Tuesday, April 21, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Commons
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Texts
A New View of SocietyRobert Owen's four essays on the formation of human character — the foundational text of utopian socialism, drawn from twenty years of experiment at the New Lanark cotton mills. A systematic argument that human character is formed entirely by environment and education, and that society can be rationally reorganized to produce happiness instead of misery. 1816.Address of Central Republican Society — BlanquiBlanqui's demands to the Provisional Government five days after the February Revolution of 1848 — complete press freedom, suppression of security deposits, freedom of association, armament of all workers as National Guards with daily pay, and the abrogation of anti-coalition laws.Analysis of the Doctrine of BabeufThe official platform of Babeuf's Conspiracy of the Equals, pasted up as placards across Paris in April 1796 — fifteen articles with proofs, in the form of Spinoza's Ethics, arguing from natural equality to the abolition of private property. 'Property is the greatest of society's plagues. It is a veritable public offence.'Appeal to the Students — BlanquiBlanqui's first political text — a call to law and medical students to attend the funeral of Benjamin Constant in arms, December 11, 1830. The twenty-five-year-old law student signs himself simply 'Louis-Auguste Blanqui, Student of Law.'Call to Arms — BlanquiBlanqui's draft revolutionary proclamation of 1830 — seven articles calling all citizens to arms, ordering barricades every 50 meters, and commanding armorers to deliver their weapons to the people.Creation of an Insurrectionary Directory — BabeufThe organizational charter of Babeuf's secret revolutionary committee — found among his papers when arrested in 1796. Five articles establishing a Secret Directorate of Public Salvation with anonymous leadership, intermediary agents, and distinctive marks on written instructions to prevent forgery.Defence at Vendome — BabeufBabeuf's defence speech at his trial before the High Court of Vendome, February-May 1797 — the complete philosophical justification of communism, delivered by a man who knew he was about to die. 'The purpose of society is the common welfare. I defy anyone to argue that men would have consented to this union if they had been told that it would be made up of institutions that would soon place the burden of toil upon the greatest number.'Defence Speech — BlanquiBlanqui's defence speech at the Trial of the Fifteen, January 12, 1832 — a revolutionary's declaration from the dock that the war between rich and poor was started by the rich, and that thirty million French proletarians have the right to live.Democratic Propaganda — BlanquiBlanqui's 1833 call to establish a proletarian press — 'let us destroy the most odious of monopolies, the monopoly on enlightenment.' A practical circular announcing a programme of cheap republican publications to be distributed free to workers who cannot afford them.For the Red Flag — BlanquiBlanqui's 1848 defence of the red flag as the workers' banner — a short, fierce pamphlet arguing that the tricolor belongs to the monarchy and the massacres, while the red flag has been 'consecrated by defeat and victory' on the barricades.Fragment of a Projected Economic Decree — BabeufThe complete communist economic constitution of Babeuf's Conspiracy of the Equals (1796) — the abolition of inheritance, money, and individual commerce; communal meals; equal distribution of food, clothing, and housing; telegraph lines between administrations. Set down by Buonarroti in 1828 from the plans of the failed conspiracy.Last Letter Before Execution — BabeufBabeuf's final letter to his wife and children, written the night before his execution by guillotine in 1797. 'I couldn't conceive of any other way to make you happy than through the happiness of all. I failed; I sacrificed myself; it is also for you that I die.'Le Liberateur — BlanquiBlanqui's editorial manifesto for Le Liberateur (1834) — 'A lone citizen, without money, without a sou put away, undertakes to brave the prohibition imposed by the aristocracy of the ecu against the poor man who dares to think.' Written barely out of prison, hands still marked by handcuffs.Letter to Hegel — FeuerbachFeuerbach's 1828 letter to Hegel — the twenty-four-year-old philosopher's declaration that Christianity cannot be the absolute religion, that reason must be 'redeemed,' and that philosophy's task is 'the