Paul Lafargue

Paul Lafargue (15 January 1842 – 25 November 1911) was a Cuban-born French political writer, economist, journalist, literary critic, and activist. His best known work is *The Right to Be Lazy*. Born in Cuba to French and Creole parents, Lafargue spent most of his life in France, with periods in England and Spain. He was Karl Marx's son-in-law, having married his second daughter, Laura. At the age of 69, he and 66-year-old Laura died together in a suicide pact. Lafargue was the subject of a famous quotation by 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, "ce qu'il y a de certain c'est que moi, je ne suis pas Marxiste" ("If one thing is certain, I am not a Marxist").