A Brief Review of Wm Gary Kline’s The Individualist Anarchists: A Critique of Liberalism

Kline wrote a very interesting book called The Individualist Anarchists and it does have some useful information that can improve understanding of the philosophy of the 19th century Individualist Anarchists. He mentions Stephen Pearl Andrews, Lysander Spooner, William Greene, Benjamin Tucker and others and portrays them in an accurate light.  He correctly refers to them as Voluntary Socialists or Socialists as he states:

“…but Voluntary Socialists were in unanimity concerning the issue of monopolies in general…”[i]

He also stated Tucker considered Josiah Warren, who was an Individualist Anarchist, to be a Socialist.[ii] 

However in a very interesting (and confusing) twist he considers the Individualists Anarchists to be liberals rather than what they truly are: socialists.  He refers to the Individualist Anarchist philosophy as liberal many times.  Some examples include: 

“The brand of liberalism to which these libertarians adhered had some uncommon strengths and weaknesses.”[iii]

 “The point is that the Individualist Anarchists challenged not the premises of the Classical Liberal tradition, but only those practical aspects which they considered to be perversions or distortions of the values at the core at that tradition.”[iv]

 “Though they were a radical variant of the predominant liberal tradition in America, rather than a radical alternative…”[v]

It seems to me Kline considers any market system as liberal whether it is actually socialist or not.

Of course Kline’s view on markets does not reflect reality.  Markets can be socialist.  Kline would have to ignore the entire socialist movement when making such a claim.

For instance, Proudhon, the first to call himself an anarchist, spoke of a socialist system of Mutualism based on co-operatives in a competitive market.  Many individualist anarchists would agree with Proudhon and his view of co-operatives in a competitive market.  Would Kline consider Proudhon a liberal?  It appears it could be so if his definition of liberalism is any system that contains competitive markets.

So what is Liberalism?  Liberalism is a philosophy that encourages property and free markets, as Kline rightly claims, but Liberalism contains a specific type of market, more specifically capitalist free markets.  Hence, Proudhon distinguished between property and possession in his What is Property?[vi]—in other words, the difference between capitalist markets and non-capitalist competitive markets with possession instead of property.

Kline points out correctly that profit and usury are essential aspects of capitalism which he points out are what the Individualist Anarchists critique.[vii]  Kline, however,  does not consider the fact that it is precisely that critique that makes the Individualist Anarchists Socialist. 

As Marx states, the essential aspect of Capitalism is called Surplus Value, or what amounts to making an income without working for it.  Surplus Value (called usury) is unearned profit, interest and rent.  However, even landlordism, while a form of surplus value, is not capitalist but a form of feudalism.  What specifically distinguishes Capitalism from other market systems, such as Mutualism and Individualist Anarchist socialist markets, is that within Capitalism employers pay their employees less than the full value of their labor and there is not equality of opportunity on the market. 

Within Capitalism labor in general is not factored into the price of the product.  Within the market socialism of the Individualist Anarchists labor is in general factored into the prices of products and there is equality of opportunity on the market through mutual banks, which would offer credit at a price of 1% or less to cover overhead.  The low rates offered by mutual banks would ensure that people would have the option of going into business for themselves.  Therefore, employers would have to raise their wages to entice workers to work for them.  Hence, wages would rise to the full product of a worker’s labor.[viii]

This is what distinguishes market socialism from capitalism.

As Marx states:

“The working day of 12 hours is represented in a monetary value of, for example, 6 shillings.  There are two alternatives.  Either equivalents are exchanged, and then the worker receives 6 shillings for 12 hours of labour; the price of his labour would be equal to the price of his product.  In that case he produces no surplus-value for the buyer of his labour, the 6 shillings are not transformed into capital, and the basis of capitalist production vanishes.”[ix]

The unearned income is called Surplus Value.  Markets do not equate capitalism which is why different market systems like market socialism and Mutualism exist. 

