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<h1 class="main-title left " itemprop="headline">Insurgent
Communards: The Road to Revolution </h1>
<div class="meta-bottom left ">
<div class="post-date"> <span>Post on: </span> March 14, 2021 </div>
<div class="meta-author"> <span class="avatar"> </span> <span
class="author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.leftvoice.org/author/doug-greene"
title="Posts by Doug Enaa Greene" class="author url fn"
rel="author">Doug Enaa Greene</a></span> </div>
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<div class="lv-excerpt">
<p>The Paris Commune was founded on March 18, 1871. A few days
before the 150th anniversary, we look at how the ground was
prepared for the first working-class government in history.</p>
</div>
<div class="thumb-wrap ">
<div class="thumb"><img
src="https://www.leftvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/tumblr_njy406jX3r1rq3prxo1_1280-1000x600.jpg"
class="attachment-bk1000_600 size-bk1000_600 wp-post-image"
alt="" width="409" height="245">
<div class="thumb_caption">An illustration from "Le Cri Du
Peuple" by Jacques Tardi</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="article-content" itemprop="articleBody">
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Part I</strong> | Part II
| Part III</h2>
<p>In June 1871, the French poet Eugène Pottier wrote a poem
entitled “L’Internationale” to commemorate the fallen Paris
Commune. That poem contains the following lines, calling the
working class to revolution:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Arise, ye prisoners of starvation!<br>
Arise, ye wretched of the earth!<br>
For justice thunders condemnation:<br>
A better world’s in birth! …<br>
’Tis the final conflict;<br>
Let each stand in his place.<br>
The International working class<br>
Shall be the human race!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 1888, Pierre De Geyter set “L’Internationale” to music.
Since then, the song has become one of the most well-known
leftist anthems in the world. Whenever and wherever the
“L’Internationale” is sung, the cause of the Paris Commune lives
on.</p>
<p>It is not only in song that the Paris Commune is remembered,
however. The Paris Commune is a necessary reference point for
revolutionaries, since it was the first time in history that the
working class was victorious, took command of its destiny, and
began constructing a better world. The lessons of the Commune
were not lost on socialists; Lenin is said to have danced in the
snow when the soviets had managed to last just a day longer than
the Commune. On the 150th anniversary of the Commune’s birth, it
is worth remembering its heroism, history, mistakes, and lessons
for our forthcoming struggles.</p>
<h2><b>The Second Empire and the First International</b></h2>
<p>In 1851, it seemed that the era of revolution had ended in
France. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte had just overthrown the
unstable Second Republic. He proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon
III, and his regime promised stability, prosperity, and order.
The bourgeoisie seemed all too willing to exchange democratic
freedoms for a police state, since they grew quite wealthy under
the Second French Empire.</p>
<p>But the working class did not share in this good fortune.
During the Second Empire, it labored without political freedoms
or labor unions. The police kept a close watch, arresting 4,000
workers for violating anti-union laws from 1853 to 1866.
Repression did not work, however, and the emperor sought to
co-opt the proletariat. In 1864 a series of reforms were passed
that legalized unions and strikes along with relaxing the
censorship. While Napoleon III hoped to win over the working
class with his benevolence, he instead provided space for a
revolutionary opposition to grow.</p>
<p>One opposition group was the French section of the
International Workingmen’s Association. The International was
formed in 1864 after meetings between French and English
workers. The guiding spirit of the organization was Karl Marx,
whose inaugural address proclaimed, “To conquer political power
has, therefore, become the great duty of the working classes.”<span
class="footnote_referrer"><a><sup
id="footnote_plugin_tooltip_22710_2_1"
class="footnote_plugin_tooltip_text">1</sup></a></span></p>
<p>In France, many members of the International were originally
followers of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865). One of the
founders of anarchism, Proudhon argued that workers should
refrain from politics and strikes, and instead that they should
establish cooperatives and mutual aid. For many workers,
Proudhon’s vision of decentralized communes was an attractive
alternative to the bureaucratic and repressive Second Empire.</p>
<p>Since they avoided politics, Proudhonist activists were
initially tolerated by Napoleon III. Nonetheless, cooperatives
and mutual aid did not save workers from feeling the brunt of
the 1867 economic crisis. Thus, they began organizing labor
unions and strikes, making French workers open to the
International’s language of class struggle.</p>
<p>It wasn’t long before the Second Empire linked working-class
militancy to the International. In March 1868, the police
arrested members of the International and broke up its Paris
branch. But the International quickly reorganized. By 1870, its
Paris section numbered 70,000 members, or a seventh of all
workers in the capital.<span class="footnote_referrer"><a><sup
id="footnote_plugin_tooltip_22710_2_2"
class="footnote_plugin_tooltip_text">2</sup></a></span>
The leading figure in Paris was the book-binder and syndicalist
Eugène Varlin (1839-1871). Later, Varlin would play a major role
in the National Guard and the Paris Commune.</p>
<p>Another source of leftist opposition came from the Blanquist
Party. These revolutionaries were followers of Louis-Auguste
Blanqui (1805–1881), one of the most legendary figures in
19th-century France.<span class="footnote_referrer"><a><sup
id="footnote_plugin_tooltip_22710_2_3"
class="footnote_plugin_tooltip_text">3</sup></a></span>
Unlike the Proudhonists, Blanqui was a proponent of
