Mr Garner quotes (in letters 26/6/99) from Proudhon's works to maintain that he (Proudhon) did, in fact, support property in land after all. He quotes from works written in 1851 and 1864 to maintain (yet again) that I am not, in fact, "arguing the same point as Proudhon did in 1840." How strange. Even stranger is that even the "latter" Proudhon also stated his opposition to private property in land. To quote from his Selected Writings, "What I cannot accept, regarding land, is that the work put in gives a right to ownership of what has been worked on." [p. 129]
As regards Proudhon's General Idea of the Revolution (which Mr. Garner also quotes to defend his claims) we discover him stating his reforms would ensure "property will have lost its fundamental vices, it will be transfigured. It will no longer be the same thing. Still, let us continue to call it by its ancient name. . . PROPERTY" [p. 199] Now, does this not imply that Proudhon was following What is Property? but confusing things by calling "possession" property? We also discover him proposing a decree which, in part, reads, "When the property has been entirely paid for, it shall revert immediately to the town, which shall take the place of the former proprietor . . . the towns . . . [will] fix . . . the boundaries of possessions . . . the former proprietors who have held their title by working their properties themselves, shall be placed on the same footing as the new, subjected to the same rental payments" [pp. 199-200] Now, does this sound like someone in favour of the buying and selling of land? Does it not, in fact, sound like a man opposed to property in land and in favour of possession?
From these quotes, combined with the comments I quoted in my last latter, I would suggest that opposition to property in land was a common theme throughout his political writing. Mr Garner's claims fly in the face of this evidence (as well as being irrelevant concerning his comments regarding 1840!).
Now, Mr. Garner quotes Proudhon's Selected Writings for Proudhon's comments regarding the difference between property and possession. What he fails to mention is that these date from 1864 when Proudhon had substantially revised his ideas! In addition, he fails to mention that in this period Proudhon did not seem to be an anarchist as he explicitly links his new ideas to the control of the State, not its abolition. Thus we find Proudhon arguing that "property, by creating guarantees for itself that both spread it more equally and establish it more firmly in society, itself becomes a guarantee of liberty and keeps the State on an even keel. Once property has been firmly established . . . the power of the State is increased to the maximum . . . every citizen is able to make his own judgement on . . . the functioning of government." [p. 133] In addition, he asks "What force could adequately counterbalance the enormous power of the State? There is only one: property." [p. 135] Keeping "the State on an even keel," increasing the power of the State to "the maximum" and counterbalancing it suggests that Proudhon had passed from anarchism into liberalism. However, some of the old Proudhon remained for we discover him arguing that the "politics" of property "may be summed up in a single word: exploitation" and that property is "an absolution within an absolutism." [p. 134 and p. 141]
Which brings me to the essential point. Mr. Garner claims that decentralisation and communism do not go together. However, what he fails to acknowledge is the basic ideas of communist-anarchism. Yes, indeed, a confederation of communist-anarchist communes do possess everything together. However, they do not use it together. In the day to day running of a given commune or workplace, those who use the resource manage it. The aim of confederation (i.e. common ownership) is to ensure equal access and equal rights to everyone. To quote Carlo Cafiero, the "common wealth being scattered right across the planet, while belonging to the whole of humanity, those who happen to be within reach of that wealth and in a position to make use of it will utilise it in common. . . . As part of humanity, they will exercise here, in fact and directly, their rights over a portion of mankind's wealth. But should an inhabitant of Peking visit this country, he would enjoy the same rights as the rest, in common with the others, he would enjoy all the wealth of the country, just as he would have in Peking." [No Gods, No Masters, vol. 1, p. 250] This effectively answers Mr. Garner's comments about communism and who is entitled to have a say on resource use.
As I said in my initial reply, use rights replace property rights in an anarchist society. That implies decentralisation and freedom as functional groups manage themselves and work with others as equals. Perhaps Mr. Garner is so in love with "property" he cannot envision any alternative means of possession? He seems to be applying the logic of property to communist-anarchism and fails to note its fundamentally different basis in possession. Now, contrast this system with property. Under property, as Mr. Garner continues to argue, the owners have the right to exclude others. To quote Proudhon from 1864, the owner "can be said to be the property owner on one condition only: he must have absolute sovereignty over it, he must be its exclusive master -- dominis, it must be his domain -- dominium." [p. 127] Compare this with Tucker's definition of the state. He argued that the state was marked by two things, aggression and "the assumption of authority over a given area and all within it." [Instead of a Book, p. 22] However, the property owner also has authority over a given area (the property in question) and all within it (workers and tenants). Thus property and state share a common definition.
Now, consider what would happen in Mr. Garner's system of property. The only way of gaining access to the means of life would be to enter into a contract with the property owners. This would mean that the non-property owner would be subject to the authority of the property owner and so they would be governed by another. It could be argued that the wage worker "consents" to this government, but this is also the case of the citizen in any democratic state. No one forces you to life in a given state. You can leave and consent to another state. Thus property, rather than being the expression of liberty as Mr. Garner states, is actually its denial. It generates social relationships which are inherently authoritarian and can be considered the state writ small. As recognised by Proudhon in What is Property?: "The Proprietor . . . and the sovereign (for [they] are synonymous) each imposes his will as law and suffers neither contradiction nor control; that is, he pretends to be at once the legislative and the executive power . . . property necessarily engenders despotism, the government of arbitrary will." [p. 210]
How can an anarchist support such an institution? Needless to say, Mr. Garner continually fails to mention this aspect of property, an aspect we see everyday under the current system. Given the basic, fundamental, commonality between property and state (monopoly of power over a given area) can an anarchist support it? No, of course not. Now, in a regime of "occupancy and use" and possession rather than property, this issue does not arise. But as Mr. Garner himself notes, he is against possession and in favour of property.
Now, Mr. Garner claims that Proudhon argued that property ensured that "a person is answerable only to themselves." He also suggests that Proudhon was in favour of the free market. This seems unlikely. Why? Because we discover the "later" Proudhon arguing that that mutualism would fix "a maximum and minimum" for "profit margins" as well as "organising of regulating societies" in order to "regulate the market." [Selected Writings, p. 70] Elsewhere we discover him arguing that for an "agro-industrial federation" which is "intended to provide reciprocal security in commerce and industry." The purpose of "specific federal arrangements is to protect the citizens of the federated states from capitalist and financial feudalism, both within them and from the outside." This is because "political right requires to be buttressed by economic right." Thus the "agro-industrial federation" would be required to correct the destabilising effects of market exchanges (which can generate increasing inequalities in wealth and so power). It seems clear that Proudhon was aware that in the market, the strong dominate the weak and that a contract between the weak and the strong will always favour the latter (see the Ninth Proposition in What is Property?). Again, this aspect of the free market is ignored by Mr. Garner. However, it is part of the reason why most anarchists are communists.
I could go on, but this letter is far too long as it is. I could mention the natural barriers to entry which every industry generates which could encourage the degeneration of a self-managed economy into capitalism as unemployed workers have to sell their labour to survive. I could also mention that Mondragon (the most successful co-op network) has started hiring more wage slaves, thus undermining self-management (the co-op members have exercised their property rights and refused to let them join their co-op, in other words). Would this stop under Mr. Garner's system? He gives us no real reason to think it would. In all, I would again argue that private property would undermine a free market based labour-managed economy and send it back into capitalism and that Mr. Garner's claims are simply wrong. I feel Proudhon would have agreed with me (as can be seen from his comments regarding the necessity of an "agro-industrial federation").
Iain M. Mckay