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Title: Events in France Author: Freedom Press Date: June 1, 1889 Language: en Topics: Freedom Press Source: Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Socialism, Vol. 3 -- No. 31, retrieved on September 5, 2019, from http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=2987. Notes: (From our Paris correspondent), Freedom Press, London
THERE is little- change to record in the general situation. The opening
of the Exhibition has been brilliant, it is true, but it is only the
last glimmer of a lamp soon about to be extinguished altogether, for
everything goes to show that the end of the year will be tumultuous. in
spite of the appeals of the government and of the middle-class press,
the people have shown little real warmth. Certainly the streets of Paris
have displayed plenty of flags and illuminations-the shopkeepers
especially, those eternal friends of order and property, have
distinguished themselves by their zeal-but at heart it is felt to be
only an artificial gaiety, an intoxication succeeding drunkenness. The
laughter has a false ring.
A certain Perrin, formerly a warehouse keeper in the colonies, a victim
of injustice-he having, although a civil employee, been sentenced to EL
military punishment of 75 days' imprisonment-fired a blank shot at the
President of the Republic on the occasion or the fetes in order to
attract attention to his grievances. Thus it appears that under a
Republic which commemorates the centenary of the Great Revolution, it is
necessary to pretend to assassinate in order to get justice 1 Perrin was
immediately arrested. He wrote to Laguerre asking him to defend his
case, but the friend of Boulanger declined.
There is little doing among the politicians. All the parties seem to
have entered into a truce. They are keeping their strength for the great
battle which will take place at the time of the general elections.
Unfortunate will the parliamentary Socialists be whose ignorance of the
danger or ambition to secure a legislative mandate urges them into the
electoral arena 1 Crushed between the two powerful currents of
Boulangism and anti-Boulangism, their efforts are certainly doomed to
utter failure, and the politicians will be able to say to the mass who
measure the value of an idea by the number of its adherents, "You see
Socialism does not count."
In fact what happened at the time of the election of the 27th of
January, when a number of Blanquists voted for Boulanger and the mass of
the Possibilists for Jacques, will happen again over a greater the more
moderate at the general elections. For fear of Cesarism Socialists will
support the government which they formerly opposed; through hatred of
opportunism others will rally to the Boulangist candidate. Under such
conditions the defeat of the parliamentary Socialists will be pitiful.
The Anarchists alone will remain irreproachable. Faithful to their line
of conduct, untarnished by any shameful compromise, they will never
cease to cry to the people "Refuse to ratify the present slavery and to
sanction all the iniquities committed in your name, by your vote.
Universal suffrage is a bait, all these politicians who seek your votes,
willing to do anything to get into power, ready to do anything to keep
in Power, are your enemies, under whatever name they disguise their
pretensions. In this cruel society which oppresses and starves you, in
this political organization which proclaims you sovereign and loads you
with chains, you have only one duty, one imprescriptable right and one
resource-Revolution!"