What Is Anarchism?

by Berkman, Alexander

ISBN13: 9781902593708

ISBN10: 1902593707

Format: Paperback

Pub. Date: 2003-11-01

Publisher(s): A K Pr Distribution

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Summary

In a clear conversation with the reader, Berkman discusses society as it now exists, the need for Anarchism and the methods for bringing it about. Often mentioned in conjunction with his lover Emma Goldman, Berkman was a leading writer and participant in the 20th-Century Anarchist movement. The young, idealistic Berkman practiced "propaganda by the deed," attempting to assassinate Henry Clay Frick during the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892. While imprisoned, he wrote the classic tale of prison life, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist. After his release, Berkman edited The Blast! and Goldman's Mother Earth. Deported to Russia in 1919, he saw firsthand the failure of the Bolshevik revolution and dedicated himself to writing this classic primer on Anarchism.

Now
What Do You Want Out of Life?	p. 2
What you want most in life
We are all alike under our skins
As we all strive for the same things, our interests are naturally the same
Why, then, do we fight each other? Buying and selling
Different classes in society
The interests of your employer opposed to your interests
Wealth and ownership
Where wealth comes from
Why labor is social
No man can justly claim the products of social labor
The reason the people do not possess the wealth they produce
The Wage System	p. 7
Some people live on profits; others work to make those profits for them
Capitalism a system of profit-making
Everything is produced by labor, but labor owns nothing
Why it is so
How labor is robbed of its products
Why the possessions of the rich are stolen property
How the game is played
Law and Government	p. 11
The way you are duped
The scheme of "law and order"
The law for bids theft but permits the capitalist to rob you
Why the working classes are compelled to work for the capitalist class
The sham of "free agreement"
The meaning of liberty
Legal rights one thing opportunity another
Your freedom no bigger than your wages or salary
Law and government uphold the wage system
All classes exploited by big capital
Government helps one part of the people to enslave the rest of the people
Why we stand for it
How the System Works	p. 18
Is it God's will? Are people really bad? What we are taught at home and in school
The worship of money and the mania for possession
The effect of environment on our character and actions
Can we afford to be good? Competition
Wrong, evil, and crime
Law and government
Why the poor man gets the worst of it
The fruits of the capitalistic system
Unemployment	p. 25
The causes of unemployment
Capitalism not interested in your welfare
Unemployment a whip in the hands of the employer
Can we do away with unemployment? Capitalism produces only for profit
Overproduction means underconsumption
Why unemployment, economic crises, and wars are inherent in our system of profit-making
War	p. 30
The game of patriotism
Whom do you protect when you go to war? Your love of home and country exploited to make profits
Does war develop personal courage? Modern war cowardly
Why it requires more bravery to refuse obedience than to obey
The conscientious objector needs courage
How the people of the United States were tricked into the World War by a President elected to keep them out of war
Your patriotism coined into money
Church and School	p. 39
Why church and school always side with the masters and the powers that be
Tyranny and oppression, ignorance and superstition hiding behind "the will of God"
Slavery and serfdom justified in the past by institutionalized religion of every denomination
Today the churches support wage slavery, war, and all the other iniquities of the existing system
Church and school have always commanded obedience to Caesar
The enemies of enlightenment, liberty, and justice
A matter of profits, not of prophets
Justice	p. 42
No justice possible in a system of grab and hold
Neither equity nor equality can exist between master and servant
Material interests determine conduct
Do you want your employer to act against his own interests? Why your interests and his must clash
Legal justice not blind; on the contrary, it distinguishes very clearly the rich from the poor, and acts accordingly
Judges are human: their feelings and attitude those of their circle and class
There is war between capital and labor; can you expect justice in war? Illustrations of class justice
The Chicago Haymarket affair
The Mooney case
Sacco and Vanzetti
Frame-ups and judicial murder the methods of class justice
Can the Church Help You?	p. 60
Christianity has conquered the world by defeating Christ
The churches preach to you a Christian life but make it impossible for you to live it
You would be declared a criminal or a lunatic if you tried to follow the precepts of the Nazarene, even for a single day
Christianity the greatest hypocrisy: it justifies and upholds everything that Jesus condemned
Other churches do the same
Reformer and Politician	p. 64
Both want to change you by law
They call you bad, but they won't give you a chance to be good
How conditions compel people to act badly
