They were not only the link between the committee and the people, but also the eyes and ears of the committee: indeed, they were required to inform it as to the mood of the bras nus , the situation in the workshops, and subsequently detailed statistics on arms depots, which citizens were ready to fight, on the police detachments A member of the leadership committee had specific responsibility for links with those outside the capital; emissaries were sent to the various regions with pamphlets, in order to spread ideas and regroup partisans, although since the lists of names were destroyed we are only aware of activity in Armonville in the east, and in the northern Parisian basin [8].
Subsequently a military apparatus was established, with several agitators focussing on the Paris region detachments. The liaisons between this committee and the political organisation were entrusted to Germain. Here we see the precautions and calculations of militants tracked by the police: this safeguarding, tightness and division of labour was in stark contrast to the disorganised political groups of the time, bearing witness to their exceptional maturity.
Such a strong doctrinal and organisational initiative, born at the same time as the proletariat, also demonstrates the deep identity between the exploited and their revolutionary task.
But we must take note of the fact that this organisation was just an attempt, which did not last more than two months, and whose creators saw it simply as a temporary instrument for seizing power: ultimately its members did not have the ideological cohesion necessary for this attempt to survive, perfect itself and develop.
It is therefore no surprise that the programme envisaged two clearly demarcated stages the Constitution of , followed by egalitarian reforms , rather than measures which would be achieved very quickly and soon lead to a common wealth.
As a result of this, they abandoned their denunciations of the shortcomings of the Constitution of , and Babeuf, who for some time had stopped short of praising Robespierre, moved to defend him.
Even if they are, I will still stand up for Robespierre. It seems clear that the influence of the democrats succeed in forcing the retreat of his experimental doctrine. It appealed to equality of well-being and education, and proclaimed the duty to work, but then contented itself with demanding the implementation of the Constitution of and the return of excess wealth siphoned off by the rich.
This programme did not go nearly as far as the effort elaborated by the committee, its critique much more focused on disproportionate wealth than inequality as such. Was this intended to prepare an immediate action with more chance of success?
This is possible, as the Babouvists were engaged in significant agitation among the masses. But they hesitated, judging that the situation was not yet ripe [13]. The insurrection by the police legion, who they had strongly influenced, stirred them to action. A few days later, a police operation led to the capture of 52 others.
There was no movement to defend them. How can we explain such a failure? The decisive factor was insufficient roots among the masses. To understand this we have three types of information at hand:. Even among the lower ranks workers were only a minority.
The elaboration of its doctrines was above all the work of middle-class members. They certainly understood the aspirations of the exploited; moreover they had a solid understanding and valuable experience which allowed them to see beyond its most short-term concerns; they were also in contact with the leaders of previous plebeian movements and the most active, class-conscious working-class militants.
But the group did not have sufficient roots, and in the last analysis the links between the revolutionary leadership and the exploited classes were still not developed enough.
But this aspect of the relationship between the Babouvists and the bras nus is only part of the story. Indeed, strikes were numerous, but this was at the very moment when the Babouvists were playing down their most advanced social demands in order to prioritise their agitation for the Constitution of They neglected the incidents and conflicts where workers and bosses came to blows.
This inaction, this desire to hand down slogans to the masses rather than systematise their own and give the struggle wider perspectives, shows better than anything else the failings of the Babouvist method faced with a practical problem of capital importance.
That is why they were unable to make anything of their united front with the left-wing democrats: not only did they end up abandoning their own minimum programme in favour of the Constitution of , but they did not demonstrate the difference between this constitution a demagogic promise, never fulfilled and the government which actually existed in Thus there is nothing surprising in the fact that the first time it was tried, while their organisation was weak and poorly defined, the Equals misfired.
The failure came even before the arrests. According to Walter, Babeuf did not attend the last meeting of the conspirators. Arrests only served to increase their disarray. You should fear all the other parties of the conspiracy Since the Executive Directory refused to listen to this appeal, it was necessary to try and save the maximum possible number of conspirators. They furthermore denied any idea of conspiracy or taking power. In this socialism, already tending towards a scientific socialism, we see the convergence of the interests of workers and the peasantry, and the proof that the proletariat and communism cannot be disassociated from each other.
