Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue (; 15 January 1842 – 25 November 1911) was a Cuban-born French revolutionary
Marxist socialist, political writer, economist, journalist,
literary critic, and
activist; he was
Karl Marx's son-in-law, having married his second daughter,
Laura. His best known work is ''
The Right to Be Lazy''. Born in Cuba to French and
Saint Dominican Creole parents, Lafargue spent most of his life in France, with periods in England and Spain. At the age of 69, he and 66-year-old Laura died together by a
suicide pact.
Lafargue was the subject of a famous quotation by
Karl Marx. Soon before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter to Lafargue and the
French Workers' Party organizer
Jules Guesde, both of whom already claimed to represent "Marxist" principles. Marx accused them of "revolutionary phrase-mongering" and of denying the value of
reformist struggles. This exchange is the source of Marx's remark, reported by
Friedrich Engels, "" ("If one thing is certain, I am not a Marxist").
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