Food, clothes and housing must also be expropriated as they are as necessary to the worker as intruments of production are themselves
Some socialists still believe, however, that, although the means of production such as land, factories, and manufacturers, etc., must be expropriated, articles of consumption—food, clothes, and housing—should remain private property. But for the worker, adequate housing is as much an instrument of production as tools and machines. It is the place where our bodies rest and prepare for the work tommorow. The so-called economists, who make the just-mentioned distinction, would hardly deny that the coal burnt in a machine is as necessary to production as the raw material itself. How then can food, without which the human body could do no work, be excluded from the list of things indispensable to the producer?Again a certain quaiity of clothes also are as necessary to the worker.
Whether we like it or not, this is what the people mean by a revolution. As soon as they have made a clean sweep of the government, they will seek first of all to ensure to themselves decent housing and sufficient food and clothes – free of capitalist rent. The people understand that this is just the point where the revolution ought to begin.
References
- Kropotkin, Peter. (1892). The Conquest of Bread Chapter 4. Expropriation (p. 95).