Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets - Libcom

ANARCHIST COMMUNISM 45
NOTE FOR "ANARCHIST COMMUNISM: ITS BASIS AND
PRINCIPLES"
For those who want a practical application of the anarchist
principles to political and economic
.
lif : , the evidence here
is put in the simplest and most convmcmg form.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, however, he changed
his opinions concerning the distribution of the products.
See note at the end of this pamphlet.
This summary of the leading principles of anarchist communism
was written for the conservative readers of the
Nineteenth Century, London, where it was published in two
articles in 1887. Kropotkin revised it for pamphlet form.
It is the simplest, clearest statement of the case for free communism
in all his writing.
The first section sets forth the relation of anarchism to
the socialist movement, traces the evidence to support the
free as against the State-controlled form of it, and cites the
agreement of evolutionists with this conception of ultimate
freedom from governmental control. He takes up the organization
of production to show how cooperative control and
equality in sharing wealth would increase the world's goods to
meet everybody's needs. The appropriation of wealth by the
privileged few is shown as the evil which has always blocked
cooperative production, and which must be abolished to
guarantee further progress to equality and freedom. This
economic discussion reflects the common view of the socialist-communist-anarchist
movements. without any peculiar
contribution from the anarchist viewpoint.
It is in the second section that Kropotkin arrays the evidence
for free communism from a standpoint that is not
shared by the other revolutionary schools. He answers the
objections to his contentions,-covering such familiar practical
questions as "What will you do with those who do not
keep their agreements?" "How about the people who won't
work unless compelled?" and "You've got to have a government
to protect society against criminals." Most significant
are his practical illustrations of the non-governmental activities
by which the chief work of the world is done.
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