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Title: In Reply to Kropotkin
Author: Alexander Berkman
Date: November 1914
Language: en
Topics: war, World War I, Pëtr Kropotkin
Source:  *Mother Earth* Vol. IX, No. 9, November 1914, republished in *Anarchy! An anthology of Emma Goldman's* Mother Earth by Counterpoint, 2012.  Proofread online source http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=3218, retrieved on November 18, 2020.

Alexander Berkman

In Reply to Kropotkin

We could not of course credit the report that Peter Kropotkin, Our old

comrade and teacher, took sides in the war. It was tragic enough to

witness the Socialists and other radicals of Europe swept off their feet

by the murderous blast that is turning Europe into a human

slaughterhouse. But the attitude of the Social Democrats could at least

be explained to some extent: they have remained good patriots and

believers in the State and authority, with all the prejudices and narrow

attitude of bourgeois morality and nationalism.

But Kropotkin—the clear Anarchist thinker, the uncompromising

revolutionist and antigovernmentalist—he take sides in the European

slaughter and give aid and encouragement to this or that government?

Impossible! We could not believe it—till we read Kropotkin’s own

statement in the Jewish Anarchist weekly—the Fraye Arbeter Shtime—and

the letter reprinted above.

It is a most painful shock to us to realize that even Kropotkin, clear

thinker that he is, has in this instance fallen a victim to the war

psychology now dominating Europe. His arguments are weak and

superficial. In his letter to Gustav Steffen he has become so involved

in the artificialities of “high politics” that he lost sight of the most

elemental fact of the situation, namely that the war in Europe is not a

war of nations, but a war of capitalist governments for power and

markets. Kropotkin argues as if the German people are at war with the

French, the Russian, or English people, when as a matter of fact it is

only the ruling and capitalist cliques of those countries that are

responsible for the war and alone stand to gain by its result.

Throughout his life Kropotkin has taught us that “the reason for modern

war is always the competition for markets and the right to exploit

nations backward in industry.”[1] Is the proletariat of Germany, of

France, or of Russia interested in new markets, in the exploitation of

nations back-ward in industry? Have they anything to gain by this or any

other capitalist war?

In the letter to Professor Steffen, Kropotkin strangely fails to mention

the working classes of the contending powers. He speaks a great deal of

the military ambitions of Prussia, of the menace of German invasion and

similar governmental games. But where do the workers come into all this?

Are the economic interests of the working classes of Europe involved in

this war, do they stand to profit in any way by whatever result there

might be, and is international solidarity furthered by sending Russian

and French workers to slaughter their brother workers in German uniform?

Has not Kropotkin always taught us that the solidarity of labor

throughout the world is the cornerstone of all true progress and that

labor has no interest whatever in the quarrels of their governmental or

industrial masters?

Kropotkin dwells on the menace of Prussian militarism and on the

necessity of destroying it. But can Prussian militarism be destroyed by

the militarism of the Allies? Does not the militarism of a country—of

any country—ultimately rest on the consent of the people of that

country, and has not Kropotkin always argued that the revolutionary

consciousness and economic solidarity of the workers alone can force

capital and government to terms and ultimately abolish both?

Surely Kropotkin will not claim that carnage, rapine, and destruction

advance the civilization of one country as against that of another. He

has always emphasized that real culture—in the sense of social liberty

and economic well-being—rests with the people themselves and that there

is no difference in the true character of government, whatever its

particular form. Indeed, he has repeatedly said that the “liberal”

governments are the more subtle and therefore the more dangerous

enslavers of humanity.

We regret deeply, most deeply, Kropotkin’s changed attitude. But not

even the great European catastrophe can alter our position on the

international brotherhood of man. We unconditionally condemn all

capitalist wars, with whatever sophisms it may be sought to defend the

one or the other set of pirates and exploiters as more “libertarian.” We

unalterably hold that war is the game of the masters, always at the

expense of the duped workers. The workers have nothing to gain by the

victory of the one or the other of the contending sides. Prussian

militarism is no greater menace to life and liberty than Tsarist

autocracy. Neither can be destroyed by the other. Both must and will be

destroyed only by the social revolutionary power of the united

international proletariat.

[1] “Wars and Capitalism,” Ch. I.