Mutualism is an economic and anarchist theory of thought that advocates people with free markets and the occupation and use of property norms. One application of this scheme involves establishing a bank together that will lend to producers with minimal interest rates, high enough to cover administration. Mutualism is based on a version of the labor theory of the value that holds that when labor or its products are sold, instead it must receive goods or services that embody "the amount of labor necessary to produce a truly similar and equally utilitarian article". Mutualism comes from the writings of the philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.
Mutualists oppose the idea of ​​individuals who receive income through loans, investments and leases because they believe these people are not working hard. Although Proudhon opposes this type of income, he states that he never intended to "ban or suppress, by sovereign decision, rent of land and interest on capital." I think that all manifestations of this human activity must remain free and voluntary to all: modification, restriction or suppression, other than that which results naturally and the need for the universalization of the principle of reciprocity I propose. " To the extent that they ensure the right of workers to their full product of work, mutualis supports markets and property in labor products. However, they argue for conditional ownership of land, whose ownership is valid only for as long as it remains in use or employment (so-called Proudhon "ownership") - thereby advocating private property, but not private property.
Although mutualism resembles the American anarchist economic anarchist doctrine of the nineteenth century America, unlike them, mutualism supports large industries. Therefore, mutualism has been retrospectively characterized sometimes as a form of individualist anarchism and as ideological lies between individualist and collectivist anarchist forms as well. Proudhon himself described the "freedom" he pursued as "the synthesis of communism and property". Some people regard Proudhon as an individualist anarchist while others consider him a social anarchist.
Mutualists have distinguished mutualism from state socialism and do not advocate state control over the means of production. Benjamin Tucker said of Proudhon that "despite opposing to socialize capital ownership, [Proudhon] aims to socialize its impact by making its use beneficial to all people rather than the means of impoverishing many to enrich the few... by subjecting capital to the law of natural competition, the price of its own use goes down to cost ".
Video Mutualism (economic theory)
Histori
As a term, "mutualism" has seen various related uses. Charles Fourier first used the French term of mutualism in 1822, although the reference was not to the economic system. The first use of the noun "mutualis" was in the New Harmony Gazette by Owenite America in 1826. In the early 1830s, the workers' organization in Lyons, France called themselves "Mutuellist".
Origin France
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was involved with Lyons mutualis and later adopted the name to describe his own teachings. In What is mutualism? Clarence Lee Swartz provides his own explanation of the origin of the term, claiming that "[t] he said" mutualism "seems to have been used first by John Gray, an English writer, in 1832". When John Gray's 1825 The First Hearing on Human Happiness was first published in the United States in 1826, the publisher added the Preamble and Constitution of the Common Ground-Based Association, located in Valley Forge. 1826 also sees the publication of the Constitution of the Association for Peacemaking Associations in Kendal, Ohio. .
In 1846, Proudhon spoke of "mutualitÃÆ'Â ©" in his writings and he used the term "qualities", at least as early as 1848, in his "RÃÆ'Â ° volutionnaire" program. William B. Greene, in 1850, used the term "mutualism" to describe a common credit system similar to Proudhon. In 1850, the American newspaper The Spirit of the Age, edited by William Henry Channing, published a proposal for "mutualist township" by Joshua King Ingalls and Albert Brisbane, along with the works of Proudhon, William B Greene, Pierre Leroux, and others.
During the Second French Republic (1848-1852), Proudhon had his greatest public effect through his involvement with four newspapers: Le Reprà ©  © sentant du Peuple (February 1848 - August 1848); Le Peuple (September 1848 - June 1849); La Voix du Peuple (September 1849 - May 1850); and Le Peuple de 1850 (June 1850 - October 1850). His polemical writing style, combined with his perception of himself as an outsider, produces cynical and aggressive journalism that attracts many French workers but alienates others. He repeatedly criticized government policy and promoted credit reform and exchange. He tried to set up a popular bank (Banque du peuple) in early 1849, but although more than 13,000 people signed up (mostly workers), limited admissions of less than 18,000FF and all companies basically died.
