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[[File:640px-Barricade Paris 1871 by Pierre-Ambrose Richebourg.jpg|thumbnail| A barricade constructed by the Commune in April 1871 on the Rue de Rivoli near the Hotel de Ville. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune]]
[[File:640px-Barricade Paris 1871 by Pierre-Ambrose Richebourg.jpg|thumbnail| A barricade constructed by the Commune in April 1871 on the Rue de Rivoli near the Hotel de Ville. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune]]


"The Paris Commune (French: La Commune de Paris, IPA: [la kɔmyn də paʁi]) was a revolutionary and socialist government that briefly ruled Paris from 18 March until 28 May 1871. The killing of two French army generals by soldiers of the Commune's National Guard and the refusal of the Commune to accept the authority of the French government led to its harsh suppression by the regular French Army in "La Semaine sanglante" ("The Bloody Week") beginning on 21 May 1871. Debates over the policies and outcome of the Commune had significant influence on the ideas of Karl Marx."<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune</ref>
From 18 March to 28 May 1871, the two million residents of Paris ran their city as an autonomous commune, established forty-three worker cooperatives, and advocated for a federation of revolutionary communes across France. With anarchists' participation, the mass uprising and social reforms of the Commune briefly moved moved Paris in a sharply anarchistic direction. “Under the name of the ''Paris Commune'' a new ''idea'' was born, to become the starting point for future revolutions,” Peter Kropotkin later enthused.<ref>Peter Kropotkin, “The Paris Commune” in ed. Iain McKay, ''Direct Struggle Against Capital: A Peter Kropotkin Anthology'' (Oakland: AK Press, 2014), 440.</ref>


The following is from [[An Anarchist FAQ]]<ref>[[An Anarchist FAQ]]</ref>:
Anarchists argue that the main problem with the Paris Commune was that it did not go far enough in its social revolution. Although it declared itself autonomous from the French state, it did not abolish statist structures internally. And although it implemented a number of economic reforms, it did not expropriate capital or try to abolish wage labor. Consequently, the Parisian masses lost much of their enthusiasm by the time the French army came to destroy it. Kropotkin reflected:
<blockquote>
As if there were any way of defeating the enemy so long as the great mass of the people is not directly interested in the triumph of the revolution by seeing that it will bring material, intellectual, and moral well-being for everyone! They tried to consolidate the Commune first and put off the social revolution until later, whereas the only way to proceed was to ''consolidate the Commune by means of the social revolution!''<ref>Kropotkin, “The Paris Commune,” 445.</ref>
</blockquote>
 
Another major mistake, according to Friedrich Engels, was that the Communards did not seize Paris's Bank of France, which “would have been worth more than ten thousand hostages”.<ref>Engels, Introduction to ''The Civil War in France'' in ed. Robert C. Tucker, ''The Marx-Engels Reader'' (New York: Princeton University, 1972), 626.</ref> The bank's vaults held all of France's gold.<ref>Harman, ''A People's History of the World'' (New York: Verso, 2008), 373.</ref>
 
In May, the French army invaded Paris and shot Communard who resisted on the spot. The army killed 200,000 to 300,000 Communards and imprisoned another 40,000.<ref>Chris Harman, ''A People's History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millennium'' (New York: Verso, 2008), 373-374.</ref>


<blockquote>
=Background=


The Paris Commune of 1871 played an important role in the development of both anarchist ideas and the movement. As Bakunin commented at the time,
In July 1870, “Louis Bonaparte allowed the Prussian leader Bismarck to provoke him into declaring war.”<ref>Harman, ''A People's History of the World'', 369.</ref>


<blockquote>
Even after Prussia invaded Paris, the Parisians kept fighting in defense in their city. Five months later, the French government surrendered, causing Parisians to feel extremely betrayed “They had suffered five months for nothing.”<ref>Harman, ''A People's History of the World'', 370.</ref> On 18 March 1871, the newly-appointed French president August Theirs sent soldiers into Paris to seize canons from the National Guard, which was controlled by the Parisian masses.
"''revolutionary socialism [i.e. anarchism] has just attempted its first striking and practical demonstration in the Paris Commune . . . [It] show[ed] to all enslaved peoples (and are there any masses that are not slaves?) the only road to emancipation and health; Paris inflict[ed] a mortal blow upon the political traditions of bourgeois radicalism and [gave] a real basis to revolutionary socialism.''" ['''Bakunin on Anarchism''', pp. 263-4] </blockquote>


