Proudhon - A Biography

THE STRICKEN YEARS
of the meeting at that time with English and German workers.
Only three left any mark on the history of their time— Henri
Tolain and Charles Limousin, most active of the French founders
o f the International, and Camdlinat, who played a minor role in
the Commune seven years later and survived incongruously into
the 1940’s as an aged mascot o f the French Communist Party.
The Manifesto, which was written mostly by Tolain, was
remarkable for the restrained dignity o f its manner. Its essence
can be found in this paragraph:
‘Universal suffrage has made us politically adult, but it still
remains for us to emancipate ourselves socially. The liberty which
the Third Estate conquered with so much vigour and tenacity
should extend in the democratic country of France to all citizens.
An equal political right necessarily implies an equal social right.
It has been repeated to satiety that there are no longer any
classes; since 1789, all Frenchmen are equal before the law. But
we who have no other property than our hands, we who suffer
every day from the legal or arbitrary conditions o f capitalism, we
who live under exceptional laws, such as the law on coalitions,
which offend our interests at the same time as our dignity, find it
very difficult to believe that affirmation.’
After enlarging on this point to show the ways in which
existing society militates against the interests o f the workers, the
Manifesto goes on to sketch the aims o f its signatories. ‘The law
should be broad enough to allow each man, whether in isolation
or collectively, the development o f his faculties, the employment
o f his powers, savings and intelligence without any limit being
imposed but the liberty— though not the interests— of another__
Freedom o f work, credit, solidarity— these are our dreams. The
day on which they are realised, for the glory and prosperity o f our
country, there will no longer be either bourgeois or proletariat,
employers or workers. A ll citizens will be equal in their rights.’
The Manifesto examines the current parliamentary situation,
and shows that, though the present deputies claim to speak for
all their constituents, in fact they represent only the limited
interests in which they themselves are intimately concerned; from
this the manifestants deduce the need for representatives who will
formulate ‘with moderation, but with firmness, our hopes, desires
and rights.’
Proudhon immediately recognised the importance o f the