Joseph Déjacque

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Joseph Déjacque (b. December 1821, Paris - d. 1864, Paris) was a French anarcho-communist poet and writer.

Of unknown origins, Déjacque was first heard of when arrested as part of the revolutionary upheavals in France in 1848. Imprisoned for a time for socialist agitation he was released but rearrested in 1851 and sentenced for two years for his collection of poems "Les Lazaréennes, Fables et Poésies Sociales".

He escaped around the time of the December 2, 1851 coup d'état to London. While in Jersey between 1852 - 1853 he published "La question révolutionnaire", an exposition of anarchism. [1] From there he passed on the USA where he spoke to workers associations in New York and was a signatory to the programme of the First International there in 1855.

Whilst staying in New Orleans from 1856 - 1858 he wrote his famous anarchist utopia "L'Humanisphère, Utopie anarchique" but could not find a publisher. Returning to New York he was able to serialise his book in his periodical "Le Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement social". Published in 27 issues from June 9, 1858 to February 4, 1861, Le Libertaire was the first anarcho-communist journal published in America. As well as many articles on revolution and current political events both in France and the USA he attacked the hanging of John Brown after the raid on Harpers Ferry and propagandised for the abolitionist cause.

Déjacque was the first to use the term "libertarian" in print in 1857 in a letter criticising Pierre Joseph Proudhon for an attack by the latter on feminism and his support for individual ownership of the product of labor and a market economy, saying: "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature." [2] His stay in New York ended when his work prospects ran out due to the economic slump occasioned by the outbreak of the Civil War. He returned to London and then to Paris where he died a few years later in extreme poverty.

According to Alain Pengam, Dejacque sought to abolish (quoting Dejacque) "personal property, property in land, buildings, workshops, shops, property in anything that is an instrument of work, production or consumption." (Anarchist-Communism by Alain Pengam)