Memoirs of a Revolutionist by Peter Kropotkin

I took a lively part in this movement, and with a few English comrades I started, in addition to the three socialist papers already in existence, an anarchist-communist monthly, Freedom, which continues to live up to the present hour. At the same time I resumed my work on anarchism where I had had to interrupt it at the time of my arrest. The critical part of it was published by Elisée Reclus, during my Clairvaux imprisonment, under the title, Paroles d'un Révolté. Now I began to work out the constructive part of an anarchist-communist society -- so far as it could be forecast -- in a series of articles published at Paris in La Révolte. "Our boy," prosecuted for anti-militarist propaganda, had been compelled to change its title page, and now appeared under a feminine name. Later on these articles were published in a more elaborate form in a book, La Conquête du Pain.

These researches caused me to study more thoroughly certain points in the economic life of the civilized nations of today. Most socialists had hitherto said that in our present civilized societies we actually produce much more than is necessary for guaranteeing full well-being to all; that it was only the distribution which was defective; and, if a social revolution took place, all that was required would be for everyone to return to his factory or workshop -- society taking possession for itself of the "surplus value," or benefits, which now went to the capitalist. I thought, on the contrary, that under the present conditions of private ownership production itself had taken a wrong turn, and was entirely inadequate even as regards the very necessaries of life. None of these necessaries are produced in greater quantities than would be required to secure well-being for all; and the overproduction, so often spoken of, means nothing but that the masses are too poor to buy even what is now considered as necessary for a decent existence. But in all civilized countries the production, both agricultural and industrial, ought to and easily might be immensely increased, so as to secure a reign of plenty for all. This brought me to consider the possibilities of modern agriculture, as well as those of an education which would give to everyone the possibility of carrying on at the same time both enjoyable manual work and brain work. I developed these ideas in a series of articles in the Nineteenth Century, which are now published as a book under the title of Fields, Factories, and Workshops.