Paris Commune
What is the Left?
This excerpt from Alain Badiou's important essay on the Paris Commune in Polemics argues that radical politics always requires a break with the left - it always requires a decision for people to take things into their own hands.
An excerpt from The Paris Commune: A Political Declaration on Politics in Polemics, Verso, 2006. To read the full essay in pdf click here.
Montels, Jules, 1843-1916
A short biography of anarchist, Paris Communard and tutor to Leo Tolstoy's children, Jules Montels.
Jules Montels was born in France at Gignac in the Herault department, on 25th March 1843. As a young boy he experienced the uprising in 1851 against the coup of Louis Napoleon, which was followed by savage repression. These left bitter memories for him.
Bastelica, André, 1845-1884
A short biography of First International member, brilliant agitator and organiser of the Marseilles working class, André Bastelica.
Born at Bastia in Corsica on 28th November 1845, Bastelica was from an early age, extremely curious. He was an autodidact par excellence, like so many other workers found in the revolutionary movement. An anarchist even before the term had been properly applied, he started his working life as a shop assistant and then as a typesetter.
Pindy, Jean Louis, 1840-1917
A short biography of Jean Louis Pindy: Paris Communard, anarchist and inventor of the Paindy.
“Authority, in whatever hands it is placed, is always pernicious to the advancement of humanity” Pindy, writing in La Revue Blanche.
Jean Louis Pindy was born on June 3rd at Brest in western France. A carpenter-joiner, he became a member of the Brest section of the First International in 1867.
Brocher-Rouchy, Victorine, 1838-1921
Biography of French anarchist Victorine Brocher-Rouchy, who fought in the Paris Commune and, in making her escape from the repression, was forced to leave her husband behind.
Victorine Brocher-Rouchy
Born Paris, France 1838. Died Lausanne, Switzerland 1921
Victorine Malenfant was born in Paris in 1838, into a family with a long revolutionary tradition. Her father was a republican shoemaker and freemason.
Paris Commune
The world's first socialistic working class uprising which took place in Paris 1871. The mini-revolution was crushed as the exiled French government massacred 30,000 people.
More information
Recommended
:> History of the Paris Commune - Lissagaray
:> History of the Paris Commune - Jellineck
:> The Civil War in France – Marx
:> Theses on the Paris Commune – S.I.
Additional
:> The Paris Commune – Kropotkin
:> The Paris Commune and the Idea of the State – Bakunin
:> Unruly Women of Paris – G. Gullickson
Michel, Louise, 1830-1905
A short biography of French anarchist, Paris Communard, and national hero at the time, Louise Michel.
Louise Michel was born on 29th May 1830. She was raised by her mother and paternal grandparents. Her love and understanding of everything downtrodden, human and animal alike, developed from her empathy with her childhood world. Her compassion and sensitivity to suffering grew, as she grew. This, along with her instinct to rebel against social inequalities, led her along the revolutionary path.
1871: The Paris Commune
A brief history of the world's first socialist working class uprising. The workers of Paris, joined by mutinous National Guardsmen, seized the city and set about re-organising society in their own interests based on workers' councils. They could not hold out, however, when more troops retook the city and massacred 30,000 workers in bloody revenge.
The Paris Commune is often said to be the first example of working people taking power. For this reason it is a highly significant event, even though it is ignored in the French history curriculum.
The Paris Commune, 1871 - A short account by the WSM
A short history of the Paris Commune, weak on details of the revolution and working class organisation but with good information about the makeup of the elected Communards and details of the fighting and repression at the end of the Commune
The Paris Commune of 1871 - Undercurrent
The Paris Commune of 1871
undercurrent #6
Recently, the Sussex University library dedicated part of its space for a small exhibition on the Paris Commune. At first this came with some surprise: how was it that, in the midst of the boredom of academic life and the total lack of interest in any issues of importance, the library was willing to commemorate one of the most crucial proletarian revolutions of the nineteenth century? Yet, our surprise quickly vanished when we gave this exhibition a closer look. Not only is the exhibition of a purely academic nature (looking at historical events as spectacles and thus a-historically), but it is also taking the Commune out of context, describing it by using some of the most common illusions found in the bourgeois world. This article comes as a response to the exhibition.
Karl Marx and the Paris Commune - CLR James
From 18 March 1946 issue of Labor Action, newspaper of the Workers Party of the United States
C.L.R. James
They Showed the Way to Labor Emancipation:
On Karl Marx and the 75th Anniversary of the Paris Commune
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The American working class is not yet as familiar as the European working class with the history and traditions of the revolutionary socialist movement. March 14, anniversary of the death of Karl Marx, and March 18, anniversary of the Paris Commune will be celebrated by only a small minority.
Theses on the Paris Commune - Situationist International
"...it is time we examine the Commune not just as an outmoded example of revolutionary primitivism, all of whose mistakes can easily be overcome, but as a positive experiment whose whole truth has yet to be rediscovered and fulfilled."
The Commune: Paris 1871 - Solidarity
P. Guillaume and M. Grainger
Solidarity Pamphlet 35
I. THE COMMUNE... FROM MARX TO TROTSKY.
'Each time we study the history of the Commune we see something new in it, thanks to the experiences gained, in later revolutionary struggles...' Thus wrote Trotsky in 1921, in his preface to a book by Tales[1] which was to become basic reading for a whole generation of French revolutionaries.
Reclus, Jean Jacques Elisée, 1830-1905
A short biography of French anarchist geographer and writer, famous for his travels, Elisée Reclus.
Jean Jacques Elisée Reclus
Born 15 March 1830 - France , died 4 July 1905 - Belgium
French geographer, was born at Sainte-Foy la Grande (Gironde), on the 15th of March 1830. He was the second son of a Protestant pastor, who had a family of twelve children, several of whom acquired some celebrity either as men of letters, politicians or members of the learned professions.
The Commune, the Church and the State
From: Bakunin's Writings, Guy A. Aldred Modern Publishers, Indore Kraus Reprint co. New York 1947
THE COMMUNE, THE CHURCH & THE STATE.
I am a passionate seeker for truth and just as strong an opponent of the corrupting lies, through which the party of order -- this privileged, official, and interested representative of all religions, philosophical political, legal economical, and social outrage in the past and present -- has tried to keep the world in ignorance. I love freedom with all my heart. It is the only condition under which the intelligence, the manliness, and happiness of the people, can develop and expand. By freedom, however, I naturally understand not its mere form, forced down as from above, measured and controlled by the state, this eternal lie which in reality, is nothing but the privilege of the few founded upon the slavery of all.
The Civil War in France - Karl Marx
Karl Marx's contemporary account of the Paris Commune, placing it in context fo the wider events in France at the time. The Paris Commune significantly changed Marx's ideas about the "Dictatorship of the Proletariat", and his support for it's organisation structures suggests a different trajectory of revolutionary organisation to the "Marxist" revolutions in the 20th Century.
The Paris Commune and the Idea of the State - Mikhail Bakunin
The Paris Commune and the Idea of the State
by Mikhail Bakunin 1814-1876
First Published in 1871 Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY
The Commune of Paris - Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin's analysis of the Paris Commune, a defining moment in revolutionary history which inspired both Marxist and Anarchist revolutionaries for many years afterwards, and warrants continued attention today
