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By *Doug Enaa Greene*
/Dedicated to my father/
October 24, 2014 -- "I am accused of having said to thirty million
French people, proletarians like me, that they had the right to
live".[1] These words are the opening remarks of then 27-year-old
revolutionary, Louis-Auguste Blanqui's defence speech when he was tried
for treason by the French state in 1832. Blanqui's words were nothing
less than a declaration of war upon the rule of the bourgeoisie on
behalf of a mercilessly exploited proletariat.
Blanqui delivered no idle boast. For 50 years of his life, he would
organise multiple conspiracies and launch a half-dozen failed
insurrections to topple the rule of capital and inaugurate a socialist
republic. All of these efforts would fail and Blanqui would spend 37
years of his life in prison, enduring torture, disease and deprivation.
Yet Blanqui was never conquered. Although Blanqui's conception of
insurrection never prevailed, and his theories were eclectic and ill
conceived, I would argue that Blanqui possesses an open view of history
where revolutionary will and action unveils new possibilities -- virtues
lacking in much of the contemporary left. Before outlining the key
insights of Blanqui's thought, I would like to begin by discussing the
life of this remarkable, courageous and incorruptible communist
revolutionary.
Full article at http://links.org.au/node/4115
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