Auguste Blanqui, L'Enfermé! ---- Who knows Auguste Blanqui today? At
best, in Paris, you will be told about the Boulevard Blanqui linking thePlace d'Italie to the Place Denfert-Rochereau, a long and wide avenue.
However, when he died, 100,000 people accompanied him to Père-Lachaise.
Louise Michel gave a speech there. Should his thoughts be classified as
accessories of the Revolution? Don't forget that he launched the
newspaper Ni dieu, ni maître, whose title is popular in anarchist
circles. Without being an anarchist. We think it would be interesting to
reread or discover Blanqui's texts. Gérald Dittmar took the initiative
to republish one of them, Critique sociale, Fragments et notes. It had
not been reissued since 1885. ---- The initial work consists of two
books, Gérald Dittmar chose to publish the first. "The rare pages that
follow constitute,[...]moments that could not be more singular of
political thought, or to be as close as possible to Blanqui's concerns,
of political speech." His words are there to bring social justice, to
correct the deformities, in particular economic, of the world.
Astonishing, these writings are of a particular modernity. He addresses
all the social and economic questions that the reader might think are
outdated. You find savings, debt, poverty, education, luxury, child labor.
Thinker, author, orator
Forgotten today, Blanqui influenced many leaders of the workers' and
socialist movement: Gérald Dittmar draws up an impressive list, let us
remember André Léo, Eugène Varlin, Louise Michel, Jules Vallès, Gustave
Lefrançais. Gérald adds: "Auguste Blanqui was by the nature of his
commitment the greatest socialist of all time and his place in the
history of socialism is obviously the first." I recognize our friend's
style there.
These collected texts were written for the most part from 1866 to 1870,
the end of the Second Empire, others come from manuscripts written
during the years 1849-1850. Frequently incarcerated, Blanqui took
advantage of this to write his notes and construct his thoughts to
present them both in writing and orally. The pace is sustained. He
paints a rich and amusing picture of his time, particularly the sessions
of parliament. The reader will be surprised by the echoes with current
political life. He also denounces religious alienation and political
economy, which he presents as "the doctrine of the inevitability of
social suffering" without morality and devoid of any spirit of justice.
Note that David Graeber in one of the texts of his book Revolutions in
reverse establishes the same observation. Social structures produce the
same injustices one hundred and twenty years apart with the same
cynicism of political and economic leaders.
The reader will also be challenged by the organization of the text.
Namely themes and then, a reflection on each of them. Blanqui addresses
very economic questions: the savings bank, the question of credit, the
balance of trade with this statement: "The balance of trade is nonsense.
The excess of imports over exports does not in any way lead to a loss of
cash, and even less proves an impoverishment. It is quite the opposite."
And this approach to work in convents: "One of the sanious ulcers of the
country, like everything that comes from Christianity. Female convents
are the most odious." here is a formula from the oral domain, we can
guess the speaker.
And the relationship to money in the media: "Le Figaro rants against the
International and refuses to insert the answer to its lies. This is the
monopoly of capital."
And this last quote written in 1874: "The poor are a need for the rich."
Nothing changes?
* Auguste Blanqui
Social criticism
fragments and notes
Ed. Dittmar, 2018
https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8036
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