Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte | Page 7

finance was to be overthrown.
When however, it came to a real conflict, when the people mounted the
barricades, when the National Guard stood passive, when the army
offered no serious resistance, and the kingdom ran away, then the
republic seemed self-understood. Each party interpreted it in its own
sense. Won, arms in hand, by the proletariat, they put upon it the stamp
of their own class, and proclaimed the social republic. Thus the general
purpose of modern revolutions was indicated, a purpose, however, that
stood in most singular contradiction to every thing that, with the
material at hand, with the stage of enlightenment that the masses had
reached, and under existing circumstances and conditions, could be
immediately used. On the other hand, the claims of all the other
elements, that had cooperated in the revolution of February, were
recognized by the lion's share that they received in the government.
Hence, in no period do we find a more motley mixture of
high-sounding phrases together with actual doubt and helplessness; of
more enthusiastic reform aspirations, together with a more slavish
adherence to the old routine; more seeming harmony permeating the
whole of society together with a deeper alienation of its several
elements. While the Parisian proletariat was still gloating over the sight
of the great perspective that had disclosed itself to their view, and was
indulging in seriously meant discussions over the social problems, the
old powers of society had groomed themselves, had gathered together,
had deliberated and found an unexpected support in the mass of the
nation--the peasants and small traders--all of whom threw themselves

on a sudden upon the political stage, after the barriers of the July
monarchy had fallen down.
The second period, from May 4, 1848, to the end of May, 1849, is the
period of the constitution, of the founding of the bourgeois republic
immediately after the February days, not only was the dynastic
opposition surprised by the republicans, and the republicans by the
Socialists, but all France was surprised by Paris. The national assembly,
that met on May 4, 1848, to frame a constitution, was the outcome of
the national elections; it represented the nation. It was a living protest
against the assumption of the February days, and it was intended to
bring the results of the revolution back to the bourgeois measure. In
vain did the proletariat of Paris, which forthwith understood the
character of this national assembly, endeavor, a few days after its
meeting; on May 15, to deny its existence by force, to dissolve it, to
disperse the organic apparition, in which the reacting spirit of the
nation was threatening them, and thus reduce it back to its separate
component parts. As is known, the 15th of May had no other result than
that of removing Blanqui and his associates, i.e. the real leaders of the
proletarian party, from the public scene for the whole period of the
cycle which we are here considering.
Upon the bourgeois monarchy of Louis Philippe, only the bourgeois
republic could follow; that is to say, a limited portion of the
bourgeoisie having ruled under the name of the king, now the whole
bourgeoisie was to rule under the name of the people. The demands of
the Parisian proletariat are utopian tom-fooleries that have to be done
away with. To this declaration of the constitutional national assembly,
the Paris proletariat answers with the June insurrection, the most
colossal event in the history of European civil wars. The bourgeois
republic won. On its side stood the aristocracy of finance, the industrial
bourgeoisie; the middle class; the small traders' class; the army; the
slums, organized as Guarde Mobile; the intellectual celebrities, the
parsons' class, and the rural population. On the side of the Parisian
proletariat stood none but itself. Over 3,000 insurgents were massacred,
after the victory 15,000 were transported without trial. With this defeat,
the proletariat steps to the background on the revolutionary stage. It

always seeks to crowd forward, so soon as the movement seems to
acquire new impetus, but with ever weaker effort and ever smaller
results; So soon as any of the above lying layers of society gets into
revolutionary fermentation, it enters into alliance therewith and thus
shares all the defeats which the several parties successively suffer. But
these succeeding blows become ever weaker the more generally they
are distributed over the whole surface of society. The more important
leaders of the Proletariat, in its councils, and the press, fall one after
another victims of the courts, and ever more questionable figures step
to the front. It partly throws itself it upon doctrinaire experiments,
"co-operative banking" and "labor exchange" schemes; in other words,
movements, in which it goes into movements in which it gives up the
task of revolutionizing the old world with its own