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06 - Dwellings - The Conquest of Bread · Sacred Texts Archive

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Chapter six, Dwellings. Those who have closely watched the growth of certain ideas
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among the workers must have noticed that on one momentous question the housing of the
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people, namely, a definite conclusion, is being imperceptibly arrived at. It
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is a known fact that in the large towns of France, and in many
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of the smaller ones also, the workers are coming gradually to the conclusion that
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dwelling houses are in no sense the property of those whom the state recognizes as
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their owners. This idea has evolved naturally in the minds of the people,
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and nothing will ever convince them again that the quote rights of property ought to
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extend to houses. The house was not built by its owner. It was
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erected, decorated, and furnished by innumerable workers in the timber yard, the
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brickfield, and the workshop, toiling for dear life at a minimum wage.
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The money spent by the own own was not the product of his own toil.
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It was amassed, like all other riches, by paying the workers two
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thirds or only half of what was their due. Moreover, and it is
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here that the enormity of the whole proceeding becomes most glaring. The house owes
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its actual value to the profit which the owner can make out of it.
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Now. This profit results from the fact that his house is built in a
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town possessing bridges, quays, and fine public buildings, and affording to its
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inhabitants a thousand comforts and conveniences unknown in villages, a town well paved,
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lighted with gas, in regular communication with other towns, and itself a center
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of industry, commerce, science, and art. A town which the work
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of twenty or thirty generations has gone to render habitable, healthy, and beautiful.
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A house in certain parts of Paris may be valued at thousands of pounds
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sterling, not because thousands of pounds worth of labor have been expended on that
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particular house, but because it is in Paris. Because for centuries, workmen,
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artists, thinkers, and men of learning and letters have contributed to make
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Paris what it is today. A center of industry, commerce, politics,
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art and science. Because Paris has a past, because thanks to literature,
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the names of its streets are household words in foreign countries as well as at
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home. Because it is the fruit of eighteen centuries of toil, the work
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of fifty generations of the whole French nation, who then can appropriate to himself
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the tiniest plot of ground or the meanest building without committing a flagrant injustice,
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who then has the right to sell to any bidder the smallest portion of the
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common heritage. On that point, as we have said, the workers are
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agreed. The idea of free dwellings showed its existence very plainly during the Siege
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of Paris, when the cry was for an abatement, pure and simple of
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the terms demanded by the landlords. It appeared again during the Commune of Ais
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eighteen seventy one, when the Paris workmen expected the communal Council to decide boldly
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on the abolition of rent. And when the new revolution comes, it will
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be the first question with which the poor will concern themselves, whether in time
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of revolution or in time of peace. The worker must be housed somehow or
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other. He must have some sort of roof over his head. But however
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tumble down and squalid your dwelling may be, there is always a landlord who
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can evict you. True during the revolution, he cannot find bailiffs and police
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sergeants to throw your rags and chatels into the street. But who knows what
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the new government will do tomorrow. Who can say that it will not call
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in the aid of force again and set the police back upon you to hound
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you out of your hovels. We have seen the Commune proclaim the remission of
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rents do up to the first of April. Only after that rent had to
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be paid, though Paris was in a state of care chaos, and industry
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at a standstill, so that the revolutionist had absolutely nothing to depend upon but
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his allowance of fifteen pence a day. Now, the worker must be made
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to see clearly that in refusing to pay rent to a landlord or owner,
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he is not simply profiting by the disorganization of authority. He must understand that
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the abolition of rent is a recognized principle, sanctioned, so to speak,
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by popular assent, that to be housed rent free is a right proclaimed allowed
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by the people. Are we going to wait till this measure, which is
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in harmony with every honest man's sense of justice, is taken up by the
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few socialists scattered among the middle class elements of which the provisionary government will be
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composed. We should have to wait long till the return of reaction. In
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fact, this is why refusing uniforms and badges, those outward signs of authority
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and servitude, and remaining people among the people, the earnest revolutionists will work
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side by side with the mass that the abolition of rent the expropriation of houses
