Théodore Dézamy
Encyclopedia
Alexandre Théodore Dézamy (4 March 1808 – 24 July 1850) was a French socialist, a representative of the Neo-Babouvist
tendency in early French communism, along with Albert Laponneraye
, Richard Lahautière
, Jacques Pillot
and others. He was also an early associate of Louis-Auguste Blanqui. He and his colleagues formed a link between the extreme left wing of the French Revolution
(Babeuf) and Marxism
.
and was influenced by the writing of the utopian communist Étienne Cabet
. In Paris he joined Cabet's association and for a time worked as his secretary. He also contributedto Cabet's journal Le Populaire. Dézamy also made contact with several revolutionary secret societies. In particular, he joined the 'Society of the Season' of Auguste Blanqui and Armand Barbès
, which carried out an unsuccessful insurrection in 1839. Blanqui and Barbès went to prison, where they became enemies. Dézamy was arrested but in 1840, he was free and collaborated with Jacques Pillot
and others in organising the first communist banquet at Belleville. (Banquets were a common way of circumventing prohibitions against political demonstrations, with oppositional speeches disguised as toasts; in the 1840s, republican opponents of the Orléanist monarchy organised a nationwide campaign of banquets, but most were liberal in orietation.)
Dézamy subsequently broke with Cabet, whom he considered too opportunistic and reformist; instead of appealing to the boureoisie for sympathy with the proletariat, as Cabet was doing, Dézamy thought the workers should organise themselves and achieve their own liberation. Instead of hoping for reforms from a benevolent monarch, workers should support a revolution and the establishment of a unitary, centralised, egalitarian republic. Dézamy also deplored Cabet's religiosity, seeing the Church as an enemy of the people. He envisaged a republic of federated communes, each comprising about 10,000 people and combining industrial, agricultural and cultural work. Private property was to be abolished; work was to be assigned on the basis of ability; goods were to be distributed on the basis of need. Dézamy combined this social system with militant anti-clericalism, atheism and a materialist metaphysics derived from d'Holbach. Dézamy called his system 'unitary communism' and propagated it in his own journal, L'Égalitaire. In 1842 he published his best-known book, Code de la Communauté. In The Holy Family (1844), Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels
wrote that 'the more scientific French Communists, Dézamy, Gay and others, developed the teaching of materialism as the teaching of real humanism and the logical basis of communism.'
In 1846, Dézamy founded his own association, the 'Egalitarian Communists'. They devoted themselves to revolutionary propaganda and education among workers, in preparation for a revolution and the establishment of a communitarian society. They also tried to combat the influence of religious and reformist communists like Cabet and Lamennais. When the Revolution of 1848 occurred, Dézamy joined the newly liberated Blanqui in founding the 'Central Republican Society', one of the most radical republican socialist clubs of the period. Dézamy also launched a new journal, Les Droits de l'Homme, with the slogan: 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Association, Alliance of Peoples'. He also stood for elections to the National Assembly.
Louis Bonaparte
became President in 1849 and the Second Republic
took an increasingly conservative turn, with the Second Empire
looming on the horizon. Dézamy returned to Luçon, where he died, aged 42. Besides Babeuf and Cabet, his ideas were also influenced by the eighteenth-century utopians Morelly
and Mably
and by Charles Fourier
.
Question proposée par l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques : les nations avancent plus en connaissances, en lumières qu'en morale pratique... Paris, L.-E. Herhan et Bimont, 1839.
Conséquences de l'embastillement et de la paix à tout prix, dépopulation de la capitale, trahison du pouvoir. Paris, 1840.
M. Lamennais réfuté par lui-même, ou Examen critique du livre intitulé "Du passé et de l'avenir du peuple". Paris, 1841.
Code de la communauté. Paris, Prévost, Rouannet, 1842.
Calomnies et politique de M. Cabet. Réfutation par des faits et par sa biographie. Paris, Prévost, 1842.
Dialogue sur la réforme électorale entre un communiste, un réformiste, un doctrinaire, un légitimiste. Paris, Prévot, 1842.
Le Jésuitisme vaincu et anéanti par le socialisme, ou les Constitutions des Jésuites et leurs instructions secrètes en parallèle avec un projet d'organisation du travail. Paris, 1845.
Examen critique des huit discours sur le catholicisme et la philosophie, prononcés à Notre-Dame, en décembre 1844 et en janvier 1845, par M. l'abbé Lacordaire ; précédé d'une notice historique sur l'ordre des Dominicains et de la biographie de M. l'abbé Lacordaire, Paris, les libraires, 1845, 35 pages
Organisation de la liberté et du bien-être universel... Paris, Guarin, 1846.
