Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?

Our era demands imperatively an economic solution. No movement of social transformation will gain immense proportions if it does not first satisfy that demand. That is why the “immense movement, truly anarchist in sentiment” that Max Nettlau proclaims as “absolutely indispensable well before the question of economic remedies arises” appears to me absolutely impossible.

Anarchism and communism fail precisely because of this “immensity” — not because the economic solutions they advocate are premature, but because they fail to convince. Anarchism finds the solution that is involved in the negation of the legal privilege — so in freedom. Communism discovers this same solution in the negation of property, — thus in a limitation of liberty. This last solution did not convince because, doctrinally, it is fundamentally false. The anarchist solution has been no more successful because the human species is desperately stupid. In any event, whatever the reason, we can not deny the failure. This is why, instead of becoming “immense,” the two movements remain minor schools of thought, each diametrically opposing the other. To expect them to merge or even cooperate is to want the impossible or the ridiculous. For my part, I would like to knock on the door of Unified Socialism, to request admission, as much as that of Communism. Let the communists meet in a Congress in London or elsewhere, as they please. As an anarchist, I remain at home.

Benjamin R. TUCKER