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may become an accomplished fact. They will prepare the ground and encourage ideas to
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grow in this direction, and when the fruit of their labors is ripe,
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the people will proceed to expropriate the houses, without giving heed to the theories
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which will certainly be thrust in their way. Theory is about paying compensation to
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landlords and finding first the necessary funds. On the day that the expropriation of
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houses takes place, On that day, the exploited workers will have realized that
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the new times have come, that labour will no longer have to bear the
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yoke of the rich and powerful, that equality has been openly proclaimed, that
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this revolution is a real fact and not a theatrical make believe like so many
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others preceding it. If the idea of expropriation be adopted by the people,
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it will be carried into effect in spite of all the insurmountable obstacles with which
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we are menaced. Of course, the good folk, in new uniforms,
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seated in the official arm chairs of the Hotel de Ville, will be sure
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to busy themselves in heaping up obstacles. They will talk of giving compensation to
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the landlords, of preparing statistics and drawing up long reports. Yes, they
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would be capable of drawing up reports long enough to outlast the hopes of the
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people, who, after waiting and starving in enforced idleness, and seeing nothing
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come of all these official researches, would lose heart and faith in the revolution
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and abandon the field to the reactionaries. The new bureaucracy would end by making
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expropriation hateful in the eyes of all. Here, indeed is a rock which
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might shipwreck our hopes. But if the people turn a deaf ear to the
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species arguments used to dazzle them, and realize that new life needs new conditions,
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and if they undertake the task themselves, then expropriation can be effected without
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any great difficulty. But how how can it be done, you ask us.
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We shall try to reply to this question, but with a reservation,
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we have no intention of tracing out the plans of expropriation in their smallest details.
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We know beforehand that all that any man or group of men could suggest
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to day would be far surpassed by the reality. When it comes, man
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will accomplish greater things, and accomplish them better and by simpler methods than those
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dictated to him beforehand. Thus we are content to indicate the manner by which
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expropriation might be accomplished without the intervention of government. We do not propose to
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go out of our way to answer those who declare that the thing is impossible.
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We confine ourselves to replying that we are not the upholders of any particular
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method of organization. We are only concerned to demonstrate that expropriation could be affected
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by popular initiative, and could not be affected by any other means whatever.
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It seems very likely that as soon as expropriation is fairly stated, groups of
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volunteers will spring up in every district, street and block of houses, and
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undertake to inquire into the number of flats and houses which are empty, and
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of those which are overcrowded, the unwholesome slums, and the houses which are
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too spacious for their occupants, and might well be used to house those who
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are stifled in swarming tenements. In a few days, these volunteers would have
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drawn up complete lists for the streets and district of all the flats, tenements,
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family mansions, and villa residences, all the rooms and suites of rooms,
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healthy and unhealthy, small and large, fetid dens, and homes of
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luxury. Freely communicating with each other, these volunteers would soon have their statistics
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complete. False statistics can be manufactured in board rooms and offices, but true
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in exact statistics must begin with the individual and mount up from the simple to
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the complex. Then, without waiting for any one's leave, those citizens will
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probably go and find their comrades who are living in miserable garrets and hovels,
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and will say to them, simply quote, it is a real revolution this
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time, comrades, and no mistake about it. Come to such a place
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this evening. All the neighborhood will be there. We are going to redistribute
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the dwelling houses. If you are tired of your slum garret, come and
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choose one of the flats of five rooms that are to be disposed of.
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And when you have once moved in, you shall stay. Never fear the
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people are up in arms, and he who would venture to evict you will
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have to answer to them. But every one will want a fine house or
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a spacious flat. We are told, no, you are mistaken. It
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is not the people's way to clamor for the moon. On the contrary,
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every time we have seen them set about repairing a wrong, we have been
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struck by the good sense and instinct for justice which animates the masses. Have
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we ever known them to demand the impossible? Have we ever seen the people
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of Paris fighting amongst themselves while waiting for their rations of bread or firewood?
