by Louis-Auguste Blanqui (1868)

A brief but sharp note from January 1868 against the proposal to restrict membership in the International Workingmen's Association and the cooperatives to manual workers only. Blanqui argues that such exclusivism would recreate the corporations of the ancien regime and constitute "the abdication of any political and civic idea." The revolution, in Blanqui's view, must unite all who fight for equality — not build new castes.

Translated by Mitchell Abidor for marxists.org. Source: Critique Sociale, Vol II, Paris, F. Alcan, 1885. Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike).

T...'s proposal to only admit workers to the International and the cooperatives is a reestablishing of the corporations of the ancient regime and compagnonnage.

This constitutes the abdication of any political and civic idea, the relegating of workers to an entirely private, purely material existence. It's their intellectual and moral degradation, the proclaiming of their inferiority as a caste.

It's a veritable abdication.

January 1868

Colophon

Working-Class Exclusivism, by Louis-Auguste Blanqui, January 1868.

Translated from French by Mitchell Abidor for the Marxists Internet Archive (marxists.org). Source: Critique Sociale, Vol II, Paris, F. Alcan, 1885. Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike).

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

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