Thesocialistminority Andtheparis Communeof1871 A Unique Episode in The History of Class Struggles

THE SOCIALIST MINORITY A N D THE PARIS C O M M U N E OF 1871
A UNIQUE EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF CLASS STRUGGLES
by
PETER L E E THOMSON N I C K E L
B.A.(Honours), The University of British Columbia, 1999
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL F U L F I L M E N T OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE D E G R E E OF
M A S T E R OF ARTS
in
THE F A C U L T Y OF G R A D U A T E STUDIES
(Department of History)
We accept this thesis as conforming

to the required standard
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH C O L U M B I A
August 2001
© Peter Lee Thomson Nickel, 2001

In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced
degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it
freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive
copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my
department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or
publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written
permission.
Department of Hi'sio*" y
The University of British Columbia

Vancouver, Canada
Date AkgaS-f 30. ZOO I
DE-6 (2/88)
Abstract
The Paris Commune of 1871 lasted only seventy-two days. Yet, hundreds of historians
continue to revisit this complex event. The initial association of the 1871 Commune with the
first modern socialist government in the world has fuelled enduring ideological debates.
However, most historians past and present have fallen into the trap of assessing the Paris
Commune by foreign ideological constructs. During the Cold War, leftist and conservative
historians alike overlooked important socialist measures discussed and implemented by this first-
ever predominantly working-class government. Communard initiatives are viewed as having
failed to live up to 'proper' definitions of Soviet socialism. In my own thesis, I argue that a
specific group within the Commune—the minority—did in fact legislate and discuss many
important socialist initiatives in the realm of finances, culture and women's issues. Breaking
from earlier elite Utopian forms of nineteenth century French socialism, and building on the
anarchist theories of Proudhon, the minorite were able to bridge the gap between labour
militancy and political representation. Through the newly created International Working Men's
Association, working class Parisians united, promoted and elected twenty-two socialist
candidates to the Commune of 1871. This investigation aims to penetrate the socialist vision of
this minorite faction within the Commune. The socialism of the minorite must be understood as
a direct response to class antagonisms created from economic hardships and municipal
disenfranchisement experienced by the Parisian poor under the Second Empire. Many important
primary sources including memoirs of key participants, parliamentary records and contemporary
journalists' reports were consulted in order to provide a detailed analysis of the unique and
culturally distinct socialist programme undertaken by the minorite in 1871.

T A B L E OF CONTENTS
Abstract
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I Introduction
C H A P T E R II The Climax of Class Antagonisms
C H A P T E R III Municipal Elections
C H A P T E R IV Formation of the Minorite
CHAPTER V The Minorite Defines Class Conflict in 1871
C H A P T E R VI Economic Policies
C H A P T E R VII Social Reform and the Co-operative Movement
C H A P T E R VIII The Socialist Anarchism of the Minorite
C H A P T E R IX Cultural Initiatives
CHAPTER X Women's Issues
C H A P T E R XI Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix I. A . Social Geography of Paris in the 1860's
Appendix I. B. Reconstruction of Paris City Limits
Appendix II A . March 26, 1871 Municipal Elections
Appendix II. B. 2001 Parisian Municipal Elections

1
I. Introduction
To the astonishment and great dismay of bourgeois commentators from the West,
something quite unexpected happened on March 18, 1871. A correspondent to the Times
of London wrote from Paris:
Here are the rowdy Quarters in full possession of the whole city ... waving flags, beating
drums, blowing bugles ... in the wildest flights of their imagination,.the bricklayers, tailors,
and day labourers ... never expected to find themselves governors of Paris. 1
After holding out for several months during the Prussian siege, Parisians felt betrayed by
their National Assembly who surrendered to Germany in January, 1871. Under the
Royalist leadership of Adolph Thiers, the Assembly further alienated many segments of
the Parisian poor by cancelling a moratorium on all overdue rents. Military pay to the
National Guards of Paris, on which thousands of families depended, was also cancelled
in February. These measures provided the final spark for a deep-rooted working-class
uprising initiated in the poorest sections of north-eastern Paris.
Conservative observers looked on in disgust. For them, the March 18 uprising
and subsequent seizure of the Hdtel-de-Ville in Paris were initiated by the "riff-raff of...
both sexes, who gather in the slums" and led by "political charlatans." These
2 3
commentators referred to the Parisian insurgents as "the lowest depths of human ...
degradation," inspired by a "magnetic current of insanity." Communard sympathizers

4 5
viewed things quite differently. Benoit Malon, an elected member of this revolutionary-
1
"The Civil War in France." Times of London, March 22, 1871, 5.
2
"Is France on its Deathbed?" New York Times, May 31, 1871, 4.
3
"Paris under the Communists" New York Times, March 28, 1871, 4.
4
"The Captive Communists." Times of London, May 30, 1871, 5.
5
"Civil War in Paris." Times of London, March 20, 1871, 4.
2
inspired Commune, often celebrated the "enfants de la foule" of Belleville and
Montmartre who supported it. Malon believed this short-lived seventy-two day
6
revolutionary government to be something quite novel in the history of France, writing in
his memoirs: "c'etait la classe ouvriere au pouvoir pour la premiere fois." Karl Marx, at
7
the time in London, also noted the uniqueness of this Parisian revolutionary experiment,
as "plain workingmen for the first time dared to infringe upon the governmental privilege
of their 'natural superiors.'" Unprecedented numbers of workers had power over Paris. .
8
Hatters, boilermakers, bookbinders, bohemian journalists and artists found themselves
among the 81 elected members in charge of Paris from March to May of 1871. 9
Both conservative and leftist contemporaries associated the Paris Commune with
the first 'working-class' government in the modern world, and this continues to attract
many historians to this complex subject. From its onset, the Paris Commune has been
interpreted along partisan ideological lines. As Eugene Schulkind tells us: "far more
than any other nineteenth century revolution, the Commune has tended to engage the
political prejudices of those who have written its history." William Serman complains
10
that Marxist scholars have tended to over-simplify the Commune of 1871 along
Manichean terms of 'good workers' versus 'evil bourgeois'." To a certain extent, one
6
Benoit Malon. La Troisieme Defaite du proletariat Francais. Neuchatel: G . Guillaume (1871), 179.
["children of the masses"]
7
Ibid, 148 ["it was the working class in power for the first time."]
8
Karl Marx. The Civil War in France: The Paris Commune. New York: International (1968), 80.
9
William Serman. La Commune de Paris. Paris: Fayarat (1986), 278-279.
Eugene Schulkind in James Leith, ed. Images of the Commune. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University
1 0
Press (1978), 329.

