Kropotkin: The Conquest of Bread (Cartoon + Book) "We are rich in civilized societies. Why then, the misery around us? Why the drudgery and brutalizing of the masses? Why the uncertainty about the future still up to the highest paid worker in the middle of the wealth inherited from the past and despite the powerful means of production that would give all the well-being in exchange for a few hours of daily work?
Socialists have said and repeated ad nauseam and have demonstrated this by taking the arguments of all sciences:
because everything necessary for the production, soil, mines, machinery, roads, food, shelter, education, knowledge, has been monopolized by some in the course of this long history of looting, exodus, war, ignorance and oppression that humanity has lived before they learn to master the forces of nature.
Because those same, relying on alleged rights acquired in the past, now appropriated two-thirds of the product of human work, squandering the more foolish and outrageous. Because reducing the masses to the point of not having enough to live a month or a week, allowing the man to work only if it is left to remove the lion's share. Because you from
produce what you need and he is forced to produce, not necessary for the others, but what promises the greatest benefits hoarder. "
Piotr Kropotkin (excerpt from" The Conquest of Bread ")
1892
The Conquest of Bread
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"Missing the government, army, halting the wave of popular uprising, and not obey their leaders. folding his arms, the troops left to do, or with weapons High joins the rebels. The police, with his arms folded, not sure if repress or shout "Viva Commune! ". And law enforcement officers go to their homes "to expect the new government." The big bourgeoisie prepare your luggage and put it safe. There is only the people. This heralds a revolution.
the Commune was proclaimed in several major cities. Thousands of people turn to the streets and attend morning assemblies improvised, asking: "What shall we do?", And discuss public issues with burning. Everyone is interested in them the day before the indifferent are perhaps the most exalted. Everywhere lot of goodwill and a strong desire to secure victory. Is a succession of heroic acts. The people want only go forward.
All this is beautiful, is sublime. But there is still a revolution. Rather, it is now when it will begin the work of the revolutionary.
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draft laws and decrees issued full of sound bites, no one will care to enforce, precisely because it is in full revolution
To airs of authority who have not, seek the sanction of the old forms of government. Elected or acclaimed, will meet in parliaments or councils of the Commune. There he will find men belonging to ten, twenty different schools, they are not private chapels, as they say- but correspond to different perceptions of the extent, scope and duties of the revolution. Possibility, collectivist, radical Jacobins Blanquists necessarily together, waste time arguing. Honest people will be confused with the ambitious, who only think of domination and contempt for the multitude of which have emerged. Getting all with diametrically opposed ideas, will be forced to form alliances to be fake majorities that will not last even one day, played, will be treated each other as reactionary, the authoritarian, rogues, unable to understand about any serious measure, they will lose time to discuss nonsense; not achieve rather than high-sounding proclamations give birth, everything is taken seriously, but the real strength of the movement will be in the street.
All this may amuse those who like the theater. But it is not yet a revolution. Nothing has been done yet!
During that time, the people suffer. They stand factories, shops are closed, commerce stagnates. The worker does not charge even before the paltry wages. The food price rises.
With that heroic self-sacrifice has always characterized him, and reaches the sublime in the great ages, the people have patience. It is he who in 1848 exclaimed: "We put three months of misery in the service of Republic ", while" representatives "and the lords of the new government, to the last police charged their salaries regularly. The people suffer. With its naive confidence in the freshness of the mass that believes in the lead, expected to care for him up there in the House, in the Municipality, the Public Health Committee.
But up there you think about all sorts of things, except in the sufferings of the crowd.
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The people suffering and wonders: "What to do to get out of this impasse?".
Well! We think that there is an answer to this question:
recognize and proclaim that everyone, anyone who has been his place in the past, whatever their strength or weakness, their capacity or incapacity, it is mainly the right to live, and that society should be distributed among everyone, exception, the livelihood of disposal. To recognize, proclaim and act accordingly!
Act so that, from the first day of the revolution, the worker knows that a new era is opening before him, that henceforth no one is forced to sleep under bridges along the palaces, to remain fast when there are foods and shivering near the shops. It is all in all, both in reality and in principle, occur finally a revolution in history to think of the people's needs rather than read the list of duties.
This can not be done by decree, but only by taking immediate possession, effectively, everything to everyone's life, such is the only way to proceed scientific truth, the only one who understands and wants the mass Village.
take possession on behalf of the people revolted, the granaries of wheat, packed with clothing stores and apartment houses. Not wasting anything, organize quickly to fill the gaps, to address all needs, satisfying all, to produce, not to provide benefits, whether he may be, but to live and develop society. Enough of these formulas
ambiguous, as the "right to work" with which he deceived the people in 1848 and which is still not fooled. Let us have the courage to recognize that welfare, as possible from now, should be at any price.
When workers in 1848 demanded the "right to work," State or local workshops organized and sent them to work hard on them for a few coins a day. When claiming the organization of work, I answered: "Patience, friends, the government will deal with it, for now accept these cents. And then devote themselves each day to rest, hardworking, and pretty much have the fatigue of a lifetime! ". And meanwhile, pointed the guns, they summoned up the last reserves of the army, disorganized workers themselves by a thousand media are well aware of the bourgeoisie. And when least expected, they said, "O is going to colonize Africa, or shoot them!".
Very different would be the result if workers demand the right to welfare!
The right to welfare is the possibility to live as human beings and to raise their children how to make them equal members of society than ours, while that the right to work is the right to remain always a wage slave, a man of work, ruled and exploited by the bourgeoisie of tomorrow. The right to welfare is the social revolution, the right to work is, at best, an industrial prison.
It is time for the worker the right to proclaim their common heritage and to take possession. "
Piotr Kropotkin (excerpt from" The Conquest of Bread ")
1892
