Lefrançais, Gustave Adolphe

Born Jan. 30, 1826, in Angers; died May 16, 1901, in Paris. French revolutionary.

Lefrançais was a teacher by profession. He took part in the Revolution of 1848. He was one of the organizers of the Association of Socialist Teachers in 1849. Because of his political activity, in the spring of 1851 he was deprived of his license to teach. After the coup d’etat of Dec. 2, 1851, he was compelled to emigrate to Great Britain. He returned to Paris in 1853. In the 1860’s, Lefrançais joined the First International and was a member of the Federal Council of the Parisian Sections, where he was aligned with the left Proudhonists. He was sent to prison for his part in the rebellion of Oct. 31, 1870. On Mar. 26, 1871, he was elected a member of the Paris Commune. He was in turn a member of the Executive Commission, the Commission of Labor and Exchange, and the Commission of Finances. Lefrançais joined the Proudhonist “minority” in the Commune. After suppression of the Commune, he fled to Switzerland in July 1871. In August 1872 he was sentenced in absentia to death. While in Geneva, he sided with the Bakuninists. He attended the Hague Congress of the First International without a mandate. After he was amnestied in 1880, he returned to Paris, where he settled down for good in 1887.