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What Is Mutualism?

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What Is Mutualism? What is Mutualism? MUTUALISM A Social System Based on Equal Freedom, Reciprocity, and the Sovereignty of the Individual Over Himself, His Affairs, and His Products, Realized Through Individual Initiative, Free Contract, Cooperation, Competition, and Clarence Lee Swartz Voluntary Association for Defence Against the Invasive and for the Protection of Life, Liberty and Property of the Non-invasive. ANARCHISM What is Mutualism? Clarence Lee Swartz was an American individualist anarchist, a mutualist on economic matters, a devotee of Benjamin Tucker and even more harshly critical of anarcho­communism than him. He edited an anarchist journal called Voice of the People and was an assistant editor for Moses Harman's journal entitled Lucifer, the Light­Bearer. He was arrested in Kansas City, MO for distributing a newspaper called Sunday Sun in 1891. The charges were dropped when the prosecutor failed to show in court. Clarence Lee Swartz Vanguard Press April, 1927 2nd ed. 1945 cost principle, so that society may at last move in the right direction. For the inauguration and successful operation of the Mutual Bank, a considerable number of representatives of diversified industries would be essential. The organization of such a group must be the first task of those who wish to put that I phase of Mutualism into practice. The co-operatives have such an aggregation already at hand, organized and trained in associative effort. Here, then, a beginning PRIVILEGE AND AUTHORITY can be made, if such associations can be brought to perceive the immense benefits to all society to be derived from this extension of their principles. These associations have the psychological foundation and the mechanism for the purpose. In the consideration of any system that may be offered for the eradication of Mutualism offers them this opportunity and assures them of its hearty co-operation. the evils that have grown up in the social and economic life of peoples, it is The methods of approach for the credit group of organizations must, by now, necessary to consider the beginning of those evils. When men became able to be self-evident. accumulate a surplus — that is, when the question of property arose — then the trouble began; and it has remained with the race to the present time. Money and insurance at cost; occupancy and use, as essentials to land The first trouble that arose from property was the attempt of one man (or group ownership; adherence to the law of equal liberty; and voluntary association, of men) to take the product of another's labor. no compulsion for the non-invasive individual — all these are tenets of Since this started, it has been going on, in varying degree, continuously. From sheer violence or stealth, to the present refined means adopted by political Mutualism which can never be emphasized too strongly. institutions, the element of force has always been present, either directly and boldly, All things which make for the maximum of individual liberty or indirectly and invisibly. compatible with equality of liberty are part of the Mutualist program, no From the simple effort of one individual to overcome and rob another, there matter from what quarter they are tendered. soon developed the attempt of one clan, tribe, or group to conquer and subjugate And, per contra, anything which limits the liberty of anyone below the another group, thus not merely taking the occasional accumulation of property of a point needed to retain equality of liberty is a danger to the individual, and person or persons, but also carrying off and enslaving the persons themselves. From therefore to human society as a whole, and in consequence is rejected by that first primitive act of conquest and subjugation — that first act of "governing" as Mutualism. it is known today - came what we now call the State. And through all the ages the Liberty is the first need of man. For Liberty is, as Proudhon so well State has retained the same old characteristic: it started in conquest, and that stated, not the daughter but the mother of order. characteristic still dominates; it started, by plundering, and that (compulsory taxation) continues to be one of its chief activities. The functions of the State, then, were to overcome and subdue persons, secure and maintain dominion over territory, preserve itself against revolt from within and aggression from without, and, in short, to insure its existence. To do this effectively, it has had to rob, not only the subjugated outsider, but its own component parts — under the euphemistic name of taxation; it has had to crush, not merely the invading enemy, but likewise its own subjects, through punishment for treason, when they too strenuously differ from its policies. In other words, it has become the chief aggressor of all history. The State is symbolic of power; over its special domain, and, as far as its individual subjects are concerned, it is the embodiment of omnipotence, and from power naturally flows privilege. If the State may take, it may give; if it may punish, it may reward; if it may be tyrannical, it may be beneficent. So, in a rough way, its actions may be compensatory. It takes from one and gives to another; it oppresses one that it may favor another. Hence, under any State, no matter what its form, there are some persons and classes who are given privileges that all are not permitted to enjoy; in fact, and in almost all cases, they are privileges to prey upon the unprivileged persons or classes. The modern State, with a king at its head, reached its highest development in France in the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715), when he was able to say, "I am the 116 1 State"; but in England, where the power of the king to rule over the whole country adoption of Mutualism. There are thousands of idle men in unions, with millions of had been recognized earlier, it was first successfully challenged by the great Puritan hours of service going to waste daily because of inadequate demand for them. chieftains, and Charles I lost his head (1649). The giving of credit is usually thought of as the lending of something by a rich Forty years later came the great Revolution - bloodless, at that — and, with the man, the creditor, to a poor man, the debtor. Who could possibly imagine the poor advent of William of Orange, kingly autocracy in England was permanently curbed. man to be the creditor? And yet, every workman is the creditor of his employer, for In France, where this centralization of power had come later, it lasted longer, a limited weekly period at least, until he gets his pay check. Teachers and other and not until 1793 was the king of France beheaded. salaried people have to work a whole month before receiving payment. During that The revolution which purged France did not stop with sweeping away the time they are the creditors of their employers. But these are cases of enforced credit, power of kings, but included killing and driving out the nobility, confiscating their while this inquiry is concerned with voluntary credit only. lands and giving these lands to the farmers. When a workman is out of employment, which happens periodically in the Thus, within a period of some two hundred years, political rulership, in the building trades, his enforced idleness is a loss to himself and to the community. If more advanced States of Western Europe, went from the king to the "people'', and the services of the idle men of the community could be exchanged, all this loss economic rulership was transferred from the lords of the land to the employers of could be turned into gain. Workmen always manage somehow to live through labor in the town. limited periods of enforced idleness; it would not make it any harder for them if While the condition of the worker has improved, the noble dream of the they gave service without immediate compensation in cash during such periods. eighteenth century inventors — that machinery would take up all the burdens of Let a theoretical case be taken by way of illustration. labor and carry them like the genii in the Oriental story - has not yet been realized. Suppose Jones, who is a carpenter, wants to build a house. He has the plans, Authority is now more responsible and responsive to the people, but the largest owns a lot and has fifteen hundred dollars in cash, with which to pay for his part of the populace is still dominated by it. With its increasing multiformity material, but no money to pay for labor. Suppose, further, that thirty of his fellow authority has become more and more extended. It is no longer a despotic king, but workmen, belonging to the various building trades, were idle and were willing to an even more irresponsible majority, acting through its organ, the State, that wields give him a week each of their idle time, which would be enough to build the house, political power, while the landlord and the capitalist exercise economic domination and that they also were willing to wait for their compensation until they, in turn, far greater than the king once arrogated to himself. should be in need of his help, when he should be idle. The pay to which they would be entitled would be evidenced by thirty promissory notes of (for instance) fifty dollars each, which Jones would redeem in services from time to time. The Development of "Big Business" Here we have an illustration of idle man giving credit by converting their time, which would otherwise be lost, into wealth, for out of the idle time of these thirty In the American Revolution, the kingly power was entirely thrown off and no men thirty houses could be built, each man giving one week to the construction of 'nobility' ever ruled.
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