CHAPTER 2

PART 2

Free Communism

The plea for clarity appears very strongly in Muller-Lehning's pamphlet, Anarcho-syndicalism. He opposes the view that the immediate task is to wreak universal destruction whilst at the same time the task of discovering how society may once again be organised can be left safely to the indefinite future (ibid.; p.4). A programme is necessary to determine "how anarcho-syndicalism may be realised after the revolution has taken place" (ibid.; p.5). It is not enough merely to propagate the economic revolution, "but one must also subject to examination how it is to be carried through" (ibid.; p.6). The Russian anarchists placed the self-initiative of the masses in the foreground, "but the question as to how this initiative was actually to express itself, what the masses were actually to undertake, today and tomorrow - all that remained vague and only slightly positive" (ibid.; p.7). "Many manifestos made their appearance, but to the question of daily practice it was only very few which could give a clear and simple answer" (ibid.; p.8). The following is a quotation from Muller-Lehning's pamphlet:

"It is necessary to say the Russian Revolution has posed the question once and for all time: what are the practical and economic foundations of a society without a wages system? What is to be done on the day after the revolution? Anarchism will have to answer this question, it will have to take the lesson of the last few years to heart, if total failure is not to find its conclusion in irredeemable bankruptcy. The old anarchist solutions, however much truth they may have contained and however much they may have been chanted in repetition, have solved not a single problem posed by real life. In particular, they do not solve a single one of the problems which the social revolution has placed before the working class." (Muller-Lehning: Anarcho-Syndicalism, p.10).

"Without these practical realities all propaganda remains negative and all ideals remain utopia. This is the lesson which anarchism has to learn from history, and which - and this cannot be repeated too often - has been proved ever and again through the tragic experience of the Russian Revolution." (p.11).

"The economic organisations have as their aim the disappropriation of capital and the disarming of the state. It is the productive associations of the workers which must take the place of the organs of capitalism and the state, which must function as the pillars supporting the whole of economic life. The foundation must be the factory, the factory organisations must form the germinal cells for the new economy and social organisation. The entire system of production must be constructed on the basis of the federal organisation of industry and agriculture." (Muller-Lehning: ibid.; p.18).

"Whoever wishes to see an end to capitalism and state capitalism must replace these realities of social life with other realities and other economic organisations. That can be done only by the producers themselves. And they can do this only collectively, in and through their own organisations. Collectively in the factory, collectively in industry, etc. They must organise themselves in order to administer the means of production through their federalised industrial organisations, and so organise the whole of economic life on an industrial and federal basis." (Muller-Lehning: ibid.; p.19).

This pamphlet, published in 1927, makes a fundamental advance compared with all others which up till now have appeared as attempting to make a contribution to the clarification of this question. It is not so much that it makes its point in compelling conceptual flourishes, but its great virtue is the fact that it does make the attempt to absorb certain experiences of the Russian revolution and to transform them into weapons for the future class struggle. The vision of a federal structure for economic life has been derived from the first period of the Russian revolution. However, the author demonstrates ad nauseam that this in reality only represented a first attempt to pose a problem, and not a single one of them can he offer a solution.

A French anarchist, Sebastian Faure, attempted to find a solution. His book Universal Happiness, published in 1921, depicts his conception of free communism. The importance of this book lies in the fact that it shows that anarchist conceptions of communist society do not necessarily exclude a system of centralised disposal and control over social production. For a close examination of the Faurian system of 'free communism' shows that it is in reality nothing other than vulgar state-communism. Indeed, the book does not bear the character of a scientific examination, but is couched more in the form of a utopian novel in which a "free communist society" is made to grow out of pure fantasy. Nevertheless, the fact that, in opposition to such phrases as "equality for all", "freely concluded agreements" and "the elevating spiritual principle of opposition to the state and state power", a system of production is depicted in which the right of control over production does not lie with the producers themselves clearly demonstrates that, in this particular camp at least, there is absolutely no fear of this particular author giving any evidence whatever of any understanding of the laws of motion applicable to a communist system!

Faure is opposed to power as a "thing in itself", and for that reason he speaks of the hundreds and thousands of threads and links which forcibly bind together against their will all who cooperate in the modern productive apparatus. He writes: "This whole organisation (ie. his system - Ed.) is founded on the inspiring spiritual principle of free cooperation" (p. 213). We however are of the opinion that this cannot be the foundation of any system of production and reproduction. Should the producers wish to make their rights secure, whether with or without the aid of an "inspiring spiritual principle", then the whole organisation must be founded to a far greater degree upon a firm, material basis. The producers must themselves determine in their workplaces the relationship of the producer to the social product. They must calculate how much labour-time is absorbed in each product, for their labour-time is the measure of their share in the social product. Only then can the entire organisation depend, not on some "spiritual" ideal wafting upon the breeze of some abstract principle, but be founded in economic reality.

