💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › james-guillaume-federalism.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 11:16:45. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
➡️ Next capture (2024-07-09)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: Federalism Author: James Guillaume Date: 1871 Language: en Topics: federalism, Switzerland, Paris Commune, France, syndicalist Source: Retrieved on September 14, 2011 from http://libertarian-labyrinth.blogspot.com/2009/09/james-guillaume-on-federation.html Notes: In the second issue of Solidarité, dated April 1871, James Guillaume contributed this piece on the federative principle, in the context of the Paris Commune. Note the use of Proudhon’s concept of “collective force.”Translation by Shawn P. Wilbur
The true character of the revolution that was accomplished at Paris
commence has been outlined in so marked a fashion that you, even the
minds most unfamiliar with political theories, can now perceive it
clearly.
The revolution of Paris is federalist.
The Parisian people want to have the liberty to organize themselves as
they intend, without the rest of France having to mix in Parisian
affairs; and at the same time, they renounce on their side all
interference in the affairs of the departments, by urging them each to
organize as their please, in the fullness of communal autonomy.
The different organizations which would be in this way freely
constituted could then freely federate in order to mutually guarantee
their rights and their independence.
It is important not to confuse federalism as it is understood by the
Paris Commune with the so-called federalism which exists in Switzerland
and in the United States of America.
Switzerland is simply a federative State, and that word alone already
expresses all the differences between these two systems. Switzerland is
a State, that is, it is a national unity; and, as a result, despite the
federative appearance, sovereignty there is attributed to the nation in
its ensemble. The cantons, instead of being considered as distinct
individualities and absolute sovereigns, are supposed to be only
fractions of a whole which is called the Swiss nation. A canton does not
have the free disposition of itself: it can indeed, to a certain degree,
manage its own affairs; but it does not possess true autonomy, its
legislative faculties are limited by the federal constitution; and that
federal constitution is not a contract, in the true sense of the word;
it has not been accepted individually by each of the parties: it has
been imposed on the cantons by the vote of a majority. A canton does not
have the right to terminate the federal contract; it is forbidden from
leaving the federation; it is even forbidden, as we see at this moment
in the affairs of the Tessin, to divide in order to form new cantons.
The least political or socialist movement, a strike for example, can
bring federal troops into the canton.
Thus, federation, in Switzerland, is only in the words. It is not
federation which is the true name of the Swiss system, it is
decentralization. Switzerland realizes closely the system that had been
established in France by the constitution of 1791, and that the Assembly
of Versailles, “inspired by the great principles of 1789,” proposes to
restore in order to seem to give in to federalist aspirations.
Federalism, in the sense given to it by the Paris Commune, and that was
given to it many years ago by the great socialist Proudhon, who first
scientifically outlined the theory, — federalism is above all the
negation of the nation and the State.
For federalism, there is no more nation, no more national or territorial
unity. There is only an agglomeration of federated communes, an
agglomeration which has for its determining principle only the interests
of the contracting parties, and which consequently has no regard for the
questions of nationalism or of territory.
There is equally no more State, no more central power superior to the
groups and imposing it them its authority: there is only the collective
force resulting from the federation of the groups, and that collective
force, which acts to maintenance and guarantee of the federal contract,
— a true synallagmatic contract this time, stipulated individually by
each of the parties, — this collective force, we say, can never become
something prior and superior to the federated groups, something
analogous to what the State is today to society and to the communes. The
centralized and national State thus no longer exists, and the Communes
enjoying the fullness of their independence, there is truly an-archy,
absence of central authority.
But let us not believe that after having suppressed the States and
nationalism, federalism leads to absolute individualism, to isolation,
to egoism. No, federalism is socialist, and for it solidarity is
inseparable from liberty. The communes, while remaining absolutely
autonomous, feel themselves, by the force of things, in solidarity; and,
without sacrificing any of their liberty, or, to put it better, to
better assure their liberty, they unite themselves tightly by federative
contracts, where they stipulate all that which touches their common
interests: the large public services, the exchange of products, the
guarantee of individual rights, and mutual aid in case of any
aggression.
Let the French people, awakened finally by their misfortune, open their
eyes to the light of truth: let them be in 1871 the initiators of the
Federalist and Social Republic, as they were in 1793 the proclaimers of
the rights of men; and in Europe, preserved from the gothic restoration
with which the German Empire threatens it, will shine in a near future
the days of liberty and equality.