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Encyclopedia > Mutualism (economic theory)
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Mutualism is a political and economic theory or system, largely associated with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, based on a labor theory of value which holds that when labor or its product is sold, it ought to receive in exchange, goods or services embodying "the amount of labor necessary to produce an article of exactly similar and equal utility"[1] (receiving anything less is considered exploitation, theft of labor, or "usury"). Mutualists believe that a natural economic consequence of a truly free labor market is income to individuals being received proportionally to the amount of labor they exert.[2] Mutualists oppose the idea of individuals receiving an income through loans, investments, and rent, as they believe these individuals are not laboring. They hold that if state intervention ceased, these types of incomes would disappear.[3] Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... Theory and practice Issues History Culture By region Lists Related Anarchism Portal Politics Portal ·        Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (pronounced [ˈpruːd É’n] in British English, [pʁu dɔ̃] in French) (January 15, 1809 – January 19, 1865) was a French mutualist political philosopher of the socialist tradition. ... The labor theories of value (LTV) are theories in economics according to which the true values of commodities are related to the labor needed to produce them. ...


Insofar as they ensure the workers right to the full product of their labor, mutualists support markets and private property in the product of labor. However, they argue for conditional titles to land, whose private ownership is legitimate only so long as it remains in use or occupation (which Proudhon called "possession.")[4] Proudhon and other Mutualists believe in labor-owned cooperative firms and associations.[5] As for capital goods (man-made, non-land, "means of production"), mutualist opinions differ on whether they are private "possession" (i.e. individuals required to be using them in order to retain titles) or private property.[citation needed] Look up Market in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This page deals with property as ownership rights. ... A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and operated by its worker-owners. There are no outside, or consumer owners, in a workers cooperative - only the workers own shares of the business. ...


Some commentators distinguish between the nineteenth century American individualist anarchists and mutualists, suggesting that mutualists are more concerned with association.[6] Because of this, some see mutualism as being situated somewhere between individualism and collectivism.[7] Proudhon himself described the "liberty" which he pursued as "the synthesis of communism and property."[8] In politics, individualist anarchism is a variety of anarchism that emphasises the importance of the individual. ... Individualism is a term used to describe a moral, political, or social outlook that stresses human independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...


Mutualists, following Proudhon, originally considered themselves to be libertarian socialists. However, "some mutualists have abandoned the labor theory of value, and prefer to avoid the term "socialist." But they still retain some cultural attitudes, for the most part, that set them off from the libertarian right."[9] Mutualists have distinguished themselves from state socialism, and don't advocate social control over the means of production. Benjamin Tucker said of Proudhon, that "though opposed to socializing the ownership of capital, [Proudhon] aimed nevertheless to socialize its effects by making its use beneficial to all instead of a means of impoverishing the many to enrich the few...by subjecting capital to the natural law of competition, thus bringing the price of its own use down to cost."[10] State socialism, broadly speaking, is any variety of socialism which relies on ownership of the means of production by the state. ...

Contents

History

Mutualism, as a term, has seen a variety of related uses. Charles Fourier first used the French term "mutualisme" in 1822,[11] although the reference was not to an economic system. The first use of the noun "mutualist" was in the New-Harmony Gazette by an American Owenite in 1826.[12] In the early 1830s, a labor organization in Lyons, France, called themselves the "Mutuellists." In What Is Mutualism?, Clarence Lee Swartz gives his own account of the origin of the term, claiming that "[t]he word "mutualism" seems to have been first used by John Gray, an English writer, in 1832." [13] When Gray's 1825 Lecture on Human Happiness was first published in the United States in 1826, the publishers appended the Preamble and constitution of the Friendly Association for Mutual Interests, located at Valley Forge. 1826 also saw the publication of the Constitution of the Friendly Association for Mutual Interests at Kendal, Ohio. By 1846, Pierre Joseph Proudhon was speaking of "mutualité" in his writings, and he used the term "mutuellisme," at least as early as 1848, in his "Programme Révolutionnaire." William B. Greene, in 1850, used the term "mutualism" to describe a mutual credit system similar to that of Proudhon. In 1850, the American newspaper The Spirit of the Age, edited by William Henry Channing, published proposals for a "mutualist township" by Joshua King Ingalls[14] and Albert Brisbane,[15] together with works by Proudhon,[16] Greene, Pierre Leroux, and others. This article is about the French utopian socialist philosopher. ... For other uses, see Robert Owen (disambiguation). ... Theory and practice Issues History Culture By region Lists Related Anarchism Portal Politics Portal ·        Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (pronounced [ˈpruːd É’n] in British English, [pʁu dɔ̃] in French) (January 15, 1809 – January 19, 1865) was a French mutualist political philosopher of the socialist tradition. ... William B. Green was a 19th century American individualist anarchist and author. ... Pierre Leroux (April 7, 1798 - April, 1871), French philosopher and political economist, was born at Bercy near Paris, the son of an artisan. ...


