Paul Lafargue

Paul Lafargue (1842-1911) was a French revolutionary Marxist socialist journalist, political writer and activist; he was Karl Marx's son-in-law, having married his second daughter Laura. His best known work is The Right to Be Lazy. Born in Santiago de Cuba of a Franco-Caribbean family, Lafargue spent most of his life in France, with periods in England and Spain. At the age of 69, he and Laura died together in a suicide pact. Image File history File links pl: Paul Lafargue, francuski filozof, marksista en: Paul Lafargue, French philosopher, Marxist File links The following pages link to this file: Paul Lafargue ... Image File history File links pl: Paul Lafargue, francuski filozof, marksista en: Paul Lafargue, French philosopher, Marxist File links The following pages link to this file: Paul Lafargue ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... Marxism is the philosophy, social theory and political practice based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German socialist philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ... Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was an immensely influential German philosopher, political economist, and socialist revolutionary. ... The Right To Be Lazy is a book by Cuban-born French Anarcho-Marxist Paul Lafargue, written from his prison cell in 1883. ... , Santiago de Cuba is the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in eastern Cuba. ... The term Creole and its relatives in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population –mid-2004... A suicide pact describes the suicides of two or more individuals in an agreed-upon plan. ...

Early life and first French period

Given that his father was the accommodated owner of coffee plantations in Cuba, which allowed Paul to study in Santiago first and then in France. In 1851, the Lafargue family moved to Bordeaux - Lafargue finished lycée in Toulouse, and studied medicine in Paris. This article is in need of attention. ... New city flag (traditional tri-crescent) City coat of arms Motto: The fleur-de-lis alone rules over the moon, the waves, the castle, and the lion Coordinates : , Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) Administration Département Gironde (33) Région Aquitaine Mayor Hugues Martin (UMP) (since 2004) Intercommunality Urban Community... In France, secondary education is divided into two schools: the collège (IPA: ) (somewhat comparable to U.S. junior high school) for the first four years directly following primary school; the lycée (IPA: ) (comparable to a U.S. high school) for the next three years. ... The Capitole, the 18th century city hall of Toulouse and best known landmark in the city; in the foreground is the Place du Capitole, a hub of urban life at the very center of the city Toulouse (pronounced in standard French, and in local Toulouse accent) (Occitan: Tolosa, pronounced ) is... This article is about the field of medical practice and health care. ... The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city, as viewed from the Trocadéro This article is about the capital and largest city in France. ...

It was there that Lafargue started his intellectual and political career, adhering the Positivist philosophy, and contacting with the Republican groups that opposed Napoleon III. The work of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon seem to have particlarly influenced him in this phase. As a Proudhonian anarchist, Lafargue joined the French section of the International Workingmen's Association (the First International). Nevertheless, he soon contacted two of the most prominent figures of revolutionary thought and action: Marx and Auguste Blanqui, whose influx largely eclipsed the first anarchist tendencies of the young Lafargue. An intellectual is a person who uses his or her intellect to study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas. ... Positivism is a philosophy developed by Auguste Comte in the beginning of the 19th century, which stated that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge. ... Republicanism is the idea of a nation being governed as a republic. ... Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (April 20, 1808 - January 9, 1873) was the son of King Louis Bonaparte and Queen Hortense de Beauharnais; both monarchs of the French puppet state, the Kingdom of Holland. ... Pierre Joseph Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (pronounced [ˈpruːd É’n] in BrE, [pʁu dɔ̃] in French) (15 January 1809 – 19 January 1865) was a French economist and socialist philosopher who was the first individual to call himself an anarchist and is considered among the first anarchist thinkers. ... Anarchism is the name for both a political philosophy and manner of organizing society, derived from the Greek αναρχία (without archons or without rulers). Thus anarchism, in its most general meaning, is the belief that all forms of rulership are undesirable and should be abolished. ... The International Workingmens Association (IWA), sometimes called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class. ... It has been suggested that Revolutionary be merged into this article or section. ... Louis Auguste Blanqui (February 8, 1805 _ January 1, 1881) was a French political activist. ...

