What has helped to lead many comrades into the error that “principles are a chain, a hindrance in the struggle,” is that, perceiving this very discord of ideas and efforts, despairing of seeing a force adequate for the purposes of revolution gather together, they treat the serious discussion of ideas as metaphysical; and, not finding in our own midst the force which they fancied themselves able to seize by other means, they return to authoritarian methods, which they naively imagine they have divested of authority because they have changed the names. Anxious for the struggle they do not perceive that, though apparently isolated, the efforts of the combatants nevertheless converge towards the same goal, that nothing is lacking to give this coordination the power they wish to impart to it save that it be reasoned out; and that this last can come about only through the diffusion of our ideas.
“When a comrade promises us his help,” say these, “we want to be able to count on him, and to be sure that he will not, under the pretext of liberty and personal autonomy, fail to respond when the day of action comes.” We are entirely of the opinion of these comrades; but we consider also that it is a part of the propaganda to demonstrate that no person should engage therein unless he is certain of being able to stand by it; that a thing once undertaken, it is a matter of honesty to fulfill one’s promises. Of course this again raises the question of the struggle against dissolving conceptions noticed above; but it is incumbent upon our propaganda to show the good effects of complete understanding and confidence between comrades. What, indeed, could all the engagements undertaken and exacted beforehand accomplish? Though it should be inscribed in colossal characters upon programs prepared in advance that people must be bound by the agreements they enter into, what could be done so long as none had power to constrain those who should violate those agreements?
Let us listen less to our impatience and more to our reason, and we shall see that “metaphysics” is not always where we suppose it to be.
XIX
Efficacy of Reforms
In treating of the question “Why we are revolutionists,” we endeavored to show that the poverty and discontent engendered by our bad social organization leads directly to revolt, and that since we are constrained by the force of circumstances to take part in this revolution we have every interest in preparing ourselves for it. There is another reason which we have mentioned only incidentally and which is also very important, for it explains why the Anarchists decline to struggle to obtain some of the reforms offered to the workers as panaceas or as evolutional means for achieving their emancipation gradually. We have to show that the capitalistic organization being given, the separation of society into two classes, one of which lives at the expense of the other, no melioration can be granted to the exploited class without lessening the privileges of the exploiting class; consequently either the reform is illusory, a decoy used for the purpose of lulling the worker to sleep and making him exhaust his energies in the conquest of soap-bubbles which burst in his hands when he seeks to grasp them, or, if it really might alter the situation, the privileged class, which is in possession of the power, will put forth every effort to prevent its application or turn it to their own profit; hence we must always come to the same ultima ratio—force. We do not intend to review all the reforms invented by hard-up politicians, nor to criticize all the electoral canards hatched in the brains of office-seekers; we should have to write hundreds of volumes. We believe we have amply demonstrated that the sources of misery lie in our bad economic organization; the reader will therefore understand that we leave aside all those remedies which embody political changes only. As to economic reforms worth the trouble of discussing, they are very few, and easy to enumerate:
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An income tax;
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Reduction of the hours of labor and the fixing of a minimum wage;
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Increase of taxes upon inheritances and abolition of collateral heirships;
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If we make an additional note of the formation of syndicates and their transformation into cooperative societies for production we shall have listed all the reform baggage of those who seek to transform society by evolution. In quantity it is meager; let us have a look at the quality.
An income tax! For a considerable period this panacea was extolled, but of late it seems to have lost slightly in favor. It is one of those which the politicians use to dazzle the eyes of the workers; one of those also which have enjoyed most credit, for it appeared to aim to make the rich support the expenses of the State; it seemed intended to reestablish the equilibrium between citizens by making each defray the expenses of society according to the services received therefrom. But to study the mechanism of society and find the sources of riches is sufficient to enable one to understand that the pretended reform would reform nothing, that it is nothing but a miserable bait designed to lure the workers astray by leading them to hope for improvements which will never take place, at the same time preventing them from discovering the true means of emancipating themselves. Undoubtedly there are some capitalists who are really frightened at the bare mention of this reform, already seeing themselves “despoiled” for the benefit of “the vile multitude;” the bourgeoisie is full of just such tremblers, frightened at the least noise, hiding at the slightest alarm, but bawling like calves when anyone speaks of touching their privileges. It may also be that among those who propose it there are some who actually believe in its efficacy.