Mutualism has been associated with two types of currency reform. Labor notes were first discussed in Owenite circles, but received their first practical test in 1827 in the Time Store of individualist anarchist Josiah Warren. Mutual banking aimed at the monetization of all forms of wealth and the extension of free credit. It is most closely associated with William B. Greene, but Greene drew from the work of Proudhon, Edward Kellogg, and William Beck, as well as from the land bank tradition. Mutualism can in many ways be considered "the original anarchy," since Proudhon was the first to identify himself as an anarchist. Though mutualism is generally associated with anarchism, it is not necessarily anarchist. For other uses, see Robert Owen (disambiguation). ... The Cincinnati Time Store was a successful retail store that was created by American individualist anarchist Josiah Warren to test his theories that were based on his strict interpretation of the labor theory of value. ... In politics, individualist anarchism is a variety of anarchism that emphasises the importance of the individual. ... Josiah Warren was the first American individualist market anarchist Josiah Warren (1798-1874) was an individualist anarchist, inventor, musician, and author in the United States. ... William B. Green was a 19th century American individualist anarchist and author. ... Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of hierarchy and imposed authority. ...


Nineteenth century mutualists considered themselves libertarian socialists.[17] While still oriented towards cooperation, mutualists favor free market solutions, believing that most inequalities are the result of preferential conditions created by government intervention.[18] Mutualism is something of a middle way between classical economics and socialism, with some characteristics of both.[2] Modern-day Mutualist Anarchist Kevin Carson, considers anarchist mutualism to be "free market socialism." Libertarian socialism is a political philosophy dedicated to opposing coercive forms of authority and social hierarchy, in particular the institutions of capitalism and the state. ... For other uses, see Coop. ... A free market is an idealized market, where all economic decisions and actions by individuals regarding transfer of money, goods, and services are voluntary, and are therefore devoid of coercion and theft (some definitions of coercion are inclusive of theft). Colloquially and loosely, a free market economy is an economy... Classical economics is widely regarded as the first modern school of economic thought. ... Kevin Carson is a contemporary American individualist anarchist and author. ...


Mutualist thoughts on capitalism

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For other uses, see Politics (disambiguation). ... Socialism is a broad array of ideologies and political movements with the goal of a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. ... This article is about the form of society and political movement. ... Democratic socialism advocates socialism as a basis for the economy and democracy as a governing principle. ... Eco-socialism or Green socialism is an ideology fusing Green movement values with socialism. ... Guild socialism was a British political movement in the 1890s-1920s that wanted to give each local workplace sovereignity. ... Libertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that aim to create a society without political, economic or social hierarchies - a society in which all violent or coercive institutions would be dissolved, and in their place every person would have free, equal access to tools of information and production, or... Market socialism is a term used to define a number of economic system(s) in which the means of production are owned either by the state or by the workers collectively, however unlike traditional socialism there is market that is directed and guided by socialist planners. ... Flag of the Revolutionary Socialists Revolutionary Socialism is a political ideology based on the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels advocating the revolutionary yet democratic liberation of the Proletariat. ... Social anarchism is a term self-applied by many anarchists of the libertarian socialist thread of anarchism. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... Market socialism is an attempt by a Soviet-style economy to introduce market elements into its economic system to improve economic growth. ... Utopian socialism is a term used to define the first currents of modern Socialist thought. ...

