Today In Labor History March 27, 1993: The London office of the anarchist website and journal, Freedom, was bombed by fascists. Freedom, which started as a newspaper in 1886, was created by volunteers that included Peter Kropotkin.
"From each according to their ability, to each according to their need". In a system built off of this expression, individuals would contribute to society based on their capabilities, whether through work, skills, or effort, without coercion or hierarchy, and resources would be distributed based on the necessities of individuals, ensuring everyone's basic needs are met.
From Peter Kropotkin, who coined the term 'anarchocommunism'
"Besides, this principle of treating others as one wishes to be treated oneself, what is it but the very same principle as equality, the fundamental principle of Anarchism? And how can anyone consider himself to be an Anarchist, unless he practices it?"
"An anarchist who ran a store in England found that his comrades in the movement regarded it as perfectly right to take his goods without paying for them. "To each according to his/her need" seemed to them to justify letting those who were best able to foot the bills. Kropotkin was appealed to, with the result that he not only condemned such doctrine, but was moved to write the comrades this sermon." - Black Cat Pr. #kropotkin#anarchocommunism#politics#morality#books
Today in Labor History January 8, 1883: In Lyon, France the trial of the anarchists known as "the 66" began on this date. "The 66" were accused of promoting workers' strikes and the abolition of the rights of property, family, fatherland and religion. Leaders like Peter Kropotkin, Emile Gautier, Joseph Bernard and Toussaint Bordat received four years in prison, while 39 of their cohorts received sentences ranging from six months to three years.
Today in Labor History December 9, 1842: The Anarchist formerly known as Prince, Peter Kropotkin, was born on this date in Moscow. Kropotkin was a geographer and anarcho-communist. His most well-known works include “Conquest of Bread,” “Fields, Factories,” and “Mutual Aid, A Factor of Evolution,” which explores the role of mutually-beneficial cooperation and reciprocity (i.e., mutual aid) in the animal kingdom and human societies both past and present. It was an argument against the theory of social Darwinism, popular at the time, that argued that existing social relations were the natural consequence of rich people’s inherent genetic superiority over the poor. Kropotkin argued that because mutual aid has pragmatic advantages for the survival of human and animal communities, it has proliferated through natural selection. In 1874, Kropotkin was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for subversive political activity. In 1876, he escaped and fled to Switzerland. During his younger days, he served as a geographer for the Russian empire. In 1873, he published a scientific paper showing that the existing maps entirely misrepresented the physical features of Asia.
Today in Labor History August 4, 1878: Ukranian revolutionary, Sergey Stepnyak Kravchinsky, assassinated General Nikolay Mezentsov in Saint Petersburg. Mezentsov was chief of the Gendarme corps and head of the country's secret police. Stepnyak was a member of the Circle of Tchaikovsky, along with Kropotkin. Their goal was the “liberation of the people.” In 1874, he joined the Balkan rising against the Turks. In 1877, he fought with anarchist Errico Malatesta in his rebellion in Benevento.
“Active intervention of friends, neighbours, passers-by would prevent a large proportion of conflicts. Let it be everybody’s duty… to interfere between fighting people, and police will not be required at all,” (Kropotkin 1902). In the case of unjust violence, persons have the right to defend themselves and defend others. When possible, this can take the forms of breaking up fights as well as many people taking up the initiative to do so. When breaking up a fight is not as immediately possible, there can be more escalated forms of self-defense and defense of others as needed until the violation of freedom caused through unjust violence ceases. Self defense and defense of others is rooted in stopping harm and preserving the right to self-management of each and all. Defense of self-management through self-management provides a standard of violence against a monopolization thereof. This approach of self defense and defense of others means that the least violent possible methods are used to protect the self-management of each and all (for through such an approach, defensive violence is done away with as soon as possible to do so without enabling destruction of freedom/greater harm). Self-defense on a communal scale can mean collectively organized defense against hierarchical rule and domination.
The phenomenal life of Ukrainian peasant Nestor Makhno (1888–1934) provides the framework for this breakneck account of the downfall of the tsarist empire and the civil war that convulsed and bloodied Russia between 1917 and 1921. As in many of history's chivalric tales, clashes were fought through lightning cavalry charges...
OC Nestor Makhno — Anarchy's Cossack: The Struggle for Free Soviets in Ukraine 1917-1921 (Free Audiobook) (archive.org)
The phenomenal life of Ukrainian peasant Nestor Makhno (1888–1934) provides the framework for this breakneck account of the downfall of the tsarist empire and the civil war that convulsed and bloodied Russia between 1917 and 1921. As in many of history's chivalric tales, clashes were fought through lightning cavalry charges...