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Background
The rise and nature of the commune
Social measures The commune adopted the previously discarded French Republican Calendar during its brief existence and used the socialist red flag rather than the republican tricolore — in 1848, during the Second Republic, radicals and socialists had already adopted the red flag to distinguish themselves from moderate Republicans similar to the moderate, liberal Girondists during the 1789 Revolution. Despite internal differences, the Council made a good start in maintaining the public services essential for a city of two million; it was also able to reach a consensus on certain policies whose content tended towards a progressive, secular and highly democratic social democracy rather than a social revolution. Lack of time (the Commune was able to meet on fewer than 60 days in all) meant that only a few decrees were actually implemented. These included: The decree separated the church from the state, made all church property public property, and excluded religion from schools — after the fall of the Commune, the Third Republic would have to wait until the 1880-81 Jules Ferry laws and the 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State to implement again these measures which founded French laïcité. The churches were allowed to continue their religious activity only if they kept their doors open to public political meetings during the evenings. Along with the streets and the cafés, this made the churches one of the main participatory political centres of the Commune — a reappropriation which the Situationist movement would not forget in its architectural propositions. Other projected legislation dealt with educational reforms which would make further education and technical training freely available to all. Some women organized a feminist movement, following on from earlier attempts in 1789 and 1848. Thus, Nathanie Le Mel, a socialist bookbinder, and Elisabeth Dmitrieff, a young Russian exile and associate of Karl Marx, created the Union des femmes pour la défense de Paris et les soins aux blessés ("Women's Union for the Defense of Paris and Care of the Injured") on 11 April 1871. Believing that their struggle against patriarchy could only be followed in the frame of a global struggle against capitalism, the association demanded gender-equality, wages' equality, right of divorce for women, right to laïque instruction (non-clerical) and for professional education for girls. They also demanded suppression of the distinction between married women and concubines, between legitimate and natural children, the abolition of prostitution — they obtained the closing of the maisons de tolérance (legal official brothels). The Women's Union also participated in several municipal commissions and organized cooperative workshops. Famous figures such as Louise Michel, the "Red Virgin of Montmartre" who joined the National Guard and would later be sent to New Caledonia, symbolize the active participation of a small number of women in the insurrectionary events. A female battalion from the National Guard defended the Place Blanche during the repression. However, they didn't acquire or even ask for the right to vote, and there were no female members of the Council. The work-load of the leaders of the Commune was enormous. The Council members (who were not "representatives" but delegates, subject in theory to immediate recall by their electors) were expected to carry out many executive and military functions as well as their legislative ones. The numerous ad hoc organisations set up during the siege in the localities ("quartiers") to meet social needs (canteens, first aid stations) continued to thrive and cooperated with the Commune. At the same time, these local assemblies pursued their own goals, usually under the direction of local workers. Despite the formal reformism of the Commune council, the composition of the Commune as a whole was much more revolutionist. Revolutionary trends present included Proudhonists - an early form of moderate anarchists - members of the International socialists, Blanquists, and more libertarian republicans. The Paris Commune has been celebrated by anarchist and Marxist socialists continuously until the present day, partly due to the variety of tendencies, the high degree of workers' control and the remarkable cooperation among different revolutionists. In the IIIe arrondissement, for instance, school materials were provided free, three schools were "laicised" and an orphanage was established. In the XXe arrondissement, school children were provided with free clothing and food. There were many similar examples. But a vital ingredient in the Commune's relative success at this stage was the initiative shown by ordinary workers in the public domain, who managed to take on the responsibilities of the administrators and specialists removed by Thiers. After only a week, the Commune came under attack by elements of the new army (which eventually included former prisoners of war released by the Germans) being created at a furious pace in Versailles. The