Regional variants

African socialism
Arab socialism
Chinese socialism
Jewish socialism
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African socialism is a belief in sharing economic resources in a traditional African way, as distinct from classical socialism. ... Arab Socialism (ar. ... This article is about the term itself and its relationships. ... A Bundist demonstration, 1917 The General Jewish Labour Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia, in Yiddish the Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland (אַלגעמײַנער ײדישער אַרבעטער בונד אין ליטע פוילין און רוסלאַנד), generally called The Bund (בונד, from German: meaning federation or union) or the Jewish Labor Bund, was a Jewish political party in several European countries... The concept of Melanesian socialism was first advocated by Father Walter Lini of the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), who became the countrys first prime minister upon its independence from France and the United Kingdom in 1980. ... Labor Zionism (or Socialist Zionism, Labour Zionism) is the traditional left wing of the Zionist ideology and was historically oriented towards the Jewish workers movement. ...

Religious socialism

Buddhist socialism
Christian socialism
Islamic socialism
Religious socialism describes socialism that is inspired by religious values, such as Christian socialism or Islamic socialism. ... GP Malalasekara of Sri Lanka wrote about Buddhist socialism in an article published in , 1972. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Christian socialism generally refers to those... Islamic socialism is a term coined by various Muslim leaders to counter the demand at home for a more spiritual form of socialism. ...

Key issues

Criticisms of socialism
History of socialism
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Criticisms of socialism range from disagreements over the efficiency of socialist economic and political models, to condemnation of states described by themselves or others as socialist. ... The history of socialism, sometimes termed modern socialism,[1] finds its origins in the French Revolution of 1789 and the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, although it has precedents in earlier movements and ideas. ... Socialist economics is a broad, and sometimes controversial, term. ... The term socialist state (or socialist republic, or workers state) can carry one of several different (but related) meanings: Strictly speaking, any real or hypothetical state organized along the principles of socialism may be called a socialist state. ... Since the 19th century, socialist ideas have developed and separated into many different types of socialism. ...

People and organizations

List of socialists
First International
Second International
Third International
Fourth International
Socialist International
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IUSY
The following is a list of self-identified socialists, divided by geographical location. ... The International Workingmens Association (IWA), sometimes called the First International, was an international socialist organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class and class struggle. ... The phrase Second International has two meanings: For the international association of socialist parties of the late 19th century, see Second International (politics) and a successor organization, the Socialist International For one of the Merriam-Webster dictionaries of American English, see Websters New International Dictionary, Second Edition This is... The Comintern (Russian: Коммунистический Интернационал, Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional – Communist International, also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919, in the midst of the war communism period (1918-1921), by Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including... For other uses, see Fourth International (disambiguation). ... The official symbol of Socialist International. ... WFDY symbol The World Federation of Democratic Youth is a youth organization, recognized by the United Nations as an international youth non-governmental organization. ... The International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) encompasses socialist, social democratic and Labour Party youth organizations from more than 100 states of the world. ...

Related subjects

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Utilitarianism Anarchist redirects here. ... The South African Police Crush Another Demonstration by the Shack dwellers Movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, 28 September, 2007 Class struggle is the active expression of class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. ... The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a... Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal or level) is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals from birth. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation between nations for the benefit of all. ... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... A communist revolution is a social revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, normally with socialism (public ownership over the means of production) as an intermediate stage. ... Socialism in One Country was a thesis put forward by Joseph Stalin in 1924 and further supported by Nikolai Bukharin. ... A trade union or labor union is an organization of workers. ... This article discusses utilitarian ethical theory. ...

