Enraged Ones Enragés | |
|---|---|
| Leaders | Jacques Roux Théophile Leclerc Jean Varlet Claire Lacombe |
| Founded | 1792; 233 years ago (1792) |
| Dissolved | 1794; 231 years ago (1794) |
| Split from | Jacobin Club |
| Ideology | Direct democracy Proto-socialism Republicanism Ultra-radicalism[1] Populism[2][3][4] Proto-communism[5] |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Colours | Red |
TheEnragés (French:[ɑ̃ʁɑʒe]ⓘ;transl. "enraged ones"), commonly known as theUltra-radicals (French:Ultra-radicaux), were a small number of firebrands known for defending the lower class and expressing the demands of the radicalsans-culottes during theFrench Revolution.[6] They played an active role in the31 May – 2 June 1793 Paris uprisings that forced the expulsion of theGirondins from theNational Convention, allowing theMontagnards to assume full control.[7] The Enragés gained their name for their angry rhetoric appealing to the National Convention to take more measures that would benefit the poor.Jacques Roux,Jean-François Varlet,Jean Théophile Victor Leclerc andClaire Lacombe, the primary leaders of the Enragés, were strident critics of the National Convention for failing to carry out the promises of the French Revolution.[6]
The Enragés were not a unified party, but rather a set of individuals who worked for their own objectives, and evidence of cooperation between them is inconclusive.[8] The leaders did not view themselves as part of a cohesive movement, with Roux even calling for Varlet's arrest at one point.[9] The notion of the Enragés as a cohesive group was perpetuated by theJacobins, as they lumped their critics to the left into one group.[10]
In 1793, Jacques Roux delivered a speech at the National Convention known as theManifesto of the Enragés that represented the essential demands of the group. He asserted that freedom and equality had thus far been "vain phantoms", because the rich had profited from the French Revolution at the expense of the poor. To remedy this, he proposed measures forprice controls, arguing, "Those goods necessary to all should be delivered at a price accessible to all". He also called for strict punishments against actors engaged inspeculation andmonopoly. He demanded the National Convention take severe action to represscounterrevolutionary activity, promising to "show them [enemies] those immortal pikes that overthrew theBastille". Lastly, he accused the National Convention of ruining the finances of the state and encouraged the exclusive use of theassignat to stabilize finances.[11]
The Enragés formed in response to theJacobins's reluctance to restrain thecapitalistbourgeois. Many Parisians feared that theNational Convention protected merchants and shopkeepers at the expense of thesans-culottes, the lower-class working peoples. The Enragés, though not a cohesive body, offered these working poor a platform to express their dissent. Their dissent was often conveyed through riots, public demonstrations and passionate oratory.
Jacques Roux andJean-Francois Varlet emboldened the Parisian working poor to approach the Jacobin Club on 22 February 1793 and persuade them to place price controls onnecessary goods. The Enragés appointed two women to represent the movement and their agenda to the National Convention. However, the Convention refused to grant them an audience. This provoked outrage and criticism throughout Paris, and some went as far as to accuse the National Convention of protecting the merchant elite's interests at the expense of thesans-culottes. Further attempts of the Enragés to communicate their position were denied by the National Convention. Determined to be heard, they responded with revolt. They plundered the homes and businesses of the merchant elite, employing direct action to meet their needs. The Enragés were noted for using both legal and extralegal means to achieve their ends.[12]
The Enragés were composed of members within the National Convention and thesans-culottes. They illuminated the internal and external war waged by thesans-culottes. They complained that the National Conventionordered men to fight on the battlefield without providing for the widows and orphans remaining in France. They emphasized the unavailability of basic necessities, particularly bread. In hisManifesto of the Enragés, Jacques Roux colorfully expressed this sentiment to the National Convention, asking,[13]
Is it necessary that the widows of those who died for the cause of freedom pay, at the price of gold, for the cotton they need to wipe away their tears, for the milk and the honey that serves for their children?
