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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

James Guillaume

Federalism

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.