[981] The general use of the term “collectivism” is largely due to Marx. While “collectivism” occurs almost on every page of the Manifesto, the term “communism,” on the other hand, is never once employed.
James Guillaume, in the preface to the second volume of Bakunin’s works, p. xxxvi, gives the following account of the origin of the word “collectivism”: “At the fourth General Congress of the International, held at Bâle in 1869, almost every delegate voted in favour of collective property. But there were two distinct opinions cherished by the delegates present. The German-Swiss, the English, and the German delegates were really State communists. The Spanish, Belgian, French-Swiss, and most of the French delegates were federal or anarchist communists who took the name of collectivists. Bakunin belonged to the second group, and to this group also belonged the Belgian Paepe and the French Varlin.” Bakunin always spoke of himself as a collectivist and not a communist, and in this respect he differs from Marx. The habit of thinking that all anarchists are communists is largely due to Kropotkin.
[982] “We think we can perceive a change in the physiognomy of our dramatis personæ. He who before was the money-owner now strides in front as capitalist; the possessor of labour-power follows as his labourer. The one with an air of importance, smirking, intent on business; the other timid and holding back, like one who is bringing his own hide to market and has nothing to expect but—a hiding.” (Kapital, p. 155.)
[983] Manifesto, § 1.
[984] One of the chief objects of the trusts is the avoidance of over-production, but that does not mean less unemployment; on the contrary, a part of their policy consists in closing down certain establishments which appear to be unnecessary.
[985] See the Manifesto for an eloquent statement of this.
[986] Labriola.
[987] Kapital, p. 647.
[988] Manifesto, § 1.
[989] Engels in his preface to the Manifesto admits that one of its objects was “to announce the inevitable and imminent downfall of bourgeois property.”