assault The Commune forces, the National Guard, first began skirmishing with the regular Versailles Army on 2 April. Neither side really sought a major civil war, but neither was ever willing to negotiate. The Marquis de Galliffet, the fusilleur de la Commune who later took part as Minister of War in Waldeck-Rousseau's government at the turn of the century (alongside independent socialist Millerand), was one of the generals leading the counterassault headed by Thiers. The nearby suburb of Courbevoie was occupied by the government forces on 2 April, and a delayed attempt by the Commune's own forces to march on Versailles on 3 April failed ignominiously. Defence and survival became overriding considerations, and a determined effort was made by the Commune leadership to turn the National Guard into an effective defence force. Strong support came also from the large foreign community of political refugees and exiles in Paris: one of them, the Polish ex-officer and nationalist Jarosław Dąbrowski, was to be the Commune's best general. The Council was fully committed to internationalism, and it was in the name of brotherhood that the Vendôme Column, celebrating the victories of Napoleon I, and considered by the Commune to be a monument to Bonapartism and chauvinism, was pulled down. Abroad, there were rallies and messages of goodwill sent by trade union and socialist organisations, including some in Germany. But any hopes of getting serious help from other French cities were soon dashed. Thiers and his ministers in Versailles managed to prevent almost all information from leaking out of Paris; and in provincial and rural France there had always been a skeptical attitude towards the activities of the metropolis. Movements in Narbonne, Limoges, and Marseille were rapidly crushed. As the situation deteriorated further, a section of the Council won a vote (opposed by bookbinder Eugène Varlin, a correspondent of Karl Marx, and by other moderates) for the creation of a "Committee of Public Safety", modelled on the Jacobin organ with the same title, formed in 1792. Its powers were extensive and ruthless in theory, but in practice it was ineffective. Throughout April and May, government forces, constantly increasing in number, carried out a siege of the city's powerful defences, and pushed the National Guards back. On 21 May a gate in the western part of the fortified city wall of Paris was forced and Versaillese troops began the reconquest of the city, first occupying the prosperous western districts where they were welcomed by those residents who had not left Paris after the armistice. It seems an engineer (who had spied regularly for the Thiers government) found the gate unmanned and signaled this to the Versaillais. The strong local loyalties which had been a positive feature of the Commune now became something of a disadvantage: instead of an overall planned defence, each "quartier" fought desperately for its survival, and each was overcome in turn. The webs of narrow streets which made entire districts nearly impregnable in earlier Parisian revolutions had been largely replaced by wide boulevards during Haussmann's renovation of Paris. The Versaillese enjoyed a centralised command and had superior numbers. They had learned the tactics of street fighting, and simply tunnelled through the walls of houses to outflank the Communards' barricades. Ironically, only where Haussmann had made wide spaces and streets were they held up by the defenders' gunfire. During the assault, the government troops were responsible for slaughtering National Guard troops and civilians: prisoners taken in possession of weapons, or who were suspected of having fought, were shot out of hand and summary executions were commonplace. On 24 – 26 May, more than 50 hostages, who had been captured by the Commune, were murdered. In some cases, certain leaders of the Commune gave the orders, in other cases they were killed by mobs.* Amongst the victims was the Archbishop of Paris, Georges Darboy. La Semaine sanglante The toughest resistance came in the more working-class districts of the east, where fighting continued during the later stages of the week of vicious street fighting (La Semaine sanglante, the bloody week). By 27 May only a few pockets of resistance remained, notably the poorer eastern districts of Belleville and Ménilmontant. Fighting ended during the late afternoon or early evening of 28 May. According to legend, the last barricade was in the rue Ramponeau in Belleville. Marshall MacMahon issued a proclamation: "To the inhabitants of Paris. The French army has come to save you. Paris is freed! At 4 o'clock our soldiers took the last insurgent position. Today the fight is over. Order, work and security will be reborn." Reprisals now began in earnest. Having supported the Commune in any way was a political crime, of which thousands could be, and were, accused. Some of the Communards were shot against what is now known as the Communards' Wall in the Père Lachaise cemetery while thousands of others were tried by summary courts martial of doubtful legality, and thousands shot. Notorious sites of