Conspiracy of the Equals

TheConspiracy of the Equals(French:Conjuration des Égaux) of May 1796 was a failedcoup d'etatduring theFrench Revolution.It was led byFrançois-Noël Babeuf,who wanted to overthrow theDirectoryand replace it with anegalitarianand proto-socialistrepublic, inspired byJacobinideals.

Conspiracy of the Equals

A 1796 engraving, denigrating the conspiracy (1796)
Native name	Conjuration des Égaux
Date	May 1796
Location	France
Type	Political plot
Cause	Dissatisfaction with theDirectory
Organised by	François-Noël Babeuf Philippe Buonarroti Sylvain Maréchal
Outcome	Conspiracy discovered and repressed
Arrests	245 presumed conspirators
Sentence	Capital punishment

Background

It was the attempts of theDirectoryto deal with the economic crisis that gave Babeuf his historical importance. The new government was pledged to abolish the system by which Paris was fed at the expense of all France, and the cessation of the distribution of bread and meat at nominal prices was fixed for 20 February 1796. The announcement caused the most widespread consternation. Not only were the workmen and the large class ofproletariansattracted to Paris by the system, butrentiersand government officials, whose incomes were paid inassignatson a scale arbitrarily fixed by the government, saw themselves threatened with starvation. The government yielded to the outcry; but the expedients by which it sought to mitigate the evil, notably the division of those entitled to relief into classes, only increased the alarm and discontent.

The universal misery gave point to virulent attacks by Babeuf on the existing order, and gained him a hearing. He gathered around him a small circle of followers known as theSocieté des égaux,soon merged with the rump of theJacobin Club,who met at thePanthéon;and in November 1795 he was reported by the police to be openly preaching "insurrection,revolt, andthe constitution of 1793".

Seven men joined Babeuf to direct the conspiracy:Philippe Buonarroti,Augustin Alexandre Darthé,Sylvain Maréchal- who was in charge of writing the manifesto -Félix Lepeletier,Pierre-Antoine Antonelle,Debon,andGeorges Grisel.A network of military agents was created byJean Antoine Rossignol,who placed revolutionary agents in every district of Paris.

Philippe Buonarroti’s worksL’analyse de la Doctrine de BaboufandLa response a M.V.both demonstrate why he can be considered "the major theoretician and ideologue of the Equals movement".Buonarroti believed that taking any political stance implied even taking action. He was one of the major exponents of Leftism at theend of the 18th Century, in France.Babeuf and he were both insidePlessis Jailin 1797. Buonarroti shared Babeuf’s principles about private property and advocated for an equally distributed and collaborative social scheme in France. He also believed that Italy was not ready yet for such a social reform.

• 
  Gracchus Babeuf
• 
  Philippe Buonarroti
• 
  Sylvain Maréchal
• 
  Félix Lepeletier

Ideas of the Conspiracy

The ultimate goal ofFrançois-Noël Babeufand his comrades was absolute equality.The purpose of the Conspiracy was to continue revolution and to lead it to the collectivisation of lands and the means of production to ‘put an end to civil dissension and public poverty.’They furthermore demanded the application of the Constitution of Year 1 (dating from 1793, the first constitution of the Republic, which was never applied).

The ideas of the Conspiracy were particularly set forth in the Manifesto of Equals of 1796, which was written by Babeuf’s top aideSylvain Maréchal.The manifesto advocated a radical reform of France which went further than theFrench Revolution'sDeclaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizento enforce the practice of absolute equality across all aspects of society. Maréchal rejected the notion that equality before the law itself was sufficient to define societal equality, and thus placed a strong emphasis on the abolition of private property and equal access to food. The manifesto further denounced the privilegedbourgeoisiewho benefited from the Revolution such as the wealthy landowners who continued to profit off the ‘common good’ of land.Although the Conspiracy acknowledged the ‘selfish’ would oppose their aims to preserve their unjust privileges, their sacrifice of power was deemed necessary to enact real equality.

