Magdeleine Paz | |
---|---|
Born |
Magdeleine Legendre 6 September 1889 Étampes, France |
Died | 12 September 1973 Paris, France |
(aged 84)
Nationality | French |
Other names | Magdeleine Marx |
Occupation | Journalist, writer |
Known for | Activism |
Magdeleine Paz (born Magdeleine Legendre, later Magdeleine Marx; 6 September 1889 – 12 September 1973) was a French journalist, translator, writer and activist. She was one of the leading left-wing intellectuals in the inter-war period. For a period she belonged to the French Communist Party, but she was expelled due to her support of Leon Trotsky. She was the driving force in the campaign to have Victor Serge released from prison in Russia and allowed to return to the west. She wrote a number of books, and translated several others.
Magdeleine Legendre was born in Étampes, Essonne on 6 September 1889. Her first husband was Henry Marx, and she wrote under her married name Magdeleine Marx. Her second husband was Maurice Paz, whom she married in 1924. She also wrote under the name Magdeleine Paz.
Magdeleine Marx was a pacifist during World War I (1914–18). She was a member of the Ghilde Les Forgerons (Guild of the Smiths). This was founded in 1911 by a group of young activist intellectuals who were pupils of the Collège Chaptal and had a common interest in art. They were led by Luc Mériga (pseudonym of Maurice Liger). She organized a conference of the Forgerons on 13 May 1917, Aux femmes qui ne sont pas en guerre (Women who are not at war), where she spoke with great effect to an audience of 300 people. The Ghilde organized its second banquet on 27 April 1919 in honor of Henry Marx, at the time a professor at the Iycee Charlemagne. The Ghilde Les Forgerons was active until 1919, and dissolved in 1920.
Magdeleine Marx was one of the contributors to La Voix des femmes, founded in 1917 by Louise Bodin and Colette Reynaud. Others included Séverine, Marthe Bigot, Hélène Brion, Madeleine Pelletier, Marianne Rauze, Romain Rolland, Henri Barbusse, Léon Werth, Georges Pioch, Georges Yvetôt and Victor Méric. The journal covered a broad range of opinions, with a radical left-leaning outlook. It demanded full sexual equality and emancipation. In 1919 Magdeleine Marx wrote an article in La Voix des femmes in which she argued that women had only themselves to blame for their inferior position, since they had not done anything to stop the war, had not suffered from the war and ignored the sacrifice the men had made. This drew a sharp response from Nelly Roussel, who listed all the ways in which women had suffered from a war that they had no part in starting.