" Serman, La Commune de Paris, 568. William Serman has also noted his frustrations with historiography
surrounding the Paris Commune, writing: "Depuis plus d'un siecle, la Commune a inspire quantite ... de
commentaires contradictoires, mais peu d'histoires impartiales." ["For more than a century, the Commune
has inspired many contradictory commentaries, but few impartial histories."] (Serman, La Commune de
3
can sympathize with his criticisms. Many leftist historians have viewed the 1871 uprising
from within a Marxist-Leninist theoretical straight-jacket. For example, in 1937 Frank
Jellinek approached the Commune with a profound faith in scientific socialism. The
1871 Commune and the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 are portrayed to be "intimately
linked." 12
The Paris Commune's eventual defeat is used to prove his belief that socialism
cannot be sustained until the proper industrial circumstances are in place. 13

Jellinek's
approach is disheartening because it belittles the initiatives and devotion of many
segments of the Parisian poor who fought for a better society in 1871. His dogmatic
interpretation even goes so far as to reduce the Communards to Marx's "disciples." 14
Lenin also approached the Paris Commune in terms of 'lessons to be learned' for future
revolutions. For him, this first "proletarian democracy" failed because it did not
"suppress the bourgeoisie" with "sufficient determination." 15
William Serman is quite correct to criticize many Marxist historians for their
overly-reductionist accounts of the Paris Commune. However, Serman's liberal
perspective also becomes problematic when he claims only republican scholars of the
Commune are able to get at the 'truth' by balancing off sympathizers with opponents of
the 1871 regime. His belief in "rigeur scientifique" presupposes total objectivity on
behalf of liberal scholars. 16

However, history is not a perfect science. History, like
Paris, 541).
1 2
Frank Jellinek. The Paris Commune of 1871. New York: Grosset (1937), 419.
13
Ibid, 409.
1 4
Ibid, 389.
1 5
V.I. Lenin in James Connor, ed. Lenin: On Politics and Revolution. New York: Pegasus (1968), 208.
1 6
Serman, La Commune de Paris, 569. ["scientific rigor."]
4
fiction, has ideological implications. Thus, Serman's satirical view of the Commune
17
merely reflects his own liberal bias. However, his outlook is no more 'real' or viable than
any other historian's.
In general, liberal Western scholars have ironically been as guilty as leftist
historians of basing their analyses of the 1871 Paris Commune on Soviet definitions of
socialism. Robert Tombs, for example, concludes that the Paris Commune was in no way
'socialist' because "[fjhere was no attempt to round up members of the economic or
social elite..." 18
Many liberal historians have also linked the policies of the Paris
Commune to patriotism without considering underlying social antagonisms. For
example, in 1967, Edward Mason analyzed the Commune as "an incident in the Franco-
Prussian War" and claims "the uprising ... was the product of patriotism outraged by the
19
experience of Paris during the siege." Social and economic policies remain largely
20
overlooked in studies which focus on military aspects of the civil war. One Western
historian even argues that the Communard legislation does not merit any "meaningful"
analysis since "what preoccupied the Communards was not planning Utopia but beating
21
the Versailles." 22
The inadequacy of the majority of scholarship on the Paris Commune has
provided a major impetus for my own approach to this topic. A great number of scholars
have taken this event out of its historical and cultural context. Yet, as R.B. Rose tells us,
1 7
Hayden White. Metahistory (1973), 1-25.
1 8
Robert Tombs. The Paris Commune 1871. London: Longman (1999), 124.
1 9
Edward Mason. The Paris Commune. New York: Fertig (1967), 242.
2 0
Ibid, 157.
2 1
Tombs, The Paris Commune 1871, 82.
2 2
Robert Tombs. "Harbingers or Entrepreneurs"?, The HistoricalJoumal 27: 4 (1984), 976.
5
"the Paris Commune was a unique event...peculiar to France in the mid-nineteenth
century." 23
Therefore, instead of focusing on how the Commune 'failed' to live up to
Soviet standards of Communism, I plan to analyze the successful initiatives undertaken
by this short-lived government in terms of the 'socialism' defined by the Parisian
Communards of 1871.
In particular, I will focus on the ideas expressed by a group within the Commune
most often associated with la question sociale. This faction of twenty-two elected
members became known as the minorite in mid-May 1871 by opposing their Jacobin
counterparts' calls for a revolutionary five-man dictatorship. 24

The minorite counted the
largest proportion of workers and members of the newly-formed International Working
Men's Association (A.I.T.) in its ranks. They were not professional revolutionaries in the
Blanquist or Jacobin tradition. Unlike the Jacobins, the minorite did not concern
themselves with reliving past communes of 1793, nor did they adhere to the violent
nihilist vision of Blanqui and his supporters. As Azema and Winock note:
the minority...includes the Communards the most concerned with the social question...
it accounts for the largest number of workers. ..These men had an idea of the Commune
almost completely opposed to that of the Jacobins and the Blanquists."
Unlike the most recent quasi-leftist French revolutionary 1848 provisional
government, which counted at most two socialist members without ministerial portfolios,
the minorite of 1871 were given full reign over all aspects of the Commune's social
R.B. Rose in Eugene Kamenka, ed. Paradigm for Revolution. Canberra: Australian National University
2 j
(1972), 23.
The following 22 members of the Commune signed the 'declaration' of the minority on May 15, 1871:
2 4
Andrieu, Arnold, Arnould, Avrial, Beslay, Clemence, Clement, Courbet, Frankel, Gerardin, Jourde,
Lefrancais, Longuet, Malon, Ostyn, Pindy, Serraillier, Theisz, Tridon, Valles, Varlin, Vermorel.
J.-P. Azema and M . Winock. Les Communards.
2 5
Paris: Editions du Seuil (1964), 84-85.
6
legislation. Therefore, a study of the minorite's socialist vision is of prime importance
since they were the first working-class group to ever hold significant power over Paris. It
is certainly true that France had previously witnessed strong socialist movements. In
particular, as William Sewell's brilliant work on the history of early nineteenth-century
workers' corporations points out, French artisans and journeymen were able to resist
some of the hardships created from oppressive articles of the Civil and Penal Code which
forbade strikes and associations. 26

Through mutual-aid groups and rival secret
'compagnonnage' societies, substantial organizations of working-class tradesmen were
able to co-ordinate strikes and ensure that all of their members were cared for in times of
sickness. 27
However, in terms of political power, workers never held significant power
over governmental institutions in France until 1871.
In 1848, the 'socialism' of this revolutionary government was confined to limited
unofficial discussions in the Luxembourg Commission. Moreover, the 'socialism' of
1848 as advocated by Louis Blanc remained distrustful of the capacities of the French
working classes. As outlined in Blanc's influential work Organisation of Labour (1839),
cooperatives or "social workshops" were to be created and funded by the State in order to
do away with competitive private industries which created poverty and moral degradation
amongst the poor. 28

However, rather than including workers in the development of these
new egalitarian work environments, Blanc argued that only an elite within the national
2 6
Throughout the nineteenth century, the Chapelier Laws made all labour strikes illegal (Jellinek, The Paris
Commune of 1871, 36); Articles 291-294 of the Penal Code banned all association of more than 20 people
(J.H. Clapham. Economic Development of France and Germany: 1815-1914. London: Cambridge [1966],
77).
William H. Sewell. Work and Revolution in France. Cambridge: Cambridge University (1980), 162-
2 7
165.
Clapham, Economic Development of France and Germany: 1815-1914, 266-268.
2 8
7
government of France could be entrusted with their administration. As William Sewell
points out,
Blanc's emphasis on state action fit his pessimistic assessment of the condition of the
working class. If the competitive system had reduced workers to poverty and moral
decay, then workers themselves could hardly be counted on to take the initiative in
29
creating a new organization of labor.
The 'socialism' espoused by the minorite of 1871 represented a significant break
from that of the past in many respects. Certainly, it rested on similar notions of
combating capitalism through the expansion of co-operatives in France. However, the
'socialism' of 1871 was to be achieved with the aid and direct intervention of the working
classes. The minorite's socialist vision of 1871 drew inspiration from the specifically
French anarchist theories of Proudhon. Workers were to be directly included in achieving
a gradual transition towards economic equality. French workers were called upon to unite
through mutual-aid societies. Banking was to be reformed in order to provide interest-
free funding to co-operative initiatives. Moreover, unlike the 'socialism' of the 1840's
30
which derived from numerous secret and often rival workers' societies , that of 1871 31
consisted of a more unified movement. With the creation of French sections of the A.I.T.
in 1864 in most urban centres throughout France, the working class found a more united
institutional form through which to organize collective anti-capitalist expressions. With
perhaps 70,000 Parisian members at the time of the Commune, the A.I.T. was able to
bridge the gap between grass-roots labour militancy and political representation. It
2 9
Sewell, Work and Revolution in France, 235.
Theodore Zeldin. France 1848-1945: Politics and Anger. Oxford: Oxford University (1979), 98-99.
3 0
For example, Sewell notes that due to rivalries within the carpentry 'compagnonnages' in early nineteenth
3 1
century Paris, the 'Enfants de Pere Soubise' tradesmen confined themselves to the right bank of the Seine,
whereas the 'Enfants de Salomon' only worked on the left bank. (Sewell, Work and Revolution in France,
169).
8
promoted its own working class candidates for the 1871 Communal government. These
candidates eventually formed the minorite.
Many significant social initiatives were discussed and implemented due to the
diligence of minority members. Particularly, in the realm of finances, labour, culture and
women's issues, the minorite proved quite effective. My investigation focuses on both
the ideas as well as the parliamentary debates surrounding the social policies of the
Commune. Even if the Commune's legislation appears on the surface moderate,
underlying arguments in the parliamentary records reveal quite a radical vision