revolutionary political action. He believed that success
depended on a small, tightly organized conspiracy. Through force
of arms, this revolutionary band would rise up to topple the old
regime. Blanqui himself practiced what he preached,
participating in many conspiracies and abortive coups. Despite
living more than half his life in jail, his revolutionary
determination remained unbent and unbroken.</p>
<p>In line with this vision, the Blanquist party was an elite
corps that numbered no more 2,500. These militants drilled and
trained in preparation for the revolution. The Blanquists,
however, were not a totally underground group; they conducted
public atheist and republican agitation among workers and
students. Among their ranks was Raoul Rigault, Émile Eudes, and
the brothers Gaston and Charles Da Costa. All of them would play
prominent roles in the Paris Commune.</p>
<div class="speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container"><br>
</div>
<div class="speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container">[...]</div>
<div class="speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container"><br>
<div id="footnote_references_container_22710_2" style="">
<table class="footnotes_table footnote-reference-container">
<tbody>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_1"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>1</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">“Inaugural Address,” in
<i>Marx and Engels Collected Works</i>, vol. 21, 331.
(henceforth <i>MECW.</i>)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_2"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>2</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">Frank Jellinek, <i>The
Paris Commune of 1871</i> (New York: Grosset and
Dunlap, 1965), 39.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_3"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>3</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">For more background on
Blanqui, see my <i>Communist Insurgent: Blanqui’s
Politics of Revolution</i> (Chicago: Haymarket,
2017).</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_4"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>4</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">Jellinek,<i> Paris
Commune</i>, 57.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_5"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>5</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">Louis-Auguste Blanqui
“La Patrie en Danger,” in <i>Communards: The Story of
the Paris Commune of 1871 as Told by Those Who
Fought for It</i>, ed. Mitchell Abidor (Pacifica,
CA: Marxists Internet Archive, 2010), 40.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_6"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>6</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">Quoted in Donny
Gluckstein, <i>The Paris Commune: A Revolution in
Democracy</i> (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2011), 86.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_7"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>7</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">Gluckstein, <i>Paris
Commune</i>, 86–87.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_8"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>8</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">Gluckstein, <i>Paris
Commune</i>, 101.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_9"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>9</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">“Excerpts from the
Minutes of Meetings of the Federal Council of Paris
Sections of the International,” in <i>The Paris
Commune of 1871: The View from the Left</i>, ed.
Eugene Schulkind (New York: Grove Press, 1974), 95.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_10"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>10</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">“Resolutions Voted by
General Assemblies of Vigilance Committees,” in
Schulkind, <i>Paris Commune of 1871</i>, 90–91.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_11"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>11</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">“Formation of a
Revolutionary Socialist Party,” in <i>The Communards
of Paris, 1871</i>, ed.<i> </i>Stewart Edwards
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1973), 55.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_12"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>12</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">“Proposal Submitted to
the Republican Central Committee of the Twenty
Arrondisements,” in Schulkind, <i>Paris Commune of
1871</i>, 78.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_13"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>13</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">Robert Tombs, <i>The
Paris Commune 1871</i> (New York: Longman, 1999),
65.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_14"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>14</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">Prosper-Olivier
Lissagaray, <i>History of the Paris Commune of 1871 </i>(St.
Petersburg, Florida: Red and Black Publishers, 2007),
67.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_15"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>15</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">Lissagaray, <i>History
of the Paris Commune,</i> 72. Other firsthand
accounts of the March 18 uprising can be found in
Edwards, <i>Communards of Paris</i>, 56–65. For the
role of women in the March 18 revolution, see Edith
Thomas, <i>The Women Incendiaries</i> (Chicago:
Haymarket Books, 2007), 52–69.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="footnotes_plugin_reference_row">
<td id="footnote_plugin_reference_22710_2_16"
class="footnote_plugin_index pointer"><a
class="footnote_plugin_link"><span
class="footnote_index_arrow">↑</span>16</a></td>
<td class="footnote_plugin_text">“The Civil War in
France,” in <i>MECW</i>, vol. 22, 328.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
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