The Conquest of BreadKropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Philosophy
The Conquest of Bread
Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Anarchism; Communism
We frankly confess that when we think of the abyss of poverty and
suffering that surrounds us, when we hear the heartrending cry of the
worker walking the streets begging for work, we are loth to discuss the
question: How will men act in a society, whose members are properly fed,
to satisfy certain individuals desirous of possessing a piece of Sèvres
china or a velvet dress?
We are tempted to answer: Let us make sure of bread to begin with, we
shall see to china and velvet later on.
But as we must recognize that man has other needs besides food, and as
the strength of Anarchy lies precisely in that that it understands _all_
human faculties and _all_ passions, and ignores none, we shall, in a few
words, explain how man can contrive to satisfy all his intellectual and
artistic needs.
We have already mentioned that by working 4 or 5 hours a day till the
age of forty-five or fifty, man could easily produce _all_ that is
necessary to guarantee comfort to society.
But the day's work of a man accustomed to toil does not consist of 5
hours; it is a 10 hours' day for 300 days a year, and lasts all his
life. Of course, when a man is harnessed to a machine, his health is
soon undermined and his intelligence is blunted; but when man has the
possibility of varying occupations, and especially of alternating manual
with intellectual work, he can remain occupied without fatigue, and even
with pleasure, for 10 or 12 hours a day. Consequently, the man who will
have done the 4 or 5 hours of manual work that are necessary for his
existence, will have before him 5 or 6 hours which he will seek to
employ according to his tastes. And these 5 or 6 hours a day will fully
enable him to procure for himself, if he associates with others, all he
wishes for, in addition to the necessaries guaranteed to all.
He will discharge first his task in the field, the factory, and so on,
which he owes to society as his contribution to the general production.
And he will employ the second half of his day, his week, or his year, to
satisfy his artistic or scientific needs, or his hobbies.
Thousands of societies will spring up to gratify every taste and every
possible fancy.
Some, for example, will give their hours of leisure to literature. They
will then form groups comprising authors, compositors, printers,
engravers, draughtsmen, all pursuing a common aim--the propagation of
ideas that are dear to them.
Nowadays an author knows that there is a beast of burden, the worker, to
whom, for the sum of a few shillings a day, he can entrust the printing
of his books; but he hardly cares to know what a printing office is
like. If the compositor suffers from lead-poisoning, and if the child
who sees to the machine dies of anæmia, are there not other poor
wretches to replace them?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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