Comm10-RNE7: Paris Commune, Fourier, Icarians, Proudhon, Blanqui: "They have achieved nothing"

      This continues from Part 9 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series presenting a new translation of C.F.W. Walther's Communism and Socialism from 1878. — Walther, after reviewing the Germans, returns again to the French to discuss their theories in greater depth. The writings we see today in America seem only to plagiarize these French philosophers: “Property is theft; God is evil; marriage and family are superfluous.” — The Paris Commune of 1871 was just a few years before these lectures were delivered, so the congregation would have been quite aware of these world events. Walther launches into a rapid-fire swirl of events and people surrounding this Commune that is a harbinger for today's world. — After reading Walther's book, I decided that it would be made more instructive and memorable to add the images of the persons involved, and some of the phrases used by the ideologists, so that I could more easily remember them in the future.  Also I could not wait to add hyperlinks to all of Walther's historical references, to their corresponding Wikipedia articles.  And so I made extensive use of Wikipedia, which is a great accompaniment to this writing, even if some of the judgments there lean toward sympathy with the Communists. — A related historical event to the Paris Commune was the associated Franco-Prussian War.  I am still absorbing all of the events of this period that were contemporary to Walther's lectures.  The world studies Karl Marx today to learn about Communism, but Walther understood this ideology better than Karl Marx.

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Translation of Walther's 1878 Communismus und Socialismus by BackToLuther primarily using DeepL online translation service; highlighting and bolding are my emphases, red text within square brackets [] are my comments, underlining is Walther's emphasis. Red highlight indicates omitted in 1947 translation.

C.F.W. Walther's Communism and Socialism, (Part 10, p. 36-39)

Already on the last evening I mentioned a Communist writer, a French writer, named Fourier [see p. 19, Part 5]. Fourier was [page 37] a French merchant commissioner who had been deprived of his considerable fortune by misfortune. This man — he died in 1837 — established the following Communist theory:

“Man's destiny is happiness. He can attain it only by the harmonious satisfaction of all his urges.”

But dear Fourier certainly does not consider that among these drives of man is also the drive to rule over others, greed, envy, malicious joy, vindictiveness, cruelty, etc. Are all these urges to be satisfied? He continues:

“This requires means, and therefore wealth is the source of all happiness. The same is achieved through work. But for work to bring happiness, an order of humanity must arise in which everyone works in community, in such a way that everyone takes on the work that he wants to do. For this to happen, the individual must be induced to give his own possessions voluntarily to the community, for which he will receive a proportional share of the proceeds of the whole, and the people thus united will then also give up the special home, the special household, the special education.

So what should the one who enters this Communist community give up? First of all, his property, even if he had acquired it so sourly and yet legally. Then he should also give up his home and move into a large building with a large mass of others. He should give up his marriage, he should give up his family, he should also give up the education of his own children. For his wife is not his own, but the property of the society. The same is the case with his children. As soon as they are born, they are taken over by someone who has been asked to [1947-52] take care of the children in the state, and this person brings them up. I ask: can there be a theory more crazy, more insane than this one? Shouldn't someone first be bankrupt in body and soul and in every way, desperate in everything before he enters such a community? Whoever is reconciled to his destiny in some way, would he go into such a community? Not now or ever. What greater earthly happiness is there than the happiness of a family? and that is something that one should sacrifice? — Fourier continues:

“They meet in co-operatives, in phalanges” (one square mile should be the ground on which a phalanx or phalanstère would be built) “from 1800 to 2000 people, united in a large house, the phalanstère, where everyone finds orderly employment according to his inclination.” 

The practical execution failed, as already noted. Dear Fourier ran for 12 years to a place he had chosen so that a philanthropist could come and bring one million thalers, [page 38] so that he could realize his wonderful theory. [This report not in Wikipedia] Fourier's pupil Victor Considerant directed the phalanx, which was founded on a great good, but the enterprise failed. He emigrated to Texas when he was accused of high treason. *) What happened to him, I don't know. [Wikipedia.]

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*) History of the World, von Wernicke, V, 469.