The great Soviet Encyclopedia. Moscow, 1979.
Bravo, G.M., Les Socialistes avant Marx. Paris, Éditions Maspero, Petite collection Maspero, 1979.
Tumminelli, R., Dézamy e l'utopia sociale. Milan, A. Giuffrè, 1984.
Maillard, A., La communauté des Égaux. Le communisme néo-babouviste dans la France des années 1840. Paris, Kimé, 1999.
Angenot, C., Les Grands récits militants du XIXe et XXe siècles. Religions de l'humanité et sciences de l'histoire. Paris, L'Harmattan, 2000.
Garaudy, R., Les Sources françaises du Socialisme scientifique. Paris, 1948.
Neo-Babouvism
Neo-Babouvism is a term commonly used to designate a revolutionary communist current in French political theory and action in the nineteenth century....
tendency in early French communism, along with Albert Laponneraye
Albert Laponneraye
Albert Laponneraye was a French republican socialist and a journalist, popular historian, educator and editor of Robespierre's writings. He was a representative of the Neo-Babouvist tendency in the 1840s, along with Richard Lahautière, Jean-Jacques Pillot and others. He combined Jacobin...
, Richard Lahautière
Richard Lahautière
Auguste-Richard Lahautière was a French socialist, journalist and lawyer. He is commonly grouped with Théodore Dézamy, Albert Laponneraye, Jean-Jacques Pillot and others as belonging to the Neo-Babouvist tendency in French nineteenth-century socialism, which formed a link from the utopian...
, Jacques Pillot
Jean-Jacques Pillot
Jean-Jacques Pillot was a French revolutionary and republican communist. He participated in the Revolution of 1848 and in the Paris Commune of 1871.-Early Life:...
and others. He was also an early associate of Louis-Auguste Blanqui. He and his colleagues formed a link between the extreme left wing of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
(Babeuf) and Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
.
Life
Alexandre Théodore Dézamy was born in Luçon (Vendée). He worked as a schoolteacher in Luçon before moving to Paris in the 1830s, where he became superintendent of a rooming house. Dézamy had already been developing ideas for a reorganisation of society on republican, communalistic and collectivist principles. He admired Gracchus Babeuf and Philippe BuonarrotiPhilippe Buonarroti
Filippo Giuseppe Maria Ludovico Buonarroti more usually referred to under the French version Philippe Buonarroti was an Italian egalitarian and utopian socialist, revolutionary, journalist, writer, agitator, and freemason; he was mainly active in France.-Early activism:Buonarroti was born in Pisa...
and was influenced by the writing of the utopian communist Étienne Cabet
Étienne Cabet
Étienne Cabet was a French philosopher and utopian socialist. He was the founder of the Icarian movement and led a group of emigrants to found a new society in the United States.-Biography:...
. In Paris he joined Cabet's association and for a time worked as his secretary. He also contributedto Cabet's journal Le Populaire. Dézamy also made contact with several revolutionary secret societies. In particular, he joined the 'Society of the Season' of Auguste Blanqui and Armand Barbès
Armand Barbès
Armand Barbès , was a French Republican revolutionary and a fierce and steadfast opponent of the July monarchy . He is remembered as a man whose life centers on two days:...
, which carried out an unsuccessful insurrection in 1839. Blanqui and Barbès went to prison, where they became enemies. Dézamy was arrested but in 1840, he was free and collaborated with Jacques Pillot
Jean-Jacques Pillot
Jean-Jacques Pillot was a French revolutionary and republican communist. He participated in the Revolution of 1848 and in the Paris Commune of 1871.-Early Life:...
and others in organising the first communist banquet at Belleville. (Banquets were a common way of circumventing prohibitions against political demonstrations, with oppositional speeches disguised as toasts; in the 1840s, republican opponents of the Orléanist monarchy organised a nationwide campaign of banquets, but most were liberal in orietation.)