The Paris Commune was created after France was defeated by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian war. The French government tried to send in troops to regain the Parisian National Guard's cannon to prevent it from falling into the hands of the population. "''Learning that the Versailles soldiers were trying to seize the cannon''," recounted participant Louise Michel, "''men and women of Montmartre swarmed up the Butte in surprise manoeuvre. Those people who were climbing up the Butte believed they would die, but they were prepared to pay the price.''" The soldiers refused to fire on the jeering crowd and turned their weapons on their officers. This was March 18th; the Commune had begun and "''the people wakened . . . The eighteenth of March could have belonged to the allies of kings, or to foreigners, or to the people. It was the people's''." ['''Red Virgin: Memoirs of Louise Michel''', p. 64]
Kropotkin wrote in “Commune in Paris” that the uprising had three periods: a week of popular uprising leading to the elections, the two months of the Commune, and the last week of popular defense. “During the first and last we see the ''people'' at work. The middle is a period of Parliamentary government.”<ref>Kropotkin, “Commune of Paris” in ''Direct Struggle Against Capital'', 451.</ref>


In the free elections called by the Parisian National Guard, the citizens of Paris elected a council made up of a majority of Jacobins and Republicans and a minority of socialists (mostly Blanquists -- authoritarian socialists -- and followers of the anarchist Proudhon). This council proclaimed Paris autonomous and desired to recreate France as a confederation of communes (i.e. communities). Within the Commune, the elected council people were recallable and paid an average wage. In addition, they had to report back to the people who had elected them and were subject to recall by electors if they did not carry out their mandates.
=Initial Uprising=


Why this development caught the imagination of anarchists is clear -- it has strong similarities with anarchist ideas. In fact, the example of the Paris Commune was in many ways similar to how Bakunin had predicted that a revolution would have to occur -- a major city declaring itself autonomous, organising itself, leading by example, and urging the rest of the planet to follow it. (See "''Letter to Albert Richards''" in '''Bakunin on Anarchism'''). The Paris Commune began the process of creating a new society, one organised from the bottom up. It was "''a blow for the decentralisation of political power''." [Voltairine de Cleyre, "''The Paris Commune''," '''Anarchy! An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth''', p. 67]
Masses of Parisians resisted the French army's attempt on 18 March 1871 to seize canons from the Parisian National Guard. According to one eyewitness account, soldiers could not reach the canons because “waves of people engulfed everything.”<ref>”An eyewitness account” in ed. Stewart Edwards, ''The Communards of Paris'' (London: Thames and Hudson, 1973), 62.</ref> Women surrounding soldiers on horses cried out, “Unharness the horses!”. Rebels lifted soldiers off the horses, and the crowd cheered as they let the freed horses walk through. Parisians offered wine and meat to the hungry French soldiers. “They were soon won over to the side of the rebels,” the eyewitness reported.<ref>”An eyewitness account” in ''The Communards of Paris'', 63.</ref> When General Lecomte ordered soldiers to fire at a crowd of women and children, the soldiers refused and instead seized the general.<ref>Edwards, ''The Communards of Paris'', 64.</ref>


Many anarchists played a role within the Commune -- for example Louise Michel, the Reclus brothers, and Eugene Varlin (the latter murdered in the repression afterwards). As for the reforms initiated by the Commune, such as the re-opening of workplaces as co-operatives, anarchists can see their ideas of associated labour beginning to be realised. By May, 43 workplaces were co-operatively run and the Louvre Museum was a munitions factory run by a workers' council. Echoing Proudhon, a meeting of the Mechanics Union and the Association of Metal Workers argued that "''our economic emancipation . . . can only be obtained through the formation of workers' associations, which alone can transform our position from that of wage earners to that of associates''." They instructed their delegates to the Commune's Commission on Labour Organisation to support the following objectives:
The national army withdrew later that day. The Parisian National Guard occupied the city hall, declared Paris autonomous from France, and called for elections on 26 March to elect a 92-member governing council.<ref>Robert Graham, ''We Do Not Fear Anarchy, We Invoke It: The First International and the Origins of the Anarchist Movement'' (Oakland: AK Press, 2015), 146.</ref> The hope was that communes would spring up over the rest of France and join together in a revolutionary confederation.


