Paris Commune

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Paris Commune

France 1871

Synopsis

In March 1871 the citizens of the city of Paris rejected the authority of the French national government at Versailles. The immediate origins of this revolt against the central government lay in the Franco-Prussian War and the four-month siege of Paris. Fuelled by intense patriotism and isolation from the rest of France, radical and socialist elements came to the fore among the Parisian lower classes. With the end of the siege and the defeat of France, the Parisian population felt betrayed. In the face of open defiance from the Parisian National Guard, the government withdrew from Paris. In its place, municipal elections created the Paris Commune, which instigated some social reforms. The Commune was eventually defeated, resulting in the massacre of approximately 25,000 people in one of the worst periods of violence in French history. In the immediate aftermath, the labor movement in France was destroyed, and the international socialist movement faced repression. However, the Paris Commune raised the profile of socialism, and in its failure, became an important example to socialists worldwide.

Timeline

1851: Britain's Amalgamated Society of Engineers applies innovative organizational concepts, including large contributions from, and benefits to, members, as well as vigorous use of direct action and collective bargaining.
1853: Crimean War begins in October. The struggle, which will last until February 1856, pits Russia against the combined forces of Great Britain, France, Turkey, and Sardinia-Piedmont. A war noted for the work of Florence Nightingale with the wounded, it is also the first conflict to be documented by photojournalists.
1861: Unification of Italy under Sardinian king Victor Emmanuel II.
1864: Foundation of the International Red Cross in Geneva.
1867: Dual monarchy established in Austria-Hungary.
1871: Franco-Prussian War ends with France's surrender of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany, which proclaims itself an empire under Prussian king Wilhelm, crowned Kaiser Wilhelm I.
1871: U.S. troops in the West begin fighting the Apache nation.
1871: Boss Tweed corruption scandal in New York City.
1871: Chicago fire causes 250 deaths and $196 million in damage.
1873: Financial panic begins in Vienna and soon spreads to other European financial centers as well as to the United States.
1876: Alexander Graham Bell introduces the telephone.
1880: Completion of Cologne Cathedral, begun 634 years earlier. With twin spires 515 feet (157 m) high, it is the tallest structure in the world, and will remain so until 1889, when it is surpassed by the Eiffel Tower. (The previous record for the world's tallest structure lasted much longer—for about 4,430 years following the building of Cheops's Great Pyramid in c. 2550 B.C.)

Event and Its Context

The Siege of Paris

The immediate seeds of the revolt that created the Paris Commune lay in the Franco-Prussian War. In particular, four months of siege isolated Paris from the rest of France. With the defeat and capture of Napoleon III at Sedan, the victors declared a republic on 4 September 1870. However, the new moderate provisional government was more concerned with neutralizing the threat of radical revolution than with fighting the Prussians. As a result, it tried to negotiate peace with Otto von Bismarck as quickly as possible while simultaneously claiming to be committed to the defense of Paris. The Parisian population, including a well-armed National Guard, became increasingly frustrated at the inaction and apparent duplicity of the government.

Intense republican patriotism and isolation from central authority proved to be a heady mixture. In the working-class districts of the city, committees and clubs formed and began making increasingly radical demands. Most significantly, many people began to request municipal elections. In French, the term commune refers to the municipal authority in major cities. However, the Paris Commune had a revolutionary history that gave it particularly radical overtones. It had played an important role in the most radical stage of the French Revolution. Therefore, the demand for a Paris Commune elected through direct democracy was ominous. The government managed to stall most of these demands, but its control over the population became increasingly fragile.

Finally, the siege of Paris ended on 28 January. In its eagerness to end the war, the French government acceded to most of Bismarck's demands. Over the next two months, Paris became increasingly alienated from the central government. National elections returned a National Assembly that was even more conservative than the provisional government. The new regime, led by Adolphe Thiers, was insensitive to the suffering of the Parisian lower classes and passed a series of measures that inflicted further economic hardship. This succeeded in uniting the working and lower middle classes of Paris against the government.

The Paris Commune

The standoff between Paris and the National Assembly, then based at Versailles 25 miles to the southwest of the city, came to a head on 18 March. Thiers was determined to take strong action against the increasingly defiant Parisian National Guard. Therefore, he sent in troops to take possession of the National Guard's cannons. However, the people of Paris firmly resisted the attempt. In the working-class district of Montmartre, women and children defied the troops, who refused to fire on the crowd. With this open rejection of central power, Thiers called for the evacuation of the government from Paris. The army and most of the bureaucracy abandoned the city and fled to Versailles. Control of Paris had fallen to its citizens.

The recently formed National Guard Central Committee emerged as the main authority in the wake of the government's hasty retreat. The committee's immediate concern was to hold municipal elections and transfer power as quickly as possible to the Commune. The elections, held on 26 March, returned a Paris Commune that was far to the left of the National Assembly at Versailles. Most districts elected representatives who were opponents of the Versailles government. Significantly, 35 out the 91 representatives were manual laborers, mainly craftsmen from small workshops. One of the Commune's first and most effective measures was to abolish the back payment of rents accumulated during the siege. This was a huge relief to the lower classes of the city and helped to rally support for the Commune.

