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

Revolutionary Ideas And Action / 57
These general principles are enough to explain the spirit and scope ofthis institution,
that has no precedent and no model. They furnish the solution of two important
problems of social economy, that of collective fo rce, and that of the division of
labour.
By participation in losses and gains, by the graded scale of pay and the successive
promotion to all grades and positions, the collective force, which is a product of
the community, ceases to be a source of profit to a small number of managers and
speculators: it becomes the property of all the workers. At the same time, by a broad
education, by the obligation of apprenticeship, and by the co-operation of all who
take part in the collective work, the division of labour can no longer be a cause of
degradation for the workman: it is, on the contrary, the means of his education and
the pledge of his security ...
Unless democracy is a fraud, and the sovereignty ofthe People ajoke, it must be
admitted that each citizen in the sphere of his industry, each municipal, district or
provincial council within its own territory, is the only natural and legitimate representative
of the Sovereign, and that therefore each locality should act directly and by
itself in administering the interests which it includes, and should exercise fu ll sovereignty
in relation to them. The People is nothing but the organic union of wills that
are individually free, that can and should voluntarily work together, but abdicate
never. Such a union must be sought in the harmony of their interests, not in an artificial
centralization, which, fa r from expressing the collective will, expresses only the
antagonisms of individual wills ...
It is the governments who, pretending to establish order among men, arrange
them fo rthwith in hostile camps, and as their only occupation is to produce servitude
at home, their art lies in maintaining war abroad, war in fact or war in prospect.
The oppression of peoples and their mutual hatred are two correlative, inseparable
fa cts, which reproduce each other, and which cannot come to an end except simultaneously,
by the destruction of their common cause, government ...
The fu ndamental, decisive idea of this Revolution, is it not this: NO MORE
AUTHORITY, neither in the Church, nor in the State, nor in land, nor in money
No more Authority! That means something we have never seen, something we
have never understood: the harmony ofthe interest of one with the interest of all; the
identity of collective sovereignty and individual Sovereignty.
No more Authority! That means debts paid, servitude abolished, mortgages
lifted, rents reimbursed, the expense of worship, justice, and the State suppressed;
free credit, equal exchange, free association, regulated value, education, work, prop-