On Political versus Economic Freedom

Do we live in a free society? We are taught from childhood that we do. To suggest otherwise is to invite suspicions of being an absurd conspiracy theorist. In some cases, merely questioning our freedom is enough to be accused of being undemocratic.

Let us then examine this democracy that is the sole guarantor of our freedom.

Republican democracy came into being following the American and French revolutions of the late 18th century. Both revolutions claimed to be fighting for the freedom and equality of all humanity by overthrowing the corrupt tyrannies of the English and French Bourbon monarchies.

There is no doubt the monarchies themselves were indeed corrupt, nor that the general quality of life for the peoples of the United States and France improved in the aftermath of the revolutions. But what of freedom?

Quite apart from the continuation of institutionalized slavery and sexual discrimination, whereby the majority of the populations of both countries were considered to possess little or no natural rights, proclamations of “liberty, equality and brotherhood” for all and that “all men are created equal” resulted in very little real freedom for the people on whose behalf the revolutions had allegedly been staged.

This is because the revolutions in question were of an exclusively political nature. The old ruling classes (the monarchy and nobility) had been replaced by a new ruling class (the propertied capitalists). While political rights like the franchise and the freedoms of speech and association were extended (with significant exceptions) to the (white male) working classes, the economic divisions separating the working classes from the propertied classes remained.

Speaking of the French Revolution to Swiss members of the International Working-Men’s Association in 1871, the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin said:

“Ah! This Revolution was only a political Revolution. It audaciously overturned every obstacle and political tyranny, but it left intact, even proclaiming sacred and inviolable, the economic bases of society which have been the eternal source and chief cause of all political and social injustices, all past and present religious absurdities. It proclaimed the freedom of each and every individual, or rather it proclaimed for each and every individual the right to be free. But really, it gave the means of realizing and enjoying this freedom only to the property-owners, the capitalists and the rich.”

Indeed, one must ask: how free is a single mother whose economic situation leaves her little choice but to sell her labour-power to whomever will grant her the minimum wage necessary to reproduce that labour-power, to go on living? Such a person can never develop to her true potential, never make any truly significant choices about the kind of life she wants to live. Her freedom is merely academic.

Tangible freedom, the freedom of true economic equality, is the goal of social revolution, a breed of revolution seen only a handful of times in human history. This kind of revolution seeks to redress the economic inequalities left in place and exacerbated by political revolution.

Real equality requires nothing less than the redistribution of wealth among all classes. Only when all human beings have the same opportunities and means by which to achieve their true potential will we be able to say that we live in a free society.

In his essay On Freedom, the scientist, inventor and socialist Albert Einstein wrote:

“Man should not have to work for the achievement of the necessities of life to such an extent that he has neither time nor strength for personal activities. Without this…outward liberty, freedom of expression is useless for him.”

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