However, such decisive action proved to be rare. With no obvious leader, the Commune consisted of shifting factions with different political and social agendas. Jacobins motivated by the ideals of the French Revolution clashed with the supporters of Louis-August Blanqui, Pierre Joseph Proudhon, and other socialist theorists. The lack of clear leadership or direction meant that the Commune was often paralyzed by conflict. The constant feuding alienated many people, and the Commune struggled to develop new forms of authority. At the outset, decentralized, federalist principles were emphasized. However, as the military situation grew more desperate, the Committee of Public Safety, a central authority modeled on the French Revolution, formed. Many representatives rejected the committee, fearing its dictatorial overtones. Some of the more zealous members favored repressive measures to stifle criticism and pursue opponents of the regime within Paris. Such activities eroded support for the Commune.

Despite these problems, some interesting social reforms were attempted. The Commission of Labor and Exchange dealt with the organization of labor. Workers' cooperatives were a strong part of French socialist thought, and during the Commune, 43 producers' cooperatives were set up in the city's craft industries. In support of this, the Commune decreed that abandoned workshops could be taken over by trade unions to form cooperatives, and 10 factories were occupied as a result. Many of these looked to the Commune to provide work at reasonable prices, thus challenging the competitive basis of the capitalist system of production. Education was another area in which reforms were attempted. Schools were set up to replace those run by the church, according to a policy of free secular public education.

Most of this reform occurred at the grassroots level. In many of the working-class districts, people worked to create new organizations and institutions. On the boulevards and in the cafés of Paris, the lower classes gathered to meet and discuss these issues. There was a strong sense of celebration during the weeks of the Commune, to the extent that it has been referred to as "a festival of the oppressed." Despite the limitations of the Commune, for the first time, the lower classes were allowed an active part in running their city and creating social forms and relations that answered their needs. Most historians agree that the reform measures taken by the Commune were not socialist. There was no move to attack the principle of private property or to nationalize the assets of the Bank of France, which extended credit to the Commune. However, with its reforms, the Commune was responding to long-term concerns of the French workers' movement.

The Civil War

In the days after Thiers's withdrawal from Paris, some of the rebels advocated an immediate attack on Versailles. However, the National Guard Central Committee was unwilling to take such drastic action. Therefore, Thiers had time to reorganize his demoralized and mutinous army. The release of French officers captured during the Franco-Prussian War was particularly significant in restoring discipline. The Versailles government also used propaganda to encourage the army, portraying the Commune as a group of madmen, criminals, and foreign agents provocateurs. The government forces first attacked on 2 April. In response, the National Guard launched a major assault towards Versailles the next day. The Parisian forces were routed, and many of those taken prisoner were executed. This was the only offensive military move made by the Commune. Thiers's troops closed in and placed Paris effectively under a second siege. The decentralized nature of the Commune, with its emphasis on localized authority, made the war effort difficult to coordinate. Even the National Guard Central Committee struggled to impose discipline on the individual National Guard units.

Defeat and Repression

Inevitably, on 21 May the Versailles forces began entering the city. Centrally organized defense of the city or of strategic points became impossible as the National Guard reverted to defending its own districts against the invaders. However, the chaotic war effort of the previous two months was forgotten, as those who still supported the Commune fought on the barricades to defend it. This became known as semaine sanglante, the bloody week, in which indiscriminate slaughter occurred on both sides. Responding to the bestial portraits painted of the Communards over the previous two months, the Versailles troops shot men, women, and children in working-class areas. In response, the Communards began shooting their prisoners, including the Archbishop of Paris. By this stage, much of the center of Paris was in flames, set alight by the retreating Communards and Versailles artillery.

Legacy

The immediate consequence of the fall of the Paris Commune was the utter decimation of the French labor movement. The death toll on the side of those supporting the Commune was approximately 25,000, most of which occurred during the last week of frenzied bloodshed. A further 40,000-50,000 were arrested, and many were sentenced to long imprisonment or deportation. Some 3,300 fled into exile overseas. However, amnesty was granted to the exiles in 1880, and many of them returned to France. The repression following the Commune affected the whole European labor movement, eventually contributing to the collapse of the First International.

However, the Paris Commune did raise the profile of the socialist movement. After its defeat, Karl Marx wrote a brilliant polemic against Thiers and the republican government, which acknowledged the Commune as the first example of a workers' government. This brought Marx notoriety and made the International appear to be a more influential organization than it really was. Following the Commune, interest in Marx's socialist theory increased, and several new editions of the Communist Manifesto were published, although none of those involved in the Commune could be described as followers of Marx. The example of the Commune was important to the refinement of Marx's ideas about the socialist revolution. In turn, Marx's writings on the Commune were very influential in the development of Lenin's revolutionary strategy and the Bolshevik revolution. More generally, the Commune became an important symbol of heroic sacrifice for the socialist movement.

Key Players

Blanqui, Louis-August (1805-1881): French revolutionary socialist. Blanqui played an important in leading socialist opposition to the provisional government in 1870-1871. While he was imprisoned on the eve of the Paris Commune, his followers played a prominent role in it.

Delecluze, Charles (1809-1871): French republican journalist.Delecluze was a major figure in the Commune, although he was hampered by poor health as the result of long imprisonment. Delecluze took over the position of war delegate in the final days of the Commune and died on the barricades.

Thiers, Adolphe (1797-1877): French conservative politician.As first president of the Third Republic, Thiers was the architect of the defeat of the Paris Commune.

Vaillant, Edouard (1840-1915): Labor activist. Vaillant emerged as an important leader during the Paris Commune, especially in the area of educational reform. With the defeat of the Commune, he escaped to London, returning to France in 1880.