Transcript ECON 325 RADICAL ECONOMICS - College Of Business and …

Anarchism:
Kropotkin and Tolstoy
D. Allen Dalton
ECON 325 – Radical Economics
Boise State University
Fall 2011
Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921)
• Born Moscow; father landowner and
owner of serfs
• 1857-1861; Corps of Pages
• 1862-67; Cossack officer
• 1867-71; studied Math in St. Petersburg
• 1872- joined IWA, came into contact
with anarchists
• Imprisoned in Russia, escaped to London;
expelled from Switzerland in 1877;
imprisoned in France 1883
• Actively supports WWI against Germany
• Returns to Russia in aftermath of
February Revolution 1917
Evolutionary Utilitarianism
“A society is an aggregation of organisms
trying to combine the wants of the
individual with those of co-operation for
the welfare of the species in
establishing the best conditions for
realizing the greatest happiness of
humanity.”
- Anarchist Communism, p. 4
Kropotkin’s Teaching
• Basis – The goal of social evolution is attaining
the largest possible human happiness.
Fundamental requisites for the attainment of
this goal are “the principle of equality” and
“the commandment of energy.”
– “Do to others as you would have it done to you in
the like case.”
– “Be strong; overflow with the passion of thought
and action: so shall your understanding, your love,
your energy, pour itself into others.”
- Anarchist Morality, p. 41, 61
Kropotkin’s Teaching
• On Law – Legislation is a hindrance to
human happiness. Three classes of
legislation: protection of property,
government, persons. They exist to rob
the producer, uphold privilege of
nobility, clergy and bourgeoisie, and give
a false sense of protection.
• On the State – The State is a hindrance
to human evolution toward greatest
human happiness.
The State
“What does this monstrous engine serve for,
that we call ‘State’? For preventing the
exploitation of the laborer by the capitalist?
of the peasant by the landlord? or for
assuring us of work? for providing us food
when the mother has nothing but water left
for her child? No, a thousand times no.
…’State’ is tantamount to ‘war’ …civil war
rages at the same time with foreign war; …the
State … has become a weapon of the rich
against the exploited; of the propertied
against the propertyless.”
- Words of a Rebel, p. 14
Kropotkin’s Teaching
• On Society – Anarchism is the highest
and inevitable form of society.
– ”Free associations are beginning to take to
themselves the entire field of human
activity.”
- Anarchist Communism, p. 25
• Organization of the Stateless Society –
– Contractual organization of individuals into
communes, contractual organization of
communes into federations.
Kropotkin’s Teaching
• On Property – Private property is a
hindrance to the evolution of mankind
toward greatest happiness. Its effects
are chronic crises, unemployment, want
and misery in the midst of overproduction. It produces a caste of
idlers who are a threat to general
morality and offends against justice.
Kropotkin’s Teaching
• On Wealth – All of the entire
accumulated wealth is the product of
labor, present and past.
– “Every discovery, every progress, every
increase in our wealth, has its origin in the
total bodily and mental activity of the past and
present. Then by what right can any one
appropriate to himself the smallest fraction of
this vast total and say ‘this belongs to me and
not to you.’?”
- Conquest of Bread, pp. 8-9
Kropotkin’s Teaching
•
Economics – Community ownership of all property,
consumption as well as producer goods.
Community decisions as to production – access
dependent upon labor. Shares based upon
wants/needs not shares of production.
“It will be recognized that every one who co-operates in production
to a certain extent has in the first place the right to live, and
in the second place the right to live comfortably.”
- Conquest of Bread, p. 229.
“Free taking of everything in superfluity, and rations of that in
which there is a possibility of dearth: rations according to
needs, with preference to children, the aged, and the weak in
general.”
- “Place of Anarchism in Socialistic Evolution,” p. 13
Kropotkin’s Teaching
• On Transition – A social revolution will
occur – the people taking possession of
society’s total stock of goods –
extending for several years to complete
the social and economic transformation.
The “People” will limit the bloodshed
because of their sympathy of their
victims.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
• Born Yasnaya Polyana, Russia
• 1843-1846; student Kazan – oriental
languages and jurisprudence
• 1847-8; studied jurisprudence at St.
Petersburg
• 1851-5; served in Caucasus and Crimea
as artillery officer
• 1861 on; agriculturalist and author
• War and Peace; Anna Karenina
• My Confession (1879); What I Believe
(1884); The Kingdom of God is Within
You (1893)
“The Anarchists are right in everything; in the
negation of the existing order, and in the
assertion that, without Authority, there could
not be worse violence than that of Authority
under existing conditions. They are mistaken
only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted
by a revolution. But it will be instituted only by
there being more and more people who do not
require the protection of governmental
power…There can be only one permanent
revolution - a moral one: the regeneration of the
inner man.”
- On Anarchy
Christianity
Matthew 5: 38-39
[Jesus said,] “You have heard that it was said,
'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.‘ But I tell
you, Do not resist an evil person. “
“I needed only to take these words simply and
downrightly, as they were spoken, and at once
everything in Christ’s whole teaching…was
comprehensible to me…and the main gist
appeared no longer useless but a necessity;
everything formed a whole…”
- “What I Believe”, p. 15
Tolstoy’s Teaching
• Basis – Christian “True Love,” the
setting aside of one’s personal comfort
for others due to his life in God. Faith
is knowledge of the truth based in
reason.
• On Law and the State– Rejects Law and
the State because both are based upon
and upheld by violence. Instead of Law,
Love is to be the rule of action.
Tolstoy’s Teaching
• Kingdom of God – The following of
Christ’s teaching, especially the five
commandments of the Sermon on the
Mount:
–
–
–
–
–
Keep the peace and restore it when broken;
Remain true to one another as man and wife;
Make no vows;
Forgive injury and do not resist evil;
Refrain from breaking the peace for the people’s
sake.
Tolstoy’s Teaching
• On Property – Property establishes
dominion of possessors over nonpossessors, dividing brothers and
sisters into castes, introducing
dependency and exploitation. Labor is
exploited by those who own land and
tools, so that the product of labor
passes out of labor’s hands. Property is
defended by violence.
Tolstoy’s Teaching
•
Economic Organization – A society
based on Love requires a distribution
based on its commandments. Two
precepts that follow from Love are
(1) “Man lives not to be served, but to
serve.”
(2) “Share what you have with the
poor; gather no riches.”
Tolstoy’s Teaching
•
Transition – Self-reform upon the
basis of Love; change one’s life to
conform with Love, and spread the
truth by word and deed.