Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Plural socialism
- 2 The social question
- 3 Revolutionary inspirations
- 4 Religion and the early socialists
- 5 Socialists and education: to repulse the barbarians
- 6 The “new woman”
- 7 Association: dream worlds
- 8 Worker associations before 1848
- 9 Association: socialist hopes in the Second Republic
- 10 Association: the conservative reaction in the Second Republic
- 11 Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
10 - Association: the conservative reaction in the Second Republic
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Plural socialism
- 2 The social question
- 3 Revolutionary inspirations
- 4 Religion and the early socialists
- 5 Socialists and education: to repulse the barbarians
- 6 The “new woman”
- 7 Association: dream worlds
- 8 Worker associations before 1848
- 9 Association: socialist hopes in the Second Republic
- 10 Association: the conservative reaction in the Second Republic
- 11 Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
It is generally assumed that after the repression of the workers' rebellion in June 1848, moderate republicans, and the increasingly assertive “Party of Order”, composed of former monarchists, resolutely stripped away all traces of radical and socialist hopes, which had been evinced in the euphoria of February 1848. This chapter will show that the image of unrelenting reaction, epitomized on canvas in Meissonier's evocative La Barricade, is, to some degree, misleading. It is true that the right to work, promised in February, was diluted in the new constitution, and associations of all kinds were hounded, but neither were entirely expunged until after Louis-Napoleon's coup in December 1851. The projected first national survey of the economy was completed after the June Days, although its recommendations were ignored. The most outstanding radical/socialist initiative of June 1848 is one often forgotten by historians, perhaps because it conveyed such contradictory signals. Precisely when the assembly unleashed Cavaignac to butcher the worker rebels in June 1848, they accepted a proposal for a 3 million franc loan to allow members of the national workshops to regroup as producer cooperatives. The money was distributed and socialist activists like Deroin were able to create networks of cooperatives. These three initiatives, namely the proposal to include a right to work in the constitution, to make a national survey of economic and social problems and the policy of giving government loans to cooperatives, will be examined in this chapter in the framework of increasing conservative suspicion and hostility to radical and socialist objectives.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- French Socialists before MarxWorkers, Women and the Social Question in France, pp. 173 - 197Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2000