Crime and punishment
Can the law reform the criminal and prevent crime? Why our prisons are filled
When wrong is lawful and when unlawful
Legal crime profitable
Punishing illegal crime a lucrative business
What the law is about
Capitalism takes the joy out of life: it needs government to help it do it
Our slave morality
The difference between olden times and now: formerly the robber baron hired armed bands to compel people to pay him tribute
Nowadays ruling is an easier job: the slaves are "educated" to imagine themselves free and sovereign
It pays the master class to keep you fooled with the game of politics
The Trade Union	p. 74
Union means strength
Labor organizations legally prohibited in the past
Now other methods used by the masters
They do their utmost to keep the workers divided and weak
Why the boss is afraid of a strong labor union
The "identity of interests" fake
How you fall for it
Labor leaders helping to double cross the workers
Serving the interests of the masters
The "dignity of labor"
Why strikes are lost
Whose is the Power?	p. 84
What is real strength? The "power" of government and of the capitalist class
Your masters strong only because of your stupidity
What would happen if you would refuse to serve them? The difference between actual and alleged power
They who feed the world have the real power
The economic might of labor
Socialism	p. 89
Many varieties
Can capitalism be abolished by legislation? The fatal contradiction of Marxian Socialism
Changing capitalism to Socialism by politics
Why it is impossible
The transformation process of an elected Socialist
The corrupting effects of politics: you can't dive into a swamp and remain clean
Socialist compromises have eliminated Socialism from the Socialist parties
Socialists in the World War
Socialist governments
What the Socialists have accomplished in Germany, France, and other lands
Socialist "success" the bankruptcy of Socialism
The February Revolution	p. 103
The Russian Revolution more fundamental than the Great French Revolution
A gradual growth
The regime of the Tsars
The work of the earlier libertarians and revolutionists in preparing the Revolution of 1917
The idealism of the Russian youth
An apparently losing fight finally wins
The failure of the Revolution of 1905
The success of the Revolution in February, 1917
Between February and October	p. 109
A mass-meeting in New York
Freedom negative and positive
Why freedom from something is not enough: freedom for something necessary
The Russian masses not fooled by liberties on paper
They demand the termination of the war; they want the land and the products of their toil
The Provisional Government talks reforms
The people ignore the Government: the soldiers quit the front, the peasants take the land, the workers assume charge of the industries
The real social revolution taking place by the direct action of the masses
The Soviets and the various political parties
The Bolsheviki	p. 115
Origin of the party
Followers of Marx and Lenin
The meaning of Bolshevist Socialism
The difference between the Anarchists and the Bolsheviki
The aim of the latter to establish the dictatorship of their political party
Bolsheviki making use of Anarchist methods to achieve their purpose
The importance of motives
Bolshevik motives in using Anarchist methods
Why the Bolsheviki turned against those methods as soon as they came to power
Bolshevik Jesuitism and persecution
Revolution and Dictatorship	p. 124
The aims of the Russian Revolution; its character and activities
How the masses themselves carried on the Revolution
The objects of the Bolshevik Party
Why the Revolution and the dictatorship were different things
The dictatorship opposed to the Revolution
The Dictatorship at Work	p. 129
The real character of the Bolshevik dictatorship
Neither the proletariat nor the Communist Party the dictator
Lenin stronger than his Party
The actual dictatorship of one man
What it accomplished
Bolshevik autocracy supported by Tcheka and red terror
Expression of independent opinion punished
Economic disaster
Intellectual and cultural straitjacket
The "NEP" a return to capitalism
Bolshevik labor unions
Russia turned into a big prison
Dictatorship destructive to liberty and revolution
Anarchism
Is Anarchism Violent?	p. 138
Capitalism and government stand for disorder and violence
Anarchism the reverse of it
Why Anarchists have sometimes resorted to violence
Killing a despot considered a virtue in olden times
Has the conscience of mankind changed in this matter? Thousands of patriotic Americans eager to assassinate the Kaiser during the War
Anarchists have no monopoly of political violence
Various social movements have made use of it
Government the fountainhead of invasion and violence
As long as you support government don't pretend to be shocked by individual violence
The denial of coercive authority the only sincere protest against violence
What is Anarchism?	p. 145
The meaning of Anarchism
Could we do without government? What would happen if we abolish it? Monopoly and private ownership of the means of social existence would have to go together with government
They could not exist without the support of organized violence
Economic equity leads to voluntary Communism, which is Communist Anarchism