Tucker’s way of organizing business would be similar to a capitalist business with employers and employees.  However, the difference between a capitalist business and Tucker’s Individualist Anarchist business would be that in the Individualist Anarchist business, employers and employees would be paid the full value of their labor depending on the going rate of the occupation on the Individualist Anarchist market at the time.  In addition, the Individualist Anarchist market would have equality of opportunity on the market due to the Mutual Banks.[x]

Tucker agreed with Marx on his theory of surplus value which can be seen in his article ‘Karl Marx Friend and Foe.’[xi]  This is why Benjamin Tucker who supported non-exploitive employers (and whom Kline labeled the representative of Individualist Anarchism[xii]) called himself correctly an Anarchist-Socialist.[xiii]

While Kline gives a very good and accurate historical overview of Individualist Anarchist theory, at the same time, for reasons I am not aware of, he chooses to ignore socialist history and socialist theory (including that of Marx).  Instead, he dismisses market socialism and Individualist Anarchist theory in general by labeling the Individualist Anarchists incorrectly as liberal rather than what they truly are: market socialists.


[i] Kline, Wm Gary, The Individualist Anarchists.  University Press of America.  (1987) p 72

[ii] Ibid, p 72

[iii] Ibid, p 93 

[iv] Ibid. p 104

[v] Ibid, p 104

[vi] Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph, What is Property?

[vii] Marx, Karl, The Communist Manifesto

[viii] Tucker, Benjamin, State Socialism and Anarchism.

[ix] Marx, Karl, Capital Volume 1.  England: Penguin Classics (reprint).  (1990) p 676

[x] Tucker, Benjamin, Instead of a Book.  Forgotten Books.  (2012) p 3-18

[xi] Ibid, p 477

[xii] Kline, Wm Gary, The Individualist Anarchists.  University Press of America.  (1987) p 1

[xiii] Tucker, Instead of a Book.

Benjamin Tucker American Mutualist, Addendum: Tucker Did Not Advocate Voting in Businesses

In the articles Benjamin Tucker American Mutualist, Parts 1 & 2, it was suggested that voting by both employers and employees in a business could be one way to retain the labor theory of value within the Capitalist system.  It was just one potential option as a temporary measure to have non-exploitative employers in businesses within a Capitalist economy.  As alluded to in the previous articles, if the business was in an individualist anarchist market rather than a capitalist economy, voting by workers to receive their full value would no longer be needed as the market itself would decide the wages.[1] This series aims to present the ideas of Tucker in an accurate fashion, so this article will focus on how Tucker himself believed businesses should be operated.

 Within the American Mutualist economic system of Tucker, voting would not be needed as the market itself would decide the average wages for a particular job.[2]  This goes back to the days of Josiah Warren. In Men Against the Stateby James Martin, it is noted that the people living in the American Mutualist town of Utopia traded labor for labor upon the ‘cost principle’ by letting the market itself decide the wages and prices of goods without capitalist rent, interest, or profit.[3]  Tucker himself stated that, following the labor theory of value (the cost principle), wages would not need to be voted upon as the competitive market itself would decide the average labor time and prices of occupations and goods.

Tucker states regarding the Cost Principle:

“For my part, I do not believe that it is possible or highly important to realize it absolutely and completely.  But it is both possible and highly important to effect its approximate realization.  So much can be effected without compulsion,—in fact, can only be effected by at least partial abolition of compulsion,—and so much will be sufficient.”[4]

Therefore, while Tucker was not opposed to voting in businesses (ie, the co-ops of Proudhon) Tucker himself preferred a business with employers and employees where both received their wage amounts depending on the going wage rate at the time on the competitive market.[5]

Tucker opposed capitalist rent, interest and profit, which he believed to be a result of state intervention within the market which allowed one class of people to live without working while another class of people had to work for wages less than their full value.[6]  Tucker believed that state-enforced privilege allowed employers to extract a portion of the employees’ pay that would have been the employees’ had there been equality of opportunity on the market.  The lack of equality of opportunity on the market leads employees to accept lower wages just to live and hence employers can pay lower wages to their employees and they receive a wage less than the full value of their labor.[7]

