THE STRICKEN YEARSManifesto. He discussed it closely with his friends Langlois,
Beslay and Duchene, and with some o f the signatories, including
Camelinat. ‘It may become something o f an event,’ he told
Chaudey, and he decided that he would write a book about it.
It was on the preparation of this book that most of his remaining
energy was to be expended.
It is possible that his decision to make The Manifesto o f the
Sixty the pretext, rather than the subject, o f his last book was
due largely to the fact that this document started off a whole
chain o f reactions among French working men and resulted in
several groups writing to ask his opinion o f working-men’s
representation. To one of them, in Rouen, he wrote on the 8th
March a letter o f sixteen manuscript pages which laid the founda
tion o f his thoughts on the political function of the working class.
The points emphasised are, firstly, the reawakening o f the
socialist idea, secondly, the fact that the workers are not repre
sented and that this situation must be changed, and, thirdly, the
affirmation o f the class nature o f contemporary society. ‘French
society is divided fundamentally into two classes: one that lives
exclusively from its work and whose wages are generally below
1,250 francs per year and per family o f four persons, and another
that lives from the revenue o f its capital.’ This division o f society
is contrary to justice, and should be changed ‘by a better applica
tion o f the laws of justice and economy.’
But since existing parties and governmental institutions
are designed to serve the propertied classes, any workers who find
themselves involved in such machinery will be ineffective; they
will become frustrated nonentities or political prostitutes. The
only solution, Proudhon concludes, is to recognise and act in
accordance with this division within society, and here he shows
himself an unwilling forerunner o f the bitter conflict between
workers and rulers that dominated France during the later nine
teenth century. ‘I say to you with all the energy and sadness o f my
spirit: Separate yourselves from those who have cut themselves
off from you, separate yourselves as in the past the Roman people
separated themselves from the aristocrats... It is by separation
that you will win; no representatives, no candidates.’
Soon the steadily widening reaction in working-class circles to
the Manifesto o f the Sixty was strengthening Proudhon’s hopes.
‘The social republic approaches more quickly than is apparent,’