Historic texts cannot be understood independently of their context. Malatesta's anarchist programme of 1899 doesn't advocate distribution according to need. Why? Because since the late 1870s there had an intense debate anarchist communists and collectivists.

Anarcho communists advocated distribution according to need whilst collectivists advocated distribution according to labour via vouchers. In response to this debate Malatesta, who was one of the first anarcho communists, wrote an article in 1889 called our plans.

In this article Malatesta argued that the answer to the debate over distribution in the future society could only be solved through a process of experimentation after the revolution. As a result prior to this anarchists should not fight with one another over the issue.

A specific anarchist organisation should therefore group together both communists and collectivists rather than unnecessarily fragment the anarchist movement since although they had disagreements they shared the same broad commitments.