Class Struggle in the First French Republic

309 Pages·1977·6.257 MB·English

by  Daniel Guerin, I. Patterson

Daniel Guerin
Class Struggle
in the
First French Republic
Bourgeois and Bras Nus
1793-1795
translated from the French by Ian Patterson
First published in French in 1973
Copyright© Editions Gallimard 1973
This translation first published 1977 by Pluto Press Limited
Unit 10 Spencer Court, 7 Chalcot Road, London NWl 8LH
Copyright© Pluto Press 1977
ISBN 0 904383 44 X paperback
0 904383 30 X hardback
Printed in England by Bristol Typesetting Company Limited
Barton Manor, St Philips, Bristol
Cover design by David King
Contents
Translator's Note/ vii
Chronology / xi
Preface to the English Language Edition / 1
Introduction/ 21
1. The Split to be A voided / 45
2. A Divorce in the Revolutionary Bourgeoisie / 73
3. Providing Support for the Poor I 94
4. Liquidation of the Enrages / 119
5. A Diversion Turns into an Upsurge/ 132
6. The Revolution Makes an About Turn/ 155
7. Strengthening the State/ 176
8. The Fall of the Hebertists / 195
9. Economic Retreat/ 218
10. The Fall of Danton, and its Reverberations / 234
11. Thennidor / 249
12. The Veil is Torn/ 268
Index/ 289

Translator's Note
French terms have been translated wherever possible and
explanatory phrases inserted where necessary. However, some
aspects of revolutionary France demand fuller explanation.
Revolutionary administration
Under the law of 22 December 1789, which reorganised the
electoral system, France was divided into 83 'departements',
each of which was administered by an elected Council. Each
Council appointed an Executive - or Directory - of eight mem
bers, including a procureur-general-syndic who was responsible
for the implementation and enforcement of law. These departe
ments were subdivided into 'districts', and the districts sub
divided again into 'communes'. District administration mirrored
that of the departement, and the commune was controlled by a
General Council, with a mayor and municipal officers (including
a procureur syndic) as its executive. In Paris and other large
towns the commune was further divided into electoral 'sections',
Paris having first 60 then, after June 1790, 48 sections. The 48
sections were also grouped for some purposes into 12 'arrondis
sements'.
The sections, embodying the people's sovereignty, were at
the heart of political activity in Paris and had their own com
mittees whose functions and compositions changed with the
political development of the revolution. The comites civils were
intermediaries between the Commune General Council and the
sections and arrondissements, and were responsible for supervis
ing and assisting the work of the police administration, as well
viii Class Struggle in the First Republic
as providing information for the municipal authorities .
.M ore important than the comites civils (which, because
their members were for a long time unpaid, tended to be com
posed of the more affluent members of the lower bourgeoisie)
were the comites de surveillance or comites revolutionnaires. After
10 August some of the Paris sections set up comites de surveil
lance revolutionnaire with special responsibility for examining
the behaviour of suspects. After the defeat at Neerwinden in
March 1793 the Convention agreed to 12-member committees
being set up on a national scale in each commune or section.
These rapidly extended their powers, and under the law of 17
September 1793 were reorganised into semi-independent bodies
with wide powers to combat counter-revolution. The sansculottes
on these committees received payment for their work. With the
strengthening of central government, these committees were sup
pressed. On 24 August 1794 the comites revolutionnaires were
replaced by comites de surveillance which operated at ar
rondissement level in Paris and the large towns, and at district
level elsewhere, under the control of the Committee of Public
Safety, as organs of the central power.
When the revolutionary government ended the sections' per
manent assemblies on 9 September 1793, the sansculottes trans
formed the sections into societes populaires (the popular clubs
which, in some sections, had existed since 1790) or societes
sectionnaires to circumvent the law, and through them con
tinued to control the political and administrative life of the
sections ~ntil May 1794, when the societes were finally dissolved.
Political divisions
The revolutionary bourgeoisie in the Assembly and the
Convention were led by two groups, the Girondins, who sat on
the right-wing of the Chamber and were the spokesmen of the
mercantile bourgeoisie, and the Montagnards, who sat on the
left, so-called because the group of Paris Jacobin deputies at
their head occupied the upper seats in the Chamber, the Moun
tain. After the Girondins were defeated on 31 May 1793 many of
Translator's Note ix
their supporters went over to the Montagnard side. The majority
of deputies did not adhere to either party and were referred to
as the 'Marsh' or the 'Plain'.
Outside the National Convention the popular vanguard
found spokesmen in the 'enrages', revolutionaries who despite
their bourgeois origins identified totally with the working people
of Paris, and were given the label enrages (which literally means
'madmen') by the bourgeoisie because of their extremism.
Finally, the term 'bras nus'. It was coined by the nineteenth
century French historian Michelet to distinguish those who did
hard physical labour - worked with their 'bare arms' - from the
more petit-bourgeois among the sansculottes, and is used to refer
to the members of the embryonic working class that Daniel
Guerin describes.

Chronology
1789
5 May: Estates-general assemble at Versailles.
17 June: National Constituent Assembly declared.
12-14 July: Paris revolution. Fall of the Bastille.
25 August: Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.
5-6 October: Women's march to Versailles. King forced to
return to Paris.
November-December: Church lands confiscated by the state.
Assignats issued against them.
22 December: Property qualification decreed for voters and
deputies.
1790
February: Burke's diatribe against the revolution in the House
of Commons.
19 June: Abolition of the nobility.
12 July: Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
14 July: First Festival of Federation.
27 November: Constituent Assembly requires oath of loyalty
to the Civil Constitution from all French priests.
December: Austria crushes Belgian revolution, with British
support.
1791
14 June: Le Chapelier Law bans strikes and workers' organisa
tions.
xii Class Struggle in the First Republic
20 June: King flees to Varennes.
17 July: National Guard massacre 50 Parisians at a meeting at
the Champs de Mars.
30 September: Constituent Assembly dissolved. None of its
members allowed to stand for re-election to the new Legislative
Assembly.
1 October: Legislative Assembly meets.
Autumn : Revolt of blacks in Santo Domingo.
1792
January-February: Food riots in Paris.
20 April : Girondin government declares war on Austria.
14 July: Festival of Federation: 'federes' form action committee.
August: Paris sections win right of permanent assembly.
10 August: Insurrection. Revolutionary Commune set up in
opposition to official Paris Commune.
All citizens admitted to section assemblies - property qualifi.ca
tion abolished.
Assembly appoints Executive Council.
23 August: Fall of Longwy - France threatened with invasion.
25 August: Feudal dues abolished without compensation.
1 September: Fall of Verdun.
2-6 September : 'September massacres' of prisoners in Paris.
20 September: Prussian defeat at Valmy.
21 September: National Convention meets.
Year I of the Republic begins.
14 November: General Dumouriez enters Brussels.
11 December: Trial of King Louis XVI begins.
1793
21 January: Louis XVI executed.
1 February: War declared on Holland and Britain.
25-26 February: Food riots in Paris.
10 March: Attempted insurrection.
18 March: Dumouriez defeated at Neerwinden.