Louis Blanc

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Louis Blanc
Born	(1811-10-29)29 October 1811 Madrid, Spain
Died	6 December 1882(1882-12-06) (aged 71) Cannes, France
Resting place	Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Socialism
Main interests	Politics, history, economy
Notable ideas	Right to work, national workshops
Member of the National Assembly for Seine 5
In office 13 February 1871 – 6 December 1882
Minister of State
Provisional government
In office 24 February 1848 – 9 May 1848
Personal details
Political party	The Mountain (1849–1852) Republican Union (1871–1882)

Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc (/blɑːn/ blahn; French: [blɑ̃]; 29 October 1811 – 6 December 1882) was a French socialist politician, journalist and historian. He called for the creation of cooperatives in order to guarantee employment for the urban poor. Although Blanc's ideas of the workers' cooperatives were never realized, his political and social ideas greatly contributed to the development of socialism in France. He wanted the government to encourage cooperatives and replace capitalist enterprises. These cooperatives were to be associations of people who produced together and divided the profit accordingly.

Following the Revolution of 1848, Blanc became a member of the provisional government and began advocating for cooperatives which would be initially aided by the government but ultimately controlled by the workers themselves. Blanc's advocacy failed; caught between radical worker tendencies and the National Guard, he was forced into exile. Blanc returned to France in 1870, shortly before the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, where he served as a member of the National Assembly for Seine. While he did not support the Paris Commune, he successfully proposed amnesty to the Communards.