François-Noël Babeuf

François-Noël Babeuf (French: [fʁɑ̃swa nɔɛl babœf]; 23 November 1760 – 27 May 1797), also known as Gracchus Babeuf, was a French proto-communist, revolutionary, and journalist of the French Revolutionary period. His newspaper Le Tribun du Peuple (The Tribune of the People) was best known for its advocacy for the poor and calling for a popular revolt against the Directory, the government of France. He was a leading advocate for democracy and the abolition of private property. He made his own variant of Jacobinism (Robespierrism) which is called Neo-Jacobinism. Besides the influence of Robespierrism on his thought, due to his proto-communism, his political views were more aligned with the ideology of the Enragés. He angered the authorities who were clamping down hard on their radical enemies. In spite of the efforts of his Jacobin friends to save him, Babeuf was executed for his lead role in the Conspiracy of the Equals.

The nickname "Gracchus" likened him to the Gracchi brothers, who served as tribunes of the people in ancient Rome. Although the terms anarchist, communist and socialist were not largely used in Babeuf's lifetime, they have all been used by later scholars to describe his ideas. Communism was first used in English by John Goodwyn Barmby in a conversation with those he described as the "disciples of Babeuf". He has been called "The First Revolutionary Communist."

About his political philosophy, Babeuf wrote: "Society must be made to operate in such a way that it eradicates once and for all the desire of a man to become richer, or wiser, or more powerful than others." In the Manifesto of the Equals, a piece of writing commissioned by Babeuf, Sylvain Maréchal wrote that "[the] French Revolution [was] nothing but a precursor of another revolution, one that will be greater, more solemn, and which will be the last."