SOURCE: “Road to Revolution,” in Jean Grave and the Anarchist Tradition in France, The Caslon Company, 1995, pp. 79-89.

In the following excerpt, Patsouras investigates the theoretical views of the anarcho-communist Jean Grave.

The theoretical views of [Jean] Grave and anarchism in certain key areas—criticism of bourgeois society, revolution, and other related topics—are the focus of this section. More developed restatements are needed in order to better understand the anarchist position.

Grave's thought is greatly indebted to Proudhon, Bakunin, contemporary anarcho-communism (Kropotkin's and Elisée Reclus' influence is obvious), and to Marx(ism), especially in its view of the capitalist economic structure and primacy attached to class struggle. In fact, there are many similarities between anarcho-communism and Marxism and from a general theoretical perspective, the two are closely related. With respect to Grave's thought one cannot but be impressed by its rich familiarity with past utopian and...