In 1865, after participating in the International Students' Congress in Liege, Lafargue was banned from all French universities, and had to leave for London in order to start a career. It was there where he became a frequent visitor to Marx's house, meeting his second daughter Laura, whom he married in 1868. His political activity took a new course, and he was chosen member of the General Council of the First International, then appointed corresponding secretary for Spain. However, he doesn't seem to have succeeded in establishing any serious contact with workers' groups in that country - Spain joined the international movement only after the Cantonalist Revolution of 1868, while events such as the arrival of the Italian anarchist Giuseppe Fanelli made it a strong bastion of Anarchism (and not of the Marxist current that Lafargue chose to represent). 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Liège (Dutch: Luik, German: Lüttich; before 1946, the citys name was written Liége, with the acute accent) is a major city located in the Belgian province of Liège, of which it is the capital. ... For other uses, see London (disambiguation). ... 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Giuseppi Fanelli (1826-1877) came to Spain in 1868 on a journey planned by anarchist Mikhail Bakunin in order to recruit members for the First International. ...

Lafargue's opposition to Anarchism became notorious when, after his return to France, he wrote several articles attacking the Proudhonian tendencies that were very influential in some French workers' groups; the series marked Lafargue started with those a long career as political journalist.

Spanish period

After the revolutionary episode of the Paris Commune in 1871, political repression forced him to flee to Spain. He finally settled in Madrid, where he contacted those local members of the International over whom his influence was going to be very important. Le Père Duchesne face to the statue of Napoleon I on top of the Vendome column: Eh ben ! bougre de canaille, on va donc te foutre en bas comme ta crapule de neveu !… (Here! savage rascal, we will put you down just as your crook of a nephew!… The... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Madrid is the capital and the largest city in Spain, as well as in the province and the autonomous community of the same name. ...

Unlike in other parts of Europe where Marxism came to play a dominant part, Spain's revolutionaries were mostly followers of the International's anarchist faction (they were to remain very strong up until the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, and the subsequent dictatorship. Lafargue became involved in redirecting the trend toward Marxism, an activity that was largely developed under directions from Friedrich Engels, and one that became intertwined with the struggles that both tendencies had at the international level - as the Spanish federation of the International was one of the main pillars of the Anarchist group. World map showing Europe Political map Europe is one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... Anarchism (the political philosophy advocating a libertarian society without hierarchy, based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation) historically gained the most support and influence in Spain, especially in the seventy or so years before Francisco Francos victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. ... Combatants Second Spanish Republic Foreign volunteers Nationalist Spain Fascist Italy Nazi Germany Commanders Manuel Azaña Francisco Largo Caballero Juan Negrín Francisco Franco The Spanish Civil War, which lasted from July 18, 1936 to April 1, 1939, was a conflict in which the incumbent Second Spanish Republic and political... This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... The Spanish Civil War officially ended on 1 April 1939, the day Francisco Franco announced the end of hostilities. ... Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820, Wuppertal – August 5, 1895, London) was a 19th-century German political philosopher. ...

The task given to Lafargue consisted mainly of gathering a Marxist leadership in Madrid, while exercising an ideological influence through unsigned articles in the newspaper La Emancipación (where he defended the need of creating a political party of the working class, one of the main topics opposed by the anarchists). At the same time, Lafargue took initiative through some of his articles, expressing his own ideas about a radical reduction of the working journey (a concept which was not entirely alien to the original thought of Marx) started to make presence. Madrid is the capital and the largest city in Spain, as well as in the province and the autonomous community of the same name. ... A political party is an organization that seeks to attain political power within a government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... Working time refers to the period of time that an individual spends at paid occupational labor. ...

In 1872, after a public attack of La Emancipación against the new, anarchist, Federal Council, the Federation of Madrid expelled the signatories of that article, who soon went on to found the New Federation of Madrid, a group of limited influence. The last activity of Lafargue as Spanish activist was to represent this Marxist minority group in the 1872 Hague Congress which marked the end of First International as unitarian group of all socialists. 1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... The Hague Congress of the International Workers Association (September 1872) marked the end of this organization as a unitarian alliance of all socialist factions (Anarchists and Marxists). ...

