COMMUNITIES AGAINST
CAPITALISM
A New Declaration of Independence
by Emma Goldman
[Published in
Mother Earth, Vol. IV, no. 5, July 1909.]
When, in the course of human development, existing institutions prove inadequate
to the needs of man, when they serve merely to enslave, rob, and oppress
mankind, the people have the eternal right to rebel against, and overthrow,
these institutions.
The mere fact that these forces--inimical to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness--are legalized by statute laws, sanctified by divine rights, and
enforced by political power, in no way justifies their continued existence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all human beings, irrespective of
race, color, or sex, are born with the equal right to share at the table of
life; that to secure this right, there must be established among men economic,
social, and political freedom; we hold further that government exists but to
maintain special privilege and property rights; that it coerces man into
submission and therefore robs him of dignity, self-respect, and life.
The history of the American kings of capital and authority is the history of
repeated crimes, injustice, oppression, outrage, and abuse, all aiming at the
suppression of individual liberties and the exploitation of the people. A vast
country, rich enough to supply all her children with all possible comforts, and
insure well-being to all, is in the hands of a few, while the nameless millions
are at the mercy of ruthless wealth gatherers, unscrupulous lawmakers, and
corrupt politicians. Sturdy sons of America are forced to tramp the country in a
fruitless search for bread, and many of her daughters are driven into the
street, while thousands of tender children are daily sacrificed on the altar of
Mammon. The reign of these kings is holding mankind in slavery, perpetuating
poverty and disease, maintaining crime and corruption; it is fettering the
spirit of liberty, throttling the voice of justice, and degrading and oppressing
humanity. It is engaged in continual war and slaughter, devastating the country
and destroying the best and finest qualities of man; it nurtures superstition
and ignorance, sows prejudice and strife, and turns the human family into a camp
of Ishmaelites.
We, therefore, the liberty-loving men and women, realizing the great injustice
and brutality of this state of affairs, earnestly and boldly do hereby declare,
That each and every individual is and ought to be free to own himself and to
enjoy the full fruit of his labor; that man is absolved from all allegiance to
the kings of authority and capital; that he has, by the very fact of his being,
free access to the land and all means of production, and entire liberty of
disposing of the fruits of his efforts; that each and every individual has the
unquestionable and unabridgeable right of free and voluntary association with
other equally sovereign individuals for economic, political, social, and all
other purposes, and that to achieve this end man must emancipate himself from
the sacredness of property, the respect for man-made law, the fear of the
Church, the cowardice of public opinion, the stupid arrogance of national,
racial, religious, and sex superiority, and from the narrow puritanical
conception of human life. And for the support of this Declaration, and with a
firm reliance on the harmonious blending of man's social and individual
tendencies, the lovers of liberty joyfully consecrate their uncompromising
devotion, their energy and intelligence, their solidarity and their lives.