The bourgeois of France had always come away with everything. Since the revolution of 1789, they had been the only ones to grow rich in periods of prosperity, while the working class had regularly borne the brunt of crises. But the defeat of Napoleon III during the Franco-Prussian War offered an opportunity for a change of course. The prospect of a conservative government that would leave social injustices intact, heaping the burden of the war on the least well-off, triggered a new revolution on 18 March.
Adolphe Thiers and his army had little choice but to decamp to Versailles. To secure democratic legitimacy, the insurgents decided to hold free elections at once. On 26 March, an overwhelming majority of Parisians (190,000 votes against 40,000) approved the motivation for the revolt, and 70 of the 85 elected representatives declared their support for the revolution. On 28 March a large number of citizens gathered in the vicinity of the Htel de Ville for festivities celebrating the new assembly, which now officially took the name of the Paris Commune.
Although it would survive for no more than 72 days, it was the most important political event in the history of the nineteenthcentury workers movement, rekindling hope among a population exhausted by months of hardship. Committees and groups sprang up in the popular quarters to lend support to the Commune, and every corner of the metropolis hosted initiatives to express solidarity and to plan the construction of a new world.
One of the most widespread sentiments was a desire to share with others. It was not the impetus of a leader or a handful of charismatic figures that gave life to the Commune; its hallmark was its clearly collective dimension. Women and men came together voluntarily to pursue a common project of liberation. Self-government was not seen as a utopia. Selfemancipation was thought of as the essential task. Two of the first emergency decrees to stem the rampant poverty were a freeze on rent payments and on the selling of items valued below 20 francs in pawn shops.
Nine collegial commissions were also supposed to replace the ministries for war, finance, general security, education, subsistence, labour and trade, foreign relations and public service. On 19 April, three days after further elections to fill 31 seats that became almost immediately vacant, the Commune adopted a Declaration to the French People that contained an absolute guarantee of individual liberty, freedom of conscience and freedom of labour as well as the permanent intervention of citizens in communal affairs.
The conflict between Paris and Versailles, it affirmed, cannot be ended through illusory compromises; the people had a right and obligation to fight and to win! Even more significant than this text were the concrete actions through which the Communards fought for a total transformation of political power. A set of reforms addressed not only the modalities but the very nature of political administration. The Commune provided for the recall of elected representatives and for control over their actions by means of binding mandates (though this was by no means enough to settle the complex issue of political representation).
Magistracies and other public offices were also subject to permanent control and possible recall. The clear aim was to prevent the public sphere from becoming the domain of professional politicians. Policy decisions were not left up to small groups of functionaries, but had to be taken by the people. Armies and police forces would no longer be institutions set apart from the body of society. The separation between state and church was also a sine qua non. But the vision of political change was not confined to such measures: it went more deeply to the roots.
The transfer of power into the hands of the people was needed to drastically reduce bureaucracy. The social sphere should take precedence over the political ~ as Henri de SaintSimon had already maintained ~ so that politics would no longer be a specialised function but become progressively integrated into the activity of civil society. The social body would thus take back functions that had been transferred to the state. To overthrow the existing system of class rule was not sufficient; there had to be an end to class rule as such.
All this would have fulfilled the Communes vision of the republic as a union of free, truly democratic associations promoting the emancipation of all its components. It would have added up to self-government of the producers. The Commune held that social reforms were even more crucial than political change. They were the reason for its existence, the barometer of its loyalty to its founding principles, and the keyelement differentiating it from the previous revolutions. The Commune passed more than one measure with clear class connotations. Deadlines for debt repayments were postponed by three years.
Evictions for non-payment of rent were suspended, and a decree allowed vacant accommodation to be requisitioned for people without a roof over their heads. There were plans to shorten the working day, the widespread practice of imposing specious fines on workers simply as a wage-cutting measure was outlawed on pain of sanctions, and minimum wages were set at a respectable level. As much as possible was done to increase food supplies and to lower prices.
Social assistance of various kinds was extended to weaker sections of the population ~ for example, food banks for abandoned women and children ~ and discussions were held on how to end the discrimination between legitimate and illegitimate children. All the Communards sincerely believed that education was an essential factor for individual emancipation and any serious social and political change. School attendance was to become free and compulsory for girls and boys alike, with religiously inspired instruction giving way to secular teaching along rational, scientific lines. Specially appointed commissions and the pages of the press featured many compelling arguments for investment in female education.
To become a genuine public service, education had to offer equal opportunities to children of both sexes. Moreover, distinctions on grounds of race, nationality, religion or social position should be prohibited. Early practical initiatives accompanied such advances in theory, and in more than one arrondissement thousands of working-class children entered school buildings for the first time and received classroom material free of charge. The Commune also adopted measures of a socialist character. It decreed that workshops abandoned by employers who had fled the city, with guarantees of compensation on their return, should be handed over to cooperative associations of workers.
