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to them that this is completely impossible, by virtue of the very law of
unity."
"All these groups . . . are indestructible organisms . . . which can no more
divest themselves of their sovereign independence than a member of the
city can lose his citizenship or prerogatives as a free man .... All that
would be achieved ... would be the creation of an irreconcilable
antagonism between the general sovereignty and each of the separate
sovereignties, setting authority against authority; in other words, while
supposedly developing unity one would be organizing division."
In such a system of "unitary absorption" the cities or natural groups
"would always be condemned to lose their identity in the superior
agglomeration, which one might call artificial." Centralization means
"retaining in governmental relationship groups which are autonomous by
their nature"; ". . . that is, for modem society, the true tyranny." It is a
system of imperialism, communism, absolutism, thundered Proudhon,
adding in one of those amalgamations of which he was a master: "All
these words are synonyms."
On the other hand, unity, real unity, centralization, real centralization,
would be indestructible if a bond of law, a contract of mutuality, a pact
of federation were concluded between the various territorial units:
"What really centralizes a society of free men . . . is the contract. Social
unity ... is the product of the free union of citizens .... For a nation to
n~anifest itself in unity, this unity must be centralized . . . in all its
functions and faculties; centralization must be created from the bottom
up, from the periphery to the center, and all functions must be
independent and self-governing. The more numerous its foci, the
stronger the centralization will be."
The federal system is the opposite of governmental centralization. The
two principles of libertarianism and authoritarianism which are in
perpetual conflict are destined to come to terms: "Federation resolves all
the problems which arise from the need to combine liberty and authority.
The French Revolution provided the foundations for a new order, the
secret of which lies with its heir, the working class. This is the new
order: to unite all the people in a 'federation of federations."' This
expression was not used carelessly: a universal federation would be too
big; the large units must be federated between themselves. In his favorite
prophetic style Proudhon declared: "The twentieth century will open the
era of federations."
Bakunin merely developed and strengthened the federalist ideas of
Proudhon. Like Proudhon, he acclaimed the superiority of federal unity
over authoritarian unity: "When the accursed power of the State is no
longer there to constrain individuals, associations, communes, provinces,
or regions to live together, they will be much more closely bound, will
constitute a far more viable, real, and powerful whole than what they are
at present forced into by the power of the State, equally oppressive to
them all." The authoritarians "are always confusing . . . formal,
dogmatic, and governmental unity with a real and living unity which can
only derive from the freest development of all individuals and groups,
and from a federal and absolutely voluntary alliance . . . of the workers"
associations in the communes and, beyond the communes, in the regions,
beyond the regions, in the nations."
Bakunin stressed the need for an intermediate body between the
commune and the national federal organ: the province or region, a free
federation of autonomous communes. It must not, however, be thought
that federalism would lead to egoism or isolation. Solidarity is
inseparable from freedom: "While the communes remain absolutely
autonomous, they feel . . . solidarity among themselves and unite closely
without losing any of their freedom." In the modem world, moral,
material, and intellectual interests have created real and powerful unity
between the different parts of one nation, and between the different
nations; that unity will outlive the State.
Federalism, however, is a two-edged weapon. During the French
Revolution the "federalism" of the Girondins was reactionary, and the
royalist school of Charles Maurras advocated it under the name of
"regionalism." In some countries, like the United States, the federal
constitution is exploited by those who deprive men of color of their civil
rights. Bakunin thought that socialism alone could give federalism a
revolutionary content. For this reason his Spanish followers showed little
enthusiasm for the bourgeois federalist party of Pi y Margall, which
called itself Proudhonist, and even for its "cantonalist" left wing during
the brief, and abortive, episode of the republic of 1873. (19)
INTERNATIONALISM
The federalist idea leads logically to internationalism, that is to say, the
organization of nations on a federal basis into the "large, fraternal union
of mankind." Here again Bakunin showed up the bourgeois utopianism
of a federal idea not based on international and revolutionary socialism.
Far ahead of his time, he was a "European," as people say today; he
called for and desired a United States of Europe, the only way "of
making a civil war between the different peoples in the European family
impossible." He was careful, however, to issue a warning against any
European federation based on states "as they are at present constituted."
"No centralized, bureaucratic, and hence military State, albeit called a
republic, could enter seriously and sincerely into an international
federation By its very constitution, such a State will always be an overt
or covert denial of internal liberty, and hence, necessarily, a permanent
declaration of war, a menace to the existence of neighboring countries."
Any alliance with a reactionary State would be a "Betrayal of the
revolution." The United States of Europe, first, and later, of the world,
can only be set up after the overthrow of the old order which rests from
top to bottom on violence and the principle of authority. On the other
hand, if the social revolution takes place in any one country, any foreign
country which has made a revolution on the same principles should be
received into a revolutionary federation regardless of existing state
frontiers.
True internationalism rests on self-determination, which implies the right
of secession. Following Proudhon, Bakunin propounded that "each
individual, each association, commune, or province, each region and
nation, has the absolute right to determine its own fate, to associate with
others or not, to ally itself with whomever it will, or break any alliance,
without regard to so-called historical claims or the convenience of its
neighbors." "The right to unite freely and separate with the same
freedom is the most important of all political rights, without which [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]