Anarcho-Communism.

La Conquête du Pain

The Conquest of Bread

"--an 1892 book by the Russian anarchist communist Peter Kropotkin. Originally written in French, it first appeared as a series of articles in the anarchist journal Le Révolté. It was first published in Paris with a preface by Élisée Reclus, who also suggested the title. Between 1892 and 1894, it was serialized in part in the London journal Freedom, of which Kropotkin was a co-founder."

The abolition of money, prices, and wage labor are central to anarchist communism. With the distribution of wealth being based on self-determined needs, people would be free to engage in whatever activities they found most fulfilling and would no longer have to engage in work for which they have neither the temperament nor the aptitude.

"No distinction can be drawn between the work of each man. Measuring the work by its results leads us to absurdity; dividing and measuring them by hours spent on the work also leads us to absurdity. One thing remains: put the needs above the works, and first of all recognize the right to live, and later on, to the comforts of life, for all those who take their share in production."

Kropotkin sketches a picture of what he feels an anarchist communist society could look like. He points to the huge levels of production that modern industrial society achieved in terms of food production, clothing production, and housing production, and he uses this as evidence of the feasibility of an anarchist communist society. More than enough of the essentials are produced for all people, Kropotkin argues; if they were only distributed properly, nobody would have any unmet needs. Kropotkin further argues that with the level of production output being so high people should not have to work more than five hours a day and they should be able to reduce that as much as possible, giving them free time for leisure, socialization, and to work on innovations that would reduce their labor.

"Motivation in a moneyless society would be found in the satisfaction of work, concern for the community, competition for prestige, and praise from other community members."