Conspiracy of the Equals (1796)

In 1828, more than thirty years after the conspiracy's failure, Filippo Buonarroti — one of its leaders and its greatest chronicler — set down on paper the new economic order the Equals had sought to establish. The result is a complete communist constitution: the abolition of inheritance, money, and individual commerce; the establishment of a "great national community" that furnishes all its members with "a mediocre and frugal ease"; communal meals at predetermined times; the distribution of labour by class and commune; telegraph lines connecting local to central administration; foreign trade conducted exclusively by state agents. It is a vision that anticipates elements of Fourier's phalansteries, the kibbutz, and Soviet war communism, all growing from the left wing of Jacobinism.

Translated by Mitchell Abidor for marxists.org. Source: Ph. Buonarroti, La conspiration pour l'egalite, Editions Sociales, Paris, 1957. Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike).

On the National Community

Art. 1. In the Republic there will be established a great national community.

Art. 2. The national community consists of the following goods, to wit: Goods which, having been declared national, were not sold the 9th Thermidor of the year II; Goods of enemies of the Revolution, which the decrees of the 8th to the 13th Ventose of the year II had given the poor; Goods having fallen due to the Republic as a result of judicial condemnation; Buildings currently occupied by the public service; Goods which communes enjoyed use of before the law of June 10, 1793; Goods turned over to alms-houses and establishments of public instruction; Goods of those who have abandoned the Republic; Goods usurped by those who enriched themselves in the exercise of public functions; Goods whose owners neglect their cultivation.

Art. 3. The right of succession ab intestate or by testament is abolished; all goods currently owned by individuals will revert, upon their death, to the national community.

Art. 5. Every Frenchman, of one or the other sex, who abandons all his goods to the fatherland, and who consecrates to it his person and the work of which he is capable, is a member of the great national community.

Art. 6. The elderly, who have reached their 60th year, and the infirm, if they are poor, are by right members of the national community.

Art. 8. The goods of the national community are exploited in common by all able-bodied members.

Art. 9. The great national community maintains all its members in an equal and honest mediocrity; it furnishes them with all they need.

On Common Labor

Art. 1. Every member of the national community owes it the agricultural labor and the useful arts of which he is capable.

Art. 4. In each commune the citizens are distributed by class; there are as many classes as useful arts; each class is composed of those who work in the same art.

Art. 6. For each season, the law determines the duration of the workday for members of the national community.

Art. 8. The supreme administration shall apply to the labors of the national community the use of machines and those processes needed to diminish the suffering of men.

Art. 11. The Supreme Administration obliges to work at forced labor those individuals of the two sexes whose lack of civic spirit, idleness, profligacy, and disorders set society a pernicious example.

On the Distribution and Use of Common Goods

Art. 2. From this time forward, the national community assures each of its members: a healthy, comfortable, and properly furnished lodging; work and leisure clothes of linen or wool, in conformity with the national costume; laundry, lighting and heat; a sufficient quantity of foodstuffs in the form of bread, meat, fowl, fish, eggs, butter or oil, wine and other drinks commonly used in the various regions; vegetables, fruits, seasoning, and other objects with the gathering together of which constitutes a mediocre and frugal ease; the assistance of the healing arts.

Art. 3. In each commune there will be, at pre-determined times, meals in common, which all members must attend.

Art. 5. Any member of the national community who receives a salary, or keeps money, is punished.

On Commerce

Art. 1. All individual commerce with foreign peoples is forbidden. Any merchandise from this source will be confiscated to the profit of the national community. Violators will be punished.

Art. 2. The Republic procures for the national community the objects it lacks by exchanging its surplus in agriculture and manufactured goods for those of foreign peoples.

On Monies

Art. 1. The Republic no longer issues money.

Art. 4. Neither gold nor silver will ever again be brought into the Republic.

Colophon

Fragment of a Projected Economic Decree, Conspiracy of the Equals, 1796. Set down from the conspiracy's plans by Filippo Buonarroti in 1828.

Translated from French by Mitchell Abidor for the Marxists Internet Archive (marxists.org). Source: Ph. Buonarroti, La conspiration pour l'egalite, Editions Sociales, Paris, 1957. Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike).

Note: This is an abridged archival edition preserving the key articles. The full decree, including detailed provisions on administration, transport, contributions, and debts, is available at marxists.org.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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