Richard Garner claims (in Letters, 29/5/99) that while I invoke the name of Proudhon, in fact "Proudhon and McKay are in disagreement, which means that his whole argument is without premise." Why is this? Because, after a lengthy quote from Proudhon, Mr. Garner asserts that "Proudhon didn't want to abolish property but to unify it with possession."
Now Mr. Garner quotes page 36 of Proudhon's What is Property? in order to make his claim. Looking at said page we discover Proudhon stating quite clearly that "instead of inferring from this that property should be shared by all, I demand, as a measure of general security, its entire abolition." Now Mr. Garner obviously read this page to extract his quote. The question now becomes how does he manage to assert that Proudhon did not aim to abolish property when Proudhon states the exact opposite?
So, rather than me and Proudhon disagreeing, it seems clear that Mr. Garner and Proudhon are at odds. Mr. Garner states Proudhon did not seek to abolish property. Proudhon, in contrast, states that he does. I wonder who is the more accurate authority with regards to Proudhon's ideas, Proudhon or Mr. Garner? In other words, the "assumption" that I am "arguing the same point as Proudhon did in 1840" is a valid one and so my argument remains ignored by Mr. Garner.
Mr. Garner states that, for Proudhon, "all workers have a claim to become proprietors." He also states that "Proudhon's ideal is obviously not to replace property with possession but to unify property with possession." This is not Proudhon's position: "Every occupant is, then, necessarily a possessor or usufructuary, a condition that excludes proprietorship." [page 66] It is very clear from Proudhon's work that Mr. Garner is misrepresenting his ideas, just as he misrepresented Kropotkin before Proudhon. However, even assuming that Mr. Garner is correct, I am confused by his comments. I argued that under anarchism private property is replaced by possession. Mr. Garner states that instead it "unifies" property and possession. Personally, I cannot see that much difference. If we have a "occupancy and use" regime then, obviously, the occupier controls what happens on the resources she uses. As she just has enough resources to work alone, she cannot hire (and so govern and exploit) wage labourers. Nor can she exclude others from resources she claims to own but does not use. Mr. Garner's point, assuming he has one, is to make the splitting of hairs easier. As he himself states, in a society "where only possession existed, who would be the proprietor, for one implies the other?"
Mr. Garner states that he feels communist-anarchists believe that individuals "don't have the right to choose to exclude people from the resources those people need." I assume he means that possessors have a right to their possessions rather than the property owners right to exclude others from resources they claim to own but do not use. He feels that I have not answered this point. I must admit to feeling perplexed by Mr. Garner's words. In my both previous letters I argued that communist-anarchists respected the rights of individuals who did not want to join the communist commune. I quoted Kropotkin to that effect (Conquest of Bread pages 95-6 and page 81). I also pointed out that in the chapter on Expropriation, Kropotkin argued that it would limited to property which was used to exploit others labour. I am surprised that Mr. Garner claims I have not answered this point! Anyway, here is Kropotkin again. In Act for Yourself Kropotkin explicitly states that a peasant "who is in possession of just the amount of land he can cultivate" would not be expropriated in an anarchist revolution. Similarly for the family "inhabiting a house which affords them just enough space . . . considered necessary for that number of people" and the artisan "working with their own tools or handloom." [pages 104-5]. Perhaps Mr. Garner, after my repeating these comments yet again, will now acknowledge I have answered this point.
While Mr. Garner may "feel that communists start with the premise that individuals. . .don't have the right to decide by themselves, to the exclusion of the rest of society, how resources should be allocated," communist-anarchists do not. As noted, if an individual did not want to join the communist commune then they did not have too. Mr Garner states that if the commune owns the factory then this is identical to the capitalist owning it. If the possessors of the factories (the workers) desire to pool their resources and own them (and what they produce) as a commune, then this "identical to capitalism"? Presumably if I and my partner decide to live together and share the produce of our labour freely between us, then we (together) act as capitalists in relation to ourselves as individuals? This shows the flaw in Mr. Garner argument. Given that we are talking about anarchist, and so voluntary, communism Mr Garner has just created and destroyed a straw man of his own creation. As I made clear in my previous letter.
Ironically enough, Proudhon starts from the "premise" Mr. Garner assigns to us communists. According to Proudhon, the "right of the usufructuary is such that he is responsible for the thing entrusted to him; he must use it in conformity with general utility . . . the usufructuary is under the supervision of society and subject to the condition of labour and the law of equality." [page 66] This is because Proudhon believed that "property in produce, even if this is allowed, does not mean property in the means of production. . . [workers] are, if you like, proprietors of their products, but none proprietor of the means of production. The right to the produce is exclusively jus in re; the right to the means is common, jus ad rem." [page 86] And let us not forget that Proudhon, like Kropotkin, argued that "land cannot be appropriated" (chapter 3, part I) -- a fact Mr. Garner has consistently avoided mentioning, never mind answering, all the through this argument. There is a reason for Proudhon's position, as will become clear.
Moving on, Mr. Garner states that I should consult the right-libertarian Bryan Caplan's webpage on the Spanish Anarchists. I would suggest he consult my reply to Caplan's incredibly distorted account of the Spanish Revolution and the Spanish Anarchists (available at http://flag.blackened.net/liberty/spainrebut.html). Essentially Caplan repeats the Stalinist lies that the CNT forced peasants into the collectives in Aragon. My reply refutes his claims, as anarchists before me refuted the Stalinists.
However, Caplan's webpage does mention something relevant to this discussion. Caplan is an "anarcho-capitalist" (i.e. an extreme laissez-faire capitalist who claims, incorrectly, to be an anarchist). In his essay he argues, like Mr. Garner, that workers' control implies the market (he calls it capitalism). He also argues that in the market some win and some lose, the losers becoming unemployed. These unemployed workers, Caplan argues, then could sell their labour to the successful worker controlled factories. Of course, this re-introduces wage labour and so ends workers' control. Thus the market, instead of being the condition for workers' control, effectively ends it. Capitalism (wage slavery) replaces anarchism (liberty).
Caplan considers this an inevitable result of private property. After all, according to Caplan, property owners have the right to "exclude" others from their resources. This means that the owners can allow access to the resource to others as long as these others agree to the conditions the owners put down before hand (such as "allow me to govern you and take the product of your labour in return for a wage"). Mr. Garner, in contrast to Caplan, states his vision is a market based socialism. Caplan states that he is a capitalist and, therefore, supports private property, inequality in resources (as generated by market exchanges), hierarchy in the workplace and bosses' control. Needless to say, Caplan's position excludes him from anarchism (although he tries to claim he is one). I would suggest that Caplan's position is more correct -- a free market economy will degenerate into capitalism, end workers' control and ownership and so freedom (as Proudhon was aware and so he argued for agro-industrial federations and regulation of the market to protect mutualism). That is one of the reasons why most anarchists are communists. Another reason is the fact that, to quote Proudhon, "property is despotism" -- namely the fact that property owners govern those who use that property. Obviously in a regime of possession this is not a problem. This is not the case under property. Hence Kropotkin's support for individuals to possess resources if they did not want to join the communist commune. Rather than being the contradiction Mr. Garner claims it is, Kropotkin's position is consistent with anarchist theory -- as I argued in all my previous letters. Unfortunately Mr Garner has yet again decided to ignore my argument and misrepresent Proudhon along with Kropotkin.
Iain Mckay