Activities and affiliations

Social movements and organizing Conspiracy of the Equals / Société des Égaux 1750–1803

French writer and author of the Manifesto of the Equals

A radical writer of the revolutionary era whose 1796 Manifesto of the Equals demanded real equality and community of property beyond equality in law.

A French writer who also worked as a lawyer and librarian, Maréchal wrote the 1796 Manifesto of the Equals. It demanded equality in everyday life and common enjoyment of property, beyond equality written into law. Although associated with Babeuf’s movement, the text is Maréchal’s work. Its formulations should not all be treated as the leadership’s agreed programme or as enacted policy. It helps trace connections, as well as differences, between revolutionary egalitarianism and later socialism.

Social movements and organizing Conspiracy of the Equals / Société des Égaux 1760–1797

Advocate of substantive equality in the Conspiracy of the Equals

Born François-Noël Babeuf; a journalist who judged the Revolution's legal equality powerless against poverty and property inequality, he led the 1796 Conspiracy of the Equals against the Directory, was arrested and executed in 1797.

Born François-Noël Babeuf, he was a journalist and activist during the French Revolution who challenged inequalities of property and living conditions beyond legal equality. He participated in the 1796 Conspiracy of the Equals against the Directory, was arrested and was executed in 1797. Sylvain Maréchal wrote the Manifesto of the Equals; it is neither a text authored by Babeuf nor a record of enacted policy. Later socialists received and transformed this legacy rather than simply inheriting an unchanged doctrine.