César De Paepe

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César de Paepe, ca.1880

César Aimé Désiré De Paepe (born July 12, 1841 in Ostend , Belgium, † December 19, 1890 in Cannes , France) was a Belgian doctor , lawyer and member of the First International . He is considered a pioneer of Belgian socialism .

"César De Paepe, together with Mikhail Bakunin, is considered to be the founder of collectivist anarchism , the idea of ​​which both first formulated independently of one another in 1866".

De Paepe played an increasingly important role in the socialist movement from the second half of the 19th century. Remaining largely true to Proudhon's theories, at times he tended more towards the positions of Karl Marx . Through his attempts at reconciliation between anarchists and Marxists , he isolated himself in the socialist movement.

Life

Early life

César De Paepe studied medicine at the Sint-Michielscollege in Brussels. In his youth he was already a supporter of the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and was heavily influenced by the free thinker movement. After the death of his father in 1860, he was forced to give up his studies in order to support his family financially. During this time he worked as a typographer. Only after a few years he was able to resume his studies, between 1865 and 1872, and studied law at the Free University of Brussels . As a respected doctor, he stood up for the workers and provided free medication and care for the financially weakest. De Paepe was involved in the first democratic movement in Belgium, “ Vlamingen vooruit ” ( Flemings ahead ) and the organization “ Solidaires ”.

socialist

In Brussels in 1860 he founded the socialist association " Le Peuple Association de la Democratie militante " (German: People's Association of Militant Democracy ). De Paepe, friends with Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis , first publicly described himself as an anarchist in 1863.

For him, the social differences between the ruling and hiring minority and the haveless majority of the working class were the reason why the working population was condemned to “ military slavery ”. After the formation of the First International , he represented Le Peuple at the various congresses. At the 2nd Congress of the International in Lausanne in 1867, he pointed out the consequences of reciprocity ; based on self-employed workers, associations and cooperations that should be managed independently of higher-level institutions. A year later, at the congress of the International Workers' Association , Brussels, 1868, he took the view that the right to land ownership could not be left to associations and cooperations, nor to the state. According to his theory, with a reference to Mikhail Bakunin , the ownership of country estates should belong to the "village community", the "agrarian communes". Since Bakunin himself was not present at the congress, De Paepe read out a letter from him in which Bakunin spoke out in favor of joint ownership of land; H. if the "community" were represented by a federation of free municipalities. Congress approved collective ownership of land and means of production, but abstained from any statement about federalism. De Paepe worked resolutely to ensure that mining, rail transport and the stone pits should come into possession of a “ New State ” that upheld the principle of equality. This met with violent protests from the anarchists; they viewed this proposal as " gross communism ". This sensitive point has been postponed to the next Congress.

At the 3rd Congress of the Anti-Authoritarian International in Brussels in 1874, De Paepe defended the theory that the “new social state” should consist of a federation of municipalities. As an anarchist, he did not believe that the state should be abolished directly. In contrast to Mikhail Bakunin , he imagined overcoming the state as a transformation, whereby the state could be transformed into a decentralized federation. At the same congress in 1876 a Belgian delegation was represented, which stated that in Belgium the interest in anarchism had declined and more and more workers' organizations were turning to the state. De Paepe came up with an interim solution: he proposed a federal state. As an advocate of social laws, he was in favor of the abolition of child labor. In 1877 there was a congress of predominantly social democratic delegates in Ghent, De Paepe spoke here too, and two years later the Second International spoke at the first congress in Paris . The main topics were social laws for the workers and overcoming the state.

With Louis Bertrand, De Paepe established the “Brabantse Socialist Partij” in 1877, this party later merged with the “Belgische Werkliedenpartij” (BWP). In 1879, César De Paepe tried to unite the anarchists and Marxists in the “Parti Socialiste Belge” . This attempt failed, and it was not until 1885 that the socialists were united in the “Belgische Werkliedenpartij” .

De Paepe campaigned for universal suffrage in Belgium. Three years before universal suffrage was introduced, De Paepe died of tuberculosis at the age of 48.