Proudhon ran for a constituent assembly in April 1848, but was not elected, despite his name appearing on ballots in Paris, Lyon, BesanÃÆ'§on and Lille, France. He succeeded in a complementary election on June 4 and served as a representative during the debate on the National Workshop, created by a 25 February 1848 decision endorsed by the Republic of Louis Blanc. The workshop gave the job to the unemployed. Proudhon was never enthusiastic about such workshops, regarded them as charities that did not solve the problems of the economic system. He opposed their abolition unless an alternative could be found for workers who relied on workshops for subsistence.
Proudhon was shocked by the 1848 Revolution in France. He participated in the February uprising and the composition of what he called the "first republican proclamation" of the new republic. But he feels anxious about the new interim administration, headed by Dupont de l'Eure (1767-1855), which since the French Revolution in 1789 has long been a politician, although often in opposition. Proudhon publishes his own perspective for the reforms completed in 1849, Sol du Problà © e social ("Solutions of Social Issues"), where he devised a program of financial cooperation among workers. He believes this will transfer the control of economic relations from capitalists and financiers to workers. The central part of the plan is the establishment of banks to provide credit with very low interest and the issuance of exchange notes that will be circulated instead of money based on gold.
Ideological development
Mutualism has been linked to two types of currency reform. Employment records were first discussed in the Owenite circle and received their first practical test in 1827 at the Time Store of former members of New Harmony and individualist anarchist Josiah Warren. Mutual banking is intended to monetize all forms of wealth and extension of free credit. It is very closely related to William B. Greene, but Greene draws from the work of Proudhon, Edward Kellogg, and William Beck, as well as from the tradition of landbank.
Mutualism in many ways can be considered "native anarchy", because Proudhon is the first to identify himself as anarchist. Although mutualism is commonly associated with anarchism, it is not always anarchist. Historian Wendy McElroy reports that American individualist anarchism receives an important influence from 3 European thinkers. "One of the most important of these influences is the French political philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon whose words" Freedom is not the Princess But the Mother of the Order "appears as a motto in Liberty ' s masthead "(an influential individualist anarchist publication from Benjamin Tucker). For the American anarchist historian, Eunice Minette Schuster: "It is clear... that Proudhonian Anarchism can be found in the United States at least as early as 1848 and that it is unaware of its affinity for Individualist Anarchism from Josiah Warren and Stephen Pearl Andrews... William B. Greene presents this Proudhonian mutualism in its purest and most systematic form ".
After 1850, Greene became active in labor reform. He was elected vice-president of the New England Labor Reform League, the majority of his members holding a joint banking scheme with Proudhon; and in 1869 the president of the Massachusetts Workers Union. He then published Socialistic, Mutualistic, and Financial Fragments (1875). He sees mutualism as the synthesis of "freedom and order". "His association... is examined by individualism..." Think about your own affairs "," Do not judge that you are not judged. "On purely personal things, such as moral behavior, the individual is also sovereign, as more than what he himself produces.For this reason, he demands" mutuality "in marriage - the same rights of a woman for freedom and property personal ".
Benjamin Tucker, an editor of anarchist Liberty , recently linked his economic outlook with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's views, Josiah Warren and Karl Marx, sided with Proudhon and Josiah Warren:
Modern Economic Principles Socialism is the logical deduction of the principle laid down by Adam Smith in the early chapters of "Wealth of Nations," - that is, that work is the true measure of price... Half a century or so after Smith declared the principle in above states, Socialism takes it where it has dropped it, and in following it to a logical conclusion, making it the foundation of a new economic philosophy... It seems to have been done independently by three different people, from three different nationalities, in three different languages: Josiah Warren, an American; Pierre J. Proudhon, a Frenchman; Karl Marx, a German Jew... That the work of this fascinating trio should be done almost simultaneously seems to indicate that Socialism is in the air, and that the time is ripe and favorable conditions for this new appearance. school of thought. As far as the priority of time is concerned, credit seems to belong to Warren, America, - a fact which the stubborn orators who so like to declare against Socialism as an imported article. Benjamin Tucker. Liberty Individual
19th century Spain
Mutualist ideas found fertile soil in the nineteenth century in Spain. In Spain, RamÃÆ'³n de la Sagra founded the anarchist journal El Porvenir in A CoruÃÆ' Â ± a in 1845 inspired by Proudhon's ideas. Catalan politician Francesc Pi i Margall became the main translator of Proudhon's works into Spanish and then briefly became president of Spain in 1873 while head of the Federal Party of the Democratic Republic. According to George Woodcock: "This translation had a profound and lasting influence on the development of Spanish anarchism after 1870, but before that the Proudhonian ideas, as interpreted by Pi, had given much inspiration to the emerging federalist movement in the early 1860s." According to EncyclopÃÆ'Â|dia Britannica : "During the Spanish Revolution of 1873, Pi y Margall attempted to form a decentralized political system, or" cantonalist ", on Proudhonian lines Pi i Margall was a dedicated theorist in itself, especially through books of works such as La reacciÃÆ'³n y la revoluciÃÆ'³n ( Reactions and Revolution of 1855), Las nacionalidades (< i> Nationality from 1877) and La FederaciÃÆ'³n ( Federation from 1880.) For the famous anarcho-syndicalist Rudolf Rocker: "The first movement of the Spanish workers was strongly influenced by the idea -ide Piy Margall, leader of the Spanish Federalist and Proudhon disciple. Pi y Margall was one of the foremost theorists of his time and had a strong influence on the development of libertarian ideas in Spain, his political ideas had much in common with Richard Price, Joseph Priestly, Thomas Paine, Jefferson , and other Anglo representatives. - American liberalism in the first period. He wants to limit state power to a minimum and gradually replace it with the socialist economic order ".