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Another French Communist is the lawyer [Étienne] Cabet. He founded the party of the Icarian Communists and died here in St. Louis. It is a strange self-derision that he called his Communism the Icarian Communism. In Greek fables, there is an Icarus whose father made wings and glued these wings with wax to escape captivity and fly over the sea. The father, the fable tells us, had come over happily, but the son was too bold, had flown too high and got too close to the sun, so that the wax melted and he fell into the sea and drowned there. Strange then that Cabet called his Communists the Icarians. Indeed they were, they flew high, but with wings held together by a bit of wax that wouldn't hold.

Cabet, by the way, recognized marriage and family life and wanted to achieve freedom for the so-called proletariat without the use of violence, through equal education, work, order [1947-53] and, above all, fraternity. He made an attempt in Texas in 1848, which failed completely; the colonists themselves accused him of fraudulent cheating, but he was acquitted of this by the court. He then made a second attempt in Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Mormons used to live, but this attempt did not succeed either. The colony became dissatisfied again. Cabet had to flee to St. Louis, where he died in 1856.

[Pierre-Joseph] Proudhon established as his principle: “Property is theft; God is evil; marriage and family are superfluous.” He died in 1865.

        Franco-Prussian War    ——→    French defeat     ——→     Internationals     —→    taking of cannons    —→    Paris Commune

We now come to the last Communist movements in France, in 1871 [Paris Commune], when the surrender of Paris with the German besiegers [Franco-Prussion War] became the opportunity for the Internationals to seize control of the city [ref. Part 3, page 11 for more details].

Generals Lecomte and Thomas, who had been captured on March 18, 1871 and remained loyal to the government, were shot in the afternoon.

 

Now the head of the National Guard and the eager International [Louis Auguste] Blanqui called for elections for a so-called "Commune", i.e. an independent governmental authority of the city of Paris. His and his comrades' plan was to divide the whole of France into Communes, small, independent circles which would have their own judiciary, but which together would form a French confederation. An officer with a [page 39] flag of truce was shot down. Church property was confiscated. The factories of fleeing factory owners were given to the workers.

Archbishop [Georges] Darboy and other prelates and priests were executed, and strict censorship was established. The [Paris] Commune surpassed Robespierre's reign of terror. “War on the palaces!” was the watchword. A corps of “rocket men” was set up, with “petroleurs” and “petroleuses”, i.e. male and female incendiaries. They took hostages of distinguished people. Inhuman atrocities followed in the fratricidal massacre in the streets for a full week.

[General Patrice de] MacMahon had 794 dead and 6000 wounded soldiers; how many of the “Internationals” died is difficult to calculate, at least there were thousands of them. Finally, the leaders of the Commune were imprisoned and prosecuted; the main defendants were deported for life, deserted officers were executed. [ref. "Bloody Week"; also New Caledonia political prisoners.] — [1947-54] 

So this is the story of Communism in a few main features. What have the Communists achieved? — They have achieved nothing. — They have plunged themselves into nameless misery, they have terrified the world, they have only caused harm, misery and heartache. And just as they have done nothing in the past, so will they do in the future. For the same preconditions for their lasting victories will also be missing later, as they were missing in the past. As little as the Communists change the laws of nature, as little will they force the Mississippi River to turn north, as little will they be able to reverse the course of the stars: so little will they be able to realize their enthusiastic ideas in human society. They will probably cause a lot of trouble, that is foreseeable. For the poor will become more and more, namely those who believe neither in God nor in His Word, and who therefore soon despair in misery because they have no God and no consolation. And these will be gathered together by the theoretical Communists and they will still, despite having been beaten again and again, start again and again anew and from the beginning, but only to be judged again and to be thrown into nameless misery.

[The editor of the 1947 reprint inserted his own comments defending Walther’s points in relation to the Soviet Union of the 20th century and before. The reader may find those comments on page 54.] [page 40]

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   I have spent perhaps 8 hours preparing this blog post and it's images because of it's extensive historical content.  I will likely refer to it often in the future.  The haunting description by Émile Zola, the first journalist to enter Paris, speaks similarly as Walther does:

“Never in civilised times has such a terrible crime ravaged a great city…”

The flavor of these times can be gained from the semi-fictional book and film "The Scarlet Pimpernel".