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Peter Kropotkin

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“It is only by the abolition of the State, by the conquest of perfect liberty by the individual, by free agreement, association, and absolute free federation that we can reach Communism — the possession in common of our social inheritance, and the production in common of all riches.”

StatesIndividualSocialPerfectCommonLibertyAbsolutesProductionsPossessionRichesCommunismAgreementAssociationConquestInheritanceAbolitionFederation
Book:Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings
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“But how do European railways manage without them? How do they continue to convey millions of travellers and mountains of luggage across a continent? If companies owning railways have been able to agree, why should railway workers, who would take possession of railways, not agree likewise? And if the Petersburg-Warsaw Company and that of Paris-Belfort can act in harmony, without giving themselves the luxury of a common commander, why, in the midst of our societies, consisting of groups of free workers, should we need a Government?”

IfsNeedsGivingShouldHas BeensGovernmentAbleCommonCompanyMillionsGroupsMountainHarmonyAgreeWorkersPossessionManageLuxuryParisOur SocietyMidstContinentsCommandersTravellerRailwayLuggageWarsaw
Author:Peter Kropotkin
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“There are those, on the one hand, who hope to achieve the social revolution through the State by preserving and even extending most of its powers to be used for the revolution. And there are those like ourselves who see the State, both in its present form, in its very essence, and in whatever guise it might appear, an obstacle to the social revolution, the greatest hindrance to the birth of a society based on equality and liberty, as well as the historic means designed to prevent this blossoming.”

WellsMeanStatesHandsMightFormUsedSocialLibertyAchieveRevolutionBirthEssenceObstaclesHistoricExtendingHindranceGuiseBlossomingSocial Revolution
Book:Fugitive writings
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“True progress lies in the direction of decentralization, both territorial and functional, in the development of the spirit of local and personal initiative, and of free federation from the simple to the compound, in lieu of the present hierarchy from the centre to the periphery.”

SpiritLyingSimpleProgressDevelopmentLocalsInitiativeCentreHierarchyCompoundsTerritorialFederationPeripheryDecentralization
Book:Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings
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“Any revolutionary agitation exacts enormous sacrifices, not so much in terms of prison sentences and years of incarceration - which have been raining down by the hundreds of years annually - as in terms of the manifold personal sacrifices sustained by those who commit themselves to revolutionary agitation.”

YearsHas BeensTermSacrificeRainPrisonSentencesEnormousCommitRevolutionaryAnarchyAgitationIncarcerationManifoldPersonal Sacrifice
Author:Peter Kropotkin
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“Anarchy, when it works to destroy authority in all its aspects, when it demands the abrogation of laws and the abolition of the mechanism that serves to impose them, when it refuses all hierarchical organization and preaches free agreement - at the same time strives to maintain and enlarge the precious kernel of social customs without which no human or animal society can exist. Only, instead of demanding that those social customs should be maintained through the authority of a few, it demands it from the continued action of all.”

ShouldHumansActionLawPoliticalSocialAnimalSocietyDemandAuthorityAspectOrganizationStriveRefuseAgreementCustomsAnarchyMechanismStrifeHierarchyAnarchistAbolitionKernelCollective Action
Author:Peter Kropotkin
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