Page:Peter Alexeivitch Kropotkin - The Commune of Paris (1896).djvu/11

 Rh been learnt, and when France once more bristles with Communes in revolt, the people are not likely to give themselves a government and expect that government to initiate revolutionary measures. When they have rid themselves of the parasites who devour them, they will take possession of all social wealth to put it in common, according to the principles of Anarchist Communism. And when they have entirely abolished property, government, and the State, they will form themselves afresh and freely, according to the necessities indicated by life itself. Breaking its chains, overthrowing its idols, humanity will march onward to a better future, knowing neither masters nor slaves, keeping its veneration for the noble martyrs who bought with their blood and suffering those first attempts at emancipation, which have enlightened our march towards the conquest of liberty.

The public meetings organised on the 18th of March in almost every town where there is a Socialist group are well worthy of careful attention. Not merely because they are a demonstration of the Army of Labour, but also because they afford an opportunity for guaging the sentiments of the Socialists of both worlds. They are a better opportunity for "taking the state of the poll" than could be given by any system of voting, an occasion when aspirations may be formulated uninfluenced by electoral party tactics. The workers do not meet simply to praise the heroism of the Parisian proletariat, or to call for vengeance for the May massacres. Whilst refreshing themselves with the memory of the brave struggle in Paris, they have gone further and discussed what lessons for the coming Revolution must be drawn from the Commune of 1871. They ask what were the mistakes of the Commune, not for the sake of criticising the men who made them, but to bring out clearly how the prejudices about property and authority, which then reigned amongst workers' organisations, hindered the bursting forth of the revolutionary idea and its subsequent development into a light to enlighten the world.