Dézamy subsequently broke with Cabet, whom he considered too opportunistic and reformist; instead of appealing to the boureoisie for sympathy with the proletariat, as Cabet was doing, Dézamy thought the workers should organise themselves and achieve their own liberation. Instead of hoping for reforms from a benevolent monarch, workers should support a revolution and the establishment of a unitary, centralised, egalitarian republic. Dézamy also deplored Cabet's religiosity, seeing the Church as an enemy of the people. He envisaged a republic of federated communes, each comprising about 10,000 people and combining industrial, agricultural and cultural work. Private property was to be abolished; work was to be assigned on the basis of ability; goods were to be distributed on the basis of need. Dézamy combined this social system with militant anti-clericalism, atheism and a materialist metaphysics derived from d'Holbach. Dézamy called his system 'unitary communism' and propagated it in his own journal, L'Égalitaire. In 1842 he published his best-known book, Code de la Communauté. In The Holy Family (1844), Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
wrote that 'the more scientific French Communists, Dézamy, Gay and others, developed the teaching of materialism as the teaching of real humanism and the logical basis of communism.'
In 1846, Dézamy founded his own association, the 'Egalitarian Communists'. They devoted themselves to revolutionary propaganda and education among workers, in preparation for a revolution and the establishment of a communitarian society. They also tried to combat the influence of religious and reformist communists like Cabet and Lamennais. When the Revolution of 1848 occurred, Dézamy joined the newly liberated Blanqui in founding the 'Central Republican Society', one of the most radical republican socialist clubs of the period. Dézamy also launched a new journal, Les Droits de l'Homme, with the slogan: 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Association, Alliance of Peoples'. He also stood for elections to the National Assembly.
Louis Bonaparte
Louis Bonaparte
Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, Prince Français, Comte de Saint-Leu , King of Holland , was the fifth surviving child and the fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino...
became President in 1849 and the Second Republic
French Second Republic
The French Second Republic was the republican government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the coup by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte which initiated the Second Empire. It officially adopted the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité...
took an increasingly conservative turn, with the Second Empire
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
looming on the horizon. Dézamy returned to Luçon, where he died, aged 42. Besides Babeuf and Cabet, his ideas were also influenced by the eighteenth-century utopians Morelly
Morelly
Morelly was the author of The Code of Nature, published in France in 1755. This book severely criticized the society of his day and proposed a constitution intended to lead to a good society...
and Mably
Mably
Mably may refer to:* Gabriel Bonnot de Mably , French philosopher and politician* Mably, Loire, a commune in the Loire département in France...
and by Charles Fourier
Charles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier was a French philosopher. An influential thinker, some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become main currents in modern society...
.
Works
Dézamy's works are not generally available in English. Some of his French works include:Question proposée par l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques : les nations avancent plus en connaissances, en lumières qu'en morale pratique... Paris, L.-E. Herhan et Bimont, 1839.
Conséquences de l'embastillement et de la paix à tout prix, dépopulation de la capitale, trahison du pouvoir. Paris, 1840.
M. Lamennais réfuté par lui-même, ou Examen critique du livre intitulé "Du passé et de l'avenir du peuple". Paris, 1841.
Code de la communauté. Paris, Prévost, Rouannet, 1842.
Calomnies et politique de M. Cabet. Réfutation par des faits et par sa biographie. Paris, Prévost, 1842.
Dialogue sur la réforme électorale entre un communiste, un réformiste, un doctrinaire, un légitimiste. Paris, Prévot, 1842.
Le Jésuitisme vaincu et anéanti par le socialisme, ou les Constitutions des Jésuites et leurs instructions secrètes en parallèle avec un projet d'organisation du travail. Paris, 1845.
Examen critique des huit discours sur le catholicisme et la philosophie, prononcés à Notre-Dame, en décembre 1844 et en janvier 1845, par M. l'abbé Lacordaire ; précédé d'une notice historique sur l'ordre des Dominicains et de la biographie de M. l'abbé Lacordaire, Paris, les libraires, 1845, 35 pages
Organisation de la liberté et du bien-être universel... Paris, Guarin, 1846.
Sources
Billington, J.H., Fire in the minds of men: origins of the revolutionary faith. New Jersey, 2009.The great Soviet Encyclopedia. Moscow, 1979.
Bravo, G.M., Les Socialistes avant Marx. Paris, Éditions Maspero, Petite collection Maspero, 1979.
Tumminelli, R., Dézamy e l'utopia sociale. Milan, A. Giuffrè, 1984.
Maillard, A., La communauté des Égaux. Le communisme néo-babouviste dans la France des années 1840. Paris, Kimé, 1999.
Angenot, C., Les Grands récits militants du XIXe et XXe siècles. Religions de l'humanité et sciences de l'histoire. Paris, L'Harmattan, 2000.
Garaudy, R., Les Sources françaises du Socialisme scientifique. Paris, 1948.