[1917]

Hello, I am curious as to what people on here think of the infamous Paris Commune (as talked about here :http://www.marxists.org/history/france/paris-commune/)

If people are unfamiliar with the Paris Commune i'll give you a quick description, after a devasting war with the Prussians the people of France had to suffer a humiliating peace treaty that included the occupation of Paris by the Germans and a royalist government being placed into power.

The people of Paris were'nt too keen on being occupied and so revolted and proclaimed there independance in 1871 and were ruled by a socialist commitee that was directly answerable to the people of the city.

It only lasted 3 months before it was cruelly crushed by the royalist French government and 30,000 men, women and children were marched out of the city and shot.

My description is a bit vague, but have a look at the link, I was very impressed by the commune and using even my limited knowledge it seems to me to have been a true and perfect socialist state, does anybody else agree with me?.

[Ombrageux]

One of my history professors claims that many of the leaders of the Commune were in fact Radicals. Radicals, as in, hard-core liberals and other anti-monarchists.

But I don't know much about it really.

[1917]

I think it was quite a mix, there were liberals, utopian socialists, republicans people like that, running the commune, they were weakly influenced by Karl Marx, but they had a commitment to the poor and to social equality, unlike the French government at the time.

The Paris Commune occupied the bank of Paris and found lots of gold bullion in the vaults, they gave it all back to there enemies the French government as they did'nt want to look like thieves, now what more do you need to know about the character of the communards?

[Adrien]

The Commune is completely left aside today in the French educational system, and it's a real shame, because it was proclaimed for absolutely legitimate reasons (the actions of the royalist government being far from acceptable, especially since the end of the Second Empire leant towards a more and more politically liberal regime), and it took many measures that were amazing for that time.

Like the universal vote for both men and women, which was only implemented afterwards officially in 1944 (even eleven years after Turkey!), a democratic militia, a totally democratic power with "ministers" appointed or recused via popular vote, and many, many others.

And they also deserve more consideration after a century, their sacrifice is hardly even commemorated anymore..

[1917]

I am sure your government feels it is an embarrisment, I mean we never mention in history books the time the Dutch sailed up the Thames and destroyed most of our fleet, because it is everso slightly embarrising as a maritime nation.

I imagine having your own capital proclaim independance is not something you want to publicise? :P hardly commemorated anymore?, so it used to be commemorated?.

[Adrien]

In fact Paris wasn't the only city to proclaim its independance, other big cities (which had de facto a big population of workers) tried to proclaim Communes, but Paris was the only one to "succeed": it had more power, the government had less control on it, and they had a tradition of doing whatever they wanted to do.

Now, when I say left aside it's not hidden, everybody knows that there was the Commune but, and that's maybe even worse, nobody knows what it was, in History books it must cover five or six lines and is presented as a mere revolt rather than a very consistant political process (when I am a teacher I will repair that, hehe). Without falling in the conspiracy theory, I do believe that such a manipulation of History is a political move by the power (not only governments, but the whole institution) to prevent the analysis of this phenomenon, an analysis which would be dangerous for the power as it would increase political counscience.

With regards to the commemoration, I do think it was commemorated during the Cold War, when the international situation made workers' history live on. Towns led by Communists had schools and streets named after Communards, and I'm pretty sure the Wall of Confederates was the scene of many speeches and commemorations.

Today this has all vanished, maybe because the Commune was mostly used during the Cold War as a political tool rather than an historical event in its own right.

[1917]

Oh history has always been manipulated in such a way that the problem is it often reaches such a point where what is real and what is a lie get's quite blurred, make sure when you become a teacher you do correct that!.

Ah you can understand why such a event would have political significance though can't you?.