Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

proletariat of the land which it cultivates with its own
han d s • " ( 2 3 ) The pea san t s, a c cording tot he prom i n en t
Bakuninist James Guillaume, wIll then have the option of
either owning and working their plots individually or
assocIating Into collectives. Because of the advantages
of the collective in. creating "a communal agency to sell
or exchange the i r products," it is expected that the
collect i ve wi II be the dominant form of organizat lon,
but no coercion will be used to compel individual peasants
to join the collectives.(24) A similar arrangement
is envisioned for industry. Large-scale production, of
course, would entail collective ownership, but handicrafts
and other small Industry may well be individually
owned. As for remuneration, whereas anarcho-communism
intends to follow the formula "From each according to
his ability to each according to his needs," the collectivists,
at least initially, adhere to the much different
maxim of "From each according to hIS means to each
according to hIS deeds."(25)
To meet their needs it will be quite natural for
the collectives to organize themselves into federations
of collectlves.(26) Then, as Guillaume describes the
operation of the anarcho-collectlvist society, "the
workers' associations as well as the individual producers.
• WIll deposit their unconsumed commodities In
the f a c iIi tie s pro v Ide d b Y the Ba n k 0 f Ex c han ge, the
value of the commoditIes having been established In advance
by a contractual agreement between the regional
cooperative federations and the various communes•••The
Bank of Exchange Will reml t to the producers negot lable
vouchers representIng the value of the products: These
vouchers wi 11 be accepted throughout the territory included
in the federation of communes."(27)
The important difference between anarcho-communism
and anarcho-collectivism is that while for the former
the wage system and all other market phenomena will be
abolished, the collectivists retain not only a modifIed
wage system but other exchange relationships as well.
Gui llaume, for example, acknowledges that so long as any
pro d u c t s are ins h 0 r t sup ply the y wo u I d have to be
treated as commodities WIth theIr prices set by the Bank
of Exchange according to the dictates of supply and
d em and • Its h 0 u I d be poi n ted 0 ut, howe v e r, t hat the
collectIvists believe that collective labor will be so
productive that all shortages will eventually disappear
and wi th it the need for any type of pr ice mechanism.(28)
Once this plateau of plenty is reached, the
structures of anarcho-communism and anarch-collectivism
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