Paul Brousse

Extract

Paul Brousse was not in the strict sense of the word a Communard. That is to say, he was not a member of the Paris Commune, nor did he, so far as is known, take part in any of the simultaneous provincial uprisings. He was, however, of the Communard generation, he was politically committed to the radical movement, and was working on Guesde's Les Droits de l'Homme in Montpellier when the Commune was declared. He suffered from its consequences, and he drew conclusions from it which bore on his own distinctive contribution to the French socialist movement. In other words, he was as affected by it as many of his generation who were more directly involved, but in a way which prevented him from falling into the sectarianism compounded of personal and ideological issues which were characteristic of much of the Communard exile generation. These factors, plus his undoubted significance in the revival of the socialist movement in France in the late 1870's, justify his inclusion in a symposium of this kind.