Second French period

Between 1873 and 1882, Paul Lafargue lived in London, and avoided practicing medicine as he came to lack faith on that science. He opened a photolitography workshop, but the limited income forced him to request money from Engels (who was an owner of industries) on several occasions. Thanks to Engels' assistance, he again contacted the French workers' movement from London, after it had started to regain ground lost with the reactionary repression under Adolphe Thiers during the first years of the Third Republic. Photolithography is a process used in semiconductor device fabrication to transfer a pattern from a photomask (also called reticle) to the surface of a substrate. ... Reactionary (or reactionist) is a political epithet typically applied to extreme ideological conservatism, especially that which wishes to return to a real or imagined old order of things, and which is willing to use coercive means to do so. ... A caricature of Adolphe Thiers charging on the Paris Commune, published in Le Père Duchêne illustré Louis Adolphe Thiers (April 16, 1797–September 3, 1877) was a French statesman and historian. ... A map of France under the Third Republic, featuring colonies. ...

From 1880, he again worked as editor of the newspaper L'Egalité. In that same year, and in the pages of that publication, Lafargue began publishing the first draft of The Right to Be Lazy. In 1882, he started working in an insurance company, which allowed him to move back to Paris and re-enter the core of French socialist politics. Together with Jules Guesde and Gabriel Deville, he began directing the activities of the newly-founded French Workers' Party (Parti Ouvrier Français - POF), which he led into struggle with the other major left-wing options: Anarchism, as well as the "Jacobin" Radicals and Blanquists. 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of potential financial loss. ... Jules Basile Guesde (November 11, 1845 - July 28, 1922) was a French socialist politician. ... The Parti Ouvrier Français (POF, or French Workers Party) was the first Marxist party in France, created in 1880 by Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, Marxs son-in-law (famous for having written The Right to Be Lazy, which criticized labours alienation). ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... In the context of the French Revolution, a Jacobin originally meant a member of the Jacobin Club (1789-1794), but even at that time, the term Jacobins had been popularly applied to all promulgators of extreme revolutionary opinions: for example, Jacobin democracy is synonymous with totalitarian democracy. ... The Radical Party (Parti Radical or Républicains Radicaux et Radicaux-Socialistes, Radical Republicans and Radical Socialists), was a major French political party of the early to mid 20th century, originally considered radical due to its anti-clericalism. ... Louis Auguste Blanqui Louis Auguste Blanqui (February 8, 1805 - January 1, 1881) was a French political activist. ...

From that moment and until his death, Lafargue remained was the most respected theorist of the POF, not just extending the original Marxist doctrines, but also adding original ideas of his own. He also took active part in public activities such as strikes and elections, and was imprisoned several times. In 1891, despite being in police custody, he was elected to the French Parliament for Lille, being the first ever French Socialist to be occupy such an office. His success would encourage the POF to remain engaged in electoral activities, and largely abandon the insurrectional policies of its previous period. 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Parlement of France is bicameral, and consists of the National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and the Senate (Sénat). ... t* Autoroute A22 : Lille - Antwerp - Netherlands A sixth oher ejt weoitjh w newr0tipew roj40=9 dfiojg b o4it orpitre royieoy i53 -y035 3[49430ne — the proposed A24 — will link Amiens to Lille if built, but there is opposition to its route. ... Look up rebellion in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Nevertheless, Lafargue continued his defense of Marxist orthodoxy against any reformist tendency, as shown by his conflict with Jean Jaurès, as well as his refusal to take part in any "bourgeois" government show clearly. Reformism (also called revisionism or revisionist theory) is the belief that gradual changes in a society can ultimately change its fundamental structures. ... Jean Jaurès Jean Léon Jaurès—full name Auguste-Marie-Joseph-Jean-Léon Jaurès—(September 3, 1859 – July 31, 1914) was a French Socialist leader. ... bourgeoisie is basically a trem that meens middle class. ...

