Peter Kropotkin

The conference was held in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Dimitrov on December 8 - 14, 1992. It was the first such conference to be held on Russian soil since the Revolution in 1917.

by Harry Cleaver
Associate Professor of Economics
University of Texas
Austin, Texas

Kropotkin, Self-valorization And The Crisis Of Marxism Options

Francois Dumartheray was born at Collonges, Haute-Savoie in the Savoy on 27th January 1842.

A member of a utopian Icarian group in Lyons, he was one of those who fled to Geneva after the events of 1871.

He became a member of the L’Avenir group, along with Antoine Perrare, composed mostly of workers who had their roots in the Cabetian strand of communism in Lyons.

Well-known evolutionary biologist/science historian Stephen Jay Gould defends Kropotkin's famous thesis that co-operation and mutual aid are at least as important as competition in an evolutionary sense.

THE CONQUEST OF BREAD
Gary Hayter

Text taken from the Anarchy Archives

In olden times, men of science, and especially those who have done most to forward the growth of natural philosophy, did not despise manual work and handicraft. Galileo made his telescopes with his own hands. Newton learned in his boyhood the art of managing tools; be exercised his young mind in contriving most ingenious machines, and when he began his researches in optics he was able himself to grind the lenses for his instruments and himself to make the well known telescope which, for its time, was a fine piece of workmanship.

Peter Kropotkin's 1880 anarchist appeal to young people, aimed at those just finishing education or apprenticeships and about to enter a profession

The entry on "Anarchism" that Peter Kropotkin wrote for The Encyclopaedia Britannica edition of 1910

War!

THE spectacle presented at this moment by Europe is deplorable enough but withal particularly instructive. On the one hand, diplomatists and courtiers hurrying hither and thither with the increased activity which displays itself whenever the air of our old continent begins to smell of powder. Alliances are being made and unmade, with much chaffering over the amount of human cattle that shall form the price of the bargain. "So many million head on condition of your house supporting ours; so many acres to feed them, such and such seaports for the export of their wool." Each plotting to overreach his rivals in the market. That is what in political jargon is known as diplomacy.

Famous Russian anarchist Prince Peter Kropotkin's classic work on the state

FREEDOM PAMPHLETS No. 1.

(New Edition. 1920.)

THE WAGE SYSTEM

BY PETER KROPOTKIN.

Proposed Communist Settlement: A New Colony for Tyneside or Wearside
by Peter Kropotkin
The Newcastle Daily Chronicle: February 20, 1985, p4.
Reprinted in Small Communal Experiments and Why They Fail

A number of Communists resident in the North of England have decided to found a settlement somewhat on the lines of Mr. Herbert Mill's home colony at Starnthwaite, but to be conducted on Communistic principles. The Promoters of the scheme are in negotiation for various parcels of land, but have not yet come to a final decision as to the locality in which their camp shall be pitched. We are, however, informed that, unless unforeseen and unanticipated difficulties present themselves at the eleventh hour, the colony will be established either on Tyneside or Wearside, probably the latter. Prince Kropotkin having been invited to become the treasurer of the fund, has returned the following answer:

Written in 1897, this study of the origin and function of what we call "morality" was written for pamphlet publication as a result of an amusing situation. An anarchist who ran a store in England found that his comrades in the movement regarded it as perfectly right to take his goods without paying for them. "To each according to his need" seemed to them to justify letting those who were best able foot the bills. Kropotkin was appealed to, with the result that he not only condemned such doctrine, but was moved to write the comrades this sermon

Communism and Anarchy
by Peter Kropotkin
Freedom: July (p30)/August (p38) 1901
Reprinted in Small Communal Experiments and Why They Fail

Many Anarchists and thinkers in general, whilst recognising the immense advantages which Communism may offer to society, yet consider this form of social organisation a danger to the liberty and free development of the individual. This danger is also recognised by many Communists, and, taken as a whole, the question is merged in that other vast problem which our century has laid bare to its fullest extent: the relation of the individual to society. The importance of this question need hardly be insisted upon.

Advice to Those About to Emigrate
by Peter Kropotkin
Freedom: March 1893 p14
Reprinted in Small Communal Experiments and Why They Fail

Peter Kropotkin's analysis of the Paris Commune, a defining moment in revolutionary history which inspired both Marxist and Anarchist revolutionaries for many years afterwards, and warrants continued attention today

[b]Communism and Anarchy[/b]
[b]by Peter Kropotkin[/b]

Freedom: July (p30)/August (p38) 1901

Whereas Marx's main contribution to economics was his analysis of the commodity relationship in Capital - capitalism rather than communism - Kropotkin assesses what would need to be done, and most importantly how, in a communist society.