Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (; April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was an American individualist anarchist and self-identified socialist. Tucker was the editor and publisher of the American individualist anarchist periodical ''

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

'' (1881–1908). Tucker described his form of

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

as "consistent Manchesterism" and "unterrified Jeffersonianism". Tucker looked upon anarchism as a part of the broader socialist movement. Tucker harshly opposed state socialism and was a supporter of free-market socialism and

libertarian socialism Libertarian socialism is an anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist political current that emphasises self-governance and workers' self-management. It is contrasted from other forms of socialism by its rejection of state ownership and from other ...

which he termed '' anarchist or anarchistic socialism''. He connected the

classical economics Classical economics, also known as the classical school of economics, or classical political economy, is a school of thought in political economy that flourished, primarily in Britain, in the late 18th and early-to-mid 19th century. It includ ...

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...

and the Ricardian socialists as well as that of Josiah Warren,

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon to socialism. Some modern commentators have described Tucker as an

anarcho-capitalist Anarcho-capitalism (colloquially: ancap or an-cap) is a political philosophy and economic theory that advocates for the abolition of Sovereign state, centralized states in favor of Stateless society, stateless societies, where systems of p ...

, although this has been disputed by others. During his lifetime, Tucker opposed capitalism and considered himself a socialist due to his belief in the labor theory of value and disputed many of the dictionary definitions of the term which he believed were inaccurate.

Biography

Tucker made his editorial debut in

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

circles in 1876, when Ezra Heywood published Tucker's English translation of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's classic work '' What is Property?'' In 1877, he published his first original journal ''Radical Review'', but it ran for only four issues. From August 1881 to April 1908, Tucker published ''

'', a major individualist-anarchist periodical. The periodical was instrumental in developing and formalizing the individualist anarchist philosophy through publishing essays and serving as a format for debate. Beside Tucker, contributors also included Lysander Spooner, Gertrude Kelly, Auberon Herbert, Dyer Lum, Joshua K. Ingalls, John Henry Mackay, Victor Yarros, Wordsworth Donisthorpe, James L. Walker, J. William Lloyd, Florence Finch Kelly, Voltairine de Cleyre, Steven T. Byington, John Beverley Robinson, Jo Labadie, Lillian Harman and Henry Appleton. Included in its masthead is a quote from Proudhon saying that liberty is "Not the Daughter But the Mother of Order". Benjamin R Tucker and family

In 1939, Tucker died in the company of his family in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

and carried his beliefs to his deathbed. Towards the end of Tucker's life, anarchist Victor Yarros described him as a "forceful and clear writer, but a poor speaker" who considered writing for bourgeois newspapers to be "the worst form of prostitution".

Political views

Tucker's influences include Ricardo Mella.

Anarchism

Tucker said that he became an

at the age of eighteen. In the anarchist periodical ''

'', he published the original work of Stephen Pearl Andrews, Joshua K. Ingalls, Lysander Spooner, Auberon Herbert, Dyer Lum, Victor Yarros and Lillian Harman (daughter of free love anarchist Moses Harman) as well as his own writing. According to Frank Brooks, an historian of American individualist anarchism, it is easy to misunderstand Tucker's claim to

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

. Before Marxists established a hegemony over definitions of socialism, "the term socialism was a broad concept". Tucker as well as most of the writers and readers of ''Liberty'' understood socialism to refer to one or more of various theories aimed at solving the labor problem through radical changes in the capitalist economy. Descriptions of the problem, explanations of its causes and proposed solutions (abolition of

private property Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental Capacity (law), legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which is owned by a state entity, and from Collective ownership ...

and support of

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

s or public ownership) varied among socialist philosophies. Not all modern economists believe Marxists established a hegemony over definitions of socialism. Tucker said socialism was the claim that "labor should be put in possession of its own" while holding that what he respectively termed state socialism and anarchistic socialism had in common was the labor theory of value. Instead of asserting that

common ownership Common ownership refers to holding the assets of an organization, enterprise, or community indivisibly rather than in the names of the individual members or groups of members as common property. Forms of common ownership exist in every economi ...

was the key to eroding differences of economic power and appealing to social solidarity, as did many social anarchists, Tucker's individualist anarchism advocated distribution of property in an undistorted natural

free market In economics, a free market is an economic market (economics), system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of ...

as a mediator of egoistic impulses and a source of social stability rooted in a free-market socialist system. Tucker first favored a natural rights philosophy in which an individual had a right to own the fruits of his labor, but then abandoned it in favor of egoist anarchism (influenced by Max Stirner) in which he believed that only the right of might exists until overridden by contract. According to Charles A. Madison, Tucker promoted full individual liberty and disdained communism in any form, believing that even a stateless communist society must encroach upon the liberty of individuals, insisting instead on the voluntary nature of all association and rejecting

majority rule In social choice theory, the majority rule (MR) is a social choice rule which says that, when comparing two options (such as bills or candidates), the option preferred by more than half of the voters (a ''majority'') should win. In political ...

, organized religion and the institution of

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

due to their compulsory nature.Madison, Charles A. "Anarchism in the United States". ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol 6, No 1, January 1945
p. 56
Tucker connected his libertarian socialist economic views which included his opposition to non-labor income in the form of profit, interest and rent with those of

, Josiah Warren, Proudhon and Marx while arguing against American anti-socialists who declared socialism as imported.