<blockquote>
“The first week is a period of great enthusiasm,” wrote Kropotkin. “The Government is overthrown. Paris is free...The greatest hopes are roused in the downtrodden masses by the new conditions. It is a ''popular movement'', without orders from above, without direction.”<ref>Kropotkin, “Commune of Paris,” 451.</ref>
    "''The abolition of the exploitation of man by man, the last vestige of slavery;


    "The organisation of labour in mutual associations and inalienable capital.''" </blockquote>
=Communal Governance=


In this way, they hoped to ensure that "''equality must not be an empty word''" in the Commune. ['''The Paris Commune of 1871: The View from the Left''', Eugene Schulkind (ed.), p. 164] The Engineers Union voted at a meeting on 23rd of April that since the aim of the Commune should be "''economic emancipation''" it should "''organise labour through associations in which there would be joint responsibility''" in order "''to suppress the exploitation of man by man''." [quoted by Stewart Edwards, '''The Paris Commune 1871''', pp. 263-4]
Parisians voted on 26 March. Two days later, at the Hotel de Ville, the National Guard formally established the Paris Commune. Most of the council members were Jacobins and Blanquists (authoritarian socialists), and a small minority were Proudhonists.<ref>ed. Edwards, ''The Communards of Paris'', 26-27. Graham, ''We Do Not Fear Anarchy: We Invoke It'', 146-147.</ref>


As well as self-managed workers' associations, the Communards practised direct democracy in a network popular clubs, popular organisations similar to the directly democratic neighbourhood assemblies ("''sections''") of the French Revolution. "''People, govern yourselves through your public meetings, through your press''" proclaimed the newspaper of one Club. The commune was seen as an expression of the assembled people, for (to quote another Club) "''Communal power resides in each arrondissement [neighbourhood] wherever men are assembled who have a horror of the yoke and of servitude''." Little wonder that Gustave Courbet, artist friend and follower of Proudhon, proclaimed Paris as "''a true paradise . . . all social groups have established themselves as federations and are masters of their own fate''." [quoted by Martin Phillip Johnson, '''The Paradise of Association''', p. 5 and p. 6]
Council members could be immediately recalled by the electorate, and they received only an average wage. The effect, as Friedrich Engels explained, was to prevent a class of unaccountable politicians from arising: “In this way an effective barrier to place-hunting and careerism was set up, even apart from the binding mandates to delegates to representative bodies which were added besides.”<ref>Frederich Engels, Introduction to ''The Civil War in France'', in ''Marx-Engels Reader'', 628.</ref> Staying within the convention of the time, the Commune did not extend suffrage to women.<ref>Harman, ''A People's History of the World'' 373-4.</ref>


In addition the Commune's "''Declaration to the French People''" which echoed many key anarchist ideas. It saw the "''political unity''" of society as being based on "''the voluntary association of all local initiatives, the free and spontaneous concourse of all individual energies for the common aim, the well-being, the liberty and the security of all''." [quoted by Edwards, '''Op. Cit'''., p. 218] The new society envisioned by the communards was one based on the "''absolute autonomy of the Commune . . . assuring to each its integral rights and to each Frenchman the full exercise of his aptitudes, as a man, a citizen and a labourer. The autonomy of the Commune will have for its limits only the equal autonomy of all other communes adhering to the contract; their association must ensure the liberty of France''." ["''Declaration to the French People''", quoted by George Woodcock, '''Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: A Biography''', pp. 276-7] With its vision of a confederation of communes, Bakunin was correct to assert that the Paris Commune was "''a bold, clearly formulated negation of the State''." ['''Bakunin on Anarchism''', p. 264]
The Commune abolished night work for bakers, prohibited employers from making their workers pay fines, and required owners of closed factories to hand over the buildings to workers to be reopened as cooperatives.<ref>Karl Marx, excerpts from ''The Civil War in France'' in ''The Marx-Engels Reader'', 639.</ref> In total, the Commune set up forty-three worker cooperatives.<ref>”A.5.1. The Paris Commune” in [[An Anarchist FAQ]].</ref> The Commune also opened up several schools, including one for women.<ref>Edwards, ''The Communards of Paris'', 37.</ref>