The son of Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis , Cezar Domela Nieuwenhuis, sold letters from César De Paepe to his father at what was then the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow. The letters are now in Fond 208 of the RGA. Marx dedicated a first edition of Das Kapital to him in 1868 and the eighteenth Brumaire by Louis Bonaparte in 1869 .

Works

  • The organization of the public services dans la société future. Mémoire présenté au Congrès de Bruxelles au nom de la section bruxelloise . Brismée, Bruxelles 1874.
  • Over de ziektens the schoenmaker own en de oorzaken zijner vroegtijdige dood. Opgedrag aan het Schoenmakerskongres gehouden te Antwerp the 1st and 2nd of November 1873 . Alph. Schuybroek, Antwerp 1874.
  • Almanach de l'ami du peuple pour 1876 . Victor Mathaiwe, Liege 1875.
  • Administration et le collectivisme . Paris 1885.
  • Ferdinand Lassalle : Monsieur Bastiat-Schulze de Delitzsch ou Capital & Travail. Traduit de l'allemand by Eugène Monti. Avec une préface et une biography de Lassalle par le Dr. César De Paepe . Kistemaeckers, Bruxelles 1881
  • Le suffrage universel et la capacité politique de la classe ouvrière. Appel aux travailleurs belges à l'occasion de la manifestation du 10 août . Gand, Foucaert 1890.
  • Les Services publics. Précédés de deux essais sur le collectivisme . Milot, Bruxelles 1895. (= Bibliothèque populaire 2)
  • Discours du citoyen César De Paepe. Prononcé à Patignies (Namur) en 1863 . Brismée, Brussel 1898. Digitized

literature

  • L. Peiren: César De Paepe. De l'utopie à la réalité . Brussels 1900.
  • Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis : De Geschiedenis van het socialisme . Amsterdam 1901. (The history of socialism. On anarchism up to approx. 1900; Third part.)
  • Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis: César De Paepe (1841–1890) . In: The New Time . Review of intellectual and public life . 1891, Issue 24, pp. 759-766 digitized
  • Louis Bertrand: César de Paepe. Sa vie, son oeuvre . L'Agence Dechenne, Bruxelles 1909.
  • Robert Vander Gucht: La Pensée socialiste de César de Paepe a Emile Vandervelde . La Pensée cathol., Bruxelles 1961 (= Études sociales 40)
  • Anton Levien Constandse : Anarchisme van de daad. Kruseman Publishing House, The Hague 1969.
  • Bernard Dandois: Entre Marx et Bakounine: César de Paepe . Maspero, Paris 1974.
  • Unknown from Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Part I: 1840 - 1874. Edited by Bert Andréas , Jacques Grandjonc, Hans Pelger. Trier 1986, pp. 30, 86, 108–110, 118, 157, 165. (= writings from Karl-Marx-Haus 33)
  • Paul F. State: Historical dictionary of Brussels . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2014, p. 131. Digitized .
  • Daniel Guerin : No Gods, No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism. Translated from the French by Paul Sharkey. 2005 ( De Paepe and Schwitzguébel debate )

Individual evidence

  1. cf. Max Nettlau : The anarchism from Proudhon to Kropotkin. Its historical development in the years 1859-1880 . Berlin 1927, p. 107ff.
  2. a b c Ernest Mandel: De eerste internationale en de Commune van Parijs .
  3. Quoted from AL Constandse: Anarchisme van de daad .
  4. ^ AL Constandse: Anarchisme van de daad. P. 181.
  5. Quoted from Guido van Cauwelaert, Jean Trembloy: HET ONTSTAAN VAN DE SOCIALISTICHE PARTIJ IN TERNAT, SINT-KATHERINA-LOMBEEK EN WAMBEEK.
  6. Galina Golovina: sources on the history of European opposition and labor movements in Moscow. Unknown pages of the decades of collecting activity of the Russian State Archive for Social and Political History (RGA) . In: Jürgen Herres, Manfred Neuhaus (ed.): Political networks through letter communication. Brierfkultur of the political opposition movements in the 19th century . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2002. ISBN 3-05-003688-5 , pp. 351–361. Here p. 357.100.
  7. Unknown from Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Part I: 1840 - 1874 , p. 110.
  8. Unknown from Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Part I: 1840 - 1874 , p. 108.

Web links

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