In the case of the mutual relationship to be established between the producers themselves, we find once again the same vague, vacillating basis expressed through the concept of "free agreements". Here also there is no clear foundation, no system of time-based regulation and accounting control over the stream of products from factory to factory. But without this material foundation these "free agreements" also remain nothing but empty phrases. "One tries out this, tests the other, combines them and tests the results of the various methods. The resultant unanimity takes form, makes its appeal and pushes through on the strength of its results, and finally triumphs" (p.334). For Faure, this foundation, grounded in freedom for each and achieved through the unanimity of all, is no more than natural. "Is it not so in nature also? The example of nature is there, clear and distinct. Everything there is joined through free and spontaneous mutual accommodations. .. The myriad tiny elements, like grains of dust, seek each other out, attract one another, gather together and form an atom" (p.334).

We would point out in this connection that analogies drawn from nature are always extremely dangerous, and particularly in this special case the Faurian method reveals "clearly and understandably" how wholly inadequate it is. In Faure's world everything is joined through "free and spontaneous mutual accommodations". However, what is in fact so wonderful is the way in which, without further thought, the human concept of freedom is transferred to the field of nature. In the realm of "pure metaphor", of course one can escape from any responsibility. In this case Faure overlooks completely the decisive moment at which these "free and spontaneous mutual accommodations" actually arise in nature; that moment is, of course, determined by the mutual relations of forces between the participating members. If the sun and earth conclude a "free and spontaneous agreement" with one another that the earth should revolve around the sun in 365 days, this is amongst other things determined by the mass of the sun and the earth respectively in relation to one another. This is the real material foundation on which their "free mutual accommodation" is concluded.

It is always thus that matters are ordered in nature. Its atoms, or any other form of matter in motion, enter into relations based upon a balance of opposed forces. The exact form of this relationship is determined by the specific nature of the forces at work between the two opposed yet united partners. It is for this reason that we also are pleased to adopt this example from nature, but we do so only in order to demonstrate by these means how an exact relationship of the producer to the product must be present if such a "free and spontaneous mutual accommodation" is to be concluded successfully in the conditions of human society. It is by these means that this agreement is transformed from a mere phrase into reality. Although it is obvious that Faure has never actually concerned himself with economic problems, it soon becomes apparent that he is a representative of the Neurath school, that is to say, a "natural" economist. (3) As we have already seen, this school considers a unit of regulation and accounting control to be absolutely superfluous, and proposes to achieve the same result by means of a production plan drawn up with the help of statistics:

"It is also necessary above all to determine the total demand for, and the quantity of, each separate need. ... The communes should then make these needs known to the Central Administration Office responsible for the whole national economy, according to the number of inhabitants, whereby the officials there obtain a survey of the total needs of the 'nation'. Each commune then produces a second list indicating how much they are able to produce, from which the 'central administration' is now able to assess the productive forces of the 'nation'. The outcome of the process is very clear. The higher officials should now determine which proportion of production is to be allotted to each commune and which proportion of production they may retain for themselves". (S.Faure: Universal Happiness, pp. 215-6)

This procedure is exactly the same as that conceived by the state communists: down below - the masses; above - the officials, who retain the management and administration of production and distribution in their hands. With such a system, society is not founded on economic reality but is dependent upon the good or bad will of individuals, or upon their administrative ability - something that Faure readily admits. In order that there should be no doubt concerning the need for a central right of control, he adds: "The central administration knows the extent of total production and total demand and must therefore inform each local committee as to how much product it has at its disposal and how much means of production it must produce" (p. 218). In order to be quite clear that all this has nothing to do with any specific kind of free communism, we will compare it with the social-democratic communism (4) described by Hilferding . We will see that the two agree with one another almost word for word:

"Exactly how, where, in what quantity and by what means new products will be produced out of the existing natural and man-made means of production ... is decided by the commissariats of the socialist society at national or local level. It is they who mould with conscious intent the whole of economic life, utilising for this purpose all the instruments at the disposal of organised production and consumption statistics, in accordance with the needs of the communities as they, the social commissariats, have consciously represented and formulated them."( 5 ) (Authors' emphases - Ed.)

References

By "natural economist" is meant one who believes that a classless, non-antagonistic society must of necessity be one the economic basis of which rests upon relations founded on the exchange of goods "in kind", ie, upon direct barter. return to text

4. "social-democratic communism".

The term "state communism" would be more applicable here. return to text

5. R. Hilferding: Finance Capital, trans. T. Bottomore, p.28. return to text

END OF CHAPTER TWO

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