Internationalism
For the First International GM historian Stekloff: "In April 1856, arriving from Paris was a representative of the Proudhonist worker whose purpose was to realize the foundation of the Universal League of Workers The goal of the League was the social emancipation of the working class, which, to be held, could only be achieved by the union of workers all land to international capital, since the representative is one of the Proudhonists, of course this emancipation must be secured, not by political methods, but purely by economic means, through the foundations of productive and distributive co-operatives. "
"In the election of 1863 that for the first time the working candidates were run counter to the bourgeois republicans, but they obtained very little votes... a group of working class Proudhonists (among them Murat and Tolain, who later became participating in the International (1)) establishment of the Manifesto the well-known of the Sixties, which, although very moderate, marked a turning point in the history of the French movement.For many years the bourgeois liberals have insisted that the 1789 Revolution had abolished class distinctions, the Manifesto of the Sixty loudly claimed that classes existed , these classes are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the latter having special class interests, which the workers can not trust to defend by the Manifesto is that there should be independent working class candidates. "For Stekloff," Proudhonis, at that time the French leaders of the International Mere we see the International Workers' Association as a kind of academy or synagogue, in which Talmud or similar experts can "investigate" the issue of workers; where in the spirit of Proudhon they can isolate the means for an accurate solution of the problem, without being distracted by the pressures of political campaigns. Thus Friborg, voicing the opinion of the Proudhonist group of Paris (Tolain and Co) assured his readers that "the International is the greatest effort ever undertaken in modern times to assist the proletariat toward conquest, peacefully, constitutionally and morally, the method, from where it belongs to the workers in the sun of civilization ".
"The Belgian Federation threw its fate with the International anarchist at the Brussels Congress, held in December, 1872... those who took part in the socialist movements of Belgian intellectuals were inspired by Proudhonist ideas that naturally led them to oppose the Marxist view.
The nineteenth century considered themselves a libertarian socialist of the century. While still oriented towards cooperation, mutualism loves free market solutions, believing that inequality is the result of preferential conditions created by government intervention. Mutualism is something of a middle way between classical economy and socialism, with some characteristics of both. [6] Modern-day mutualist Kevin Carson considers anarchist mutualism to be "free market socialism".
Proudhon supports employer-owned companies and work associations for "we need not hesitate, because we have no choice... need to establish ASSOCIATION among workers... because without it they will remain linked as subordinates and superiors, and there will be two... the caste of the masters and wage workers, which is disgusting for a free and democratic society "and hence" it becomes necessary for workers to form themselves in a democratic society, in the same conditions for all members, at the pain of recurrence to feudalism ". As for capital goods (man-made, non-ground, "means of production"), mutualist opinions differ on whether this should be general-managed public assets or private property.
Mutualism also has a major influence in the Paris Commune. George Woodcock stated that "an important contribution to the activities of the Commune and especially to public service organizations was made by members of various anarchist factions, including the Courbet mutualist camp, Longuet and Vermorel, libertarian librarians Varlin, Malon, and Lefrangais, and bakuninists Elie and Elisà ©  © e Reclus and Louise Michel ".