Moreover, the Commune's ideas on federation obviously reflected the influence of Proudhon on French radical ideas. Indeed, the Commune's vision of a communal France based on a federation of delegates bound by imperative mandates issued by their electors and subject to recall at any moment echoes Proudhon's ideas (Proudhon had argued in favour of the "''implementation of the binding mandate''" in 1848 ['''No Gods, No Masters''', p. 63] and for federation of communes in his work '''The Principle of Federation''').
Kropotkin later argued that the Commune did not go far enough in abolishing hierarchy in either decision-making or in the economy. Aside from attempting to keep out career politicians, the council was not otherwise different from a regular parliamentary government. And while the Commune set up new worker cooperatives without bosses, it did not get rid of existing bosses. There was no expropriation of capital or elimination of wage labor. “The months of Communal rule are the dullest, most unproductive months in revolutionary history. Not one single great idea coming to the front,” Kropotkin argued.<ref>Kropotkin, “Commune of Paris”, 453.</ref>


Thus both economically and politically the Paris Commune was heavily influenced by anarchist ideas. Economically, the theory of associated production expounded by Proudhon and Bakunin became consciously revolutionary practice. Politically, in the Commune's call for federalism and autonomy, anarchists see their "''future social organisation. . . [being] carried out from the bottom up, by the free association or federation of workers, starting with associations, then going into the communes, the regions, the nations, and, finally, culminating in a great international and universal federation''." [Bakunin, '''Op. Cit'''., p. 270]
Outside of the council, however, Parisians organized many popular clubs and organizations that practiced direct democracy at the neighborhood level. The artist Gustave Courbet described Paris as “a true paradise...all social groups have established themselves as federations and are masters of their own fate”.<ref>”A.5.1. The Paris Commune” in [[An Anarchist FAQ]].</ref> Clubs often disseminated ideas that were far more radical than those of council. At a women's club, a Communard railed against marriage: “Marriage, ''citoyennes'', is the greatest error of ancient humanity. To be married is to be a slave. Will you be slaves?”<ref>”Speech made in a women's club,” ''The Communards of Paris'', 108.</ref>


However, for anarchists the Commune did not go far enough. It did not abolish the state within the Commune, as it had abolished it beyond it. The Communards organised themselves "''in a Jacobin manner''" (to use Bakunin's cutting term). As Peter Kropotkin pointed out, while "''proclaiming the free Commune, the people of Paris proclaimed an essential anarchist principle . . . they stopped mid-course''" and gave "''themselves a Communal Council copied from the old municipal councils''." Thus the Paris Commune did not "''break with the tradition of the State, of representative government, and it did not attempt to achieve within the Commune that organisation from the simple to the complex it inaugurated by proclaiming the independence and free federation of the Communes''." This lead to disaster as the Commune council became "''immobilised . . . by red tape''" and lost "''the sensitivity that comes from continued contact with the masses . . . Paralysed by their distancing from the revolutionary centre -- the people -- they themselves paralysed the popular initiative''." ['''Words of a Rebel''', p. 97, p. 93 and p. 97]
Crime was virtually absent in the Commune. A Communard reported, “We hear no longer of assassination, theft and personal assault”.<ref>Marx, excerpts from ''The Civil War in France'' in ''Marx-Engels Reader'', 641.</ref> The city had a festive atmosphere. “Would you believe it?,” asked Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. “Paris is fighting and singing...Paris does not only have soldiers, she has singers too. She has both cannons and violins; she makes both Orsini bombs and music. The clash of cymbals can be heard in the dreadful silence between rounds of firing, and merry dance airs mingle with the rattle of American machine-guns.”<ref>“Paris as festival” in ''The Communards of Paris'', 140.</ref>