Last years and suicide

In 1908, the different socialist tendencies got unified in a single party after a Congress in Toulouse. Lafargue made his last stand in the gathering, fighting fiercely against the social democrat reformism defended by Jaurès. 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Capitole, the 18th century city hall of Toulouse and best known landmark in the city; in the foreground is the Place du Capitole, a hub of urban life at the very center of the city Toulouse (pronounced in standard French, and in local Toulouse accent) (Occitan: Tolosa, pronounced ) is... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ...

In these late years, Lafargue had already took his distance with any form of political activity, living on the outskirts of Paris, in the village of Draveil, limiting his contributions to a number of articles and essays, as well as occasional contacts with some of the most outstanding socialist activists of the time, such as Karl Liebknecht or Vladimir Lenin. It was in that house of Draveil where Paul and Laura Lafargue put end to their lives, to the surprise and even outrage of French and European socialists. Draveil is a commune of the Essonne département, in France, located near Paris. ... ▶ (help· info) (August 13, 1871 - January 15, 1919) was a German socialist and a co-founder of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. ... (Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин, Vladimir Ilič Lenin; IPA:; born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov; April 22 [O.S. April 10] 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Communist revolutionary of Russia, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the main theorist of what has come to be called...

He wrote for that occasion:

"Healthy of body and spirit, I give me death before the implacable old age, that has stealed me one after the other all pleasures and joys of existence, and has expoiled me from my physical and intellectual strength, paralizes my energy and ends with my willpower, making me a burden for myself and others.

Since years ago I have promised myself not to surpass the age of seventy; I have fixed the season for my departure from this life and prepared the means to execute this decision: a hypodermic injection of cyanhydric acid.

I die with the supreme happiness of having the certainty that very soon will triumph the cause to which I have given myself since 45 years ago."

Most socialist leaders publicly or privately deplored his decision; a few, notably the Spanish Anarchist leader Anselmo Lorenzo, who had been a major political rival of Lafargue in his Spanish period, accepted his decision with understanding. Lorenzo wrote after Lafargue's death: Anselmo Lorenzo, sometimes called the grandfather of Spanish Anarchism, was one of the original Spanish Anarchists. ...

"The double, original and, whatever the rutinarians say, even sympathetic suicide of Paul Lafargue and Laura Marx [in Spain, women keep their maiden surname after marriage], who knew and could live united and lovers until death, has awakened my memories (...)

Lafargue was my teacher: his memory is for me almost as important as that of Fanelli.

(...) in Lafargue were two different aspects that made him appear in constant contradiction: affiliated to socialism, he was anarchist communist by intimate conviction; but enemy of Bakunin, by suggestion of Marx, he tried to damage Anarchism. Due to that double way of being, he caused different effect in those that had relations with him: the simple ones were comforted by his optimisms, but those touched by depressing passions changed friendship into hate and produced personal issues, divisions and created organizations that, because of original vice, will always give bitter fruit. (...)"

In Spanish-, Portuguese-, and Catalan-speaking regions of the world, people have two surnames. ... Anarchist communism is a form of anarchism that advocates the abolition of the State and capitalism in favor of a horizontal network of voluntary associations through which everyone will be free to satisfy his or her needs. ... Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (Trolo) (Russian — Михаил Александрович Бакунин, Michel Bakunin — on the grave in Bern), (May 18 (30 N.S.), 1814–June 19 (July 1 N.S.), 1876) was a well known Russian anarchist. ... Half full or half empty? Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Optimism Optimism, the opposite of pessimism, exemplifies a lifeview where one looks upon the world as a positive place. ...

Works

• La matérialisme économique sociale de Karl Marx, (1884)
• Cours d'économie sociale, (1884)
• Le droit à la paresse, (1887)
• The Evolution of Property from Savagery to Civilization, (1891), (new edition, 1905)
• Le socialisme utopique, (1892)
• Le communisme et l'évolution économique, (1892)
• Le socialisme et la coquéte des pouvoirs publics, (1899)
• Le déterminisme économique de Karl Marx, (1909)
• The Right to be Lazy

External links

• Paul Lafargue Internet Archive
• Libertarian Communist Library Paul LaFargue Archive