Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

122/ ANARCHISM
The anarchist party cannot help but be a party like the others. Worse! A government
like any other government, enslaved, like all the others, by its constitution
which, like all other constitutions, laws and codes, would be overtaken, on the day af
ter its promulgation, by events and needs, by the pressing necessities of the struggle.
A government, absurd and illegitimate like the others, based on delegation and representation,
though it would be only too clear and obvious, especially from the experience
of the anarchists, that every delegate and deputy could represent only his own
ideas and fe elings, not those of his constituents, which are infinitely variable on any
subject. A government, intrusive and arbitrary, like any other government, because
its preoccupation with directorial responsibility will, at every development, in every
stage of its hierarchy, push it to adopt-always moved, of course, by the most noble
and generous purpose-provisions, decisions, measures to which the card-carrying
members will submit fo r the sake of discipline, even though they may be contrary to
their opinion and their interest. A government, all absorbing like any other, because
it wants and has an organ fo r every fu nction, oflittle or no use, but through which everybody
must pass, against which all initiatives will have to collide, and before which
all original and unorthodox projects will appear suspicious, if not outright subversive
...
Many who have been with an organization of any kind have had the bitter occasion
to watch its indolence and its negligence. They end up doubting whether the organization
is set up to detend the workers and support their aspirations, wondering
whether it isn't at the critical moment, an obstacle or impediment, instead. They can
tell you if we are exaggerating.
It would not help to object that here we deal with anarchists, selected people,
who know what they want, who are able to choose their road, and who have the good
legs and strength to climb it. Like the members of all the vanguard parties, anarchists
are children of bourgeois society, carrying its stigma, and, understandably, the
crowds that join them are not better and expect the maximum result from the least
effort. We have been fo rced into too many compromise arrangements to be willing
to seek more ... wherever possible, we must avoid, we must shun, we must reject
compromise and renunciation. We must be ourselves, according to the strict character
outlined by our faith and our convictions. These certainly would not draw fo rth a
good omen fo r the libertarian future if we could not proceed on our own, without the
proxies and the tutors, which are inseparable from the notion of organization, be it
either the political organization of the anarchist party or the organization of the craft
and trade unions ...