In 1871 for a few months during the summer there was something unusual going on in Paris.
A completely functional democratic commune was formed by the working people and they
brought reforms that could still be considered revolutionary today.
Anarchists, Marxists and other socialists worked together on this project which was
supposed to be the beginning of a worldwide workers revolution.
But let’s take a step back and see how we got there.
As I am sure you are well aware, during the mid-18th century the industrial revolution
happened which led to the people who used to be farmers to be unemployed since new farming
equipment meant that farming required less work and the introduction of private property
centralized all farm land in the hands of wealthy elites.
Those new unemployed farmers went to the cities to work in the new industrialized factories.
One of those cities was Paris and it had huge amounts of factories that needed workers.
Of course, since this was before unions or labor rights the workers had to work for 12
sometimes 18 hours a day every day without weekends or vacations to look forward to.
For some reason those people weren’t happy and there where multiple riots and demonstrations
throughout the century.
The French government at the time was the 2nd French empire ruled by Napoleon.
… No no not that one.
His nephew.
Napoleon the third.
He tried to emulate his uncle in every way he could but he never managed it.
And the fact that they were back to an emperor didn’t quite please the people either.
The climate in Paris was revolutionary.
The high number of alienated workers cramped in small places and the availability of new
socialist and anarchist literature gave Paris the potential of revolution.
But while Napoleon the third and his government where going about the usual business of suppressing
workers, making themselves richer and granting themselves privileges, across the border there
was someone provoking them.
The Prussians under Bismarck wanted a confrontation to get Elsass and Loraine and to unify the
smaller German states into a single German empire.
The germans sent a letter which the French didn’t like and a week later napoleon had
declared a that he would invade them.
A wave of nationalism swept across France.
The workers and revolutionaries of Paris focused on banding together with the bourgeoisie against
the Prussians and forgot about that class struggle and stuff like that.
They where going to destroy the Prussians and rule Europe just like they did under Napoleon
the first!
And then the French army got itself surrounded and the emperor was captured by the Germans.
Upon loosing their head of government the rest of the French leader ship decided that
this was as good a time as any to proclaim the 2nd French republic!
Which immediately got destroyed.
And then they proclaimed the 3rd French republic!
And the Prussians promptly surrounded the capital city of Paris.
And asked for Elsass and Loraine plus a lot of money in exchange for peace.
The government declared that they would not give up an inch of territory to the Prussian
invader!
The Prussians dug trenches around Paris and decided to wait until the French would give
up.
Weeks turned to months and nothing much happened besides the fact that the food and coal supply
got lower.
At the time there where 50 thousand professional soldiers and 120 thousand recruits who were
loyal to the government and 300 thousand men from the national guard.
After some more starving and suffering there was a proposal for an armistice with the Germans.
The condition was that the French army had to give up their arms.
The national guard was exempted from this because the government argued they needed
them to keep order.
Now the national guard was mostly made up of civilians and they where organized by the
districts they where from.
They mostly reflected the opinions of the workers of Paris and the surrounding provinces
which was inspired by socialist and anarchist writing.
They weren’t exactly disciplined and even demanded to elect their own officers and sometimes
refused to follow orders unless they had democratically decided if they were okay with that.
Can you imagine that?
Democracy in the army?
After the climate became more heated and the government and the national guard fought about
a few guns the government left the city.
This means that the workers where now somehow in control of the city.
The national government as well as the local government including the mayor had left.
Suddenly everything they dreamed of could be achieved.
They could create a new government based on the socialist and anarchist ideas they had
read about.
All that change was suddenly possible!
They created a council to govern the commune and immediately held elections.
The council was made up or representatives that represented about 20k citizens each.
They could immediately be called back by the voters if they backed something the people
didn’t want.
The council also had some professions represented in it for example they had 33 industrial workers,
5 small business owners, 19 clerks and other big professions taking part and voting in
the meeting.
This was to ensure that the laws they made wouldn’t hurt the workers of paris.
They officially proclaimed the commune, held a big parade and started to implement their
changes.
They changed the flag to a plain red banner and switched the calendar back to that disastrous
thing they tried during the French revolution a few decades earlier.
The council was made up of different factions.
There where the radicals that wanted to implement changes that would help the people and there
where the moderates that didn’t want to do that and argued that a better world isn’t
possible.
This will be familiar to anyone who has ever seen any political debate.
The radicals where made up of both anarchists and socialists who were happy to work together
at this time.
Because the anarchists proposed it, they decided not to have a president, mayor or commander
in chief.
You know anarchism.
Rule without a leader.
Those jobs where to be done by democratically elected committees instead.
Oh and when I mean democratically I mean elected by every MAN over 20.
In the 6 times they met they agreed on some nice changes.
For example: The abolition of capital punishment;
The abolition of military conscription; The separation of church and state.
The remission of rents owed for the entire period of the siege.
The Abolition of child labour and night work in bakeries;
The Granting of pensions to the unmarried companions and children of national guardsmen
who gave their life in active service.
This was new since until then only married people got pensions.
The Free return by pawnshops of all workmen's tools and household items, valued up to 20
francs, pledged during the siege; The Postponement of commercial debt obligations,
and the abolition of interest on the debts; The right of workers to take over and run
an enterprise if it were deserted by its owner The prohibition of fines imposed by employers
on their workmen In addition to that they Seized church land
and made it public.
Churches could still continue to say and do religious stuff if they allowed political
debates in churches in the evening.
Then they tore down the Vendôme Column which was built to commemorate napoleons conquests
and melted it down to create coins.
They also tried to take Versailles with military force but that but that failed spectacularly.
They then decided not to conquer the rest of France but to show them that a better way
is possible.
To lead by example and demonstrate the superiority of their ideals.
And this is why they made their biggest mistake.
They let the bank of France operate as usual.
This means that the government which had fled from Paris had both time and money to recruit
an army.
The other French provinces didn’t want the follow the example of the commune either.
This was because most of rural France was incredibly conservative compared to the revolutionaries
in Paris.
After about 3 months the French army outside of the city gates was ready to take Paris
back by force.
The following week is known as the bloody week.
This is of course because the emperor peacefully convinced the people of Paris to give up their
new freedoms and they agreed and everything went over peacefully.
No just kidding they murdered everyone and burnt down half of Paris.
Afterwards socialists and anarchists split because they disagreed what the commune should
have done differently.
Anarchists argued that they should have spread the ideas of their commune more and socialists
argue that they should have been more militarist to defend themselves.
This split is there until today.
So in conclusion: Even though it ended quickly the commune taught us many lessons about how
to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat and to be careful not to let outside powers
become too strong.
And 41 years later a Russian revolutionary and his successor would make sure that their
revolution would not be crushed be foreign powers.
But that’s a story for another time.