Eat the rich (slogan)

Eat the rich is an abbreviation of a saying attributed to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It is used in radical and anti-capitalist circles, gaining wider traction at the beginning of the 21st century in response to increasing income inequality.[1]

Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, who asserted the originator of the phrase was Jean-Jacques Rousseau

According to historian Adolphe Thiers, the President of the Paris Commune, Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, gave a speech to the city on 14 October 1793 (during the Reign of Terror), in which he said:

Rousseau était peuple aussi, et il disait: Quand le peuple n'aura plus rien à manger, il mangera le riche.[2]

Rousseau, who was also one of the people, said: When the people shall have no more to eat, they will eat the rich![3]

References
  1. How “Eat the Rich” Became the Rallying Cry for the Digital Generation
  2. Volume 4 of Histoire de la Révolution Française by Adolphe Thiers, on Project Gutenberg
  3. The history of the French revolution. By M. A. Thiers. Translated, with notes and illustrations from the most authentic sources, by Frederick Shoberl., Thiers, Adolphe, 1797-1877., page 359 "


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