A fragment from the French Revolution of 1848, drafted by a group of revolutionists including the anarcho-communist Joseph Déjacque to the workers of Paris.
TO THE WORKERS.
Brothers!
We learn that in the midst of the joy and triumph, some of our own, misled by dangerous advice, want to tarnish the glory of our revolution by excesses that we condemn with all our energies. They want to break the machinery.
Brothers, that is wrong! We suffer like them from the disturbances that have been led to by the introduction of machines into industry; but, instead of taking it our on the inventions that shorten labor by multiplying production, let us accuse of the selfish and improvident governments for our sorrows. They can no longer be the same in the future.
So respect the machines!
Moreover, to attack the mechanical presses is to slow down, to hold back the approach of the revolution. It is, in the graves circumstances where we are, to do the work of the bad citizen.
Nouguès, printer; Pascal, id.; Joly, tailor; Bérard, id.; Pénéan, cork-maker; Gilland, locksmith; Gaumont, watchmaker-mechanic; Bourdin, id.; Déjacque, paper-hanger; Abraham, binder; Gauthier, printer; Pasquier, id.; Desbrosses, draughtsman; Danguy, printer; Chardenot, joiner; Roce, carpenter; Lambert, bookkeeper; Gaillard, printer; Garnier, bookkeeper; Capron, id.; Fornet, jeweler; Leroy, id.; Corbon, worker in marble; Ronce, printer; Viez, id.; Scott, id.; Trapp, id.
[Working translation by Shawn P. Wilbur]
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