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The "cost principle" or "cost the limit of price"

Main article: Cost the limit of price

Mutualists argue that most of the economic problems associated with capitalism come back to a violation of the cost principle, or as Josiah Warren interchangeably said, "Cost the limit of price." It was inspired by the labor theory of value, popularized, though not invented, by Adam Smith in 1776 — Proudhon mentions Smith as an inspiration. The labor theory of value holds that the actual price of a thing (or the "true cost") is the amount of labor that was undertaken to produce it. Proudhon and Warren, working without association or apparent knowledge of each other, accepting this axiom, drew from this the conclusion that it is therefore unethical to charge higher labor cost for a thing than the amount of labor that was undertaken to produce it[citation needed] (see: long run normal profits). In Warren's terms, cost should be the "limit of price," with "cost" referring to the amount of labor required to produce a good or service. Anyone who sells goods should charge no more than the cost to himself of acquiring these goods. Proudhon also held that the "real value of products was determined by labour time, and that all kinds of labour should be regarded as equally effective in the value-creating process, and he advocated therefore equality of wages and salaries."[19] Cost the limit of price is a maxim coined Josiah Warren that holds that it is unethical to charge a higher price for a commodity than the cost of producing or acquiring, and bringing it to market. ... The labor theories of value (LTV) are theories in economics according to which the true values of commodities are related to the labor needed to produce them. ... For other persons named Adam Smith, see Adam Smith (disambiguation). ... In accounting terms, accounting profit is the total revenue minus costs properly chargeable against the goods sold (Ref. ...


As far as determining payment for goods, they should pay for those goods with an equivalent amount of labor lest they violate the cost principle. In terms of employment, an employer should not be paid unless he labors and, if he labors less than an employee, then he should be paid less than that employee. Therefore, if the cost principle is followed, profit to an employer through the labor of others is not possible — everyone receives the "full produce" of his own labor and receives no produce of the labor of another unless he pays with an equivalent amount of labor. Warren says that this is in contrast to "Value the limit of price" where the only limit to price is the highest amount someone is willing to pay for a thing based on his own subjective valuation (see subjective theory of value).[citation needed] Economic subjectivism is the theory that value is a feature of the appraiser and not of the thing being valued. ...


Many later mutualists argued that free competition would naturally push prices towards cost. Instead of a normative principle for individual transactions, the cost principle was a long-run tendency.


Property

Pierre Joseph Proudhon was one of the most famous philosophers to have articulated thoughts on the nature of property. He is known for claiming that "property is theft," but is less known for the claims that "property is impossible," and "property is liberty." According to Colin Ward, Proudhon did not see a contradiction between these slogans. This was because Proudhon distinguished between what he considered to be two distinct forms of property often bound up in the single label. To the mutualist, this is the distinction between property created by coercion and property created by labor. Property is theft "when it is related to a landowner or capitalist whose ownership is derived from conquest or exploitation and [is] only maintained through the state, property laws, police, and an army". Property is freedom for "the peasant or artisan family [who have] a natural right to a home, land [they may] cultivate, [...] to tools of a trade", and the fruits of that cultivation - but not to ownership or control of the lands and lives of others. The former is considered illegitimate property, the latter legitimate property.[citation needed] Theory and practice Issues History Culture By region Lists Related Anarchism Portal Politics Portal ·        Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (pronounced [ˈpruːd É’n] in British English, [pʁu dɔ̃] in French) (January 15, 1809 – January 19, 1865) was a French mutualist political philosopher of the socialist tradition. ... Property is theft! is a slogan coined by the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his book What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right of Government. ...


Proudhon argued that property in the product of labor is essential to liberty, while property that strayed from "possession" ("occupancy and use") was the basis for tyranny and would lead a society to destroy itself. The conception of entitlement property as a destructive force and illegitimate institution can be seen in this quote by Proudhon,

Then if we are associated for the sake of liberty, equality, and security, we are not associated for the sake of property; then if property is a natural right, this natural right is not social, but anti-social. Property and society are utterly irreconcilable institutions. It is as impossible to associate two proprietors as to join two magnets by their opposite poles. Either society must perish, or it must destroy property. If property is a natural, absolute, imprescriptible, and inalienable right, why, in all ages, has there been so much speculation as to its origin? — for this is one of its distinguishing characteristics. The origin of a natural right! Good God! who ever inquired into the origin of the rights of liberty, security, or equality? (What is Property?)

Mutualist, Clarence Lee Swartz, says in What is Mutualism: Clarence Lee Swartz was an American individualist anarchist. ...