actualization and secularization of the idea, the Incarnation of the pure logos.' The seed of everything that followed.Manifesto of the EqualsThe Manifesto of the Equals — the revolutionary declaration of Gracchus Babeuf's Conspiracy for Equality, written by Sylvain Marechal in 1796. A demand for the abolition of private property and the establishment of a Republic of Equals, composed during the French Revolution and suppressed by the Directory.Manual for an Armed Insurrection — BlanquiBlanqui's 1866 tactical manual for urban insurrection — a systematic analysis of why the barricade fighting of 1830 and 1848 failed, and how a disciplined revolutionary army could defeat modern troops. 'Organisation is victory; dispersion is death.'Organization of the Society of Families — BlanquiThe organizational rules of Blanqui's secret revolutionary Society of Families (1833-34) — the cell structure of five-member 'families' meeting twice monthly under a chief appointed by the centre. A blueprint for clandestine insurrectionary organization.Parisians! — BlanquiBlanqui's appeal from the dungeon of Vincennes, September 1848 — warning Paris that the reaction is emptying the city of its workers, that without workers there is no consumption and no business, and that 'when the grass grows green between the cobblestones it will be too late.'Prospectus for Le Tribun du Peuple — BabeufBabeuf's editorial manifesto for Le Tribun du Peuple (1795) — 'The goal of society is the common happiness.' Written barely out of prison after 13 Vendemiaire, declaring himself 'the apostle' of a 'new gospel' of equality, promising to tear all the veils and let the final word escape.Reception Procedure at the Society of the Seasons — BlanquiThe initiation ritual of Blanqui's Society of the Seasons — a catechism of revolution conducted blindfolded, ending with a dagger-oath: 'I swear eternal hatred to all kings, all aristocrats, to all of humanity's oppressors. I swear absolute devotion to the people.'Song of the Equals — GermainThe revolutionary hymn of Babeuf's Conspiracy of the Equals (1796) — 'Sacred and sweet equality fills the earth and makes it fertile. The sun shines for all.' A song invoking Marat, Saint-Just, and Robespierre as 'Lycurguses of the French.'Speech Before the Society of the Friends of the People — BlanquiBlanqui's comprehensive analysis of the class dynamics of the July Revolution of 1830 — how the workers fought and won, how the bourgeoisie hid during the battle and emerged to steal the victory, and how the coming war between classes will decide the fate of France. Delivered before the Society of the Friends of the People, 1832.Speech to the Victorious People — BabeufThe speech the Conspiracy of the Equals planned to deliver to the people of Paris after their victory — never given, because the conspiracy was betrayed. 'A free people again! People unchained and victorious! Give yourself over without any constraint to your joy: your masters are no more.'The True Levellers Standard AdvancedThe founding manifesto of the Diggers — Gerrard Winstanley's declaration of why the common people of England have begun to dig, manure, and sow corn upon George Hill in Surrey. A theological argument that the Earth was made a Common Treasury for all, and that enclosure, landlordism, and hired labour are the original sin. 1649.To the Mountain of 1793 — BlanquiBlanqui's devastating toast from the dungeon of Vincennes, read at the Socialist Workers' Banquet of December 1848 — an autopsy of how the neo-Montagnards betrayed the June insurrection, turned their artillery on the workers, and stole the name 'socialist' while crushing its substance. 'The Mountain is dead! To socialism, its sole heir!'Warning to the People — BlanquiBlanqui's 'London Toast' of 1851 — a ferocious denunciation of the bourgeois republicans who betrayed the 1848 revolution, sent from prison to a London banquet. 'Who has iron, has bread. We prostrate ourselves before the bayonets; the disarmed crowd is swept aside.'Who Makes the Soup Should Eat It — BlanquiBlanqui's 1834 essay on the right to property — how the privileged seized common land by ruse and violence, made it law, and reduced the majority to forced labour for the profit of an idle minority. A compact argument for association over private property.Working-Class Exclusivism — BlanquiBlanqui's brief 1868 note against restricting the International and cooperatives to workers only — such exclusivism would be 'the abdication of any political and civic idea, the proclaiming of their inferiority as a caste.'