Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a self-taught printer and the first thinker to call himself an anarchist. He became famous for declaring that property is theft, criticizing those who live on rent without working. He served as a deputy, ended up jailed for his writings, and influenced the French labor movement and syndicalism.
Core ideas
Property that yields income without work is a form of exploitation
Society can organize itself without government, through free agreements
Power should be decentralized into federations of autonomous communities
The tradition: Mutualist anarchist
Mutualist anarchism proposes a stateless society based on fair exchange, cooperation and mutual credit among workers. Proudhon is its founder and the first self-declared anarchist.
