French June Uprising
1848 February Revolution, the people of Paris overthrew the "July Dynasty", but the bourgeoisie stole the revolutionary achievements and established the Second Republic of France. The interim government set up a "state-owned factory" to absorb unemployed workers and drive them to do paving and digging. Pay them a small salary and tell the workers that this is socialism. Under the pretext of supporting workers in "state-owned factories", they also increased taxes on farmers and provoked the relationship between farmers and workers. At the same time, the interim government organized rangers among rogue proletarians to deal with Paris workers. After planning these plots, the interim government brazenly ordered the dissolution of the "national factory".
On June 22nd, angry "national factory" workers marched and demonstrated, and the uprising broke out in June. From the 23rd, the fierce street fighting lasted for four days. Finally, government troops and rangers, six times as many as the uprising workers, suppressed the uprising.
Marx and Engels on the June Uprising
A decisive struggle is coming. It can only break out in France; Because when Britain did not take part in the revolutionary battle and Germany was still in a state of division, France was the only country that could give strong impetus to neighboring countries because of its independence, civilization and centralization. Therefore, when the bloody struggle in Paris began on June 23rd, 1848, one telegram and another letter made Europe more and more aware of the fact that this struggle was between the working people and other classes of Paris residents who received military assistance. The fighting lasted for several days, and its intensity was unprecedented in the history of modern civil war ... It was a great decisive battle. If the uprising is successful, the whole European continent will set off a new revolutionary wave. If the uprising fails, counter-revolutionary rule will be restored at least temporarily.
(Engels: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany (1 851-1852), Selected Works of Marx and Engels, vol.1,p. 550. )
The workers have no choice: if they don't want to starve to death, they will fight. They responded with the massive uprising on June 22nd, which was the first war between two opposing classes in modern society. This is a battle to maintain or destroy the bourgeois system. ……
As we all know, those workers who had no leader, no action plan, no funds and most of them were so brave and ingenious that they kept the army, rangers, the National Guard in Paris and the joint forces from other provinces in the National Guard for five consecutive days. As we all know, the bourgeoisie took unprecedented cruel revenge for the death terror it suffered, killing more than 3,000 prisoners.
(Marx: 1848 to 1850), Selected Works of Marx and Engels, vol. 1 4 15. )
Characteristics of the early workers' movement:
Macroscopically, 19 can only be regarded as the rising and early development stage of the workers' movement from 1930s to early 1970s. This stage coincides with the time of the first industrial revolution. This is by no means a coincidence, but the first industrial revolution, which determined the main characteristics of the early workers' movement.
During the first industrial revolution, machine production just replaced manual labor, and the transition from handicraft workshop to factory system was rapidly going on. But after all, there will be no "one size fits all" phenomenon in the process of economic evolution. It is inevitable and very common that the old and the new alternate and traditional traces can be seen everywhere. This includes the exploitation methods and usual means of the bourgeoisie. At that time, they basically followed the practice of exploiting absolute surplus value, that is, increasing labor intensity, extending labor hours, reducing wages, hiring child workers, and supervising workers with labor heads. Economically speaking, this is an artificial way to forcibly shorten the necessary labor time and extend the remaining labor time. The so-called necessary labor time is the time needed to recover the investment and maintain the cost. What is left is surplus labor time, and the wealth created belongs to surplus value, that is, the part exploited by the bourgeoisie. In this case, the living conditions of workers are very miserable. The income is extremely low, the food is not enough, and the living conditions are unbearable. The workers have accumulated very strong dissatisfaction and resentment in their chests.
This economic situation also determines the political situation to a great extent. On the one hand, the bourgeoisie at that time did not have the concept of scientific management of enterprises, and still directed production and controlled workers by compulsory orders. Reflected in politics, they prefer to keep the monarchy, and only accept the * * * peace system in exceptional circumstances, and the time is very short. In other words, the consciousness of democratic management is not very strong, but more accustomed to repressive traditional policies. In addition, the industrial bourgeoisie, which rose in the industrial revolution, could not gain a dominant position for a while. Except for Britain, which completed the industrial revolution at the earliest, the financial bourgeoisie and the land aristocracy were in power in all countries. These people have no intention at all and oppose democratic reforms in the superstructure. All these decided that the human rights situation at that time was far from ideal. Since even the industrial bourgeoisie is still in a suppressed position, the situation of workers can be imagined. Without any political rights, their social status is extremely low, which naturally deepens the anger of workers. They must resolutely fight for political rights. Obviously, it was the actual degree of economic development during the first industrial revolution that determined the social and political situation at that time, as well as the situation of the working class and the mood of workers.
The characteristics of the first stage of the workers' movement were formed under such a background. First of all. At this time, the labor movement is basically a political struggle. This is because workers have no political rights. They naturally think that their miserable situation is largely due to their failure to enjoy their due rights as citizens. Without the right to vote, it is impossible for their own representatives to enter the National Assembly, and there is no one to speak for workers in the legislature. Therefore, the political nature of the struggle is generally obvious. 183l and 1834, silk workers in Lyon, France, revolted twice. The first time was to fight for survival, which was of an economic nature. The second time, he put forward the political slogan of "peace or death". The goal of the British constitutional movement is to strive for universal suffrage, which naturally belongs to political struggle. 1848 The workers' uprising in Paris in June wrote the words "one democratic society, one country" on its own banner, which had the intention of fundamentally transforming the nature of the country and was a political struggle. After that, apart from the British trade union movement, the establishment of the First International and the German Social Democratic Labor Party were undoubtedly major political events. Immediately after the Paris Commune Revolution, workers seized power directly, which was undoubtedly a political struggle. This is one point.
Secondly, most of the workers' movements at this time were violent. This is a reflection of the strong anger in the workers' chests. Both Lyon uprisings were armed struggles, and the Charter Movement was generally a petition activity, but at the second climax of 1842, armed conflicts also occurred. As for the June Uprising of Paris Workers and the Paris Commune Revolution of 1848, it was even more violent. In addition, there are sporadic riots and uprisings, such as 1844 workers' uprising in Silesia.
Finally, the early workers' movements were mostly spontaneous, and organized, planned and prepared struggles were extremely rare. At that time, the working class was just born, and the degree of organization and consciousness was not high. Later, some workers' groups and trade unions appeared, but most of them were not mature enough. British trade unions are mature, but they are keen on economic struggle and never engage in political or violent struggle. So spontaneous struggle is still the most common. Of all the struggles that took place at this time, the Paris Commune Revolution was the highest level. However, it is still a spontaneous struggle in terms of dominance. As we all know, Marx once warned the workers in Paris that it would only be desperate and foolish to launch an armed uprising when the enemy was knocking at the door. However, under the siege of the Prussian army and the "national defense government" with workers as the primary enemy, the workers in Paris could no longer bear it, and still held an uprising, namely the March 18 Revolution. Obviously, this unbearable action should belong to spontaneous struggle.
The above three points can be said to be the phenomenon of the workers' movement in the first stage. It should be pointed out that this spontaneous political struggle and violent struggle failed without exception. History tells us that only by further raising the degree of organization and consciousness to a new level can the workers' movement succeed. However, it is impossible to do it entirely by subjective efforts. From a macro point of view, only after industrial capitalism has developed to a considerable extent can the consciousness of the working class be improved. Being determines consciousness, which is the law.