It is, therefore, one of the purposes of Mutualists, not only to awaken in the people the appreciation of and desire for freedom, but also to arouse in them a determination to abolish the legal restrictions now placed upon non-invasive human activities and to institute, through purely voluntary associations, such measures as will liberate all of us from the exactions of privilege and the power of concentrated capital.

Swartz also states that mutualism differs from anarcho-communism and other collectivist philosophies by its support of private property: "One of the tests of any reform movement with regard to personal liberty is this: Will the movement prohibit or abolish private property? If it does, it is an enemy of liberty. For one of the most important criteria of freedom is the right to private property in the products of ones labor. State Socialists, Communists, Syndicalists and Communist-Anarchists deny private property."


However, Proudhon warned that a society with private 'property' without equality would lead to statist-like relations between people.

"The purchaser draws boundaries, fences himself in, and says, 'This is mine; each one by himself, each one for himself.' Here, then, is a piece of land upon which, henceforth, no one has right to step, save the proprietor and his friends; which can benefit nobody, save the proprietor and his servants. Let these multiply, and soon the people . . . will have nowhere to rest, no place of shelter, no ground to till. They will die of hunger at the proprietor's door, on the edge of that property which was their birth-right; and the proprietor, watching them die, will exclaim, 'So perish idlers and vagrants.'" [20]

Unlike capitalist private property-supporters Proudhon stressed equality, he wanted everyone to be a property-owning worker able to access capital for themselves. He stressed that in every cooperative "every worker employed in the association [must have] an undivided share in the property of the company" [21].


Mutualist economics

The major tenets of mutualism are free association, mutualist credit, contract (or federation/confederation), and gradualism (or dual-power). Mutualism is often described by its proponents as advocating an "anti-capitalist free market".


Contemporary mutualist author Kevin Carson holds that capitalism[3] has been founded on "an act of robbery as massive as feudalism," and argues that capitalism could not exist in the absence of a state. He says "[i]t is state intervention that distinguishes capitalism from the free market"[22]. He does not define capitalism in the idealized sense, but says that when he talks about "capitalism" he is referring to what he calls "actually existing capitalism." He believes the term "laissez-faire capitalism" is an oxymoron because it has never existed. However, he says he has no quarrel with anarcho-capitalists who use the term "laissez-faire capitalism" and distinguish it from "actually existing capitalism." He says he has deliberately chosen to resurrect on old definition of the term.[23] Carson argues the centralization of wealth into a class hierarchy is due to state intervention to protect the ruling class, by using a money monopoly, granting patents and subsidies to corporations, imposing discriminatory taxation, and intervening militarily to gain access to international markets. Carson’s thesis is that an authentic free market economy would not be capitalism as the separation of labor from ownership and the subordination of labor to capital would be impossible, bringing a class-less society where people could easily choose between working as a freelancer, working for a fair wage, taking part of a cooperative, or being an entrepreneur. He notes, as did Tucker before him, that a mutualist free market system would involve significantly different property rights than capitalism is based on, particularly in terms of land and intellectual property.[4] Kevin Carson is a contemporary American individualist anarchist and author. ... For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). ... As in taxonomy, the classifications of species, a class hiearchy in computer science is a classification of object types, denoting objects as the instantiations of classes (class is like a blueprint, the object is what is built from that blueprint) inter-relating the various classes by relationships such as inherits... The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that societys political policy. ... For other uses, see Patent (disambiguation). ... A subsidy is generally a monetary grant given by government in support of an activity regarded as being in the public interest. ... A free market is an idealized market, where all economic decisions and actions by individuals regarding transfer of money, goods, and services are voluntary, and are therefore devoid of coercion and theft (some definitions of coercion are inclusive of theft). Colloquially and loosely, a free market economy is an economy...


Free association

Mutualists argue that association is only necessary where there is an organic combination of forces. For instance, an operation that requires specialization and many different workers performing their individual tasks to complete a unified product, i.e., a factory. In this situation, workers are inherently dependent on each other -- and without association they are related as subordinate and superior, master and wage-slave.