Tucker believed the solution would be Mutual Banks. With Mutual banks that offered credit with interest at less than one percent, anyone could go into business for themselves and hence employers would raise their wages to their full value on the market to entice workers to work for them.  As a result, the class of people that made money without working for it (the Capitalist class) would disappear and employers would pay their employees the full value of their labor.[8]

Capitalism is an economic system where a class of employers make money without working for it while another class of people (employees) are paid less than their full value. Marx states:

 “The working day of 12 hours embodies itself, eg, in a money-value of 6 shillings. Either equivalents are exchanged, and then the labourer receives 6 shillings, for 12 hours’ labour; the price of his labour would be equal to the price of his product.  In this case he produces no surplus-value for the buyer of his labour, the 6 shillings are not transformed into capital, the basis of capitalist production vanishes.  But it is on this very basis that he sells his labour and that his labour is wage-labour.  Or else he receives for 12 hours’ labour less than 6 shillings, i.e., less than 12 hours’ labour.  Twelve hours’ labour are exchanged against 10, 6, &c, hours’ labour.  This equalisation of unequal quantities not merely does away with the determination of value.  Such a self-destructive contradiction cannot be in any way even enunciated or formulated as a law.”

The unearned income generated by paying workers less than the full value of their labor is called Surplus Value.   Markets do not equate to capitalism which is why different market systems like market socialism and mutualism exist.[9] 

Tucker’s way of organizing a business would be similar to that of a capitalist business with employers and employees.  However, the difference between a capitalist business and Tucker’s Individualist Anarchist business would be that in Tucker’s Individualist Anarchist way of doing business, employers and employees would be paid the full value of their labor depending on the going rate of the occupation on the Individualist Anarchist market at the time, and the Individualist Anarchist market would have equality of opportunity in the market due to the Mutual Banks.[10]            Tucker agreed with Marx on his theory of surplus value which can be seen in his article ‘Karl Marx Friend and Foe.’[11]  It is Tucker’s opposition to economic exploitation that led him to call his system Anarchistic Socialism.[12]For more information, see Tucker’s article State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree and Wherein They Differ.


[1]Evans, Nicholas. ‘Benjamin Tucker American Mutualist Part 1’. Anarchistnews.org. 2017. Available online at: https://anarchistnews.org/content/benjamin-tucker-american-mutualist; Evans, Nicholas. ‘Benjamin Tucker American Mutualist: Mutual Banking Part 3 and Final Conclusion Part 4’. Anarchistnews.org. 2017 Available online at: https://anarchistnews.org/content/benjamin-tucker-american-mutualist-mut…

[2]Tucker, Benjamin.  Instead of a Book.  Forgotten Books.  2012. Pp 3-18.

[3]James J. Martin.  Men Against the State.  Ralph Myles Publisher Inc, Colorado Springs. 1970.  Pp 57-64.

[4]Tucker, Benjamin.  Instead of a Book. Forgotten Books.  2012. Pp 332.

[5]Ibid. Pp 3-18.

[6]Ibid.

[7]Ibid.

[8]Ibid.

[9]Please see: Edwards, Stewart (Editor) Selected Writings of P.-J. Proudhon.  Garden City, New York: Anchor Books.  1969.     P 64; and Marx, Karl. Capital Volume 1.  England: Penguin Classics (reprint).  1990.  Pp. 676. And see also The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx.

[10]Tucker, op cit. Pp 3-18.

[11]Ibid. P 477.

[12]Ibid.

Benjamin Tucker: American Mutualist, Part 2

The article titled Benjamin Tucker American Mutualist, Part 1 [in anchorage anarchy29], dealt with the economics of American Mutualists like Benjamin Tucker and Josiah Warren.  To recap, rather than capitalism, which is a market based on the subjective theory of value, Tucker wanted a competitive market system based on the labor theory of value, ie, a free market with non-exploitative employers.  Continue reading

Benjamin Tucker: American Mutualist, Part One

In an Individualist Mutualist market economy of Josiah Warren, Benjamin Tucker, or Stephen Pearl Andrews employers can indeed pay themselves more money than their employees for equal time worked. However, even though they can pay themselves more money than their employees for equal time worked they are still Mutualists and not Capitalists. Why is this? Continue reading