The Belgian Massacres
Author | Karl Marx |
---|---|
Language | French; English |
Subject | State repression of strikes and class conflict in Belgium |
Publication date | 12 May 1869 |
Media type | |
Preceded by | "Value, Price and Profit" (1865) |
Followed by | "The Civil War in France" (1871) |
"The Belgian Massacres. To the Workmen of Europe and the United States" is a minor political pamphlet written by Karl Marx in May 1869. In it, Marx responds to the violent repression of strikes which had occurred in Belgium the previous month.
Background
Text
Marx's pamphlet was prepared in French and English versions and presented to the General Council of the International on 4 May 1869 and was officially published as a leaflet in London on 12 May 1869. It was subsequently republished, either integrally or in condensed form, in a number of Belgian and European newspapers.
In the text, Marx contrasts the relative acceptance of strikes in the United Kingdom and the United States with the aggressive posture taken in Belgium. He writes:
There exists but one country in the civilised world where every strike is eagerly and joyously turned into a pretext for the official massacre of the Working Class. That country of single blessedness is Belgium! the model state of continental constitutionalism, the snug, well-hedged, little paradise of the landlord, the capitalist, and the priest. The earth performs not more surely its yearly revolution than the Belgian Government its yearly Working Men’s massacre. The massacre of this year does not differ from last year’s massacre, but by the ghastlier number of its victims, the more hideous ferocity of an otherwise ridiculous army, the noisier jubilation of the clerical and capitalist press, and the intensified frivolity of the pretexts put forward by the Governmental butchers.
Marx suggests several explanations for the violent repression of the strike. He considers that the
References
- ^ Dumont 1996, p. 110.
- ^ Dumont 1996, p. 112.
Bibliography
- Dumont, Georges-Henri (1996). La Vie quotidienne en Belgique sous le Règne de Léopold II (1865–1909) (in French) (Rev. ed.). Brussels: Éd. Le Cri. ISBN 2-87106-173-4.
External links
- The Belgian Massacres text at Marxist Internet Archive