32
favouring a new socially just Paris. If perhaps time was not on the side of the minorite,
their 'socialist' vision remains forever alive in the records of the communal council.
Memoirs of key participants such as Benoit Malon, Arthur Arnould, Gustave Courbet and
Francis Jourde also provide important insights into the how the minorite hoped to resolve
economic inequality. Although none of the elected members of the Commune were
women, the writings of the influential Louise Michel provide some fascinating
contemporary feminist perspectives on the socialism associated with this event. In
addition, editorials from the official newspaper of the Commune will be examined. A l l 33
of these primary sources are united in a consistent 'class' based analysis of Parisian
society which provides us with a good indication of what 'socialism' meant to the
minorite in 1871.
Proces Verbaux de la Commune; hereafter referred to as the P.V.C.

3 3
hereafter referred to as the J.O.; the Journal Officiel published decrees as well as editorial contributions
from all members and supporters of the Commune.
9
II. The Climax of Class Antagonisms
The minorite's social policies represent many initiatives taken in favour of the
working people of Paris in 1871. The question arises as to who precisely were the
'working classes' that supported, elected and fought for the Paris Commune? R.B. Rose
notes that categories such as 'proletarian' or 'working-class' are not static:
When participants in the Commune...in the middle of the nineteenth century...used the
term 'proletaire' they meant something quite different by it than...Marxists 34
The 'proletaries' of Paris were not an 'ideal type' of Marxist industrialized workers. In
fact, one study indicates that the number of Parisian labourers per workshop remained
relatively low at only 7.7 throughout the 1860's. 35

Perhaps the most distinctive
characteristic of the Parisian working class of 1871 was its "heterogeneity." Huge 36
factories had not yet penetrated Paris at this time save for a few new plants on the
outskirts of the city in La Chapelle. 37

Most Parisian workers remained engaged in either
skilled artisanal luxury crafts or else were employed as manual labourers in the rapidly
expanding garment industries and the booming construction and building trades. 38
3 4
R.B. Rose in Eugene Kamenka. "The Paris Commune: The last episode of the French Revolution or the
first dictatorship of the proletariat?." Paradigm for Revolution. Canberra: Australian National University
(1972), 21.
j 5
Jellinek, The Paris Commune of 1871, 33-34.
Gerard Noiriel. Workers in French Society in the 19th and20th
j 6
centuries. New York: St. Martin's Press
(1990), xii.
Robert Wolfe. "The Parisian Club de la Revolution of the 18th Arrondissement 1870-1871." Past and
3 7
Present. 39, 82-83.

see Jellinek, The Paris Commune of 1871, 33-34: 300,000 Parisians were employed in the garment
3 8
industries—the majority being women; over 200,000 Parisian men found themselves employed in the
reconstruction of Paris during the late 1860's; see Appendix 1A for further details on the "heterogeneous"
10
Nevertheless, the notion that Paris had a diverse and unindustrialized working
class in 1871, does not mean poverty and shared economic exploitation did not exist; nor
did it preclude class antagonisms from developing. E.P. Thompson's definition of the
British working class seems equally relevant to my own definition of the Parisian
working class. Thompson claims that class is "a result of common experiences" amongst
groups and communities of people who "feel" and "articulate" their own experiences in
opposition to others. 39
This class solidarity, while dependent on economic inequalities,
does not presuppose 'proper' economic conditions for its formation. As Thompson so
eloquently put it, "consciousness of class arises in different times and places, but never in
just the same way." 40

Moreover, as William Sewell tells us, strong traditions within the
French labour movement developed prior to the industrial revolution. Therefore, any
meaningful analysis of French socialism should not ignore the contributions of
nineteenth century artisan radicalism 4 1

It was precisely the artisan and largely pre-
industrial Parisian workforce which contributed and supported the socialist minorite of
1871 under unique social circumstances.
Haussmann's restructuring of the city of Paris in the 1860's, combined with
worsening economic conditions and growing frustration with the lack of municipal
autonomy under Napoleon III, heightened class antagonisms and provided wide-scale
support for the Paris Commune. As Robert Tombs indicates, "unprecedented
transformation...created discontents and political demands that...influenced the
make-up of the Parisian working classes at this time.

E.P. Thompson. The Making of the English Working Class. New York: Vantage Books (1966), 9.
3 9
Ibid, 9-10.
4 0
see Sewell, Work and Revolution in France, 1-4.

4 1
11
Commune's programme." 42
The Parisian working-classes consisted in 1871 primarily of
artisans and manual labourers. Of course, as Edith Thomas notes, the Parisian working
poor must also take into account female workers: "within the proletariat itself, a
distinction must be made: women were the more exploited." The majority of women
43
earned on average less than half a working man's wage. 44

Many could only afford to eat
bread and milk and were forced into prostitution to supplement their meager wages. 45
The overall economic picture for working-class Parisians was quite gloomy as from 1857
to 1867, real wages fell by over 25%. 46
The heterogeneous workers of Paris all experienced the massive re-structuring of
their city under Baron Haussmann in thel850's and 1860's. The population of Paris
witnessed incredible growth, increasing from 1.1 to 1.8 million people between 1850 and
1870. Eight new districts were incorporated into Paris in order to accommodate both the
influx of rural migrant construction workers and the exodus of 350,000 previously
centrally located artisans no longer able to afford the luxurious new developments in the
centre of the city. 47

The geography of Paris became codified along 'class' lines, as never
before. 48
The north-east of the city served as a ghetto of unsanitary housing for the
dispossessed. While luxurious flats were created for the wealthy in the centre of the city,
most Parisian workers were forced into cramped lodgings in the overpopulated eastern
4 2
Edith Thomas. Women Incendiaries.
4 j
New York: George Braziller (1966), 4.
Ibid, 5; most Parisian women worked as seamstresses, earning only 2 francs per 13 hour workday.
4 4
Ibid, 6-7.
4 5
Jellinek, The Paris Commune of 1871, 34.