The Manifesto additionally reads: ‘We aspire to live and die equal, the way we were born: we want real equality or death; this is what we need. And we’ll have this real equality, at whatever the cost.’However, the Conspiracy failed to include colonial slaves into their manifesto’s thinking, and only championed equality for those they considered the ‘People of France’.

The Manifesto was not met with unanimous support from the directors of the revolt.Maréchal’s point ‘Let the arts perish, if need be, as long as real equality remains’was especially contested.

Growth

For a time the government, while keeping itself informed of his activities, left him alone. It suited the Directory to let the socialist agitation continue, in order to deter the people from joining in anyroyalistmovement for the overthrow of the existing régime. Moreover the mass of theouvriers,even of extreme views, were repelled by Babeuf's bloodthirstiness; and the police agents reported that his agitation was making many converts - for the government. The Jacobin Club refused to admit Babeuf and René-François Lebois, on the ground that they were "égorgeurs"(" throat-cutters ").

With the development of the economic crisis, however, Babeuf's influence increased. After the club of the Panthéon was closed byNapoleon Bonaparteon 27 February 1796, his aggressive activity redoubled. InVentôse and Germinal(roughly late winter and early spring) he published, under thepen nameofLalande, soldat de la patrie,a new paper, theEclaireur du Peuple, ou le Défenseur de Vingt-Cinq Millions d'Opprimés,which was hawked clandestinely from group to group in the streets of Paris.

At the same time Issue 40 of theTribunexcited an immense sensation. In this Babeuf praised the authors of theSeptember Massacresas "deserving well of their country", and declared that a more complete "2 September" was needed to annihilate the actual government, which consisted of "starvers, bloodsuckers,tyrants,hangmen, rogues and mountebanks ".

The distress among all classes continued; and in March the attempt of the Directory to replace theassignatsby a new issue ofmandatscreated fresh dissatisfaction after the breakdown of the hopes first raised. A cry went up thatnational bankruptcyhad been declared, and thousands of the lower class ofouvriersbegan to rally to Babeuf's flag. On 4 April 1796, the government received a report that 500,000 people in Paris were in need of relief. From 11 April, Paris was placarded with posters headedAnalyse de la Doctrine de Baboeuf[sic],Tribun du Peuple,of which the opening sentence ran: "Nature has given to every man the right to the enjoyment of an equal share in all property",and which ended with a call to restore the Constitution of 1793.

TheArrondissements of Pariswere thoroughly agitated by the propaganda of Equals,and Babeuf's comrades no longer bothered to conceal their "seditious activity" in the eyes of the police. Babeuf's songMourant de faim, mourant de froid( "Dying of Hunger, Dying of Cold" ), set to a popular tune, began to be sung in thecafés,with immense applause; and reports circulated that the disaffected troops of theFrench Revolutionary Armyin the camp ofGrenellewere ready to join an insurrection against the government.

Philippe Buonarrotipublicly read a draft decree proclaiming an egalitarian republic. The first words that were written declared: "The people advanced, tyranny is no more. You are free". This project predicted that "a large national community will be established in the republic". "Intestacyandinheritancewill be abolished: all property currently owned by private individuals will, upon their death, fall to the national community. "The goods of the national community will be exploited collectively, by all its valid members. The national community will provide each of its members with decent accommodation, clothing, adequate food, and" relief in the art of healing. "Finally," the republic will no longer make money ".

Fall of the conspiracy

The conspiracy was denounced to the police for a fee, by one of its own leaders: Georges Grisel. Faced with the repression that then fell upon the democratic circles of Paris, several attempted to provoke an uprising, first within the police legion. The Directory considered that the Babouviste propaganda had dangerously agitated public opinion and, on May 2, 1796, it ordered the dismissal and disarmament of a police legion because: "seduced by the Babouviste faction they became more undisciplined every day." After its dissolution, the Babouvistes turned to the soldiers of the21st Regiment of dragons,who were camped at Grenelle.