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During the two sieges? The patience and resignation which prevailed among them was constantly
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held up to admiration by the foreign press correspondents. And yet these patient waiters
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knew full well that the last comers would have to pass the day without food
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or fire. We do not deny that there are plenty of egotistic instincts in
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isolated individuals in our societies. We are quite aware of it. But we
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contend that the very way to revive and nourish these instincts would be to confine
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such questions as the housing of the people to any board or committee, in
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fact, to the tender mercies of officialism in any shape or form, then
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indeed all the evil passions spring up, and it becomes a case of who
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is the most influential person on the board. The least inequality causes wranglings and
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recriminations. If the smallest advantage is given to any one, a tremendous hue
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and cry is raised, and not without reason. But if the people themselves,
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organized by streets, districts and parishes, undertake to move the inhabitants of
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the slums into the half empty dwellings of the middle classes, the trifling inconveniences,
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the little inequalities will be easily tided over. Rarely has appeal been made
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to the good instincts of the masses, only as a last resort to save
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the sinking ship in times of revolution. But never has such an appeal been
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made in vain. The heroism, the self devotion of the toiler has never
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failed to respond to it, and thus it will be in the coming revolution.
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But when all is said and done, some inequalities, some inevitable injustices,
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will remain. There are individuals in our societies whom no great crisis can
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lift out of the deep rots of egoism in which they are sunk. The
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question, however, is not whether there will be injustices or no, but
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rather how to limit the number of them. Now, all history, all
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the experience of the human race, and all social psychology unite in showing that
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the best and fairest way is to trust the decision to those whom it concerns
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most. Nearly it is they alone who can consider and allow for the hundred
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and one details which must necessarily be overlooked in any merely official redistribution. Moreover,
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it is by no means necessary to make straight away an absolutely equal redistribution
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of the dwellings. There will, no doubt be some inconveniences at first,
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but matters will soon be righted. In a society which has adopted expropriation,
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when the masons and carpenters, and all who are concerned in house building know
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that their daily bread is secured to them, they they will ask nothing better
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than to work at their old trades a few hours a day. They will
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adapt the fine houses which absorb the time of a whole staff of servants,
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and in a few months, homes will have sprung up infinitely healthier and more
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conveniently arranged than those of today, and to those who are not yet comfortably
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housed, the anarchist commune will be able to say, patience comrades. Palaces
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fairer and finer than any of the capitalists built for themselves will spring from the
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ground of our enfranchised city. They will belong to those who have most need
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of them. The anarchist commune does not build with an eye to revenues.
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These monuments, erected to its citizens, products of the collective spirit, will
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serve as models to all humanity. They will be yours. If the people
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of the revolution expropriate the houses and proclaim free lodgings, the communalizing of houses,
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and the right of each family to a decent dwelling, then the revolution
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will have assumed a communistic care from the first and started on a course from
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which it will be by no means easy to turn it. It will have
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struck a fatal blow at individual property. For the expropriation of dwellings contains in
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Germ the whole social revolution. On the manner of its accomplishments depends the character
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of all that follows. Either we shall start on a good road leading straight
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to anarchist communism, or we shall remain sticking in the mud of despotic individualism.
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It is easy to see the numerous objections theoretic on the one hand,
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practical on the other, with which we are sure to be met, As
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it will be a question of maintaining iniquity at any price. Our opponents will
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of course protest. Quote in the name of justice, Is it not a
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crying shame that will exclaim that the people of parish should take possession of all
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these fine houses, while the peasants in the country have only tumble down huts
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to live in. But do not let us make a mistake. These enthusiasts
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for justice forget, by lapse of memory to which they are subject, the
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crying shame which they themselves are tacitly defending. They forget that in this same
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city, the worker, with his wife and children suffocates in a noisome garret,
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while from his window he sees the rich man's palace. They forget that
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whole generations perish in crowded slums, starving for air and sunlight, and that
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to redress this injustice ought to be the first task of the revolution. Do
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not let these disingenuous protests hold us back. We know that any inequality which
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may exist between town and country in the early days of the revolution will be
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transitory and of a nature to right itself from day to day. For the
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village will not fail to improve its dwellings as soon as the peasant has ceased
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to be the beast of burden of the farmer, the merchant, the money
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lender, and the state. In order to avoid an accidental and transitory inequality,
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shall we stay our hand from writing an ancient wrong. The so called
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practical objections are not very formidable either. We are bidden to consider the hard
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case of some poor fellow who, by dint of privation, has contrived to
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buy a house just large enough to hold his family. And we are going
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to deprive him of his hard earned happiness, to turn him into the street.
