160 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
160 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
**On Authority** is a short
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[essay](List_of_Libertarian_Socialist_Books "wikilink") by [Friedrich
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Engels](Friedrich_Engels "wikilink") written in 1872 that criticises
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[libertarian socialist potitics](Libertarian_Socialism "wikilink") on
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the ground that it is unrealistic and the abolition of authority in
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modern industry would destroy it.
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## Original Text
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A number of Socialists have latterly launched a regular crusade against
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what they call the <em>principle of authority</em>. It suffices to tell
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them that this or that act is <em>authoritarian</em> for it to be
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condemned. This summary mode of procedure is being abused to such an
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extent that it has become necessary to look into the matter somewhat
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more closely.
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Authority, in the sense in which the word is used here, means: the
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imposition of the will of another upon ours; on the other hand,
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authority presupposes subordination. Now, since these two words sound
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bad, and the relationship which they represent is disagreeable to the
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subordinated party, the question is to ascertain whether there is any
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way of dispensing with it, whether — given the conditions of present-day
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society — we could not create another social system, in which this
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authority would be given no scope any longer, and would consequently
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have to disappear.
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On examining the economic, industrial and agricultural conditions which
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form the basis of present-day bourgeois society, we find that they tend
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more and more to replace isolated action by combined action of
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individuals. Modern industry, with its big
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[factories](Factory "wikilink") and mills, where hundreds of workers
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supervise complicated machines driven by steam, has superseded the small
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workshops of the separate producers; the carriages and wagons of the
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highways have become substituted by railway trains, just as the small
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schooners and sailing feluccas have been by steam-boats. Even
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[agriculture](agriculture "wikilink") falls increasingly under the
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dominion of the machine and of steam, which slowly but relentlessly put
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in the place of the small proprietors big capitalists, who with the aid
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of hired workers cultivate vast stretches of land.
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Everywhere combined action, the complication of processes dependent upon
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each other, displaces independent action by individuals. But whoever
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mentions combined action speaks of organisation; now, is it possible to
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have organisation without authority?
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Supposing a [social revolution](Revolution "wikilink") dethroned the
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capitalists, who now exercise their authority over the production and
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circulation of wealth. Supposing, to adopt entirely the point of view of
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the anti-authoritarians, that the land and the instruments of labour had
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become the collective property of the workers who use them. Will
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authority have disappeared, or will it only have changed its form? Let
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us see.
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Let us take by way if example a cotton spinning mill. The cotton must
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pass through at least six successive operations before it is reduced to
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the state of thread, and these operations take place for the most part
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in different rooms. Furthermore, keeping the machines going requires an
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engineer to look after the steam engine, mechanics to make the current
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repairs, and many other labourers whose business it is to transfer the
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products from one room to another, and so forth. All these workers, men,
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women and children, are obliged to begin and finish their work at the
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hours fixed by the authority of the steam, which cares nothing for
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individual autonomy. The workers must, therefore, first come to an
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understanding on the hours of work; and these hours, once they are
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fixed, must be observed by all, without any exception. Thereafter
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particular questions arise in each room and at every moment concerning
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the mode of production, distribution of material, etc., which must be
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settled by decision of a delegate placed at the head of each branch of
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labour or, if possible, by a majority vote, the will of the single
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individual will always have to subordinate itself, which means that
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questions are settled in an authoritarian way. The automatic machinery
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of the big factory is much more despotic than the small capitalists who
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employ workers ever have been. At least with regard to the hours of work
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one may write upon the portals of these factories: <em>Lasciate ogni
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autonomia, voi che entrate\!</em> \[Leave, ye that enter in, all
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autonomy behind\!\]
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If man, by dint of his knowledge and inventive genius, has subdued the
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forces of nature, the latter avenge themselves upon him by subjecting
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him, in so far as he employs them, to a veritable despotism independent
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of all social organisation. Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale
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industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself, to destroy
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the power loom in order to return to the spinning wheel.
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Let us take another example — the railway. Here too the co-operation of
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an infinite number of individuals is absolutely necessary, and this
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co-operation must be practised during precisely fixed hours so that no
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accidents may happen. Here, too, the first condition of the job is a
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dominant will that settles all subordinate questions, whether this will
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is represented by a single delegate or a committee charged with the
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execution of the resolutions of the majority of persona interested. In
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either case there is a very pronounced authority. Moreover, what would
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happen to the first train dispatched if the authority of the railway
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employees over the Hon. passengers were abolished?
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But the necessity of authority, and of imperious authority at that, will
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nowhere be found more evident than on board a ship on the high seas.
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There, in time of danger, the lives of all depend on the instantaneous
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and absolute obedience of all to the will of one.
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When I submitted arguments like these to the most rabid
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anti-authoritarians, the only answer they were able to give me was the
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following: Yes, that's true, but there it is not the case of authority
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which we confer on our delegates, <em>but of a commission
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entrusted</em>\! These gentlemen think that when they have changed the
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names of things they have changed the things themselves. This is how
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these profound thinkers mock at the whole world.
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We have thus seen that, on the one hand, a certain authority, no matter
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how delegated, and, on the other hand, a certain subordination, are
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things which, independently of all social organisation, are imposed upon
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us together with the material conditions under which we produce and make
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products circulate.
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We have seen, besides, that the material conditions of production and
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circulation inevitably develop with large-scale industry and large-scale
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agriculture, and increasingly tend to enlarge the scope of this
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authority. Hence it is absurd to speak of the principle of authority as
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being absolutely evil, and of the principle of autonomy as being
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absolutely good. Authority and autonomy are relative things whose
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spheres vary with the various phases of the development of society. If
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the [autonomists](Autonomism "wikilink") confined themselves to saying
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that the social organisation of the future would restrict authority
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solely to the limits within which the conditions of production render it
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inevitable, we could understand each other; but they are blind to all
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facts that make the thing necessary and they passionately fight the
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world.
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Why do the anti-authoritarians not confine themselves to crying out
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against political authority, the state? All Socialists are agreed that
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the political state, and with it political authority, will disappear as
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a result of the coming social revolution, that is, that public functions
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will lose their political character and will be transformed into the
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simple administrative functions of watching over the true interests of
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society. But the anti-authoritarians demand that the political state be
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abolished at one stroke, even before the social conditions that gave
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birth to it have been destroyed. They demand that the first act of the
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social revolution shall be the abolition of authority. Have these
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gentlemen ever seen a revolution? A revolution is certainly the most
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authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the
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population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles,
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bayonets and cannon — authoritarian means, if such there be at all; and
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if the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must
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maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the
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reactionists. Would the [Paris Commune](Paris_Commune "wikilink") have
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lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the
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armed people against the bourgeois? Should we not, on the contrary,
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reproach it for not having used it freely enough?
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Therefore, either one of two things: either the anti-authoritarians
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don't know what they're talking about, in which case they are creating
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nothing but confusion; or they do know, and in that case they are
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betraying the movement of the proletariat. In either case they serve the
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reaction.
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## External Links
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- [On
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Authority](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htm)
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at marxists.org |