Peter Kropotkin, Words of a Rebel , 1885.

XVI
All of Us Socialists!

Since the socialist idea began to penetrate into the heart of the working masses, it has given birth to a most interesting tendency. The worst enemies of socialism, understanding that the best means of mastering socialism is to pass themselves off as its adherents, hasten to declare themselves socialist. Talk to one of these capitalists who mercilessly exploit the worker, his wife and his children. Talk to him of the scandalous inequalities in fortune and of the crises and poverty the workers endure; speak to him of the need to ameliorate the system of private property with the aim of bettering the situation of the working men; and if the bourgeois is intelligent and is seeking to make it in politics, and especially if you are one of his constituents, he will hasten to say to you: "Good lord, but I too am a socialist like you. The social question, savings banks, legislation on working conditions -- I am perfectly in agreement with you about all that! Still, you know, we must no overthrow everything in a day! We must proceed gently! "And he will leave you to "gently" squeeze a few more pence from "his workers" in anticipation of the losses which the socialist agitation may one day cause him. In the past he would have turned his back on you. Today he tries to make you believe that he shares your ideas, so as to cut your throat more easily whenever he gets a chance.

This fact was shown especially in the last elections in France. It was enough at a political meeting to raise the question of socialism for anyone who was seeking votes to hasten and declare that he too was a partisan of socialism -- of true socialism, of course, the socialism of the pickpockets.

Two-thirds of the delegates led the electors to believe that in the Chamber they meant to occupy themselves with the social question. M. Cle'menceau has declared himself a socialist, and M. Gambetta was very near doing so; if he had not anticipated the supreme happiness of one day touching the hand of some royalty, he would not have hesitated to make a frank declaration of socialism. Bismarck himself did not hesitate to do so: he declared himself more socialist than anyone else, the socialist of all socialists; and in England it is not unusual to hear it said that if Lord Beaconsfield had lived, he would certainly have "resolved the social question." Even among the wearers of cowls and cassocks there are few who do not turn to the party. The chaplain in the Court of Berlin preached socialism, and in France the blackrobed clergy published a journal in which they claim to possess the true socialism. It even appears (according to the English newspapers) that the tsar -- since he deposited on his writing table a piece of black bread made of grass seeds and a bit of flour to remind him constantly of the diet of Russian peasants -- has fancied that he also possesses the true socialism; it appears that he is only awaiting the blessing of Bismarck and of the patriarchs of Antioch and Constantinople to begin the application of his socialist doctrine.

In a word, we are all socialists! Jobbers who speculate on the price of bread to buy jewels for their wives; employers who cause working women to die of tuberculosis and children of malnutrition; potentates who imprison in Berlin and hang in St. Petersburg; the policemen who search our houses -- all of them, whether they look through our papers, whether they imprison and hang socialists, whether they massacre workers and their children, whether they meddle in politics and finance -- claim to do it only in order to hasten the triumph of true socialism.

And there are still socialists so naive that they break into songs of triumph before this spectacle. "Mr. So-and-so had declared himself a socialist; M. Gambetta has recognized the existence of the social question! New proofs that the idea is gaining ground!", they hasten to announce in their journals. As if we had any need of the approval of anyone to know that the socialist idea is gaining ground in the heart of the people!

This spectacle leaves us grieving rather than rejoicing. It proves to us, on the one hand, that the bourgeoisie is plotting to steal socialism in the same way as in the past it stole the republican idea, and on the other hand it shows us that those who yesterday were considered socialists are today letting go of socialism, by renouncing its mother idea and passing over into the camp of the bourgeoisie, while retaining, so as to hide their turnabout, the label of socialism.

What, in fact, was the distinctive idea, the mother idea, of socialism?

The idea of the need to replace the wage system and to abolish individual ownership of land, of houses, of raw materials, of the instruments of work -- in a word, of the whole of social capital. Whoever did not recognize this fundamental idea, whoever did not put it in practice in his private life by renouncing the exploitation of others -- was not recognized as a socialist.