slaughter were the Luxembourg Gardens and the Lobau Barracks, behind the Hôtel de Ville. Nearly 40,000 others were marched to Versailles for trials. For many days endless columns of men, women and children made a painful way under military escort to temporary prison quarters in Versailles. Later 12,500 were tried, and about 10,000 were found guilty: 23 men were executed; many were condemned to prison; 4,000 were deported for life to New Caledonia. The number of killed during La Semaine Sanglante can never be established for certain, and estimates vary from about 10,000 to 50,000. According to Benedict Anderson, "7,500 were jailed or deported" and "roughly 20,000 executed" •For the imprisoned there was a general amnesty in 1880. Paris remained under martial law for five years. The commune in retrospect The better-off citizens of Paris, and many of the earlier historians of the Commune, saw it as a classic example of mob rule, terrifying and often inexplicable. Most later historians, even those on the right, have recognised the value of some of the Commune's reforms and have deplored the savagery of its repression. On the left, there have been many who criticise the Commune for showing too great moderation, especially given the grave situation it was in. Karl Marx found it aggravating that the Communards "lost precious moments" organising democratic elections rather than instantly finishing off Versailles once and for all. France's national bank, located in Paris and storing billions of francs, was left untouched and unguarded by the Communards. Timidly they asked to borrow money from the bank (which of course they got without any hesitation). The Communards chose not to seize the bank's assets because they were afraid that the world would condemn them if they did. Thus large amounts of money were moved from Paris to Versailles, money that financed the army that crushed the Commune. Communists, left-wing socialists, anarchists and others have seen the Commune as a model for, or a prefiguration of, a liberated society, with a political system based on participatory democracy from the grass roots up. Marx and Engels, Bakunin, and later Lenin and Trotsky tried to draw major theoretical lessons (in particular as regards the "dictatorship of the proletariat" and the "withering away of the state") from the limited experience of the Commune. A more pragmatic lesson was drawn by the diarist Edmond de Goncourt, who wrote, three days after La Semaine sanglante, "…the bleeding has been done thoroughly, and a bleeding like that, by killing the rebellious part of a population, postpones the next revolution… The old society has twenty years of peace before it…" Karl Marx, in his important pamphlet The Civil War in France (1871), written during the Commune, touted the Commune's achievements, and described it as the prototype for a revolutionary government of the future, 'the form at last discovered' for the emancipation of the proletariat. Friedrich Engels echoed this idea, later maintaining that the absence of a standing army, the self-policing of the "quartiers", and other features meant that the Commune was no longer a "state" in the old, repressive sense of the term: it was a transitional form, moving towards the abolition of the state as such - he used the famous (or notorious) term later taken up by Lenin and the Bolsheviks: the Commune was, he said, the first 'dictatorship of the proletariat', meaning it was a state run by workers and in the interests of workers. Marx and Engels were not, however, entirely uncritical of the Commune. The split between the Marxists and Bakuninists at the 1872 Hague Congress of the First International (IWA) may in part be traced to Marx's stance that the Commune might have saved itself had it dealt more harshly with reactionaries, instituted conscription, etc. The other point of disagreement was the anti-authoritarian socialists' oppositions to the Communist conception of conquest of power and of a temporary transitional state (the anarchists were in favor of general strike and immediate dismantlement of the state through the constitution of decentralized workers' councils). The Paris Commune has been the subject of awe for many communist leaders. Mao would refer to it often. Lenin, along with Marx, judged the Commune a living example of the "dictatorship of the proletariat", though Lenin criticised the Communards for having 'stopped half way … led astray by dreams of … justice'; he thought their 'excessive magnanimity' had prevented them from 'destroying' the class enemy by 'ruthless extermination'. At his funeral, his body was wrapped in the remains of a red flag preserved from the Commune . The Soviet spaceflight Voskhod 1 carried part of a communard banner from the Paris Commune. Also, the Bolsheviks renamed the dreadnought battleship Sevastopol to Parizhskaya Kommuna in honour of the Commune. Other Communes Simultaneously with the Paris Commune, uprisings in Lyon, Grenoble and other cities established equally short-lived Communes. See also Fictional treatments Notes | ||||||||||||||
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