4 6
Priscilla Ferguson. Paris as Revolution. Berkeley: University of California (1994), 133-134; see
4 7
appendix IB.
Roger Magraw. A History of the French Working Class. Cambridge: Blackwell (1992), 224.
4 8
12
slums of Belleville and Montmartre. 4y

To make matters worse, rent prices nearly doubled
at this time due to the recent population boom. As Edith Thomas notes, the social
restructuring of Paris created two distinct worlds within one city, alienating the poor from
the rich:
Two distinct classes then; the rich and the poor. This was carved into the very stones
and asphalt of the city, for everyone to see....No longer were the houses divided
perpendicularly ...between bourgeois and artisans. The workers were pushed back
toward the north and east of Paris, to Belleville...and beyond...fortifications, toward the
suburbs that were emerging into the ugliness of industrial anarchy. All along the new
streets sprung up the expensive houses of the eminent banking and business families.
Two different worlds, with hatred and fear of one another. 50
Roger Magraw further notes that two distinct cultural spheres emerged under the
reconstruction of Paris:
Central Paris became an arena for spectacle...where the well-to-do came to stroll
...shop in department stores...It was colonized by the new capitalist leisure and consumer
culture...But the wider Parisian working class had not been drawn into this culture. 51
Not only were the Parisian poor being forced to the periphery of the city, their
ways of life were also subject to dislocation. Due to the fact that Haussmann's rebuilding
of Paris cost over 2.5 billion francs, a new 'octroi' tax was levied on all goods entering
the city. This municipal tax increased rent, food and raw materials by over 20%! 52
In
many cases, craftsmen in small workshops could no longer survive independently. Many
were forced into unfavourable contracts with new department stores such as the Bon
Marche, in order to avoid bankruptcy. 53

The effects of the growing division and
4
' Ibid, 224.
5 0
Thomas, Women Incendiaries, 4.
5 1
Magraw, A History of the French Working Class, 225.
5 2
5 3
Magraw, A History of the French Working Class, 229; the Bon Marche was one such new department
store created in 1852.
13
'commidification' of labour was not lost on Napoleon Ill's key minister of trade Michel
Chevalier, who remarked in the 1860's:
an abyss separates the bourgeois from...the worker...The bourgeois feels nothing in

common with the proletarian. It is convenient to regard him as a machine that one rents,
by which one is served, and that one pays only so long as he is needed. 54
Further to this, with no democratic municipal representation throughout the duration of
the Second Empire, the Parisian poor felt completely alienated from their city. Therefore,
the Paris Commune may be viewed as an attempt by the "victims" of Haussmann's
rebuilding of Paris to "reclaim the public space from which they had been evicted". As
Albert Boime so accurately tells us, the Paris Commune represented an attempted reversal
of "social relations" and allowed for "novel" "utopian possibilities." 55

Unquestionably,
economic hardships, municipal disenfranchisement and the abrupt reorganization of the
social geography of Paris in the 1860's contributed to heightened class antagonisms and
helped shape the socialist vision of the minorite. The growing separation between
bourgeois and proletarian Parisians in all facets of life further led to distinct class-based
voting patterns in the March 26 Communal elections.
III. Municipal Elections
On March 18, as red flags flew atop the Hotel-de-Ville, free elections were called
to determine the fate of the city. 56

Contemporary critics of the Commune claimed the
Roger Williams. The French Revolution of 1870-71. New York: W.W. Norton (1969), 39.
Albert Boime. Art and the French Commune. New Jersey: Princeton University (1995), 3-24.
Journal Officiel de la Commune. Coeures & Valsery: Editions Ressouvenances (1995), 22-23; the
14
March 26 municipal elections were "fraudulent in their execution" and would serve to
deprive the leftist Parisian government of "all credit or moral force." 57

In particular, the
voter turnout was deemed to be too low to sanction a government. According to the
Times correspondent, only 180,000 Parisians participated out of 500,000 registered
voters. 58
Recent scholars have made similar claims that the Commune was elected by
roughly 100,000 less votes than the 1870 government of National Defence. Yet, 59
statistics on the elections vary considerably. According to official published results in the
Journal Officiel, 222,000 Parisians cast ballots on March 26! 60

While this total represents
only 46% of registered voters, it must also be noted that thousands of wealthier Parisians
fled the city at the end of the Prussian siege and many previously registered voters were
killed during the Franco-Prussian War. 61
More recent critics of the Commune such as Georges Bourgin claim that low voter
turnout on March 26, 1871 should be attributed to "l'etat d'esprit des hommes et des
femmes qui n'ont pas pactise avec la sorte de dictature du proletariat alors instauree." 62
Bourgin further argues that it was not simply wealthy segments of the Parisian population
who abstained on March 26, but also the Catholic and socially conservative Parisian poor
revolutionaries of Paris reformed electoral procedures, basing elections on representation by population,

allowing poorer over-populated districts their fair say.
"The Commune of Paris." Times of London. March 30, 1871, 5.
5 7
"The Commune of Paris." Times of London. March 30, 1871, 5. The same observer further claims that
5 8
only 110,000 Parisians voted for radical candidates.

5 9
Williams, The French Revolution of1870-71, 131.
Journal Officiel, 105-107.
6 0

6 1
Georges Bourgin. La Commune: que sais-je? Paris: Presses Universitaires (1965), 52. ["the state of
6 2
mind of men and women who had not come to terms with the kind of proletarian dictatorship recently
instituted."]
15
who feared the anti-clericalism espoused by Communards. 63

The historian Edward
Mason makes the claim that "[fjhere is no cosmic necessity leading the working class
toward socialism ... nor is any connection of this sort visible in the revolution of the 18th
of March." 64
Elsewhere, bourgeois observers felt that working people of Paris supported
revolutionary candidates due to their "weak and unenlightened minds." 65

The Parisian
poor had been tricked into voting for socialist candidates:
The deceived workmen...The poor devils...of limited intelligence...brutalized...by the

abuse of dangerous drink...become intoxicated with the fine words with which they are
deluded...promises of the future which...can never be realized. 66
Nevertheless, when one looks at the voter turnout and voting patterns in terms of
the social geography of Paris, it becomes clear that 'class' was the dominant factor. For
example, in the central and wealthier western districts only roughly 24% of registered
voters participated. 67
Yet, in the poorer north-eastern districts such as Montmartre, up to
58% cast ballots. 68

Support for revolutionary candidates was also strongest in this
poorest north-eastern region of Paris. 69

Even reactionary observers at the time were
forced to admit that "the sentiment of class appears for the first time as a revolutionary
power." 70
b i
Ibid, 52.
6 4
Mason, The Paris Commune, 157.
"The Commune of Paris." Times of London, April 15, 1871, 10.
6 5

6 6
Journal Officiel, 105; in the western district #7, voter turnout was only 22.9%, and in the wealthy
6 7
arrondisement #8, only 24.7% of registered voters cast ballots; see appendix 2A for further details.
6 8
Ibid, 106-107; in one of the poorest districts in Paris (# 18), over 53% cast ballots. Another north-eastern
district #10 had over 58% of registered voters participate in the March 26th Communal elections; see
appendix 2A for further details.
6 9
"The Universal Republic." New York Times, April 12, 1871, 4.

