Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin

Dazzled with the results obtained by a century of marvellous inventions, especially in England, our economists and political men went still farther in their dreams of division of labour.

They proclaimed the necessity of dividing the whole of humanity into national workshops having each of them its own speciality.

The narrow conception of life which consisted in thinking that profits are the only leading motive of human society, and the stubborn view which supposes that what has existed yesterday would last for ever, proved in disaccordance with the…

But, precisely in proportion as the work required from the individual in modern production becomes simpler and easier to be learned, and, therefore, also more monotonous and wearisome--the requirements of the individual for varying his…

Each nation is a compound aggregate of tastes and inclinations, of wants and resources, of capacities and inventive powers.

Variety is the distinctive feature, both of the territory and its inhabitants; and that variety implies a variety of occupations.

Agriculture calls manufactures into existence, and manufactures support agriculture.

Both are inseparable; and the combination, the integration of both brings about the grandest results.

In proportion as technical knowledge becomes everybody’s virtual domain, in proportion as it becomes international, and can be concealed no longer, each nation acquires the possibility of applying the whole variety of her energies to the…

So also do the industries; and the present tendency of humanity is to have the greatest possible variety of industries gathered in each country, in each separate region, side by side with agriculture.

When we thus revert from the scholastics of our text-books, and examine human life as a whole, we soon discover that, while all the benefits of a temporary division of labour must be maintained, it is high time to claim those of the…

We proclaim integration; and we maintain that the ideal of society--that is, the state towards which society is already marching--is a society of integrated, combined labour.

Of course, as long as society remains organised so as to permit the owners of the land and capital to appropriate for themselves, under the protection of the State and historical rights, the yearly surplus of human production, no such…

But the present industrial system, based upon a permanent specialisation of functions, already bears in itself the germs of its proper ruin.

The industrial crises, which grow more acute and protracted, and are rendered still worse and still more acute by the armaments and wars implied by the present system, are rendering its maintenance more and more difficult.

Moreover, the workers plainly manifest their intention to support no longer patiently the misery occasioned by each crisis.

And each crisis accelerates the day when the present institutions of individual property and production will be shaken to their foundations with such internal struggles as will depend upon the more or less good sense of the now privileged…

But we maintain also that any socialist attempt at remodelling the present relations between Capital and Labour will be a failure, if it does not take into account the above tendencies towards integration.

A reorganised society will have to abandon the fallacy of nations specialised for the production of either agricultural or manufactured produce.

Each nation--her own agriculturist and manufacturer; each individual working in the field and in some industrial art; each individual combining scientific knowledge with the knowledge of a handicraft--such is, we affirm, the present…

All races of men contribute their share in supplying us with our staple food and luxuries, with plain clothing and fancy dress, while we are sending them in exchange the produce of our higher intelligence, our technical knowledge, our…

Is it not a grand sight, this busy and intricate exchange of produce all over the earth which has suddenly grown up within a few years?

Grand it may be, but is it not a mere nightmare?

At what cost has it been obtained, and how long will it last?

And the division and subdivision--the permanent subdivision--of functions has been pushed so far as to divide humanity into castes which are almost as firmly established as those of old India.