Maps Mutualism (economic theory)
Theory
The main aspects of mutualism are free association, mutual credit, contract (or federation/confederation) and gradualism (or dual-power). Mutualism is often portrayed by its supporters as advocating "anti-capitalist free market". Mutualists argue that most of the economic problems associated with capitalism each amount to violations of the principle of expense, or as Josiah Warren in turn says: "Limit the price limit". It was inspired by the value theory of work, popularized, though not created, by Adam Smith in 1776 (Proudhon calls Smith an inspiration). The value theory of work states that the actual price of an object (or "actual cost") is the amount of labor employed to produce it. In Warren's terms, cost should be a "price limit", with "cost" referring to the amount of labor required to produce goods or services. Anyone who sells goods should charge no more than the cost of purchasing these items.
Free attribution
Mutualists argue that associations are only necessary where there is a combination of organic strength. For example, operations that require specialization and many different workers who do their respective duties to complete an integrated product, ie factory. In this situation, workers are inherently dependent on one another - and without their associated associations as subordinates and bosses, employers and slave wages.
Operations that can be performed by individuals without the assistance of specialized workers do not require association. Proudhon argues that the peasants do not need any form of society and are merely pretending to union for the purpose of solidarity in abolishing rent, buying clubs, et cetera. He acknowledges that their work is inherently sovereign and free. In commenting on the preferred level of association, Proudhon said:
In cases where production requires a large division of labor, it is necessary to form ASSOCIATION among the workers... for without it they will remain isolated as subordinates and superiors, and there will be two industrial casts of employers and wage workers, disgusting in a free and democratic society. But where products can be obtained by the actions of individuals or families... there is no opportunity for association.
For Proudhon, mutualism involves creating "industrial democracy", a system in which the workplace will be "submitted to a democratically organized association of workers... We want this association to be a model for agriculture, industry and commerce, the pioneering core of the great federation. companies and society are woven into the common fabric of the social democratic republic ". He urged "workers to form themselves into a democratic society, in the same conditions for all members, on the pain of relapse to feudalism". This will result in "Capitalist exploitation and ownership, stopping everywhere, wage system abolished, fair and exchanged with bail". Workers will no longer sell their labor to a capitalist but work for themselves in co-operatives.
As Robert Graham notes: "Proudhon's market socialism is inseparable from his idea of ​​industrial democracy and workers' self-management." K. Steven Vincent noted in his in-depth analysis of aspects of Proudhon's idea that "Proudhon has consistently developed an industrial democracy program that will restore control and economic direction to workers." For Proudhon, "a strong association of workers... will enable workers to determine jointly by the election how the company should be directed and operated on a baseline day".
Mutual credit
Mutualis argues that free banking should be taken back by the people to build a free credit system. They argue that banks have a credit monopoly, as the capitalists have a monopoly over the means of production, and landlords have a monopoly over the land. Banks essentially create money by lending deposits that are not actually theirs, then charging interest on the difference. Mutualists argue that by establishing a democratically administered mutual bank or credit union, it is possible to issue free credit so that money can be made for the benefit of the participants rather than for the benefit of bankers. The individualist anarchists noted for their detailed views of mutualist banking include Proudhon, William B. Greene and Lysander Spooner. Some of the modern forms of credits are LETS and Ripple's financial system project.
In the French legislative session, Proudhon proposed a government-imposed income tax to finance his banking scheme, with some tax brackets reaching as high as 33 1 / 3 percent and 50 percent, which was rejected by the legislature. This income tax proudhon proposed to fund his bank will be subject to rent, interest, debt and salary. In particular, Proudhon's proposed law will require all capitalists and shareholders to dilute one-sixth of their income to their tenants and debtors, and another six for the state treasury to fund the bank.
This scheme is strongly objected by others in the legislature, including Frà © nà © ral Bastiat; the reason given for the denial of income tax is that it will lead to economic collapse and it violates "property rights". In his debate with Bastiat, Proudhon once proposed a national bank funding with a voluntary tax of 1%. Proudhon also opposes the abolition of all taxes.
