Kropotkin (Re: Re: Re: anarchism)

["frances bolton" <fbolton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael H. wrote:

>Didn't [Kropotkin]  suggest (maybe in _The Conquest of Bread_, is that
correct
>title?) that labor-saving machinery in home would contribute to
>emancipation of women from both patriarchal and domestic drudgery, a
>view shared by number of others at time, including marxist August
>Bebel...

Yup, in Chapter 10,  on "Agreeable Work". Lots of labor saving machines,
plus households organized in such a way that they share household labor
(cleaning boots and cleaning dishes are his examples). The chapter is
largely about women. He doesn't mention Bebel in this piece, but he does
mention Fourier.

<<To emanicipate woman is not only to open the gates of the university, the
law courts, or the parliament, for her, for the "emancipated" woman will
always throw domestic toil onto another woman. To emancipate woman is to
free her from the brutalizing toil of kitchen and wash-house; it is to
organize your household in such a way as to enable her to raise her own
children, if she be so minded, while still retaining sufficient leisure to
take her share of social life.

It will come to pass. As we have said, things are already improving. Only,
let us fully understand that a revolution, intoxicated with the beautiful
words Liberty, Equality, Solidarity would not be a revolution if it
maintained slavery at home. Half humanity subjected to the slavery of the
hearth would still have to rebel against the other half.>>

Frances