This speech was published in Freedom (December 1892). In it, Kropotkin sketches both the validity of anarchist theories and the necessity of applying them in the labour movement.
We cannot better commemorate the death of our brethren of Chicago than by casting a glance on the progress of the ideas for which they lived and died, after having been so cruelly tortured for 18 long months by the American land and money grabbers.
The beginnings of the Anarchist party were very modest. It was born from a protest, which soon became a fierce struggle, against the authority constituted within the International Working Men’s Association. This modest beginning concealed, however, a great principle—that of negation of authority altogether, in all relations between the members of a Society, and a high ideal—that of a Society based upon the full liberty of the individual, and the free grouping of free individuals, free groups, and free federations of groups.
The party found support for its ideas from many quarters. It proved to be in accordance with the great work, the criticism of authority, which was going on in the depths of the toiling classes. And it proved to be in accordance with the thought which has been of late occupying a more and more prominent position in the writings of modern philosophers.
The idea grew; it found support in both philosophy and science; it developed. And however few the numbers of Anarchists were, the Anarchist idea was so much in accordance with the modern progress of thought that at this moment, we may say, that it HAS already deeply modified the current conceptions upon many vital questions connected with the great strife for the emancipation of man.
The conceptions as to the relative parts played by Evolution and Revolution in the progress of mankind have totally changed of late. No intelligent man can now oppose Evolution to Revolution—it being evident that both are only two aspects of the same progress. Checked Evolution calls forth a Revolution, and the principles proclaimed by a Revolution are applied to life by subsequent Evolution. Even some prominent Darwinians recognise now that revolutions have been necessary parts of past organic evolution. The more so in human life: Revolution is a necessary part of human Evolution.
The conceptions upon authority have also immensely changed. Confidence in it is being rapidly lost. While twenty years ago, the adversaries of authority were treated by Social Democrats as fools, these same Social Democrats are brought to bend before the disrespect for authority which is felt in their own ranks. The State Socialists are now compelled to repudiate State Socialism—at least in their programs—and they are compelled every day to part with the authority which they formerly considered as a necessary condition of Socialist success. The Social Democratic groups claim freedom for each one of themselves, and the formerly autocratic leaders are bound to recognise this autonomy of the groups. The old argument as to the autonomous groups going to annihilate each other by their struggles would simply appear laughable, if it were unearthed from the Social Democratic papers of twenty years ago and brought on the platforms of today.
You all remember the unhappy imaginary Commune of the authoritarian’s argument, which Commune was refused any independence on the ground that it would—our adversaries said—oppose any progress of the remainder of the nation. How often did we hear of this bogus Commune in our discussions! The argument would now appear simply ridiculous. The most authoritarian Socialists are bound to inscribe the municipalisation of property in their programs, and to recognise the free Commune as a necessary basis of a free nation.
In Economics the idea of an entire reconstruction of the whole system of production has become generally accepted. He who would now maintain that the Social Revolution must simply consist in every worker returning to his workshop and there sharing his part of the surplus value—he who would now repeat this formula of old Marxism—would simply appear a ghost of times past. The evil, we all know, is not in an unfair distribution of surplus value, it is not in low wages, nor in long hours—but in the wage-system itself, in a wrong direction given to production under the wage-system, in the very possibility and existence of such a thing as what has been improperly named surplus value. And, in proportion as these ideas spread, the Communist ideal gains ground, and no thinking man would shudder now at the idea of Communist Communes and communistically producing groups entering into free agreements for carrying on such matters as require the agreement of many groups or many Communes. Yet twenty years ago such ideas were simply looked upon as foolish.
At the same time, the impossibility of representative government is being clearly demonstrated even within the Socialist party itself, not to mention larger groups such as cities, nations, and federation of nations; the necessity of taking out of the hands of the State the functions which it has appropriated to itself, according as power fell more and more into the hands of the middle-class, becomes more and more evident. Not “limitation of power” but “abolition of power” becomes now a common watchword even outside our circles.
Another point—the free initiative of group and of individual—also becomes more and more understood, even amidst the workers grouped under authoritarian programs. It becomes evident that initiative is the only condition of progress within the Socialist party itself, and that in proportion as it is checked, regress[ion] in the party becomes inevitable. We Anarchists understand, and a number of others begin to understand as well, that it is a thousand times better that the workers, and the younger revolutionists altogether, commit the worst mistakes, or even faults, than to have the individual always guided, always directed, always obeying and never acting under his own free impulse and responsibility. All revolutions have been moments of free play of the individual, not moments of submission of the individual to an authority which may think itself very wise—but always represents only the average mediocrity of the past.