An operation that can be performed by an individual without the help of specialized workers does not require association. Proudhon argued that peasants do not require societal form, and only feigned association for the purposes of solidarity in abolishing rents, buying clubs, etc. He recognized that their work is inherently sovereign and free. In commenting on the degree of association that is preferable Proudhon said:

"In cases in which production requires great division of labour, it is necessary to form an ASSOCIATION among the workers... because without that they would remain isolated as subordinates and superiors, and there would ensue two industrial castes of masters and wage workers, which is repugnant in a free and democratic society. But where the product can be obtained by the action of an individual or a family... there is no opportunity for association."[24]

For Proudhon, mutualism involved creating "industrial democracy," a system where workplaces would be "handed over to democratically organised workers' associations . . . We want these associations to be models for agriculture, industry and trade, the pioneering core of that vast federation of companies and societies woven into the common cloth of the democratic social Republic." [25] He urged "workers to form themselves into democratic societies, with equal conditions for all members, on pain of a relapse into feudalism." This would result in "Capitalistic and proprietary exploitation, stopped everywhere, the wage system abolished, equal and just exchange guaranteed." [26] Workers would no longer sell their labour to a capitalist but rather work for themselves in co-operatives.


As Robert Graham notes, "Proudhon's market socialism is indissolubly linked to his notions of industry democracy and workers' self-management." [27] K. Steven Vincent notes in his in-depth analysis of this aspect of Proudhon's ideas that "Proudhon consistently advanced a program of industrial democracy which would return control and direction of the economy to the workers." For Proudhon, "strong workers' associations . . . would enable the workers to determine jointly by election how the enterprise was to be directed and operated on a day-to-day basis." [28]


Mutual credit

Main article: Mutual credit

Mutualists argue that free banking should be taken back by the people to establish systems of free credit. They contend that banks have a monopoly on credit, just as capitalists have a monopoly on land. Banks are essentially creating money by lending out deposits that do not actually belong to them, then charging interest on the difference. Mutualists argue that by establishing a democratically run mutual bank or credit union, it would be possible to issue free credit so that money could be created for the benefit of the participants rather than for the benefit of the bankers. Individualist anarchists noted for their detailed views on mutualist banking include Proudhon, William B. Greene, and Lysander Spooner. Mutual credit is a type of alternative currency in which the currency used in a transaction can be created at the time of the transaction. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... A mutual bank is a bank owned by the depositors. ... A credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members. ... Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (pronounced Pruood-on, not prowd-hon) (January 15, 1809 - January 19, 1865) was a French anarchist of the 19th century. ... William B. Green was a 19th century American individualist anarchist and author. ... Lysander Spooner (January 19, 1808 – May 14, 1887) was an American individualist anarchist political philosopher, abolitionist, and legal theorist of the 19th century. ...


Some modern forms of mutual credit are LETS and the Ripple monetary system project. Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) are local, non-profit exchange networks in which all kinds of goods and services can be traded without the need for money. ... Ripple is an open-source software project for developing and implementing a protocol for an open decentralized payment network. ...


Contract / Federation

Mutualism holds that producers should exchange their goods at cost-value using systems of "contract." While Proudhon's early definitions of cost-value were based on fixed assumptions about the value of labor-hours, he later redefined cost-value to include other factors such as the intensity of labor, the nature of the work involved, etc. He also expanded his notions of "contract" into expanded notions of "federation." As Proudhon argued,

“ "I have shown the contractor, at the birth of industry, negotiating on equal terms with his comrades, who have since become his workmen. It is plain, in fact, that this original equality was bound to disappear through the advantageous position of the master and the dependent position of the wage-workers. In vain does the law assure the right of each to enterprise . . . When an establishment has had leisure to develop itself, enlarge its foundations, ballast itself with capital, and assure itself a body of patrons, what can a workman do against a power so superior?" [29] ”

Gradualism / Dual-power

Beneath the governmental machinery, in the shadow of political institutions, out of the sight of statemen and priests, society is producing its own organism, slowly and silently; and constructing a new order, the expression of its vitality and autonomy... [30]

Proudhon noted that the shock of the French Revolution failed the people, and was instead interested in a federation of worker cooperations that could use mutualist credit to gradually expand and take control of industry. This is similar to economic models based on worker cooperatives today, such as the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation in Spain and NoBAWC in San Francisco. The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on... Mondragón Cooperative Corporation (MCC) is a group of manufacturing and retail companies based in the Basque Country and extended over the rest of Spain and abroad. ... The Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives (NoBAWC - pronounced No Boss) is a network of worker cooperatives dedicated to building workplace democracy in the San Francisco Bay Area. ...


