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

Revolutionary Ideas And Action / 69
might be free to produce and to consume at will and in accordance with
his dreams, without having to exercise or endure oversight from anyone
or over anyone; where the balance between output and consumption
would be struck naturally rather than through preventive or arbitrary distraint
by this group or that, but rather through the free play of individual
exertions and needs.
The translations are by Paul Sharkey.
THE EMANCIPATION OR NON-EMANCIPATION of woman or the non-emancipation of
man: what are we to say about these Can there-naturally-be rights for the one
that do not extend to the other Is the human being not equally human in the plural
as much as in the singular, the feminine as much as in the masculine Does one alter
nature by separating the sexes And the rain droplets that fall from the clouds, are
they any less raindrops just because those droplets fall through the air in smaller or
larger numbers, are of this or that dimension, this male or female configuration
Placing the issue of woman's emancipation on the same footing as the issue of
emancipation of the proletarian, this man-woman, or, to put it another way, this
man-slave-harem fodder or factory fodder-is understandable and revolutionary; but
oh! from the vantage point of social progress, it is nonsensical and reactionary to look
upon her as less than the privileged man. In order to avert any misunderstanding, we
should talk about emancipation of the human being. In which terms, the issue is complete;
to pose it in those terms is to resolve it; the human being, in his daily rounds, gravitates
from revolution to revolution towards his ideal of perfectibility, Liberty.
But man and woman striding with the same step and heart, united and fortified by
love, towards their natural destiny, the anarchic community; with all despotism annihilated,
all social inequalities banished; man and woman entering-arm in arm and head
to head-into the social garden of Harmony: this band of humans, its dream of happiness
achieved, a living portrait of the future; all these egalitarian mumblings and inklings
are jarring to your ears and make you screw up your eyes. Your chastened grasp of small
vanities has you looking to posterity for the male statue set atop the female pedestal,
just as in preceding ages the patriarch towered over the serving-woman ...
The human flood need only serve as your dykes; let the unfettered tides be: do
they not find their proper levels again each day Do I, fo r instance, need to have a sun
of my own, an atmosphere of my own, a river of my own, a forest of my own or ownership
of all the houses and streets in a town Am I within my rights to set myself up as
their exclusive owner, their proprietor, and deprive others of them, even though my
own needs may not be served And if I have no such entitlement, have I any more