There is a temptation in the anarchist movement to radically separate Proudhonian mutualism from anarchist doctrine, as if it were a foreign body, and in any case an approach to be rejected because it is tainted with ‘reformism’. It is unlikely that the militants who adopt this attitude have really read Proudhon, whose preference for peaceful means stems from the trauma he suffered following the massacres of workers in June 1848, but who does not exclude the use of force if necessary.

Proudhon’s interest in mutualism stems above all from his observation of the
practices of the French labour movement, practices which he then theorised