In addition, its attempts at economic reform did not go far enough, making no attempt to turn all workplaces into co-operatives (i.e. to expropriate capital) and forming associations of these co-operatives to co-ordinate and support each other's economic activities. Paris, stressed Voltairine de Cleyre, "''failed to strike at economic tyranny, and so came of what it could have achieved''" which was a "''free community whose economic affairs shall be arranged by the groups of actual producers and distributors, eliminating the useless and harmful element now in possession of the world's capital''." ['''Op. Cit.''', p. 67] As the city was under constant siege by the French army, it is understandable that the Communards had other things on their minds. However, for Kropotkin such a position was a disaster:
Proudhonists and other anarchists opposed the Commune's establishment of a Committee of Public Safety to defend the city. Named after the Jacobins' terroristic body in the 1789 French Revolution, this Committee raised enough alarms that a minority of the council resigned. “By a special and explicit vote the Paris Commune has surrendered its authority to a dictatorship,” the minority declaration stated.<ref>“The minority declaration” in ''The Communards of Paris'', 93.</ref>


<blockquote>
=The last week=
"''They treated the economic question as a secondary one, which would be attended to later on, after the triumph of the Commune . . . But the crushing defeat which soon followed, and the blood-thirsty revenge taken by the middle class, proved once more that the triumph of a popular Commune was materially impossible without a parallel triumph of the people in the economic field''." ['''Op. Cit.''', p. 74] </blockquote>


Anarchists drew the obvious conclusions, arguing that "''if no central government was needed to rule the independent Communes, if the national Government is thrown overboard and national unity is obtained by free federation, then a central municipal Government becomes equally useless and noxious. The same federative principle would do within the Commune''." [Kropotkin, '''Evolution and Environment''', p. 75] Instead of abolishing the state within the commune by organising federations of directly democratic mass assemblies, like the Parisian "''sections''" of the revolution of 1789-93 (see Kropotkin's '''Great French Revolution''' for more on these), the Paris Commune kept representative government and suffered for it. "''Instead of acting for themselves . . . the people, confiding in their governors, entrusted them the charge of taking the initiative. This was the first consequence of the inevitable result of elections.''" The council soon became "''the greatest obstacle to the revolution''" thus proving the "''political axiom that a government cannot be revolutionary''." ['''Anarchism''', p. 240, p. 241 and p. 249]
The French army started attacking Paris again on 2 April. On 21 May, troops entered Paris and fought Communards on the streets for the next week, until the Commune fell.<ref>''The Communards of Paris'', 30, 40.</ref>


The council become more and more isolated from the people who elected it, and thus more and more irrelevant. And as its irrelevance grew, so did its authoritarian tendencies, with the Jacobin majority creating a "''Committee of Public Safety''" to "''defend''" (by terror) the "''revolution''." The Committee was opposed by the libertarian socialist minority and was, fortunately, ignored in practice by the people of Paris as they defended their freedom against the French army, which was attacking them in the name of capitalist civilisation and "liberty." On May 21st, government troops entered the city, followed by seven days of bitter street fighting. Squads of soldiers and armed members of the bourgeoisie roamed the streets, killing and maiming at will. Over 25,000 people were killed in the street fighting, many murdered after they had surrendered, and their bodies dumped in mass graves. As a final insult, '''Sacré Coeur''' was built by the bourgeoisie on the birth place of the Commune, the Butte of Montmartre, to atone for the radical and atheist revolt which had so terrified them.
Parisians had called upon the rest of the country to rise up, and for a confederation of autonomous communes to replace the French nation-state. This did not happen. As a result, the Commune was bound to fall sooner or later. “The defeat of the Commune was certain,” explained Kropotkin.<ref>Kropotkin, “The Paris Commune,” 453.</ref> Kropotkin insisted, however, that the Commune may have held up better if the masses had been more actively involved in the revolution. He acknowledged in the last week the masses launched an extremely courageous defense:
<blockquote>
This was, again, the ''people'' of Paris in their desperate battle against the middle classes, and were it not for this fight, unorganised, free, full of personal initiative and heroism, without chiefs and without gold-embroidered caps, we should never have come together to commemorate that Revolution”.<ref>Kropotkin, “The Commune of Paris,” 454.</ref>
</blockquote>