7 0
16
IV. Formation of the Minorite
The March 26 elections returned a landslide victory for revolutionaries of many
persuasions. In particular, candidates endorsed by the A.I.T. did very well. 71

Although
some of the elected delegates previously held professional jobs, well-off revolutionaries
often associated themselves with either neo-Jacobinism or Blanquists. Most members 72
of the minorite, such as Benoit Malon came from dire poverty. Born into a rural landless
peasant family in the Loire region of France, Malon moved to Paris in the 1860's. 73
Eventually, he was forced to peddle books in order to eke out a living. Malon was a self-
taught intellectual and helped found the A.I.T. section of Paris in 1865. He also served
time in prison under Napoleon Ill's oppressive regime due to his affiliation with this
organization. 74
Malon's Communard colleague Gustave Courbet also lived a bohemian
existence since his realist paintings did not satisfy 'bourgeois' artistic tastes. Courbet
explains from a letter written from prison: "I have never had wealth, I don't care to have
it, or to possess anything at all." 75

Therefore, one may conclude that the minorite were
not simply a "working-class elite" as Robert Tombs has argued, nor can one dismiss the
76
71
Journal Officiel, 66; the A.I.T. called on Parisians to vote for its candidates who would institute "the
progressive application of social reforms" in order to "end class antagonisms by ensuring social equality.";
members of the minorite such as Arnould, Frankel, Malon and Ostyn were but a few of the A.I.T.
candidates elected.
7 2
Azema and Winock, Les Communards, 182-183; Serman, La Commune de Paris, 278-279; for example,
the Blanquist Eugene Protot was a lawyer and Jacobin J.J. Pillott was a medical doctor.
7 j
Steven Vincent. Between Marxism and Anarchism. Berkeley: University of California (1992), 7.
7 4
Ibid, 8-23
Gustave Courbet in Petra Chu, ed. Letters of Gustave Courbet.
7 5
Chicago: University of Chicago (1992),
424.
Tombs, The Paris Commune, 111.
7 6
17
Communards as "disgruntled petit bourgeois." 77
Some historians have suggested that within the Commune, one cannot necessarily
derive specific groups such as 'minorite' or 'Jacobins'. R.D. Price writes: "There was
nothing but vague ideals...constant squabbling between individuals." 78

Nevertheless, by
mid-May a minorite was officially formed in protest against the growing authoritarian
nature of the Jacobin majority. The declaration of the minorite outlines some of the
major differences which distinguished this forward-looking group from the Jacobins:
nous voulons, comme la majorite, l'accomplissement des renovations politiques et

sociales; mais, contrairement a sa pensee...sans abriter derriere une supreme dictature
79
que notre mandat ne nous permet d'accepter.
By mid-May, the Jacobin and Blanquist majority attempted to revive the past commune
of 1793 and the terror associated with it. The revolutionary calendar was adopted, and
opposition newspapers were suppressed. 80

The majority ordered the destruction of
famous imperial monuments such as the Colonne Vendome. As Stewart Edwards writes:
"many of the Jacobins and Blanquists were engaged precisely in trying to play the roles of
their great ancestors." 81

Followers of Blanqui became much more violently anti-clerical
7 7
Alistair Home. The Terrible Year. London: Macmillan (1971), 116.
7 8
R.D. Price. "Ideology and Motivation in the Paris Commune of 1871." Historical Journal, xv, I (1972),
75; Winock and Azema also claim that: "The ideological content of the Parisian revolution was missing a
back bone...there were too many brains to make one head...the official doctrine remain blurred." (Azema
and Winock, Les Communards, 71.)
7 9
Georges Bourgin, ed. Proces Verbaux de la Commune: Tome II. Paris: A Lahune (1945), 373 ["we
want, like the majority, the accomplishment of political and social reforms; however, contrary to its
thought...without taking shelter behind a supreme dictatorship which our mandate does not permit us to
accept."]; Robert Tombs also notes the minority's opposition to the majority's dictatorial tendencies,
writing: "the 'Minority' were...conscious of themselves as democrats and socialists involved in a modern
nineteenth-century movement...they feared a revolution that would merely change one oppressive regime
for another." (Tombs, The Paris Commune 1871, 84.)
8 0
Stewart Edwards. The Paris Commune 1871. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode (1971), 245.
8 1
Ibid, 229.
18
by May. Raoul Rigault ordered 120 priests arrested, including the Arch-bishop of Paris. 82
As opposed to the majority, minority members envisioned a very different
revolution inaugurated on 18 March, 1871. Reliving the terror of 1793 should not be
allowed to impede this new social revolution. 83

Although the declaration of the minority
did not officially appear until May 15, judging from Benoit Malon's memoirs, this group
of predominantly A.I.T. members formed an alliance from the very beginning:
Tous ces ouvriers se connaissaient; ils avaient lutte ensemble, habite ensemble les
prisons imperiales: c'etait un groupe d'amis...leurs convictions socialistes...les
eloignaient du terrorisme ...de 1793. Ils formerent des le premier jour...un groupe
84
compacte qui siega a gauche et s'intitula 'socialiste'.
The differences between 'majority' and 'minority' become even more pronounced when
one looks at the various delegations members served on. The minority found themselves
on committees related to la question sociale. Of the ten committees, the minority
concentrated themselves on 'Finances', 'Public Services', 'Education' and most
importantly, 'Labour'. Frankel, as head of this latter group represented the first ministry
devoted to labour issues in the history of French politics 85

On the other hand, members of
the Jacobin and Blanquist majority concentrated themselves on the more violent aspects
Tombs, 777e Paris Commune 1871, 124; 24 priests were killed in the last week of the Commune's
8 2
existence as retribution for thousands of Communard deaths.

8 3
Bourgin, Proces Verbaux de la Commune: (II), 374; Malon writes: "I remain convinced that the
reminiscences of '93 should never have entered in the social and proletarian Revolution inaugurated on the
18th of March."
8 4
Malon, 138 ["All of these workers knew each other; they had struggled together, lived together in the
imperial prisons: it was a group of friends...their socialist convictions...separated them from the
terrorism...of 1793. From the first day, they formed...a compact group which sat on the left and called itself
'socialist'."]
the contemporary journalist and Communard sympathizer Lissagaray, believed that the mere existence of
8 5
Frankel's committee of Labour during the Commune did "more for the workmen than all the bourgeois
Assemblies of France...since 1789." (Prosper-Oliviei Lissagaray. History of the Commune of 1871.
London: Fisher Unwin [1902], 233.)
19
of this government such as the 'Military Committee' and that of'General Security'. 86
Some historians have argued that due to the factions within the Commune,
fighting and disorderly conduct impeded meaningful social legislation. For instance,
Winock and Azema suggest that "there were avalanches of suggestions in a
dumbfounding revue of questions...It was rare when a question was fully debated." 87
A
correspondent from the Times of London even went so far as to proclaim that "They give
orders at random without knowing what they are doing." 88

It appears that there is a
certain element of truth to these historians' conclusions. However, parliamentary records
indicate that debates were most unproductive only by late May. In one instance, Francois
Ostyn of the minority, expressed his frustrations at the constant parliamentary squabbling:
J'ai quarante-huit ans, je n'ai jamais fait partie d'une assemblee populaire. Je sors
de la classe ouvriere; je ne connais pas les malices de la politique; je vois ici des
choses qui m'etonnent. Je croyais trouver dans cette assemblee quelque chose de plus
grand, de plus digne.89
Although there were heated debates between factions within the Commune over
some petty issues , there were many more important and well-informed discussions
90
which led to significant social legislation. Contrary to some myths, the behaviour within
the Communal council was not one of wild parties and drunken behaviour. As Stewart
Edwards notes, the Communards were remarkable for their "puritan application to
Journal Officiel, 97-98; over 80% of the minorite served on Committees related specifically to social
8 6
questions.
Azema and Winock, Les Communards, 95.
8 7
"The Commune of Paris." Times of London. April 8, 1871, 8.

8 8
Bourgin, Proces Verbaux de la Commune (II), 402 ["I'm forty-eight years old, I've never been part of a
8 9
popular assembly. I come from the working class; I never knew the malice of politics; I see things here
which shock me. I thought I would find something greater, more worthy in this assembly."]
Ibid, 410; for example, on May 19, a full half day was wasted debating which parts of the parliamentary
9 0
discussions should appear in the official newspaper of the Commune.

