The Labor enquirer., 1886-08-14
DENVER COLORADO, SATURDAY. AUGUST

year 178S, we have only small, side-out
breaks of peasants; like the small side
strikes of to-day they break out here and
there throughout the whole of France
but little by little they extend them.
selves, become general, more bitter, INC
more difficult to put down.
Two years before one scarcely dared
to ask for lowering of rent las to-day
one asks for raise of wages). Two
years later, in 1889, the peasant is al
ready going beyond that point. A gen
eral idea is coming to the front: that O
throwing off completely the yoke of the
noble, of the, priest, of the bourgeoise
landlord. From the moment that the
peasant percelves that the government
has no longer the power to resist the out
break, he rises against his enemies. A
few resolute men placed to set fire to the
first country-houses, while the great
mass, still submissive and full of fear,
only waits for the flames blazing upon
the hills to mount even to the clouds,
before it hangs the tax, gatherers to the
very gallows which witnessed the pun
ishment of the forerunners of the Jac-
querie. But this time the military troop
does not arrive to suppress the insurrec-
ton, it is engaged elsewhere, and the re-
volt propagates itself from hamlet to
hamlet, and soon the half of France is
on fire.
While the future Revolutionists of the
bourgeoisie are still on their knees be-
fore the king, while those who cut the
great figure in the subsequent Revolu-
ton are seeking to master the revolt bv
bribing the revolters with concessions,
the villages and the towns are in insur-
rection, long before the reunion of the
states general and Mlrabeau's dis
courses Hundreds of outbreaks (Taine
knows of 3OO) take place in the villages,
before the Parisians, armed with pixies
and few wretched cannon, seize the
Bastile.
From that moment it becomes impos-
sible to master the Revolution. If it
had only broken out in Paris, if it had
been but parliamentary Revolution, it
would have been drowned in blood, and
the hordes OF the counter Revolution
would have marched the white flag from
village to village, from town to town,
massacrlng the peasants and the ans
culottes. But happily, from the very
start, the Revolution had taken a differ
ent character. 1t had broken out al
most simultaneously in a thousand
places; in each village, in each market
town, in each large city of the insurrec-
ii nary provinces, the Revolutionary
minorities, strong in their own boldness
and the silent support that they discoV-
cred in the yearnings of the people,
marched to tie conquest of the country
seat, of the town-hall, of the Bastile, ter
rorized the aristocracy and the upper
bourgeoisie, and abolished privilege.
The minority commenced the Revolu-
ton and dragged the masses with it.
1t will be the same with the Revolu
ton whose approach we now foresee.
The idea of Anarchist Communism,
represented to day by feeble minorities,
but revealing itself ever clearly and more
clearly to the public mind, will make its
own way with the masses. The groups
scattered everywhere, small in numbers
though they be, but strong in the sup
port that they will find in the people,
will raise the red flag of insurrection.
This, breaking out at the same time at a
thousand points, will prevent the estab-
lishment of any government to shackle
events, and the Revolution will rage TN
til it shall have accomplished its mis-
sion: the abolition of private property
by the state.
Upon tina. day, what is now the mi
nority will be the People, the great mass,
and that mass risen in insurrectlon
against property and will march to An
archistlc Communism.