Anarchist society

Tucker disapproved of government ownership because to him state control was the most complete and most obnoxious form of monopoly, "a tyrant living by theft ... wasteful, careless, clumsy, and short-sighted". Tucker maintained that all forms of authoritarian activities imply the resort to force and nothing good or lasting was ever accomplished by compulsion. Thus, he refused to condone the overthrow of the state by violent means, arguing that abolishing government would likely result in physical conflicts over land and a reaction to restore the old regime. Hence, Tucker preached widespread education and ultimately a passive resistance that was to take forms such as refusal to pay taxes, the evasion of jury duty and military service and the non-observance of compulsion. Once society reached this state, individual liberty for all would prevail as a matter of course. Tucker envisioned an individualist anarchist society with "each man reaping the fruits of his labour and no man able to live in idleness on an income from capital ... become nga great hive of Anarchistic workers, prosperous and free individuals ombiningto carry on their production and distribution on the cost principle" rather than a bureaucratic organization of workers organized into rank and file unions. However, he did hold a genuine appreciation for labor unions (which he called trades-union socialism) and saw it as "an intelligent and self-governing socialism", and praised their "substitution of industrial socialism for usurping legislative mobism". According to Peter Marshall, "the egalitarian implications of traditional individualist anarchists" such as Tucker and Lysander Spooner have been overlooked. Tucker rejected the legislative programs of labor unions, laws imposing a short day, minimum wage laws, forcing businesses to provide insurance to employees and compulsory pension systems. Tucker was opposed to compulsion and vehemently opposed reform movements with paternalistic goals such as state aid. He did not have a utopian vision of anarchy in which individuals would refrain from coercing others.

Monopolies

Tucker argued that the poor condition of American workers resulted from four legal monopolies based in the authoritarianism of the state: # Money monopoly # Land monopoly #

Tariff A tariff or import tax is a duty (tax), duty imposed by a national Government, government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods ...

s #

Patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s Tucker believed that his contemporary millionaires received their wealth through the exploitation of monopolies. For several decades, his focus became the state's economic control of how

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of cr ...

could take place and what

currency A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use within a specific envi ...

counted as legitimate. He saw

interest In finance and economics, interest is payment from a debtor or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinct f ...

and profit as a form of exploitation, made possible by the

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

monopoly, in turn maintained through coercion and invasion. Tucker called any such interest and profit

usury Usury () is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in e ...

and saw it as the basis of the oppression of the workers. In his words, "interest is theft, Rent Robbery, and Profit Only Another Name for Plunder". Tucker opposed

protectionism Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations ...

, believing that tariffs caused high prices by preventing national producers from having to compete with foreign competitors. He believed that

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold Economic liberalism, economically liberal positions, while economic nationalist politica ...

would help keep prices low and therefore would assist laborers in receiving what he called their "natural wage". Tucker objected to the exploitation of individuals and explained that only under anarchism will man be truly free, saying: "When interest, rent, and profit disappear under the influence of free money, free land, and free trade, it will make no difference whether men work for themselves, or are employed, or employ others. In any case they can get nothing but that wage for their labor which free competition determines".

Later embrace of egoism

Tucker came to hold the position that no rights exist until they are created by contract. This led him to controversial positions such as claiming that infants had no rights and were the property of their parents because they did not have the ability to contract. He said that a person, who physically tries to stop a mother from throwing her "baby into the fire", should be punished for violating her property rights. For example, he said that children would shed their status as property when they became old enough to contract "to buy or sell a house", noting that the precocity varies by age and would be determined by a jury in the case of a complaint.

Criticisms

Anarcho-communist Albert Meltzer criticizes Tucker's school of individualist anarchism as not anarchism, reasoning that the private police which those individualists support "to break strikes so as to guarantee the employer's 'freedom'" constitutes a government. Sidney E. Parker, then still an individualist anarchist, harshly derides Meltzer as being mentally obtuse and Meltzer's accusation as "malicious"; Parker argues that Meltzer misconstrues Tucker, who stated that, only in a hypothetical scenario after authoritarian laws had been abolished, would Tucker volunteer to repress and kill aggressive striking workers; yet as long as such laws remain Tucker would support the workers' actions. Iain McKay et al. criticize specifically Tucker's support, even within an anarchy, for

wage labour Wage labour (also wage labor in American English), usually referred to as paid work, paid employment, or paid labour, refers to the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour power under ...

, which they consider hierarchical, exploitative, and conducive to private defense agencies' statism.

References

External links

''Instead of a Book, by a Man Too Busy to Write One''
(1893, 1897)
''Liberty''
A complete online archive of Tucker's journal ''Liberty'' (1881–1908)
Several works by Tucker at Anarchy Archives

(1886) * ttp://www.panarchy.org/tucker/taxation.html Liberty and Taxationfrom ''Liberty''
''Individual Liberty''
(1926), a collection of articles
Benjamin Tucker
at Anarchy Archives

by Wendy McElroy

from Classical Liberalism
''Benjamin Tucker and His Periodical, Liberty''
by Carl Watner
''Memories of Benjamin Tucker''
by J. William Lloyd (1935)
''An Interview With Oriole Tucker''
by Paul Abrich in which Tucker's daughter reveals biographical information
''Benjamin R Tucker & the Champions of Liberty – A Centenary Anthology''
edited by Michael E. Coughlin, Charles H. Hamilton and Mark A. Sullivan * * *
A Brief Overview of Benjamin Tucker's Individualist Anarchism
(2020) by Nicholas Evans {{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Benjamin 1854 births 1939 deaths 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American non-fiction writers 19th-century atheists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century anarchists 20th-century atheists American anarchist writers American anti-capitalists American atheism activists American libertarians American male non-fiction writers American magazine editors American magazine publishers (people) American philosophy writers American political philosophers American political writers American socialists American tax resisters Anarchist theorists Egoist anarchists Free love advocates Free-market anarchists Individualist anarchists Left-libertarians Libertarian socialists Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Mutualists People from Dartmouth, Massachusetts Socialist economists Writers from Massachusetts