Mutualism today

Kevin Carson is a contemporary mutualist and author of Studies in Mutualist Political Economy. Contemporary mutualists are among those involved in the Alliance of the Libertarian Left and in the Voluntary Cooperation Movement. Kevin Carson is a contemporary American individualist anarchist and author. ...


Social economy, some fair trade movements and some free software projects such as Debian and Linux Users Groups follow a similar spirit, focussing on mutual aid, decentralization and free association (see Small "a" anarchism). Social economy refers to a third sector in economies between the private sector and business or, the public sector and government. ... For other uses, see Fair trade (disambiguation). ... Free software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things. ... Debian is a free operating system. ... A Linux User Group or Linux Users Group (LUG) is a private, generally non-profit or not-for-profit organization that provides support and/or education for Linux users, particularly for inexperienced users. ... The term mutual aid has multiple meanings: Mutual aid, a tenet of anarchist thought Mutual aid, an agreement between emergency responders Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, a book by anarchist Peter Kropotkin Mutual aid, in social work with groups Category: ... Anarchist redirects here. ...


Criticisms

One area of disagreement between mutualists and anarchist communists stems from Proudhon's advocacy of money to compensate individuals for their labor. Peter Kropotkin, like other anarchist communists, advocated the abolition of wage labour and questioned, "how can this new form of wages, the labor note, be sanctioned by those who admit that houses, fields, mills are no longer private property, that they belong to the commune or the nation?"[31] According to George Woodcock, Kropotkin believed that a wage system in any form, whether "administered by Banks of the People or by workers' associations through labor cheques is a form of compulsion."[32] Libertarian Communism redirects here. ... For other uses, see Money (disambiguation). ... Prince Peter (Pyotr) Alexeyevich Kropotkin (Russian: ) (December 9, 1842–February 8, 1921) was one of Russias foremost anarchists and one of the first advocates of anarchist communism: the model of society he advocated for most of his life was that of a communalist society free from central government. ... Wage labour is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour under a contract (employment), and the employer buys it, often in a labour market. ... George Woodcock (May 8, 1912 - January 28, 1995) was a Canadian writer. ...


Collectivist anarchist Michael Bakunin was an adamant critic of Proudhonian mutualism as well,[33] stating, "How ridiculous are the ideas of the individualists of... the Proudhonian mutualists who conceive society as the result of the free contract of individuals absolutely independent of one another and entering into mutual relations only because of the convention drawn up among men. As if these men had dropped from the skies, bringing with them speech, will, original thought, and as if they were alien to anything of the earth, that is, anything having social origin."[34] However, communist anarchist Murray Bookchin responds defending mutualism Left Anarchism is a term used almost exclusively by opponents of traditional anarchism to denominate philosophies that oppose private ownership of the means of production (or capitalism). ... Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (Russian — Михаил Александрович Бакунин), (May 30, 1814–June 13, 1876) was a well-known Russian anarchist contemporaneous to Karl Marx. ...

“ "Th[e] growing shift from artisanal to an industrial economy gave rise to a gradual but major shift in socialism itself. For the artisan, socialism meant producers' co-operatives composed of men who worked together in small shared collectivist associations, although for master craftsmen it meant mutual aid societies that acknowledged their autonomy as private producers. For the industrial proletarian, by contrast, socialism came to mean the formation of a mass organisation that gave factory workers the collective power to expropriate a plant that no single worker could properly own. These distinctions led to two different interpretations of the 'social question' . . . The more progressive craftsmen of the nineteenth century had tried to form networks of co-operatives, based on individually or collectively owned shops, and a marke