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Certainly, not if his house is only just large enough for his family.
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By all means, let him stay there, Let him work in his
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little garden too. Our boys will not hinder him, Nay, they will
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lend him a helping hand if need be. But suppose he lets lodgings.
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Suppose he has empty rooms in his house, Then the people will make the
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lodger understand that he need not pay his former landlord any more rent. Stay
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where you are, but rent free. No more duns and collectors. Socialism
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has abolished all that. Or again, suppose that the landlord has a score
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of rooms all to him, and some poor woman lives nearby with five children
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in one room. In that case, the people would see whether, with
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some alterations, these empty rooms could not be converted into a suitable home for
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the poor woman and her five children. Would not that be more just and
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fair than to leave the mother and her five little ones languishing in a garret
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while Sir Gorgeous Midas sat at his ease in an empty mansion. Besides,
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good, Sir Gorgeous would probably hasten to do it of his own accord.
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His wife will be delighted to be freed from half her big, unwieldy house
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when there is no longer a staff of servants to keep it in order.
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So you are going to turn everything upside down, say the defenders of law
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and order. There will be no end to the evictions and removals. Would
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it not be better to start fresh by turning everybody out of doors and redistributing
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the houses by lot. Thus are critics, but we are firmly persuaded that
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if no government interferes in the matter, if all the changes are in trust
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to those free groups which have sprung up to undertake the work, the evictions
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and removals will be less numerous than those which take place in one year under
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the present system. Owing to the rapacity of landlords. In the first place,
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there are in all large towns almost enough empty houses and flats to lodge
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all the inhabitants of the slums. As to the palaces and suites of fine
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apartments, many working people would not live in them if they could. One
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could not keep up such houses without a large staff of servants. Their occupants
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would soon find themselves forced to seek less luxurious dwellings. The fine ladies would
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find that palaces were not well adapted to self help. In the kitchen.
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Gradually people would shake down. There would be no need to conduct Dvays to
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a garret at the bayonet's point, or install Lazarus and d'vay's palace by the
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help of an armed escort. People would shake down amicably into the available dwellings
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with the least possible and disturbance. Have we not the example of the village
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commune's redistributing fields and disturbing the owners of the allotments so little that one can
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only praise the intelligence and good sense of the methods they employ. Fewer fields
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change hands under the management of the Russian commune than where personal property holds sway
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and is forever carrying its quarrels into courts of law. And are we to
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believe that the inhabitants of a great European city would be less intelligent and less
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capable of organization than Russian or Hindu peasants. Moreover, we must not blink
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the fact that every revolution means a certain disturbance to everyday life. And those
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who expect this tremendous lift out of the old grooves to be accomplished without so
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much as jarring the dishes on their dinner tables will find themselves mistaken. It
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is true that governments can change without disturbing worthy citizens at dinner. But the
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crimes of society towards those who have nourished and so reported it, are not
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to be redressed by any such political slight of parties. Undoubtedly there will be
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a disturbance, but it must not be of pure destruction. It must be
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minimized. And again it is impossible to lay too much stress on this maxim
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It will be by addressing ourselves to the interested parties, and not to boards
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and committees, that we shall best succeed in reducing the sum of inconveniences for
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everybody. The people commit blunder on blunder when they have to choose by ballots
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some hare brained candidate who solicits the honor of representing them, and takes upon
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himself to know all, to do all, and to organize all. But
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when they take upon themselves to organize what they know, what touches them directly,
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they do it better than all the talking shops put together. Is not
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the Paris commune even instance in point and the great dockers strike. And have
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we not constant evidence of this fact in every village commune? End of Chapter six