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Title: The Approaching Revolution Author: Freedom Press Date: November 1, 1889 Language: en Topics: Freedom Press, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Socialism, revolution Source: Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Socialism, Vol. 3 -- No. 36, retrieved on August 29, 2019, from http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=2963. Notes: Freedom Press, UK
(From our Paris correspondent).
THE great electoral agitation is over. The Government triumphs;
Boulangism, conquered for the time being, foams at the mouth, and the
worker who has just, according to his habit, again selected his masters.
sees with anxiety the approach of winter, that season so hard for the
world of the poor. A few days more will see the close of the Exhibition
when Paris will be filled with its unemployed clerks and workmen. A
critical moment will have arrived, Where will these men find work and
bread? All these workless ones entering into deadly competition with one
another will render it very probable that serious complications will
arise.
To prevent an insurrection of hunger the Government will be very I
likely to commence some public works, but the construction of a railway,
the making of new streets, will be only a very insufficient palliative.
Besides money is not quite so plentiful with out- masters-the elections
have cost them dear! A loan is even now being arranged with the house of
Rothschild, which is more than ever master of the situation. It appears
certain, indeed, that the King of the Jews (we by no means refer to
Christ!) insists upon the nomination of his creature Leon Say to the
Ministry of Finance or to the Presidency of the Chamber. 'this is the
sine qua non of the success of the loan. More than ever does the
Orleanist bourgeoisie rule everything, and the anti-Semites of the
Drumont type will have great opportunities. If a popular movement breaks
out they will be sure to take part in it, and will do their utmost to
direct it solely against the financial Jews. The bad side of this is
that once thrown against the bankers, the mass which not yet converted
to our theories, will, possibly forget entirely the expropriation of the
landed and industrial capitalists. Will the people be simple enough to
fight against the Jewish exploiters to the profit of the Catholic
exploiters? What a sad spectacle it would be to see the working mass
take the side of such or such among its mortal enemies, for the great
bankers or the Jesuits; for the Orleanist-Republican government or
Cesarism!
The mistake of some of our comrades is in not occupying themselves
sufficiently with facts and paying too great attention to mental
speculations thus leaving the field open to the dirty maneuvers of the
politicians. Economic revolts commence always by modest claims, and the
smallness of a demand does not constitute a sufficient reason for our
not taking part in the fray. The miners of Lens (Pas de Calais) are out
on strike and a very little initiative will suffice to give the movement
a revolutionary character. A threatening letter has been addressed to
the proprietor of the Chartin factory at Chauffailes and stones have
been thrown against the windows of that prison. A very trifling
incidents would serve to spread the agitation. The police are being used
and the troops of Art-as are confined to their barracks. The northern
region of France, besides, has felt some of the worst results of the
industrial crisis. The wages in the factories and mines in that district
are ridiculously low and the regulations are of a revolting barbarity.
If the movement at Lens should extend to the neighboring coal fields,
ten thousand miners would be on strike in a few days, and who knows that
the agitation might not spread into the Belgian centers. The chief
demands of the miners in addition to an increase of wages, are the
suppression of overtime and piece-work, the reduction of the fine for
absence from two francs to one franc, the right of widows to continue to
occupy the cottages they lived in whilst their husbands were alive, and
some superannuation payment to be made to old workmen who continue at
work. The great capitalist papers. such as the Temps, gravely declare
that the continuation of the strike will be an antipatriotic act, as it
will favor the importation of German and Belgian products It is thus in
the name of the country that these serious journals exhort the miners to
bend their backs before their exploiters. Let us hope that the workers
will stand firm.