Pierre-Joseph Proudhon:
(Besançon, 15 January 1809 – Passy (Seine) near Paris, 16 January 1865).
French self-taught economist, sociologist and theorist of socialism who is considered one of the first anarchist thinkers. Proudhon was the first person to call himself an anarchist and he introduced the word anarchism in 1840. He opposed authoritarian socialism and capitalism. He advocated instead a cooperative society, without government. Proudhon believed that anarchism should be achieved peacefully. Proudhon had great influence on Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin. Besides being a theorist, Proudhon was also a man of practice. He tried to set up a bank that would grant interest-free loans and laid the foundations of a mutual aid system whose principles are still applied in the insurance world today (see also Peter Kropotkin’s book Mutual Aid).
Always the flag of freedom served to cover despotism.