20
duty." 91
One of the first measures implemented reduced elected representatives salaries
to 6000 francs per year. 92

Although this wage amounted to roughly four times an average
male working man's salary, considering the dedication of members of the Commune,
93
one could say they were extremely underpaid. Many, such as Arthur Arnould noted that
they rarely had time to sleep. 94

Perhaps Gustave Courbet expressed the dedication of the
minorite best in a letter written to a friend on April 30, 1871: "I preside twelve hours a
day. My head is beginning to feel like a baked apple. But in spite of all this...I am in
seventh heaven. Paris is a true paradise!" 95

Outside of the Council, Communard women
worked and fought with equal vigour for this new revolution sociale. Louise Michel
explains: "During the entire time of the Commune...I never really went to bed ...
Everybody who wanted deliverance gave himself [sic?] totally to the cause." 96
V. The Minorite Defines Class-Conflict in 1871
William Serman has been quite critical of Marxist historians for reducing their
analyses of the Paris Commune along overly-simplistic "interpretations reductrices"
based on class-conflict. Yet, if we look at minorite editorial articles in the Journal

97
Officiel, the revolution of 18 March is in fact expressed along very definite class
9 1
Edwards, The Paris Commune 1871, 205.
9 2
Journal Officiel, 126.
Tombs, The Paris Commune 1871, 86.; Communard salaries seem quite moderate when compared with
9 3
British M.P.'s who at the time earned 10, 000 francs. (Jellinek, The Paris Commune of 1871, 391.)
Arthur Arnould. Histoire Populaire et Parlementaire de la Commune de Paris. Brussels: Librairie
9 4
Socialiste (1878) Vol.2, 112. Arnould writes: "je ne me rappelle pas m'etre...couche dix fois dans ces deux
mois." ["I don't remember having slept ten times in these last two months."]
Courbet in Chu, Letters of Gustave Courbet, 416.
9 5
Louise Michel in B. Lowry,ed. The Red Virgin. Alabama: University of Alabama (1981), 66.
9 6
Serman, La Commune de Paris, 568. ["reductionist interpretations"]

9 7
21
antagonisms. For example, in an April 5 editorial piece entitled Les Rouges et les Pales,
colours are used to symbolize social classes. "Reds" are associated with workers, while
"Whites" are signified as bourgeois. While "Whites" have "tyranny in their veins," 98
"Reds" favour "fraternite...entre les peuples sans esprit de nationalite." 99

In this article
'class' also takes on moral dimensions as "Reds" are portrayed as fighting to end all
forms of poverty "au service de l'humanite" 100

whereas, "Whites" are associated with
"moeurs frivoles," 101

living extravagant and deceptive lifestyles at the expense of the
homeless. 102
While the historian Robert Tombs claims that under the Commune, "the red flag
was far from incompatible with popular patriotism," 103

a March 30th article in the J.O.
entitled Le Drapeau Rouge clearly proves his theory wrong. In this editorial the red flag
symbolizes "une seule classe, celle des travailleurs." 104

Whereas the old tricolor flag of
France in 1789 and 1848 represented an attempted reconciliation between the "white"
nobility, the "blue" bourgeoisie and the "red" workers, under the Commune this is viewed
to be "une contradiction avec le principe de l'egalite."' 05

Finally, in an editorial entitled
Une Revolution Populaire, the history of France is clearly defined in terms of class
conflict:
Bourgeois society...since 89 has replaced, in authority and in privilege, the ancient aristocracy
...It will be destroyed by the struggle developed by the worker against the capitalist. 106
9 8
Journal Officiel, \ 43.
9 9
["fraternity...among all people regardless of their nationality"]
10<?
["in the service of humanity"]
1 0 1
["frivolous morals"]
1 0 2
1 0 j
1 0 4
Journal Officiel, 11. ["only one class, that of the workers"]
1 0 5
["a contradiction with the principle of equality"]
106
Journal Officiel, 189. ,
22
Clearly, the minorite of 1871 believed the Commune represented a definite break with the
past. The red flag atop the H6tel-de-Ville symbolized the first Parisian government
completely devoted to creating a classless society.
VI. Economic Policies
The minorite also expressed itself in 'class' terms in municipal council debates as
well as through actual social legislation.' 07

Francis Jourde of the minority was appointed
delegate of Finances for the Commune. Historians of all persuasions have been quite
critical of his initiatives. For example, Theodore Zeldin claims that the "finances of the
Commune...were scrupulously conservative." 108

Yet, while Jourde's financial policies
may not have been radical by Soviet standards, they did reflect very daring and 'class'
inspired visions at this moment in history. 109

Based on Jourde's parliamentary financial
report of May 2, one can detect many instances of working-class inspired reforms.
Although roughly 80% of expenditures were allocated to the civil war effort, a significant
attempt at wealth redistribution is apparent. For instance, while the affluent second
district received only 5000 francs in funding for local initiatives, the poorer north-eastern
Bourgin, La Commune: que sais-je? 571; Bourgin writes: "it [the minority] approached...workers
problems with a real vigour and attempted to resolve them in an undeniable spirit of social justice."
Zeldin, France 1848-1945:, Politics and Anger, 378; Winock and Azema refer to the "timidness" of the
1 0 8
Commune with respect to private property (Azema and Winock, Les Communards, 106).; even Karl Marx
was forced to admit the Commune's financial policies were "remarkable for their sagacity and
moderation."(Marx, The Civil War in France, 85.)
Bourgin, Proces Verbaux de la Commune (II), 77. Jourde's own consciousness and desire to serve the
1 0 9
interests of the Parisian working-class is clearly expressed in parliamentary debates on May 2: "it is the
working class that...I am happy to represent here."
23
20th district received 228,000 francs." Jourde aimed at implementing a progressive

0
taxation system. He acknowledged that the city tax or "octroi," previously introduced by
Napoleon III to pay for Haussmann's reconstruction of Paris, weighed very heavily on the
poor and must be reduced by 50%." To offset these lost revenues, taxes on private
1
enterprises were implemented." On March 29, under Jourde's leadership, the Commune
2
also passed legislation ordering landlords to remit the last three quarters of the year's rent
payments to tenants and placed a moratorium on repayment of all overdue bills. 113
Critics
conclude that this legislation "did nothing to attack the principle of finance-
capitalism." 11 4
Yet, when one considers that these bills were to be repaid over 3 years
without interest, 115

it seems that the entire notion of what capitalism is founded on—
profit—was indeed being dismantled by Jourde.
In parliamentary debates, Jourde consistently advocated policies which attacked
excessive profiteering. In particular, he was quite critical of stock-market speculation. 116
Jourde's self-proclaimed "socialisme pratique"" aimed at a gradual transformation of

7
Parisian society towards economic equality. Jourde argued that if drastic measures were
taken such as the abolition of private property, French currency would immediately be
devalued, prohibiting the Parisian working classes from obtaining the necessities of life.
In particular, he emphasized the dependency of the Parisian economy on world trade. He
Ibid, 73.
1 1 0
"' Ibid, 77.

for example, a 10% tax on privately owned railways entering Paris was enforced, (see Edwards, The
1 1 2
Paris Commune 1871, 252.)

1 , 3

1 1 4
' Journal Officiel, 300-301.

1 5
Bourgin, Proces Verbaux de la Commune (II), 76-77. On May 2, Jourde states: "What I wanted in
1 1 6
Finances, was to put a stop to these scandalous stock markets."