For anarchists, the lessons of the Paris Commune were threefold. Firstly, a decentralised confederation of communities is the necessary political form of a free society ("'''''This was the form that the social revolution must take''' -- the independent commune''." [Kropotkin, '''Op. Cit.''', p. 163]). Secondly, "''there is no more reason for a government inside a Commune than for government above the Commune''." This means that an anarchist community will be based on a confederation of neighbourhood and workplace assemblies freely co-operating together. Thirdly, it is critically important to unify political and economic revolutions into a '''social''' revolution. "''They tried to consolidate the Commune first and put off the social revolution until later, whereas the only way to proceed was '''to consolidate the Commune by means of the social revolution!'''''" [Peter Kropotkin, '''Words of a Rebel''' , p. 97]
=Marx and the Paris Commune=
Despite calling the Franco-Prussian War a “fratricidal feud”<ref>Karl Marx, “First Address of the General Council on the Franco-Prussian War” in Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin, ''Civil War in France: The Paris Commune'', (New York: International Publishers, 1968), 27</ref> in a public address, Karl Marx supported the war in a letter to German Social Democrats. He figured that the war would hurt anarchist trends and help his brand of socialism gain influence . He reasoned, “The French need to be overcome...the ascendancy of the German proletariat over the French proletariat will at the same time constitute the ascendancy of ''our'' theory over Proudhon's.”<ref>Graham, ''We Do Not Fear Anarchy: We Invoke It'', 140.</ref>


For more anarchist perspectives on the Paris Commune see Kropotkin's essay "''The Paris Commune''" in '''Words of a Rebel''' (and '''The Anarchist Reader''') and Bakunin's "''The Paris Commune and the Idea of the State''" in '''Bakunin on Anarchism'''.
The Paris Commune reflected anarchist ideas of community control, worker association, and confederation. Surprisingly, therefore, Marx strongly embraced the Commune and his writing on it contains many libertarian passages.
<blockquote>
But the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.
The centralised State power, with its ubiquitous organs of standing army, police, bureaucracy, clergy, and judicature—organs wrought after the plan of a systematic and hierarchic division of labour,--originates from the days of absolute monarchy<ref>Marx, excerpts from ''The Civil War in France'', in ''The Marx-Engels Reader'', 629.</ref>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
According to Stewart Edwards, the reflection on the Paris Commune “was about as close to anarchism as the mature Marx ever came.”<ref>''The Communards of Paris'', 10.</ref>


<references/>
<references/>

Revision as of 17:08, 14 January 2016

A barricade constructed by the Commune in April 1871 on the Rue de Rivoli near the Hotel de Ville. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune

From 18 March to 28 May 1871, the two million residents of Paris ran their city as an autonomous commune, established forty-three worker cooperatives, and advocated for a federation of revolutionary communes across France. With anarchists' participation, the mass uprising and social reforms of the Commune briefly moved moved Paris in a sharply anarchistic direction. “Under the name of the Paris Commune a new idea was born, to become the starting point for future revolutions,” Peter Kropotkin later enthused.[1]

Anarchists argue that the main problem with the Paris Commune was that it did not go far enough in its social revolution. Although it declared itself autonomous from the French state, it did not abolish statist structures internally. And although it implemented a number of economic reforms, it did not expropriate capital or try to abolish wage labor. Consequently, the Parisian masses lost much of their enthusiasm by the time the French army came to destroy it. Kropotkin reflected:

As if there were any way of defeating the enemy so long as the great mass of the people is not directly interested in the triumph of the revolution by seeing that it will bring material, intellectual, and moral well-being for everyone! They tried to consolidate the Commune first and put off the social revolution until later, whereas the only way to proceed was to consolidate the Commune by means of the social revolution![2]

Another major mistake, according to Friedrich Engels, was that the Communards did not seize Paris's Bank of France, which “would have been worth more than ten thousand hostages”.[3] The bank's vaults held all of France's gold.[4]

In May, the French army invaded Paris and shot Communard who resisted on the spot. The army killed 200,000 to 300,000 Communards and imprisoned another 40,000.[5]

Background

In July 1870, “Louis Bonaparte allowed the Prussian leader Bismarck to provoke him into declaring war.”[6]

Even after Prussia invaded Paris, the Parisians kept fighting in defense in their city. Five months later, the French government surrendered, causing Parisians to feel extremely betrayed “They had suffered five months for nothing.”[7] On 18 March 1871, the newly-appointed French president August Theirs sent soldiers into Paris to seize canons from the National Guard, which was controlled by the Parisian masses.

