- Enragés
"Les Enragés" (literally "the Enraged Ones") were a radical group active during the
French Revolution of 1789 opposed to the JacobinsFact|date=March 2008. Initiated byJacques Roux , Théophile Leclerc,Jean Varlet and others, they believed that liberty for all meant more than mere constitutional rights. Roux once said that "liberty is no more than an empty shell when one class is allowed to condemn another to starvation and no measures taken against them".The demands of the "enragés" included:
*Price controls on grain
*The "assignat " as the only legal tender
*Repression of counterrevolutionary activity
*A progressive income taxThey were supported by the "
sans-culotte s". To the left of the Montagnards, the "enragés" were fought against byMaximilien de Robespierre and reëmerged as the group ofHébertistes . Their ideas were taken up and developed by Babeuf and his associates.Another group styling itself "les enragés" emerged in France in
1968 among students atNanterre University . They were heavily influenced by the Situationists and would go on to be one of the leading groups in theMay 1968 French insurrection.References
*
Daniel Guérin : "Class struggle in the first French republic : bourgeois and bras nus 1793-1795", London: Pluto Press, 1977
*René Viénet : "Enragés and Situationists in the Occupation Movement, France, May'68" , New York: Automedia 1992 ISBN 0-936756-79-9, London: Rebel Press 1992, ISBN 0-946061-05-4This material is taken with permission from http://www.enrager.net
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