The Conquest of BreadKropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Philosophy
The Conquest of Bread
Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Anarchism; Communism
Most collectivists, true to the distinction laid down by middle-class
economists (and by Marx as well) between _qualified_ work and _simple_
work, tell us, moreover, that _qualified_ or professional work must be
paid a certain quantity more than _simple_ work. Thus one hour's work of
a doctor will have to be considered as equivalent to two or three hours'
work of a hospital nurse, or to three or five hours' work of a navvy.
"Professional, or qualified work, will be a multiple of simple work,"
says the collectivist Grönlund, "because this kind of work needs a more
or less long apprenticeship."
Some other collectivists, such as the French Marxist, Guesde, do not
make this distinction. They proclaim the "Equality of Wages." The
doctor, the schoolmaster, and the professor will be paid (in
labour-cheques) at the same rate as the navvy. Eight hours visiting the
sick in a hospital will be worth the same as eight hours spent in
earthworks or else in mines or factories.
Some make a greater concession; they admit that disagreeable or
unhealthy work--such as sewerage--could be paid for at a higher rate
than agreeable work. One hour's work of a sewerman would be worth, they
say, two hours of a professor's work.
Let us add that certain collectivists admit of corporations being paid a
lump sum for work done. Thus a corporation would say: "Here are a
hundred tons of steel. A hundred workmen were required to produce them,
and it took them ten days. Their work-day being an eight-hours day, it
has taken them eight thousand working hours to produce a hundred tons of
steel--eight hours a ton." For this the State would pay them eight
thousand labour-notes of one hour each, and these eight thousand cheques
would be divided among the members of the iron-works as they themselves
thought proper.
On the other hand, a hundred miners having taken twenty days to extract
eight thousand tons of coal, coal would be worth two hours a ton, and
the sixteen thousand cheques of one hour each, received by the Guild of
Miners, would be divided among their members according to their own
appreciation.
If the miners protested and said that a ton of steel should only cost
six hours' work instead of eight; if the professor wished to have his
day paid four times more than the nurse, then the State would interfere
and would settle their differences.
Such is, in a few words, the organization the collectivists wish to see
arise out of the Social Revolution. As we see, their principles are:
Collective property of the instruments of production, and remuneration
to each according to the time spent in producing, while taking into
account the productivity of his labour. As to the political system, it
would be the Parliamentary system, modified by _positive instructions_
given to those elected, and by the _Referendum_--a vote, taken by _noes_
or _ayes_ by the nation.
Let us own that this system appears to us simply unrealizable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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