Theatres and museums ~ open for all without charge ~ were collectivized. The Commune was much more than the actions approved by its legislative assembly. It even aspired to redraw urban space, as demonstrated by the decision todemolish the Vendme Column, considered a monument to barbarism and a reprehensible symbol of war, and to secularize certain places of worship by handing them over for use by the community. There was no place for national discrimination and foreigners enjoyed the same social rights as French people.
Women played an essential role in the critique of the social order. In many cases, they transgressed the norms of bourgeois society and asserted a new identity in opposition to the values of the patriarchal family, moving beyond domestic privacy to engage with the public sphere. The Womens Union was centrally involved in identifying strategic social battles. Women achieved the closure of licensed brothels, won parity for female and male teachers, coined the slogan equal pay for equal work, demanded equal rights within marriage and the recognition of free unions, and promoted exclusively female chambers in labour unions.
When the military situation worsened in mid-May, with the Versaillais at the gates of Paris, women took up arms and formed a battalion of their own. Many would breathe their last on the barricades. The Paris Commune was brutally crushed by the armies of Versailles. During the semaine sanglante, the week of blood-letting between 21 and 28 May, a total of 17,000 to 25,000 citizens were slaughtered. A young Arthur Rimbaud described the French capital as a mournful, almost dead city.
It was the bloodiest massacre in the history of France. The number of prisoners taken was 43,522. One hundred of these received death sentences, following summary trials before courts martial, and another 13,500 were sent to prison or forced labour, or deported to remote areas such as New Caledonia. Passing over the unprecedented violence of the Thiers state, the conservative and liberal press expressed great relief at the restoration of the natural order.
And yet, the insurrection in Paris gave strength to workers struggles and pushed them in more radical directions. Paris had shown that the aim had to be one of building a society radically different from capitalism. The Commune embodied the idea of social-political change and its practical application. It became synonymous with the very concept of revolution, with an ontological experience of the working class.
The Paris Commune changed the consciousness of workers and their collective perception. At a distance of 150 years, its red flag continues to flutter and to remind us that an alternative is always possible.
(The writer is Professor of Sociology, York University, Toronto)
See more here:
Strength to Struggle - The Statesman
- Pagani's New Utopia Is an Ode to Old-School Hypercars With a V-12 and Manual Transmission - Yahoo Canada Shine On - April 20th, 2024 [April 20th, 2024]
- Book Review: Tripping on Utopia, by Benjamin Breen - The New York Times - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- Cynthia Erivo's Stark New Film Is Already More Relevant Than She ... - Vanity Fair - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Why Travis Scott's Utopia is the Album of the Year - Hamilton County Reporter - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Vampire Empire and the Toxicity of Leak Culture - 34th Street Magazine - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Artist Melissa Joseph Uses an Unsung MediumFeltto Explore ... - Cultured Magazine - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Customizable Bathroom Fittings With Re-Purposed and Crystal ... - ArchDaily - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- The grouse, the gamekeepers and the ethics of the shoot - Financial Times - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- I sort of flippantly say: 'All guitars sound the same and go for ... - Guitar World - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- How MJM Marine is helping to create a cruise utopia - Cruise and Ferry - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- Everything You Need to Know About the Solar Eclipse in Central ... - Austin Monthly - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- Explore Programming for the Inaugural SXSW Sydney: Oct 15-22 - sxsw.com - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- The Daily Heller: The Art of Invented Scripts, Meaning Optional - PRINT Magazine - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- Andrea Branzi, visionary architect and designer, 19382023 - ArtReview - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- Female hotel manager handed a 33 per cent pay cut during Covid ... - People Management Magazine - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- NAPALM DEATH's SHANE EMBURY Talks New Book And Life In ... - BLABBERMOUTH.NET - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- A Step-by-Step Guide To British Airways' 49-Year Livery Evolution - Simple Flying - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- How Constructed Languages Help People Find Community - The New York Times - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- Royal Caribbean Wows Cruisers With Short Beach Cruise Vacations - Wealth Of Geeks - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- The Graham and Brown wallpaper of the year 2024 is revealed - Ideal Home - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- Museum Curators Evaluate A.I. Threat by Giving It the Reins - The New York Times - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- The Media Store: Does the growth of AI signal utopia or dystopia for ... - Marketing magazine Australia - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- MIPCOM Cannes to host world premiere screening of Concordia - Prensario Internacional - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- The Best New Cruise Ships Coming in 2024 - Cruise Critic - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- Bioshock: 10 Pieces of Important Lore New Players Need to Know - CBR - Comic Book Resources - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- 8 Best Bagels in New York City - Eat This, Not That - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- Luxon doubles down on bed tax opposition | Crux - Local News ... - Crux News - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- Indie Film: Midcoast film festival keeps building on an impressive ... - Press Herald - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- Dangerous visions: How the quest for utopia could lead to catastrophe - Salon - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- Travis Scott Spends the Day in NYC Amid the Release of His New ... - Just Jared - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- The 5 