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Title: Anarchy Author: César de Paepe Date: 1898 Language: en Topics: democracy, introductory Source: https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/anarchist-beginnings/cesar-de-paepe-anarchy-1891/ Notes: An excerpt from the speech published as “Discours du citoyen César de Paepe prononcé á Patignies (Namur) en 1863” in 1898. Shawn P. Wilbur's translation includes some remarks on the transition to anarchy not included in the 19th century translation.
The ideal of democracy can only be anarchy; not anarchy in the sense of
disorder, or confusion, but anarchy as indicated by the etymology of the
word (de a, privative, and archi, commander, authority, power,
government.) An-archy, then, is the absence of all government, of every
power. Yes, anarchy, that is where the aspirations of man, toward an
always increasing liberty and an increasingly rigorous equality, must
ultimately lead us. Yes, anarchy, where we must end up one day, carried
by the power of the democratic principle, by logic, by the fatality of
history.
Humanity, starting from absolute monarchy, the primitive and most
expressive form of government, advances, passing through constitutional
monarchy, through presidential power, through the government of the
assembly, through direct legislation, towards anarchy, the final and
most elevated form of liberty. Such are the destinies of humanity, and
such are the revolutionary tendencies that are inherent in man.
What indeed is a revolution, if it is not the constant lessening of
authority for the benefit of liberty, the progressive destruction of
power for the benefit of the emancipation of individuals? And what is
constitutionalism, the presidency, parliamentarianism, universal
suffrage, if not the stages of the revolution, that eternal traveler?
And what, finally, is direct legislation, if it is not a bridge pitched
between governmentalism and an-archy, between the old governmental
society and the new industrial and economic world?
It is an incontestable historical face that liberty increases to the
degree that governmental power is decreased, and vice-versa, power
increase in inverse proportion to liberty. So in order to bring liberty
to its highest degree (and this is the tendency of democracy), we must
reduce government to zero.
But it is nevertheless true that humanity in its present phase, given
the moral and economic disorder that reigns everywhere, still needs to
be governed; the government and laws are still for it elements of order
and security. Anarchy could only be established after a social
reorganization that would eliminate poverty and emancipate the
proletariat through free credit, the formation of workers’ associations
and the transformation of property, in short, by reestablishing balance
between the economic forces. then, but only then, the government could
be dissolved into the industrial organism; for, as Henri Saint-Simon
said, the one whom Béranger calls the prophet: “the human race has been
destined to pass from the governmental or military regime to the
administrative or industrial regime, after having made sufficient
progress in the sciences and industry.”
And since this is the case, since humanity cannot yet se passer encore
de government, what is the government that it must choose and that it
must accept in the last analysis? The one that is least contrary to the
democratic principle, to direct legislation, but taking care to give the
minority the greatest possible guarantees and to put above the right of
the majority, as absolutely inviolable, the following rights, in their
fullness, without the least restriction:
Right of each to propose and amend the law without the intervention of
representatives.
Freedom of conscience.
Freedom of education.
Freedom of the press.
Freedom of association.
Right of assembly.
With the use of these liberties, the minority can work to become the
majority in its turn; and if it has truth of its side, it will succeed
sooner or later. These guarantees, without destroying the vices of the
system, still reduce them a tiny bit.
As for administrative tasks, they will be done in each commune by some
employees under the immediate jurisdiction of the people, revocable at
any time, who will be vested with no authority, but will be quite simply
the servants of the commune. It is useless to add that it will be in the
interest of each commune to simplify, as much as possible, the work of
administration.
In summary:
No more absolute monarchy.
No more constitutional monarchy.
No more inheritance.
No more presidency.
No more representation or alienation of powers.
No more political or administrative centralization.
We want:
Direct legislation of the people by the people.
Guarantees for the minority.
Political and administrative decentralization.
Communal independence.
The federation of communes.
But the eventual aim pursued by the revolution is the annihilation of
every power, it is — after a transformation of society — the elimination
of politics through social economy, of governmental organization through
industrial organization, it is anarchy.
Anarchy, dream of the lovers of complete liberty, idol of the true
revolutionaries! Long have men slandered and shamefully insulted you; in
their blindness, they have confused you with disorder and chaos, while,
on the contrary, government, your sworn enemy, is only a result of
social disorder, of economic chaos, as you would be the result of order,
harmony, balance and justice. But already the prophets have glimpsed you
under the veil that covers the future and have proclaimed you the ideal
of democracy, the hope of liberty, the ultimate aim of the revolution,
the sovereign of future times, the promised land of regenerated
humanity!.. It is for you that the Hebertists succumbed in 1793, they
did not dream that your time had not come! And in this century, how many
thinkers have had a premonition of your coming and have descended into
the grave saluting you as the dying patriarchs saluted the redeemer! Let
your reign arrive, Anarchy!