The fundamental difference between free and compulsory Communism
Is Anarchy Possible?	p. 149
What part is the government playing in your life? Does it help you live? Law and order the worst disorder
No government necessary for our welfare
Man a social being: his wants and inclinations make for association and mutual effort
Anarchism the expression of an ancient and innate need of man
Most evils result from oppression and inequality
Crime the legitimate offspring of coercive authority
Government is itself the greatest crime
How Anarchy would treat criminals
Justice and fair play: their role in individual and social life
Will Communist Anarchism Work?	p. 156
The character of equal opportunity
Anarchy would abolish government and coercive authority
Social ownership and participation
The justice and practicability of economic equality
Laziness implies the right man in the wrong place
Interest needed in your work
Equality in freedom is not leveling
Man's inborn tendency to variation and originality
The deadening effect of invasive authority and compulsion
Social taboos and legal imperatives
Freedom means diversification; it would make life more interesting and richer
Non-Communist Anarchists	p. 169
Brief outline of non-Communist Anarchist theories: Mutualism and Individualist Anarchism
The Social Revolution
Why Revolution	p. 172
Man's rise from savagery has been a struggle against the inimical forces of nature
In the degree that he learned to associate and cooperate with his fellow men, he conquered those forces and put them to his service
We are still barbarians in that nations keep on fighting each other instead of making common cause
We'll become civilized only when the struggle of the classes within the nations will be ended
Progress consists in developing mutual aid and joint effort instead of enmity and strife
The masters of life determined to preserve their mastery
Why revolution is unavoidable
The Idea is the Thing	p. 177
Government and capitalism, though unmitigated evils, continue to exist because you believe in and support them
Ideas maintain conditions
A new social structure must have a new foundation
Institutions once universally considered right are now condemned as wrong
The power of ideas
Why it required revolutions to do away with slavery and serfdom
Rebellion is blind; revolution is rebellion become conscious of its aims
The character of the social revolution
Preparation	p. 183
Modern revolution does not mean on the barricades
Why it is necessary to prepare for the social revolution
False and dangerous conception of revolution as destructive
The social revolution highly constructive
Preparatory work for the social revolution
Vicious notion of labor's "historic mission"
Not the mission but the interest of the workers to emancipate themselves
Difference between political and social revolution
Cooperation of manual and mental wage earners indispensable
The world not built with hands only; it also requires brains
The intellectual and the proletarian
Organization of Labor for the Social Revolution	p. 195
The functions of the social revolution
Production, distribution and communication basic sources of existence
Initial phases of the revolution
Constructive work
The General Strike as the beginning of the social revolution
Vital importance of right organization
Why most strikes are lost
Present day unions
False principles and ineffective action
The shop committee as the unit of organized labor
Training the workers for the social revolution
Taking over the industries
Principles and Practice	p. 211
Main purposes of the social revolution
The immediate betterment of conditions for the masses
The strength of the revolution not mechanical but organic: it is not in armies but in industry
The reorganization of production
Shop and factory committees as the motive power of the revolution
The role of justice
Revolution a powerful ethical factor
Why the social revolution depends on liberty and equity
Consumption and Exchange	p. 215
The organization of consumption
Rationing
Why discrimination is fatal
Equal sharing
The uselessness of money
"Whoever doesn't work doesn't eat" a vicious principle fraught with evil results
Local safety and sanitation
The incentive of material improvement
Supreme importance of idealism in revolution
Production	p. 223
Industry in the reconstruction period
The social revolution necessitates more intensive production
Socialization of industry eliminates many complex problems of the capitalist system
Vast numbers liberated by the revolution for useful occupations
Capitalistic production for profit; more labor used today to sell than to produce
Revolutionary production simplified
The importance of decentralization
A country in revolution must make itself self-supporting
Small-scale production and home industries
Defense of the Revolution	p. 231
What constitutes the real strength of the revolution
Popular discontent the greatest danger
Factory and soldier committees the fountain-head of revolutionary defense and activity
The role of volunteer proletarian bodies in the Russian Revolution
Treatment of counter-revolutionists
Suppression and terror destructive
The need of a new attitude and new methods
Liberty and equity the best defense
Paving the road for Anarchy
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