Depiction of the unrest in the military camp of Grenelle

The Directory thought it time to react; thebureau centralhad accumulated through its agents, notably the ex-captain Georges Grisel, who had been initiated into Babeuf’s society, complete evidence of aconspiracyfor an armed rising fixed for Floréal 22, year IV (11 May 1796), in which Jacobins and socialists were combined. On 10 May Babeuf, who had taken thepseudonymTissot,was arrested; many of his associates were gathered by the police on order fromLazare Carnot:among them wereAugustin Alexandre DarthéandPhilippe Buonarroti,the ex-members of theNational Convention,Robert Lindet,Jean-Pierre-André Amar,Marc-Guillaume Alexis VadierandJean-Baptiste Drouet,famous as thepostmasterofSainte-Menehouldwho had arrestedLouis XVIduring the latter'sFlight to Varennes,and now a member of the Directory'sCouncil of Five Hundred.245 arrest warrants were issued by Carnot, who intended to stop demands for equality.

The government crackdown was extremely successful. The last number of theTribunappeared on 24 April, although René-François Lebois, in theAmi du peuple,tried to incite soldiers to revolt. For a while there were rumours of a military rising.

The trial of Babeuf and his accomplices was fixed to take place before the newly constituted high court of justice atVendôme.On Fructidor 10 and 11 (27 August and 28 August 1796), when the prisoners were removed from Paris, there were tentative efforts at a riot with a view to rescue, but these were easily suppressed. The attempt of five or six hundred Jacobins (7 September 1796) to rouse the soldiers atGrenellemet with no better success. A shootout greeted them, leaving about 20 dead, 132 captured and many others wounded.

The trial of Babeuf and the others, begun at Vendôme on 20 February 1797, lasted two months. The government, for reasons of its own, depicted the socialist Babeuf as the leader of the conspiracy, even though people more important than himself were implicated. His own vanity played admirably into their hands. And Darthé, who remained in utter silence during the debates, was accused of writing an order for the execution of the Directors. On Prairial 7 (26 May 1797) Babeuf and Darthé were condemned to death. On hearing his death sentence, Babeuf struck himself in the courtroom with several blows, and was carried dying the next day to the scaffold. Darthé, who had also tried to commit suicide, was guillotined alongside him on at Vendôme, Prairial 8 (27 May 1797), without appeal. Some of the prisoners, including Buonarroti and Germain, weredeported;the rest, including Vadier and his fellow former-Montagnards,were acquitted. Drouet escaped, according toPaul Barras,with the connivance of the Directory.

Legacy

The Conspiracy of Equals would probably have disappeared in the flood of great events of the Revolution, but the publication in 1828 of Buonarroti's book,Conspiracy of Equals,kept it in the history books.Friedrich EngelsandKarl Marxrecognized in the Conspiracy of Equals "the first appearance of a truly active Communist party".Leon Trotskywould echo these sentiments, stating that the foundation of the Communist International marked a ‘carrying on in direct succession the heroic endeavours and martyrdom of a long line of revolutionary generations from Babeuf’.

The Conspiracy of Equals can be seen as the first example of a form of French leftism distinct from that of the Jacobins, more focused upon real equality as opposed to abstract equality in the eyes of the law.Whereas the French Revolutionaries actively sought to guarantee property rights, a guarantee enshrined in theDeclaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,Babeuf and his followers desired instead the abolition of property entirely (‘We lean towards something more sublime and more just: the common good or the community of property! No more individual property in land: the land belongs to no one. We demand, we want, the common enjoyment of the fruits of the land: the fruits belong to all.’This criticism of private property put forward by Babeuf and his fellow conspirators would go on to echo through later currents of French leftism: perhaps most pertinently in the thinking ofPierre-Joseph Proudhon,who famously declared ‘Property is theft!’.

Although the words "anarchist"and"communist"did not exist at the time of the conspiracy, they have both been used to describe its ideas by later scholars. The English word" communism "was coined byGoodwyn Barmbyin a conversation with those he described as the "disciples of Babeuf".

External links

• The Conspiracy of the Equals,at theMises Institute