Ever since their emergence as a class, workers have foreseen their natural line of march. The death of Babeuf, the insufficiencies of his message, and the attempts to misrepresent his thinking, were unable to prevent communism from arising with even greater force in That is one of the most important lessons that we can take from this study: revolutionary thought does not follow an ever-increasing curve.
On the contrary, the periods of retreat have been frequent and often very long. But on each occasion, communism was enriched by the experience of the previous era, and went on to reach an even higher level. Colin, Paris All subsequent Babeuf quotes are also from this book. This article was Recent worker deaths in the Bangladeshi garment industry from police repression and from a factory fire. Eve Rosenhaft examines the involvement of Communist Party militants in political violence against Nazis during the years of Hitler's rise to power in Germany The libcom library contains nearly 20, articles.
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Click here for the guide. If you have an ebook reader or a Kindle, check out our guide to using ebook readers with libcom. If you're not sure if something is appropriate for the library, please ask in the feedback and content forum. The moment for great measures has arrived. Evil has reached its height: it covers the face of the earth. Under the name of politics, chaos has reigned for too many centuries. Let everything be set in order and take its proper place once again.
Let the supporters of justice and happiness organize in the voice of equality. The day of general restitution has arrived. Families moaning in suffering, come sit at the common table set by nature for all its children. The purest of all glories was thus reserved for you! Yes it is you who should be the first to offer the world this touching spectacle. Ancient habits, antique fears, would again like to pose an obstacle to the establishment of the Republic of Equals. The organisation of real equality, the only one that responds to all needs, without causing any victims, without costing any sacrifice, will not at first please everyone.
The selfish, the ambitious, will tremble with rage. Those who possess unjustly will cry out about injustice. The loss of the enjoyments of the few, of solitary pleasures, of personal ease will cause lively regret to those heedless of the pain of others. The lovers of absolute power, the henchmen of arbitrary authority, will with difficulty bow their superb heads before the level of real equality. Their shortsightedness will penetrate with difficulty the imminent future of common happiness; but what can a few thousand malcontents do against a mass of happy men, surprised to have sought so long a happiness that they had right at hand.
The day after this real revolution, they'll say with astonishment: What? Common happiness was so easy to obtain? All we had to do was want it? Did they really have to make us speak of it so many times? Yes, without a doubt, one lone man on earth richer, stronger than his like, than his equals, and the balance is thrown off: crime and unhappiness are on earth. By what sign will you now recognize the excellence of a constitution?
That which rests in its entirety on real equality is the only one that can suit you and fulfill all your wishes. The government crackdown was extremely successful. On Fructidor 10 and 11 27 August and 28 August , when the prisoners were removed from Paris, there were tentative efforts at a riot with a view to rescue, but these were easily suppressed.
The attempt of five or six hundred Jacobins 7 September to rouse the soldiers at Grenelle met with no better success. A shoot-out greeted them, leaving about 20 dead, captured and many others wounded. The government, for reasons of its own, depicted the socialist Babeuf as the leader of the conspiracy, even though people more important than himself were implicated; and his own vanity played admirably into their hands.
On hearing his death sentence, Babeuf struck himself in the courtroom with several blows, and was carried dying the next day to the scaffold. Some of the prisoners, including Buonarroti and Germain, were deported ; the rest, including Vadier and his fellow former- Montagnards , were acquitted. Drouet succeeded in making his escape, according to Paul Barras , with the connivance of the Directory.
The Conspiracy of Equals would probably have disappeared in the flood of great events of the Revolution, but the publication in of Buonarroti's book, Conspiracy of Equals , kept it in the history books. Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx recognized in the Conspiracy of Equals "the first appearance of a truly active Communist party".
Although the words " anarchist " and " communist " did not exist at the time of the conspiracy, they have both been used to describe its ideas by later scholars.
The English word "communism" was coined by Goodwyn Barmby in a conversation with those he described as the "disciples of Babeuf". Conspiracy of the Equals A engraving, denigrating the conspiracy The Manifesto of Equals. ISSN Retrieved Karl Marx On the French Revolution. Paris: Social Publishing.
Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary. French Revolution. Significant civil and political events by year. What Is the Third Estate?
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