Paul LAFARGUE and Laura MARX
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Socialist theorists.
Paul Lafargue, born in Santiago de Cuba, married Laura, Karl Marx's second daughter, and brought Marxism into France, as translator and as propagandist. His Right to Be Lazy, a pamphlet against the religion of work, lost none of its bite. Imprisoned in 1891 for his words, he was elected deputy from his cell. In 1911 he chose to die with Laura rather than wait for old age.
The story
Paul Lafargue was born at Santiago de Cuba on 15 January 1842. He married Laura, the second of Karl Marx's daughters, and became one of the chief importers of Marxism into France — translator, propagandist, theorist.
In 1880, with Jules Guesde, he founded the Parti ouvrier français, the country's first Marxist organisation, and published “The Right to Be Lazy”: a pamphlet against the religion of work that has lost none of its bite.
In 1891, after the troops fired on strikers at Fourmies, he was gaoled for incitement to murder — and elected deputy for the Nord from his cell. The seat came to him out of the prison his own words had put him in.
On 26 November 1911, at Draveil, he injected himself with cyanide alongside Laura. He left a letter: “Sound in body and mind, I am killing myself before pitiless old age paralyses my energy.” They were sixty-nine and sixty-six.
They lie in Division 76, the same Division as the Communards' Wall, with the Longuets — another branch of Marx's descendants, two of them sculptors, Karl-Jean and Simone Longuet.
The grave
A plain stele on which the two names follow each other: “Paul Lafargue, 1842-1911” and “Laura Lafargue, née Marx, 1846-1911”. Laura's year of birth is engraved there a year after the one the reference works give, which have her born in 1845 — the discrepancy was never settled. The grave brings together two branches of Karl Marx's descendants: the Lafargues, and the Longuets — Jean, the philosopher's grandson and a socialist deputy who died in 1938, Robert Jean, and the sculptors Karl-Jean Longuet and Simone née Boisecq.
On site, do not miss
Laura's year of birth engraved “1846”, a year after the one the reference works give — and, lower down, four Longuet names.
Visitors' questions
Where is the grave of Paul Lafargue and Laura Marx?
In Division 76, avenue Circulaire, second row — the Division of the Communards' Wall and of Jean-Baptiste Clément's grave. The stele bears their two names and, lower down, those of four members of the Longuet family.
The Communards' WallHow did they die?
Together, on 26 November 1911 at Draveil, by cyanide injection. Paul Lafargue had left a letter explaining that he was killing himself “avant que l'impitoyable vieillesse ne paralyse” his energy — before pitiless old age paralysed it. He was sixty-nine.
Auguste BlanquiWhat is “Le Droit à la paresse”?
A pamphlet Lafargue published in 1880 — “The Right to Be Lazy” — against the religion of work, in the same year that he founded the Parti ouvrier français with Jules Guesde, France's first Marxist organisation. The text remains in print to this day.
Jean-Baptiste ClémentWho else rests in this grave?
The Longuet family, another branch of Marx's descendants: Jean Longuet, the philosopher's grandson and a socialist deputy, who died in 1938, and two sculptors, Karl-Jean Longuet and Simone, née Boisecq.
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