PIERRE-JOSEPH PROUDHON
P
roudhon is famous for two reasons. First, he’s the author of What is Property? the book containing the immortal phrase “property is theft!” Second, he has emerged as the ‘first’ anarchist. This accolade is explained in part by his provocative reclamation of ‘anarchy.’ Until Proudhon published his critique of property in 1840 the term had only been applied pejoratively. In the other part, it comes from his encounter with Marx. In 1846 Proudhon rebuffed Marx’s tentative advances and hinted that he found his proposals dogmatic. Proudhon died in 1865 and was not party to the disputes that led to the subdivision of the international socialist movement; nevertheless, his early promotion of anarchy established him as the originator of the anti-authoritarian current that opposed Marxist socialism in the 1860s and 70s. Proudhon’s greatness is sometimes linked to his political economy and his advocacy of decentralised federation, namely: organising ‘from the bottom up’ and on the basis of free agreement or voluntary association. His federalist ideas were profoundly influential in nineteenth-century 79
