Richard Garner (in letters, Freedom vol.60, no. 4) argues that Kropotkin shows a contradiction, that his communism cancels out his anarchism. Kropotkin is quoted as saying that "Who, then, can appropriate for himself the tiniest plot of ground in such a city, without committing a flagrant injustice?" [Conquest of Bread, p. 90] and so Mr. Garner states that this means that Kropotkin would be against land "occupied for personal use." He goes further and quotes John Henry MacKay to show that this proves that, for communist-anarchists, "society has the right to control the individual."
However, nothing could be further from the truth. Mackay's argument does not "trap" the communist-anarchist because it does not accurately portray their position (just as Mr. Garner's comments do not portray Kropotkin's arguments correctly either). Communist-anarchism is voluntary communism, communism from free choice. Mr Garner states that "it is up to workers to decide to dispose of [their] product, and to control production" and this is true. Communist-anarchism is about convincing working people that their interests would be best served by sharing that product freely with the rest of communist society. It is not about forcing people to become communists, rather it is about convincing them of the validity of communist-anarchism. That is the point of the Conquest of Bread, to show that communism is the best means of maximising individual liberty and production. It is for this reason that communism is based on workers' control while rejecting the free market. The communist-anarchist commune is a voluntary association, in other words.
Now, if we look at page 90 of the Conquest of Bread we discover that the above quoted comment by Kropotkin is from a discussion on the "abolition of rent" and the need for "free dwellings" (i.e. the end of landlordism). A few pages later Kropotkin considers the case of "some poor fellow" who "has contrived to buy a house just large enough to hold his family." He states that "by all means let him stay there" and goes on to say that communist-anarchists would "lend him a helping hand if need be." [pages 95-6] Thus Kropotkin accepts that land could and would be occupied for personal use, in direct contradiction to Mr. Garner's claims.
Is there a contradiction in Kropotkin's thoughts? No more than in Proudhon's when he argued that Property was theft (and despotism) as well as liberty. Indeed, in What is Property? Proudhon argues that "The land cannot be appropriated" (the title of Chapter III, part 1) which is also, as noted by Mr. Garner, Kropotkin's position. The apparent contradiction that MacKay and Garner point to is simply a failure to take into account anarchist theory on their part. Thus Kropotkin accepted that some people would not desire to join a communist-anarchist commune and so their use of land and other resources for their personal needs would be respected. Kropotkin bases himself on the difference between property rights and use rights, between property and possession. The former is theft and despotism (as it means ensures the many work for the few) while the later is freedom (as the owner and the users are one in the same). By appropriation Kropotkin (and Proudhon) meant not the use of land but the turning of land in private property, the ability to exclude others from land you are not personally using. The apparent contradiction thus disappears.
Kropotkin's argument is based upon this difference. He recognised, along with Proudhon, that use rights replace property rights in an anarchist society. In other words, individuals can exchange their labour as they see fit and occupy land for their own use. This in no way contradicts the abolition of private property, because occupancy and use is directly opposed to private property (in the capitalist sense). Therefore, in a free communist society individuals who reject communism can use whatever land and other resources as they wish (and can use personally), exchange with others, and so on because they are not part of that society. That is why it is called "free communism" and why Kropotkin contrasted it to authoritarian or state communism.
Now, the claim that "workers' control necessitates free enterprise" has been somewhat violated under capitalism (which is not a "free market" in the sense desired by Individualist Anarchists like Tucker but is a market of sorts). Under the current system, private property has violated workers' control totally. Workers' sell their liberty to others in return for access to the means of life (which have been turned into private property). Mr Garner does not address or even acknowledge the fact that private property has lead to the owners of such property gaining control over the individual and so denying them liberty during working hours (and beyond). It is because of this that Proudhon, Kropotkin and others rejected the claim that "anybody who holds workers' control and liberty as moral ideals must recognise private property and the free market as a means of furthering these ideals." Proudhon was well aware that the free market did not, in fact, defend workers' control. He argued for agro-industrial federations to protect workers' control via mutual aid and solidarity (see his The Federal Principle). These seem to be the "regulating societies" which he argues would "regulate the market" in a mutualist society [Selected Writings, p. 70].
Why would these be necessary? Simply because in competition there are winners and losers. The losers in a system based on private property do not have access to the land and other means of life and so have to sell their labour to those who do. By selling their labour they automatically sell their liberty, the control over their body and mind, to another ("property is despotism," in Proudhon's words). Thus private property results in the boss having the right to control the worker. It was for this reason Proudhon attacked property in the name of possession and urged the regulation of the market by agro-industrial federations.
Rather than communism cancelling out anarchism, it is private property that cancels out anarchism. Which is why anarchists have rejected that particular social institution.
Iain McKay