They accused the merchant aristocracy of withholding access to goods and supplies to intentionally drive up prices. Roux demanded that the National Convention imposecapital punishment upon unethical merchants who usedspeculation,monopolies andhoarding to increase their personal profits at the expense of the poor. The Enragés labeledprice gouging as counter-revolutionary and treasonous. This sentiment also extended to those who sympathized with the recently executed KingLouis XVI. They felt that those who sympathized with the monarchy would also sympathize with those who hoarded goods. It is not surprising that many within the Enragés actively worked against theGirondin faction of the Convention and, indeed, contributed to the demise of the moderate Girondins, who were widely seen as having fought to spare the king. Those who adhered to the ideologies presented in theManifesto of the Enragés wished to emphasize to the National Convention that tyranny was not just the product of monarchy, and that injustice and oppression did not end with theexecution of the king. In their view, oppression existed whenever one stratum of society sought to monopolize the majority of resources while simultaneously preventing others from gaining access to those same resources. In their view, the pursuit of resources was acceptable, but the act of limiting access to resources was punishable by death.
The Enragés called on the National Convention to restrict commerce, so that it might not "consist of ruining, rendering hopeless, or starving citizens".[11] While the Enragés occasionally worked within political structures, their primary objective was achieving social and economic reform. They were a direct action group, attempting to meet the immediate needs of the working poor.[12]
Jean-François Varlet, though a man, understood the enormous influence women possessed, particularly within the French Revolution. Varlet formed the Enragés by provoking and motivating working poor women and organizing them into a semi-cohesive mobile unit. The Enragés often appointed women as speakers to represent the movement in the National Convention. Revolutionaryproto-feminists held vital positions within the Enragés, includingClaire Lacombe andPauline Léon. The proto-feminists of the French Revolution are now credited with inspiringfeminist movements in the 19th century.[6]
Jacques Roux, aRoman Catholic priest, was a leader of the Enragés. Roux supported the common people (i.e., thesans-culottes) andrepublicanism. He participated inpeasant movements and endorsed theCivil Constitution of the Clergy, to which he swore an oath on 16 January 1791. Roux famously claimed,[14]
I am ready to give every last drop of my blood to a Revolution that has already altered the fate of the human race by making men equal among themselves as they are all for all eternity before God.
Roux saw violence as a key to the French Revolution’s success. In fact, whenKing Louis XVI was executed in January 1793, it was Roux who led him to the scaffold.[15]
Jean Varlet, another leader of the Enragés, played a leading role in thefall of the monarchy. WhenKing Louis XVIattempted to flee Paris, Varlet circulated petitions in theNational Assembly and spoke against the king. On10 August 1792, theLegislative Assembly suspended the king and called for the election of aNational Convention. Varlet was elected as adeputy in the new Convention. Even as a member of this representative government, though, Varlet mistrusted representation and favored directuniversal suffrage which could bind representatives andrecall elected legislators. He sought to prevent the wealthy from expanding their profits at the expense of the poor and called for thenationalization of all profits obtained throughmonopoly andhoarding.[16]
In 1790,Théophile Leclerc joined the first battalion ofMorbihan volunteers, remaining a member until February 1792. He gained recognition in Paris through a speech to theJacobins attacking Louis XVI. After moving toLyon, he joined the Central Club and marriedPauline Léon, arevolutionary woman. He approved of radical violence like the other Enragés, calling for the execution of expelledGirondins after the2 June insurrection.[17]
In 1793, the actressClaire Lacombe, another individual associated with the Enragés, founded theSociety of Revolutionary Republican Women. This group was outraged by high costs of living, lack of necessities and awful living conditions. Lacombe was known for violent rhetoric and action. On 26 May 1793, Lacombe nearly beat to death a Girondin woman,Théroigne de Méricourt, with a whip on the benches of the Convention. She might have killed her ifJean-Paul Marat had not intervened.[17]
To the left of theMontagnards andHébertists, the Enragés were undermined by Montagnard leaderMaximilien Robespierre and Hébertist leaderJacques Hébert, both of whom implemented some of their proposals in order to appeal to the samesans-culottes the Enragés sought to win over. Their ideas were taken up and developed byGracchus Babeuf and his associates.
Another group styling itself asEnragés emerged in France in 1968 among students atNanterre University. Inspired by, and closely allied with, theSituationists, theseEnragés emerged as one of the leading groups in theMay 1968 French protests.[18]
It was also encouraged by small group of ultra radicals, called the Enragés, or 'angry men'. They have attracted a great deal of attention because of their extreme radicalism but they were never a coherent group.