"Do you admit the necessity of abolishing private property? Do you agree about the need for expropriation, for the profit of everybody, of the present possessors of social capital? Do you feel the need to live according to these principles?" This is what in the old days we would ask a newcomer before offering him our hands as socialists.

It is evident that in posing these questions to you, we were not asking you if you would see the necessity of abolishing individual property in two hundred years or two thousand years! We do not pose idle questions about what it will be good to do in a couple of centuries. When we talked of the abolition of individual property it was in recognition of its necessity from today onwards, and it was understood that the attempt must be made at the time of the next revolution. "The next revolution" -- said the socialists ten years ago, and so those who remain socialist still say -- "the next revolution must be no more a simple change of government, followed by a few improvements in the governmental machine: it must be the social revolution."

That conviction of the need to prepare ourselves for expropriation at the next revolution constituted the mother-idea of the socialist; it was this that distinguished him from all those who admitted the need for a few improvements in the lot of the workers, who sometimes went as far as agreeing that communism was the ideal society, but who would not assert for certain that we must be ready to realize communism tomorrow.

Professing such ideas, the socialist was aware of not being confused with his enemies. He was sure that the name of the socialist would not be stolen by those who want nothing better than the maintenance of existing exploitation.

All that has now changed.

To begin, there emerged in the heart of the bourgeoisie a nucleus of adventurers who understood that without assuming the socialist label they would never climb up the ladder of power. So they had to find a way to make themselves acceptable to the party without adopting its principles. At the same time those who had concluded that the best way of manipulating socialism was to enter its ranks so as to corrupt its principles and divert its activities, made a move in the same direction.

Unfortunately it turned out that certain socialists, who had once been true to the name, were now desirous of gathering as many followers as possible, so long as the newcomers accepted the label of socialist, and they opened the gates wide and allowed the entry of these selfproclaimed converts. They themselves had renounced the mother idea of socialism, and under their auspices there has developed a new kind of socalled socialist who has kept nothing of the party but the name.

These people are rather like the Russian colonel of gendarmes who told one of our friends that he also found the communist ideal admirable, but that since that ideal could not be realized for another 200 or perhaps 500 years, it was necessary in the meantime to put our friend behind bars to punish him for the communist propaganda he had carried on. In the same way as that colonel of gendarmes, the new "socialists" declare that the abolition of individual property, and the expropriation that must bring it about, have to be postponed for a distant future; that such ideas are romantic and Utopian, and in waiting for them to become feasible we must carry out realisable reforms, and that those who talk of expropriation are the worst enemies of such reforms. "Let us prepare the ground," they say, "not with the intention of expropriating the land but in order to seize hold of the governmental machine, by means of which we will later improve, step by step, the lot of the workers. Let us prepare for the coming revolution, not by the conquest of the factories, but by the conquest of the municipalities."

As if the bourgeoisie, still holding on to its capital, could allow them to experiment with socialism even if they succeeded in gaining control of power! As if the conquest of the municipalities were possible without the conquest of the factories!

The consequences of this turnaround within socialist ranks are already making themselves felt.

Now, when you deal with one of these new socialists, you do not know any longer whether you are speaking to a gentleman like the Russian colonel of gendarmes or to a thorough-going socialist. Since it seems enough to admit that one day -- in a thousand years perhaps -- property may become collective, and that while we wait for this we should vote for someone who will call on the Chamber to reduce the hours of work, the difference between the socialism of the aforementioned colonel of gendarmes and that of so many neo-socialists seems imperceptible. All socialists together! The worker who does not have the time to follow thirty newspapers at the same time, no longer knows who are his allies and who are his enemies, who are socialists and who are the plunderers of the socialist ideal. And when the day of the revolution comes he will have to go through some harsh ordeals and terrible blood-lettings, before he recognizes his friends and his enemies.