« Il est temps que le Peuple, foulé et assassiné, manifeste sa volonté pour que la misère elle-même soit anéantie. Qu’il proclame son Manifeste. Qu’il prouve que la démocratie est l’obligation de remplir, par ceux qui ont trop, tout ce qui manque à ceux qui n’ont point assez ! » Depuis 1793, les principes inscrits dans la Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen de l’an I sont détruits et ceux qui les défendent sont réprimés. En octobre 1795, Gracchus Babeuf (1760-1797) a compris que l’avènement du Directoire mène à la fin de la tentative démocratique, qu’il achève la trahison de la Révolution. Dans son journal Le Tribun du peuple, il revendique l’idéal d’Égalité et de « bonheur commun ». Bientôt accusé de conspiration, il sera arrêté et exécuté sur ordre du Directoire.
Author
François-Noël Babeuf, known as Gracchus Babeuf, was a French political agitator and journalist of the French Revolutionary period. His newspaper Le tribun du people ("the tribune of the people") was best known for his advocacy for the poor and calling for a popular revolt against the Directory, the government of France. He was a leading advocate for democracy, the abolition of private property and the equality of results. He angered the authorities who were clamping down hard on their radical enemies. In spite of the efforts of his Jacobin friends to save him, Babeuf was executed for his role in the Conspiracy of the Equals. The "Gracchus" nickname likened him to the ancient Roman tribunes of the people. Although the words "anarchist" and "communist" did not exist in Babeuf's lifetime, they have both been used to describe his ideas, by later scholars. The word "communism" was coined by Goodwyn Barmby in a conversation with those he described as the "disciples of Babeuf". He has been called "The First Revolutionary Communist."