Kropotkin wrote in “Commune in Paris” that the uprising had three periods: a week of popular uprising leading to the elections, the two months of the Commune, and the last week of popular defense. “During the first and last we see the people at work. The middle is a period of Parliamentary government.”[8]

Initial Uprising

Masses of Parisians resisted the French army's attempt on 18 March 1871 to seize canons from the Parisian National Guard. According to one eyewitness account, soldiers could not reach the canons because “waves of people engulfed everything.”[9] Women surrounding soldiers on horses cried out, “Unharness the horses!”. Rebels lifted soldiers off the horses, and the crowd cheered as they let the freed horses walk through. Parisians offered wine and meat to the hungry French soldiers. “They were soon won over to the side of the rebels,” the eyewitness reported.[10] When General Lecomte ordered soldiers to fire at a crowd of women and children, the soldiers refused and instead seized the general.[11]

The national army withdrew later that day. The Parisian National Guard occupied the city hall, declared Paris autonomous from France, and called for elections on 26 March to elect a 92-member governing council.[12] The hope was that communes would spring up over the rest of France and join together in a revolutionary confederation.

“The first week is a period of great enthusiasm,” wrote Kropotkin. “The Government is overthrown. Paris is free...The greatest hopes are roused in the downtrodden masses by the new conditions. It is a popular movement, without orders from above, without direction.”[13]

Communal Governance

Parisians voted on 26 March. Two days later, at the Hotel de Ville, the National Guard formally established the Paris Commune. Most of the council members were Jacobins and Blanquists (authoritarian socialists), and a small minority were Proudhonists.[14]

Council members could be immediately recalled by the electorate, and they received only an average wage. The effect, as Friedrich Engels explained, was to prevent a class of unaccountable politicians from arising: “In this way an effective barrier to place-hunting and careerism was set up, even apart from the binding mandates to delegates to representative bodies which were added besides.”[15] Staying within the convention of the time, the Commune did not extend suffrage to women.[16]

The Commune abolished night work for bakers, prohibited employers from making their workers pay fines, and required owners of closed factories to hand over the buildings to workers to be reopened as cooperatives.[17] In total, the Commune set up forty-three worker cooperatives.[18] The Commune also opened up several schools, including one for women.[19]

Kropotkin later argued that the Commune did not go far enough in abolishing hierarchy in either decision-making or in the economy. Aside from attempting to keep out career politicians, the council was not otherwise different from a regular parliamentary government. And while the Commune set up new worker cooperatives without bosses, it did not get rid of existing bosses. There was no expropriation of capital or elimination of wage labor. “The months of Communal rule are the dullest, most unproductive months in revolutionary history. Not one single great idea coming to the front,” Kropotkin argued.[20]

Outside of the council, however, Parisians organized many popular clubs and organizations that practiced direct democracy at the neighborhood level. The artist Gustave Courbet described Paris as “a true paradise...all social groups have established themselves as federations and are masters of their own fate”.[21] Clubs often disseminated ideas that were far more radical than those of council. At a women's club, a Communard railed against marriage: “Marriage, citoyennes, is the greatest error of ancient humanity. To be married is to be a slave. Will you be slaves?”[22]

Crime was virtually absent in the Commune. A Communard reported, “We hear no longer of assassination, theft and personal assault”.[23] The city had a festive atmosphere. “Would you believe it?,” asked Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. “Paris is fighting and singing...Paris does not only have soldiers, she has singers too. She has both cannons and violins; she makes both Orsini bombs and music. The clash of cymbals can be heard in the dreadful silence between rounds of firing, and merry dance airs mingle with the rattle of American machine-guns.”[24]

Proudhonists and other anarchists opposed the Commune's establishment of a Committee of Public Safety to defend the city. Named after the Jacobins' terroristic body in the 1789 French Revolution, this Committee raised enough alarms that a minority of the council resigned. “By a special and explicit vote the Paris Commune has surrendered its authority to a dictatorship,” the minority declaration stated.[25]

The last week

The French army started attacking Paris again on 2 April. On 21 May, troops entered Paris and fought Communards on the streets for the next week, until the Commune fell.[26]

Parisians had called upon the rest of the country to rise up, and for a confederation of autonomous communes to replace the French nation-state. This did not happen. As a result, the Commune was bound to fall sooner or later. “The defeat of the Commune was certain,” explained Kropotkin.[27] Kropotkin insisted, however, that the Commune may have held up better if the masses had been more actively involved in the revolution. He acknowledged in the last week the masses launched an extremely courageous defense:

