// Like all anarchists, Tolstoy was critical of private property and capitalism. He greatly admired and was heavily influenced by Proudhon, considering the latters property is theft as an absolute truth which would survive as long as humanity. [quoted by Jack Hayward, After the French Revolution, p. 213] Like Henry George (whose ideas, like those of Proudhon, had a strong impact on him) he opposed private property in land, arguing that were it not for the defence of landed property, and its consequent rise in price, people would not be crowded into such narrow spaces, but would scatter over the free land of which there is still so much in the world. Moreover, in this struggle [for landed property] it is not those who work in the land, but always those who take part in government violence, who have the advantage. Thus Tolstoy recognised that property rights in anything beyond use require state violence to protect them as possession is always protected by custom, public opinion, by feelings of justice and reciprocity, and they do not need to be protected by violence. [The Slavery of Our Times, p. 47] Indeed, he argues that: Tens of thousands of acres of forest lands belonging to one proprietor -- while thousands of people close by have no fuel -- need protection by violence. So, too, do factories and works where several generations of workmen have been defrauded and are still being defrauded. Yet more do the hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain, belonging to one owner, who has held them back to sell at triple price in time of famine. [Op. Cit., pp. 47-8] // -An Anarchist FAQ A.3.7
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 23:59:25 +0000
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