Ibid, 81. ["practical socialism"]
1 1 7
24
explains on May 2, 1871:
le pays...vit surtout de l'echange de ses produits contre les produits etrangers...avant

tout il faut rassurer l'echange des produits. Ce n'est qu'en operant de cette maniere
que Ton pourra donner aux travailleurs des instruments de travail de lutte et je croyais
faire en agissant ainsi du socialisme pratique." 8
Contemporary colleagues of the minority such as Benoit Malon commended
Jourde's foresight and courage at finding a balance between tackling social inequalities
"tout en restant dans une legalite a desesperer les ennemis de la revolution." 119
Reaction
to his first initiatives of interest-free repayment of debts and rents proves how radical
these policies were to contemporary bourgeois observers. The correspondent to the
Times, outraged by the economic aims of the Commune, writes:
The first step is to exonerate tenants from paying their rents; the next will be to exempt '
debtors from their debts...if the decrees of the Commune were to be definitively executed
120
it would entail general bankruptcy...the complete ruin of the nation.
Jourde also helped to initiate other important legislation such as guaranteed pensions for
injured national guardsmen as well as for widows and children of injured Parisian
soldiers. 121
The Commune, under the guidance of the minority, also decreed all vacant
apartments and lodgings to be made available free of charge to the poor and to those
whose flats had been damaged from the Versailles artillery. Based on Jourde's
underlying arguments, we can imagine in times of peace, Communards would still have
ensured comprehensive standards of living for all Parisians.
Ibid, 81. ["the country...lives above all from the exchange of its products against foreign
1 1 8
products...above all we must ensure the exchange of products. It is only by operating in this manner that we
will be able to give work instruments to the workers, to fight, and I believe by acting in this manner to
accomplish practical socialism."]
Malon, La Troisieme Defaite du Proletariat Francois, 161. ["all the while staying in a legality to the
1 1 9
great despair of the enemies of the revolution."]

"The Commune of Paris." Times of London. March 30,1871, 5.
1 2 0
121
25
Above all, the Commune's economic policies have been criticized for failing to
nationalize the Bank of France (located in Paris). As Eric Cavaterra tells us:
On a ... rarement vu un objet historique sur lequel pesent tant de polemiques...On a

souvent cite, parmi les grandes 'erreurs' des insurges...la facon dont fut traitee la
122
Banque de France.
From Soviet perspectives the 'failure' to nationalize the Bank of France is clearly an
indication of "revolutionary backwardness." 123

On the other hand, from the vantage point
of moderate conservatives, it proved that the Commune was not a 'class' war but simply a
Jacobin revolution emulating the previous anti-clerical terror of 1793. For instance,
Robert Tombs writes: "Churches were occupied and vandalized; banks remember, were
untouched." 124
In particular, critics blame the Commune's delegate to the Bank, Charles Beslay,
for his "scrupules" and hesitations towards this capitalist institution which in turn caused
the "suicide" of the Commune. 125

However, according to Beslay, reformist socialism did
not mean destroying the Bank of France but simply slowly changing it towards an
interest-free institution which would be used to finance worker-controlled endeavours. 126
Beslay acknowledged in 1871 that "the bank., .is the fortune of the country; without it, no
Eric Cavaterra. La Banque de France et La Commune de Paris 1871. Paris: L'Harmattan (1998), 17.
1 2 2
["One has...rarely seen an historical object on which weigh so many polemics...Many have often claimed,
among the biggest errors of the insurgents, the way in which the Bank of France was dealt with."]
1 2 3
Tombs, The Paris Commune 1871, 123.; see also Williams, The French Revolution of 1870-1871, 138:
1 2 4
"one might well conclude that the only realm in which the Commune was truly revolutionary was that of
religion. No attempt was made to seize the Bank of France."
Winock and Azema, Les Communards, 106.
1 2 5
Cavaterra, La Banque de France et la Commune de Paris 1871, 73-86; The fact that hundreds of
1 2 6
employees of the Bank resigned upon Beslay's arrival underscores the radical nature associated with the
Commune.
26
more industry, no more commerce. If you violate it, all its notes will be...waste-paper." 127
In line with Jourde's reasoning, Beslay sought to gradually reform the Bank of France in
the interest of sustaining a viable gradual transition towards 'socialism'. The Parisian
economy could not be sustained if completely isolated. Surrounded by a Western
capitalist world hostile to the very essence of socialism, Beslay recognized that radical
change required patience. 128

Therefore, Beslay and Jourde of the minorite demonstrated
'practical' socialist economic policies in line with the philosophy advocated by Proudhon
during the 1860's. Rather than attempting to introduce Utopian authoritarian forms of
socialism such as that espoused by Etienne Cabet earlier in the nineteenth century, the
minorite believed in democratic peaceful methods of sustainable reformist socialism
modelled on interest-free banking and an increased social safety net.
VII. Social Reform and the Co-operative Movement
One of the most important pieces of economic legislation was spear-headed by a
joint effort of the Committees of Finance and Labour. The May 6 decree on Pawn Shops
included a remittance to Parisians of pawned items not totalling more than 20 francs. 129
As Arthur Arnould explained to the municipal council, this legislation represented "la
premiere preuve de sympathie pour la classe necessiteuse et ouvriere...preuve materielle
Lissagaray, History of the Commune of 1871, 188.

Cavaterra, La Banque de France et la Commune de Paris 1871, 313; Historian Stewart Edwards agrees
1 2 8
with Beslay with respect to the Bank of France: "the very money being paid...by the Commune would
become worthless if confidence in the Bank was destroyed." (Edwards, The Paris Commune 1871, 251.)
Journal Officiel, 486-487. The decree allowed for the remittance of articles of clothing, literature, work
1 2 9
tools and furniture.

27
que nous comprenons nos devoirs a son egard." 130

Underlying discussions make it clear
that this social policy represented merely a first step in attacking the very capitalist
institution of pawn-shops themselves. An April 30 report submitted to the Commune on
behalf of the Committee of Labour 131

led by Frankel and Malon called for the complete
"liquidation" of pawn-shops. 132

At the Hotel-de-Ville on May 6, Frankel outlined the
need to reform the capitalist structure which created these usurious institutions:
pour reformer I'etat economique, il faut organiser le travail...quand on aura degage les
objets du Mont-de-piete, au bout de quinze jours la misere sera toujours la meme. 133
Frankel called for co-operatives to replace private enterprises in order to eventually
render institutions such as pawn shops useless. While the refunded sum of 20 francs may
seem moderate, this total was decided upon in order to inhibit wealthier Parisians from
reclaiming items such as jewellery. 134

Reimbursing items above the level of 20 francs
would mean subsidizing "luxury items" of the rich. Therefore, by limiting the level to 20
francs, the minorite would have more money left over to help the "classes qui nous
interessent." 135
What Robert Tombs refers to as legislation inspired by "the economic
hardships of the Prussian siege," 136

appears on the contrary to demonstrate a clearly
planned ideological argument in favour of gradual socialist reforms.
J
Bourgin, Proces Verbaux de la Commune (II), 224-225. ["this is the first proof of sympathy for the
needy and the working class...material proof that we understand our obligations on its behalf."]
b l
hereafter referred to as the C . T . E .
Journal Officiel, 433; authors of this report noted that pawn-shops preyed on the working poor in times
1 3 2
of unemployment and ill-health; a contemporary reporter from the NYTimes claims 1500 pairs of scissors
and 3000 mattresses had recently been pawned by the desperate Parisian poor. ("The Paris 'Mont-de-
Piete'." NYTimes April 2, 1871, 4.)
Bourgin, Proces Verbaux de la Commune (II), 229 ["to reform the economic state, we must organize
1 3 3
labour...for once the pawn-shop items have been reclaimed, within fifteen days the misery will remain the
same."]
Ibid, 238; On May 6, in the Communal Council, Jourde states: "if you raise the level to 30
I j 4
francs...owners...will profit from the decree."