This was, again, the people of Paris in their desperate battle against the middle classes, and were it not for this fight, unorganised, free, full of personal initiative and heroism, without chiefs and without gold-embroidered caps, we should never have come together to commemorate that Revolution”.[28]

Marx and the Paris Commune

Despite calling the Franco-Prussian War a “fratricidal feud”[29] in a public address, Karl Marx supported the war in a letter to German Social Democrats. He figured that the war would hurt anarchist trends and help his brand of socialism gain influence . He reasoned, “The French need to be overcome...the ascendancy of the German proletariat over the French proletariat will at the same time constitute the ascendancy of our theory over Proudhon's.”[30]

The Paris Commune reflected anarchist ideas of community control, worker association, and confederation. Surprisingly, therefore, Marx strongly embraced the Commune and his writing on it contains many libertarian passages.

But the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes. The centralised State power, with its ubiquitous organs of standing army, police, bureaucracy, clergy, and judicature—organs wrought after the plan of a systematic and hierarchic division of labour,--originates from the days of absolute monarchy[31]

According to Stewart Edwards, the reflection on the Paris Commune “was about as close to anarchism as the mature Marx ever came.”[32]

  1. ↑ Peter Kropotkin, “The Paris Commune” in ed. Iain McKay, Direct Struggle Against Capital: A Peter Kropotkin Anthology (Oakland: AK Press, 2014), 440.
  2. ↑ Kropotkin, “The Paris Commune,” 445.
  3. ↑ Engels, Introduction to The Civil War in France in ed. Robert C. Tucker, The Marx-Engels Reader (New York: Princeton University, 1972), 626.
  4. ↑ Harman, A People's History of the World (New York: Verso, 2008), 373.
  5. ↑ Chris Harman, A People's History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millennium (New York: Verso, 2008), 373-374.
  6. ↑ Harman, A People's History of the World, 369.
  7. ↑ Harman, A People's History of the World, 370.
  8. ↑ Kropotkin, “Commune of Paris” in Direct Struggle Against Capital, 451.
  9. ↑ ”An eyewitness account” in ed. Stewart Edwards, The Communards of Paris (London: Thames and Hudson, 1973), 62.
  10. ↑ ”An eyewitness account” in The Communards of Paris, 63.
  11. ↑ Edwards, The Communards of Paris, 64.
  12. ↑ Robert Graham, We Do Not Fear Anarchy, We Invoke It: The First International and the Origins of the Anarchist Movement (Oakland: AK Press, 2015), 146.
  13. ↑ Kropotkin, “Commune of Paris,” 451.
  14. ↑ ed. Edwards, The Communards of Paris, 26-27. Graham, We Do Not Fear Anarchy: We Invoke It, 146-147.
  15. ↑ Frederich Engels, Introduction to The Civil War in France, in Marx-Engels Reader, 628.
  16. ↑ Harman, A People's History of the World 373-4.
  17. ↑ Karl Marx, excerpts from The Civil War in France in The Marx-Engels Reader, 639.
  18. ↑ ”A.5.1. The Paris Commune” in An Anarchist FAQ.
  19. ↑ Edwards, The Communards of Paris, 37.
  20. ↑ Kropotkin, “Commune of Paris”, 453.
  21. ↑ ”A.5.1. The Paris Commune” in An Anarchist FAQ.
  22. ↑ ”Speech made in a women's club,” The Communards of Paris, 108.
  23. ↑ Marx, excerpts from The Civil War in France in Marx-Engels Reader, 641.
  24. ↑ “Paris as festival” in The Communards of Paris, 140.
  25. ↑ “The minority declaration” in The Communards of Paris, 93.
  26. ↑ The Communards of Paris, 30, 40.
  27. ↑ Kropotkin, “The Paris Commune,” 453.
  28. ↑ Kropotkin, “The Commune of Paris,” 454.
  29. ↑ Karl Marx, “First Address of the General Council on the Franco-Prussian War” in Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin, Civil War in France: The Paris Commune, (New York: International Publishers, 1968), 27
  30. ↑ Graham, We Do Not Fear Anarchy: We Invoke It, 140.
  31. ↑ Marx, excerpts from The Civil War in France, in The Marx-Engels Reader, 629.
  32. ↑ The Communards of Paris, 10.
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