Page:Nikolai Bukharin - Programme of the World Revolution (1920).djvu/22

 administration of things only, management of machines; there is the power of human society over Nature. Mankind is not divided up into hostile camps; it is united by common labour and by a common struggle against the elements. The political barriers that divide nations are done away with. Separate fatherlands are abolished. The whole of humanity, without distinction of nationality, is bound together in. all its parts and organised into one united whole. All peoples form one great united labour association.

 

There are people who call themselves Anarchists, that is to say, adherents to an order of things where there is no Government. They affirm that the Bolshevik-Communists are on the wrong path, because they wish to preserve order, and that any kind of power or authority, and any kind of state, means oppression and violence. We have seen that such an opinion of communism is not right. A communist order of life is an order in which there are neither workers nor capitalists, nor any kind of State. The difference between an anarchist and a communist order is not in the fact that there is a State in one and none in the other. No; there is no State in either of them. The real difference is in the following:—

Anarchists think that human life will be better and freer when they sub-divide all production into small labour-commune organisations. A group or association, say, of ten men is formed who have united by their own free will. Very well. These ten men begin to work on their own account and at their own risk. In another place there has arisen a similar association; in a third another. In time all these associations enter into negotiations and agreements with one another concerning the things which are lacking in each respective union. Gradually they come to an understanding, and "free contracts" or agreements are drawn up.

And now all production is carried on in these small communes. Every man is free at any time to withdraw from the commune, and each commune is free to withdraw from the voluntary union (federation) of these small communes (labour