Contract and federation
Mutualism states that producers must exchange their goods for a fee using a "contract" system. While Proudhon's initial cost-definition definition is based on a fixed assumption of the value of working hours, it then redefines the cost-value to include other factors such as labor intensity, the nature of the work involved, et cetera also expanded his understanding of "contract" into an expanded "federation" idea. As Proudhon stated,
I have shown the contractor, at the birth of the industry, negotiating on the same terms as his colleagues, who have since become his job. It is clear, in fact, that this original equality will surely disappear through the favorable position of the lord and the dependent position of the wage-workers. In vain the law ensures each company's right... When a company has spare time to develop itself, enlarge its foundation, ballasts itself with capital, and convinces itself the body of a patron, what a worker can do to a very superior power ?
Gradualism and dual-power
Double strength is the process of building alternative institutions with those already in modern society. Originally theorized by Proudhon, he has been adopted by many anti-state movements such as Autonomism and Agorism. Proudhon describes it as:
Under the machinery of the government, in the shadow of political institutions, beyond the views of members and pastors, society produces its own organism, slowly and silently; and build a new order, expression of vitality and autonomy...
Double power should not be equated with Double Power popularized by Vladimir Lenin, who also theorizes by Proudhon, but refers to a more specific scenario in which a revolutionary entity deliberately defends the structure of previous political institutions until the strength of the previous institution is sufficiently weakened so that the revolutionary entity can take over completely. The dual-power applied by Mutualists and Agorists is the development of the alternative institution itself, which can create a Leninist scenario.
Criticism
In Europe, a contemporary critic of Proudhon was anarcho-communist Joseph DÃÆ' Â © early jacque. Unlike and against Proudhon, he argues that "it is not the product of his work that workers have the right to, but to the satisfaction of their needs, whatever is their nature". Upon his return to New York, he was able to create a series of books in his periodic book Le Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement social. Published in the 27th edition from 9 June 1858 to 4 February 1861, Le Libertaire is the first published anarcho-communist journal published in the United States.
One area of ​​disputes between mutualist and anarcho-communist comes from Proudhon's advocacy of money and then vouchers of labor to offset individuals for their labor as well as markets or artificial markets for goods and services. Peter Kropotkin, like other anarcho-communists, advocated the abolition of wages and questioned "how this new form of wage, labor record, approved by those who recognize that homes, fields, factories are no longer private, that they belong to communes or nations? ". According to George Woodcock, Kropotkin believes that any wage system, whether "managed by the People's Bank or by labor associations through labor inspection" is a necessity.
The collectivist anarchist Mikhail Bakunin is a staunch critic of Proudhonia mutualism as well, stating: "It is ridiculous that the individualist ideas of the school Jean Jacques Rousseau and the proudhonians who regard society as the result of independent, totally independent contracts of each other and enter into reciprocity only because of the convention made among men, as if these men had fallen from the sky, brought with them their speeches, wills, initial thoughts, and as if they were alien to anything on earth, that is to say, anything that has a social origin ".
Critics of the pro-market sectors are also common. Economist George Reisman alleges that mutualism supports exploitation when he does not recognize the individual's right to protect the land he has mixed with if he does not happen to use it. Reisman sees the seizure of such land as the theft of labor products and says: "Mutualism claims against the exploitation of labor, the theft of every part of its product, but when it comes to labor that has been mixed with the ground, it turns out to be blind out foursquare on the exploit side".
Mutualism today
Kevin Carson is a contemporary mutualist and author of Studies in Political Economy Mutualist. In the preface, Carson describes this work as "an attempt to revive the individualist anarchist political economy, to combine the useful developments of the last hundred years, and to make it relevant to the twenty-first century problem." Contemporary mutualists are among those involved in the Libertarian Left Alliance and in the Voluntary Co-operation Movement.
Carson states that capitalism has been established in the "massive robbery act of feudalism" and argues that capitalism will not exist in the absence of a country. He says "[i] t is the state intervention that distinguishes capitalism from the free market". He does not define capitalism in an idealized sense, but says that when he speaks of "capitalism" he refers to what he calls "true capitalism". He believes the term " laissez-faire capitalism" is an oxymoron because capitalism, he argues, is "community organization, combining elements of tax, usury, landlordism, and tariffs, thereby denying the Free Market. pretend to give an example ". However, he says he has no quarrel with the anarcho-capitalists who use the term " laissez-faire capitalism" and distinguish it from "true capitalism". He said he deliberately chose to revive the old definition of the term.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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