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

76 / ANARCHISM
guarantee, the issue of making the government subservient to the country, and the
prince to the sovereign, is resolved. Never again will you see usurpation or coup
d'etat; power rising against the people, the coalition of authority and the bourgeoisie
against the plebs, becomes impossible .
...[U]nder federative law, how can the State retain its stability How might a system
that enshrines as its underlying thought the right of secession, enjoyed by every
federated component, then act coherently and maintain itself
To be honest, that question went unanswered as long as confederated States
had no basis in economic rights and the law of mutuality: divergent interests sooner
or later were fated to lead to disastrous splits and imperial unity to replace republican
error. Now everything is different: the economic order is founded upon entirely
different fa ctors: the ethos of the States is no longer what it was; in terms of the truth
of its principle, the confederation is indissoluble. Democracy, once so hostile to all
thoughts of schism, especially in France, has nothing to fear.
None of the sources of division between men, cities, corporations and individuals
obtains among mutualist groups: not sovereign power, not political coalition, not
dynastic rights, nor civil lists, honours, pensions, capitalist exploitation, dogmatism,
sectarian mentality, party rivalry, racial prejudice or rivalry between corporations,
towns or provinces. There may be differences of opinion, belief, interests, mores, industries,
cultures, etc. But these differences are the very basis and the object of
mutualism: so they cannot, ever, degenerate into Church intolerance, papal supremacy,
overbearing locality or city, industrial or agricultural preponderance. Confl icts
are impossible: one would have to destroy the mutuality before they could resurfa ce.
From where would the rebellion come On what pretext would discontent rely
In a mutualist confederation, the citizen gives up none of his freedom, as Rousseau
requires him to do fo r the governance of his republic! Public authority lies in the
hands of the citizen: he himself yields and profits from it: if he has a grievance, it is
that neither he nor anyone else can any longer usurp it and stake a claim to the exclusive
enjoyment of it. There are no more hostages to fortune to be given: the State
asks nothing of him by way of taxation beyond what is strictly required fo r the public
services which, being essentially reproductive, when fa irly distributed, makes a trade
out of an imposition. Now, trade amounts to an increase in wealth: so, from that angIe
too, there need be no fe ar of disintegration. Might the confederates scatter in the
face of a civil or fo reign war But in a confederation founded upon economic Right
and the law of mutuality, there could be only one source of civil warfare-religion.
Now, setting to one side the fa ct that the spiritual counts fo r very little once other in-