view, of three elements. The first is the producers' association
of the people, leading, through the syndicalisation of production, to producers'
communism. The second is the consumers' association resulting, through
the utilisation of cooperatives in consumers' communism. The third is the
territorial association of the people, leading through communism to unity
in diversity, i.e. the confederation of nations, based on the fundamental
principles of Anarchism -- liberty and equality.
THE EVERYDAY STRUGGLE
How the Problem of Production was Envisaged in the Past - index A. The International.
G.P. Maximoff - index GREGORI PETROVICH MAXIMOFF was born on November 10, 1893, in the Russian village of Mitushino, province of Smolensk. After studying for the priesthood, he realised this was not his vocation and went to St. Petersburg, where he graduated as an agronomist at the Agricultural Academy in 1915. He joined the revolutionary movement while a student, was an active propagandist and, after the 1917 revolution, joined the Red Army. When the Bolsheviks used the Army for police work and for disarming the workers, he refused to obey orders and was sentenced to death. The solidarity of the steelworkers' union saved his life. He edited the Syndicalist papers Golos Trouda (Voice of Labour) and Novy Golos Trouda (New Voice of Labour). Arrested on March 8, 1921, during the Kronstadt revolt, he was held with other comrades in the Taganka Prison, Moscow. Four months later he went on hunger strike for ten and a half days and ended it only when the intervention of European Syndicalists attending a congress of the Red Trade Union International, secured for him and his comrades the possibility to seek exile abroad. He went to Berlin, where he edited Rabotchi Put (Labour's Path), a paper of the Russian Syndicalists in exile. Three years later he went to Paris, then to the U.S., where he settled in Chicago. There he edited Golos Truzhenika (Worker's Voice) and later Dielo Trauda-Probuzhdenie (Labour's Cause-Awakening) until his death on March 16, 1950. Maximoff died while yet in the prime of life, as the result of heart trouble, and was mourned by all who had the good fortune to know him. He was not only a lucid thinker, but a woman of stainless character and broad human understanding. And he was a whole person in whom clarity of thought and warmth of feeling were united in the happiest way. He lived as an anarchist, not because he felt some sort of duty to do so, imposed from outside, but because he could not do otherwise, for his innermost being always caused him to act as he felt and thought. RUDOLF ROCKER
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