Best New TV Shows of July 2023 - TIME - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- The influence of Kanye West's 'Yeezus' is clear as day on Travis ... - Yahoo Lifestyle UK - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- How Utopia shaped the world - BBC Culture - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Dystopia - Wikipedia - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- 17th Amendment Weakened Balance of Power Between States, Federal Government - Heritage.org - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Games Of Thrones EP Frank Doelger To Helm Surveillance Thriller Series Concordia For ZDF, MBC, France Tlvisions and Hulu Japan - Deadline - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- How Mao's Cultural Revolution Made War On The Private Mind - The Federalist - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- The Russian musical instrument that infiltrated pop culture and aided espionage - Far Out Magazine - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- The Handmaid's Tale: What Is New Bethlehem? Map & Theories - Post Apocalyptic Media - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Wrtsil Oyj : Five ways the Wrtsil 46TS-DF helps you decarbonise now and in the future - Marketscreener.com - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Ditching tech is the new tech fad - Rest of World - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Martin Scorsese feels that box office obsession is "insulting" to cinema - Yahoo Entertainment - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- X-Men Monday #175 - X Me Anything With the X-Office AIPT - AIPT - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- The Difference Between A Supercar And A Hypercar - SlashGear - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- The Spanish government reactivates the tunnel project to link Morocco with Spain - Atalayar - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Why the Wing, a once buzzy womens coworking startup, shut down - Fortune - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- World's first zero-energy cruise terminal to be opened at Port of Galveston - Offshore Energy - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Letters to the editor: On baroclinic instability - Las Cruces Sun-News - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Why autumn is the new glamping season | Travel | The Sunday Times - The Times - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- The East Is ... White? Xi Jinping Is A Cracker? - The American Conservative - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Winter Wonderland Vacations- Places You Have To Visit This Year - msnNOW - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- A new series immerses us in Russias 90s trauma and the human cost of economic shock - The Guardian - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Why the communal utopia was hard work for its children - Aeon - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The Best and Coolest New Gadgets of September 2022 - Gear Patrol - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Here's a list of pumpkin patches in and around Austin - Austin American-Statesman - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- As time for meaningless jobs comes to an end, reinvent to stay relevant - The New Indian Express - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Layered subsurface in Utopia Basin of Mars revealed by Zhurong rover radar - Nature.com - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Conductor is in trouble with his name, and his no-names - Slippedisc - Slipped Disc - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Deepak Chopra & Seva.Love Announce "ChopraVerse: House of Enlightenment," the Metaverse for Wellbeing in Collaboration with Utopia -... - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- New this week: 'Reasonable Doubt,' 'Blonde' and Bjrk - Star Tribune - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- New movie releases this weekend - ABC4.com - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Utopia In The Desert - Cowboys and Indians Magazine - Cowboys & Indians Magazine - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Fascism from Italy to Hibbing and back again - Minnesota Reformer - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- EDITORIAL: Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal a proper model of justice | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis - - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Nexi S p A : September 26th 2022 Nexi and Global Blue sign a strategic partnership to provide frictionless omnichannel payment experience for the... - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Pagani thumbs its nose at electrification, unveiling all-new V12 Utopia - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Paganis New Utopia Is an Ode to Old-School Hypercars With a V-12 and Manual Transmission - Robb Report - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Whats That Shiny New Marketing Toy Youve Got There? || Googles Out Of Home Ads - Legal Talk Network - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- The future of New England Republicanism is... - POLITICO - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Disney continues to botch their animated classics with Pinocchio - Shield - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Inside the Experimental Town That King Charles III Created - VICE - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Ian Cheng imagines a world where the internet inhabits our nervous systems - Dazed - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- The aura of Shakers, the influencers of good design - Domus - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Utopia Revisited: Residents Reunite to Share Stories of 12th Street Childhood - Jewish Exponent - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- 'Wonder' Playlist: The sounds that inspired our new issue - RUSSH - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- "This Building Belongs to the People": Cape Verde's New Centre for Art, Crafts and Design - ArchDaily - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- Bjrk Parties at a Mushroom Rave in Video for New Song Atopos: Watch - Pitchfork - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- The girlbosses who girlbossed too close to the sun: The demise of womens utopia The Wing was long overdue - The Independent - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- Technology Is the Only Thing That Can Potentially Save Us: A Conversation with Brad DeLong - Observer - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- Cant We Come Up with Something Better Than Liberal Democracy? - The New Yorker - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]