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07 - Clothing - The Conquest of Bread · Sacred Texts Archive

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  Chapter seven clothing. When the houses have become the common heritage of the citizens,
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  and when each man has his daily supply of food, another forward step
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  will have to be taken. The question of clothing will of course demand consideration
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  next and again. The only possible solution will be to take possession, in
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  the name of the people, of all the shops and warehouses where clothing is
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  sold or stored, and to throw open the doors to all, so that
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  each can take what he needs. The communalization of clothing, the right of
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  each to take what he needs from the communal stores, or to have it
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  made for him at the tailors and outfitters, is a necessary corollary of the
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  communalization of houses and food. Obviously, we shall not need for that to
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  despoil all citizens of their coats, to put all the garments in a heap
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  and draw lots for them, as our critics, with equal wit and ingenuity
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  suggest, let him who has a coat keep it still. Nay, if
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  he have ten coats, it is highly improbable that anyone will want to deprive
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  him of them, for most folk would be a new coat to one that
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  has already graced the shoulders of some fat bourgeois, and there will be enough
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  new garments and to spare without having recourse to secondhand wardrobes. If we were
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  to take an inventory of all the clothes and stuff for clothing accumulated in the
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  shops and stores of the large towns, we should find probably that in Paris,
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  Leone, Bordeaux and Marseille there was enough to enable the commune to offer
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  garments to all the citizens of both sexes, and if all were not suited
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  at once, the communal outfitters would soon make good these shortcomings. We know
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  how rapidly our great tailoring and dressmaking establishments work nowadays, provided as they are,
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  with machinery specially adapted for production on a large scale. But everyone will
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  want a sable lined coat or a velvet gown, exclaim our adversaries. Frankly,
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  we do not believe it. Every woman does not dote on velvet,
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  nor does every man dream of sable linings. Even now, if we were
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  to ask eaped women to choose her gown, we should find some to prefer
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  a simple, practical garment to all the fantastic trimmings the fashion world. Effects
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  tastes change with the times, and the fashion in vogue at the time of
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  the revolution will certainly make for simplicity. Societies, like individuals, have their
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  hours of cowardice, but also their heroic moments. And though the society of
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  today cuts a very poor figure, sunk in the pursuit of narrow personal interests
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  and second rate ideas, it wears a different error. When great crises come,
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  it has its moments of greatness and enthusiasm. Men of a generous nature
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  will gain the power which today is in the hand of jobbers. Self,
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  devotion will spring up, and noble deeds beget their like. Even the egotists
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  will be ashamed of hanging back, and will be drawn in spite of themselves,
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  to admire, if not to imitate, the generous and brave. The
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  Great Revolution of seventeen ninety three abounds and examples of this kind. And it
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  is ever during such times of spiritual revival, as nature to societies as to
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  individuals, that the spring tide of enthusiasm sweeps humanity onwards. We do not
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  wish to exaggerate the part played by such noble passions, nor is it upon
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  them that we would found our ideal society. But we are not asking too
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  much if we expect their aid in tiding over the first and most difficult moments.
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  We cannot hope that our daily life will be continuously inspired by such exalted
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  enthusiasms, but we may expect their aid at the first and that is all
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  we need. It is just to wash the earth clean, to sweep away
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  the shards and refuse accumulated by centuries of slavery and oppression. That the new
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  anarchist society will have need of this wave of brotherly love. Later on,
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  it can exist without appealing to the spirit of self sacrifice, because it will
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  have eliminated oppression and thus created a new world instinct with all the feelings of
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  solidarity. Besides, should the character of the revolution be such as we have
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  sketched here, the free initiative of individuals would find an extensive field of action
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  in thwarting the efforts of the egotists. Groups would spring up in every street
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  in quarter to undertake the charge of the clothing. They would make inventories of
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  all that the city possessed, and would find out approximately what were the resources
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  at their disposal. It is more than likely that in the matter of clothing,
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  the citizens would adopt the same principle, as in the matter of provisions,
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  that is to say, they would offer freely from the common store everything
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  which was to be found in abundance, and dole out whatever was limited in
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  quantity. Not being able to offer to each man a sable line code and
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  to every woman a velvet gown, society would probably distinguish between the superfluous and
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  the necessary, and provisionally at least class sable and velvet among the superfluities of
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  life. Ready to let time prove whether what is a luxury today may not
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  become common to all tomorrow. While the necessary clothing would be guaranteed to each
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  inhabitant of the anarchist city, it would be left to private activity to provide
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  for the sick and feeble those things provisionally considered as luxuries, and to procure
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  for the less robust such special articles as would not enter into the daily consumption
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  of ordinary citizens. But it may be urged this gray uniformity means the end
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  of everything beautiful in life and art. Certainly not, we reply, and
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  we still face our opinion on what already exists. We proposed to show presently
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  how an anarchist society could satisfy the most artistic taste of its citizens without allowing
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  them to amass the fortunes of millionaires. End of Chapter seven