xists "by virtue" of the principle of
solidarity. This is coming it a little too strong. How about the "class
war," and the cursed State, and property, "individually hereditary"--are
these only manifestations of "solidarity," inherent in humanity,
determining its special nature, etc., etc? If this is so, everything is
all right, and Bakounine was wasting his time in dreaming of a "social"
revolution. If this is not so, this proves that humanity may have
existed "by virtue" of other principles than that of solidarity, and
that this latter principle is by no means "inherent" in it. Indeed,
Bakounine only enunciated his "absolute" principle in order to arrive at
the conclusion that "no people could be completely free, free with
solidarity, in the human sense of the word, if the whole of humanity is
not free also."[40]

This is an allusion to the tactics of the modern proletariat, and it is
true in the sense that--as the rules of the International Workingmen's
Association put it--the emancipation of the workers is not a merely
local or national problem, but, on the contrary, a problem concerning
every civilised nation, its solution being necessarily dependent upon
their theoretical and practical cooperation. It is easy enough to prove
this truth by reference to the actual economic situation of civilised
humanity. But nothing is less conclusive, here as elsewhere, than a
"demonstration" founded upon a Utopian conception of "human nature." The
"solidarity" of Bakounine only proves that he remained an incorrigible
Utopian, although he became acquainted with the historical theory of
Marx.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] " ... Among those who call themselves Mutualists, and whose
economic ideas incline, on the whole, to the theories of Proudhon, in
the sense that they, like the great revolutionary writer, demand the
suppression of all levies of capital upon labour, the suppression of
interest, reciprocity of service, equal exchange of products on the
basis of cost price, free reciprocal credit, several voted for the
collective ownership of the land. Such, _e.g._, are the four French
delegates, Aubry of Rouen, Delacour of Paris, Richard of Lyons,
Lemonnier of Marseilles, and among the Belgians, Companions A. Moetens,
Verricken, De Paepe, Marichal, etc. For them there is no contradiction
between Mutualism applicable to the exchange of services and the
exchange of products on the basis of cost price, that is to say, the
quantity of labour co