Anarchy was born as an expression of the deeply felt necessity of a thorough revising—not only of the present laws or economical relations and their principles, but also of the very forms and habits of daily life. This work is going on rapidly and extends to ever wider spheres. The moral ideals of old are submitted to a thorough revision; the sanction which they formerly received from religion, metaphysical philosophy, or custom, is attacked at its root; and the very anti-social theories which from time to time prevail in our own ranks are, for us, simply tokens of a great work of thought which is going on in all classes of society, and especially among the workers. The cowards are afraid of this work. They would gladly reintroduce the whip of the State and the stake of the Church for fear that that such theories might sap the foundations of moral feelings in human society. We are not afraid of these kind of opponents, however far they would go. The moral bases of society—and each society, human or animal, has such bases—are in danger, not from those of the working classes who throw overboard the old teachings, in order to find new, higher and sounder bases for public morality, but from those who hypocritically maintain that they respect the old bases and yet undermine public morality by the acts of their false lives. The anti-social views which we now have developed among ourselves are a protest against this hypocrisy. They are a work of eruption of the stiffing atmosphere of lies and sophisms which surround us, and they are the best proofs that society, as whole, is thirsting for greater justice, for grander ideals, for more human relations among us.
In Science, in Literature, in Art, and in Philosophy, we now see going on a great movement of thought which gives further and wider support to the bases of that grand idea, Anarchy, which certainly will be the leading idea of the Evolution already spreading in the civilised world.
European thought, in all its branches, proves the correctness of the principles which were laid down by our predecessors in the Anarchist branch of the International Working Men’s Association. It proves that they had struck the right key, and had inscribed on their banner such principles as really have become the basis of further Evolution among mankind. But what is to be done now in the practical field for a further development of our ideas? The results hitherto achieved are grand. But much remains to be done, and what is the next task before us?
To tell my thoughts in a few words, I should say that the chief point to be achieved now, is to make the Anarchist ideas permeate the great labour movement which is so rapidly growing in Europe and America; and to do so by all those means, and only by such means, which are in strict accordance with our own principles—without any concession to the present authoritarian or narrow tendencies of the movement. To be in the movement, BUT YET ALWAYS REMAIN OURSELVES, without making any of those concessions which often seem to be expedient, but in the long run always prove to be an abandonment of true principles for a mere shadow of momentary success.
No one can underrate the importance of this labour movement for the coming revolution. It will be those agglomerations of wealth producers which will have to reorganise production on new social bases. They will have to organise the life of the nation and the use which it will make of the hitherto accumulated riches and means of production. They—the labourers, grouped together—not the politicians.
The importance of the movement is so well felt that you see now, especially in this country, how all parties court it in order to take possession of it.
By all means, let us NOT join in this struggle for supremacy. We cannot, we must not, nourish any such ideas as that of taking possession of the movement. We should cease to be ourselves the day that any such plan would be born in our minds. We do not want to take possession of anything, just as we ourselves will surrender to none. And the more we keep aloof from any such dreams of ruling, the more ascendancy our ideas will have in the movement.
But to bring our ideas into that movement, to spread them, by all means, among those masses which hold in their hands the future issue of the revolution, is our duty—a duty which we have not yet taken sufficiently to heart.
After having had our period of isolation—during which period we have elaborated and strengthened our principles—let us now enter the “wide, wide world” and propagate among the masses the ideas which we consider as the bases of the coming development. If we had no choice between either to cease to be ourselves or to remain isolated, we most certainly should choose the latter, and lay our hopes on the mere infiltration of right ideas which always succeed in the long run. But great obstacles always yield before the firm will of resolute men, and the obstacles which we now meet in our way will yield to us, being resolved. The collective intelligence, the individual initiative, and a firm will must break the walls which are now skilfully erected by political intriguers between the toiling masses and the teachers of Anarchist ideas. But these walls will be broken just as the walls which formerly separated us from the Social Democratic masses have been broken! And it is only in the great working masses—supported by their energies, applied by them to real life—that our ideas will attain their full development. And the more we remain ourselves, the less we let ourselves be influenced by the surroundings, the purer we keep the grand ideas which humanity has always endeavoured to realise and which we, having learned them from the unspoken ideal of the masses, now strive to bring to life within the masses—the purer we keep these ideas, the greater will be their effect.
Our aim is very grand, and the very obstacles must stimulate the energy to realise it. History shows us that the Anarchists have now remained the sole bearers of the Socialist ideal which inspired the great movement of the International twenty years ago. All parties have deserted the red flag, in proportion as they felt themselves nearer to power. This red flag—the hope of the toiling and suffering masses—is now our inheritance. Let us keep it firm, unstained; and let us live for it and, if necessary, die for it as our brethren of Chicago did.