Ibid, 222. ["classes which interest us."]
1 3 5
Tombs, "Harbingers or Entrepeneurs," 977.

1 3 6
28
The Communard minority's socialist tendencies become even more apparent
when one analyses the initiatives undertaken by Frankel's C.T.E. A significant piece of
legislation on April 16 called for all factories abandoned during the civil war to be
immediately placed under the control and ownership of their previously employed
workers. 137
Liberal scholars such as Robert Tombs suggest that since previous owners of
these factories were to be reimbursed, this legislation was largely a moral, patriotic
prerogative rather than an anti-capitalist initiative. 138

In a case study of the newly created
Ironfounders Co-operative, Tombs distorts history by claiming that in this munitions
factory of 250 workers, class hostility was "non existent" and that workers remained on
"cordial relations" with their former employer. 139

Tombs' investigation is very
problematic since his deductions are almost entirely derived from War Council
interrogation trials in the aftermath of the Commune's defeat. One could hardly expect
Communard sympathizers to extol the virtues of revolution and class-hatred when faced
with either death or deportation if found guilty by conservative judges.
In fact, there are many examples that the April 16 legislation proposed by Frankel
did produce many favourable results for Parisian workers. For instance, in the Louvre
arms factory, workers determined their own statutes and established a maximum 10 hour
work day. 140

More importantly, in Communal parliamentary discussions, we see definite
u l
Journal Officiel, 286; the decree itself is phrased in patriotic overtones of punishing cowardly
"deserters" rather than "bourgeois exploiters."
Tombs, The Paris Commune 1871, 92-94; Tombs writes: "There was a consistent desire to reconcile the
1 3 8
interests of workers and employers...It was aimed not at employers or owners in general, but at 'deserters'
guilty of 'cowardly abandon' of their businesses to 'escape their civic obligations."
Tombs, Harbingers or Entrepreneurs?, 975; Tombs notes that rather than expropriating the factory,
1 3 9
workers voted in favour of renting it from the previous owner, M . Guillot.

1 4 0
29
efforts within the minority to favour co-operatives and trade unions over private
enterprises. For instance, on May 12, the C.T.E. received a petition from the women's
section of the A.I.T., the Union des Femmes (U.D.F.), addressing concerns on the
"markets for military clothing." The U.D.F. report noted that seamstresses in the private
sector were being paid only 2.5 francs per pair of military pants whereas under the
previous liberal government, women received 3.5 francs. 141

This report prompted
Frankel's famous speech:
Nous ne devons pas oublier que la Revolution du 18 mars a ete faite exclusivement
par la classe ouvriere. Si nous ne faisons Hen pour cette classe, nous qui avons pour
principe Pegalite sociale, je ne vois pas la raison d'etre de la Commune. 142
In response to this troublesome news, Frankel immediately called for the creation of a co-
operative to supply the Commune's military clothing. Higher wages and an 8 hour work-
day were also guaranteed to these women workers. 143

By the end of discussions, the
Commune decreed that preference was to be given to co-operatives for all future
government contracts. 144

The C.T.E. also consistently received petitions from unions. 145
In many instances, the minorite regulated labour disputes in favour of working people.
Such was the case when it passed a decree abolishing night work in bakeries on April
141
Bourgin, Proces Verbaux de la Commune (II), 348.
Ibid, 352. ["We must not forget that the Revolution of March 18 was made exclusively by the working
1 4 2
class. If we do nothing for this class, we who have as our principle social equality, I do not see the reason
for being in this Commune."]
Ibid, 352-355.
1 4 3
Ibid, 355. According the Communard Billioray, this represented "le premier pas serieux fait dans la voie
1 4 4
du socialisme." ["the first serious step taken on the road towards socialism."]; there are also many examples
of the minorite providing funding for co-operatives. For example, a tailors' association received 20,000
francs and a metalurgical union also received 5000 francs. (Bourgin, Proces Verbaux de la Commune [II],
74.)
see for instance Journal Officiel, 381: an April 25 report from mechanics union calls for the expansion of
1 4 5
organized labour.
30
20. 146
Co-operatives represented a key socialist method used by the minorite in order to
combat recent economic developments which were forcing artisans into bankruptcy as
well as pushing many working poor into very restrictive work situations. Malon writes in
his memoirs:
Les proletaires savent quelle difference il y a entre l'homme de metier, travaillant dans
un atelier, qu'il est libre de quitter pour un autre, et Pouvrier...de l'usine, Pemploye des
grands compagnies...Ces derniers, pour un salaire, illusoire souvent, tres insuffisant
toujours...sous les ecrasantes fatigues, sous les mauvais traitements des chefs...sont serfs
d'esprit et de c o r p s .
147
For Malon, 'socialism' meant combating debilitating new forms of large-scale factory
work-environments through collective ownership of machinery. 148

Building on the
traditions of the early nineteenth century workers' corporations and secret societies
(compagnonnages), Malon and the minorite sought to aid co-operative initiatives in order
to battle the extreme excesses of capitalism. 149

However, unlike Louis Blanc's vision of
state-run "social workshops" of the 1840's, the newly created co-operatives were to be
administered and created by workers rather than by elites. The very fact that a committee
of Labour existed in the 1871 Commune was in itself groundbreaking since even as
recently as 1848, revolutionary governments in France had rejected similar requests. 150
146
Journal Officiel, 332; in appreciation of this decree, 1500 members of the Bakers' Union are reported to
have marched in front of the Hotel de Ville, waving red flags in a grand demonstration of support.; the
minorite also abolished workplace fines." (Edwards, The Paris Commune 1871, 257.)
Malon, La Troisieme Defaite du Proletariat Francais, 526. ["proletarians know the difference there is
1 4 7
between the trades-man, working in a workshop, who is free to leave for another, and the factory worker,
employed in a big company. These latter, often for an illusory, always very insufficient salary, under
crushing fatigue, under bad treatment from supervisors...are slaves of body and mind."]
Ibid, 530.
1 4 8
Stewart Edwards writes: "The co-operative idea expressed the antagonism felt against employers, but
1 4 9
hoped to end exploitation by the peaceful and gradual elimination of capitalist factories."(Edwards, The
Paris Commune 1871, 261.)
for example, in 1848, workers' concerns could only be studied and debated 'unofficially' through the
1 5 0
31
VIII. The Socialist Anarchism of the Minorite
The minorite's advocacy of co-operatives also reflected a desire for local
initiatives to replace the oppression experienced under the authoritarian centralized
government of Napoleon III. 151

Since the coup of 1851, Parisians had had no municipal
elections. Due to the horrors experienced under the previous dictatorial regime,
'socialism' had to be achieved through local democratic initiatives only. Arthur Arnould
illustrates these sentiments best, stating:
La Commune...fut le premier Pouvoir...qui s'appuya sans reticence sur les principes

socialistes ...loin d'assumer la tache d'organiser autoritairement I'egalite civile...elle
sut rester dans la verite, en appelant les classes travailleurs a regler elles-memes,
152
directement, leurs interets.
For Arnould, any form of authoritarian government—socialist included—could only create
despotism. 153
Arnould's anti-statist views are echoed in the Commune's April 19
"declaration to the French People." 154

In it, the term "commune" is seen to represent an
attack against the "centralisation despotique" of the Second Empire. 155

This document
was distributed throughout France, and called on all workers to rise up in their
Luxembourg Commission.
see Edwards, The Paris Commune 1871, 275: "the Commune opened the way for experiments in trying
1 5 1
to apply some of the ideas that had been developed in opposition to the economic and political repression of
the French State."
Arnould, Histoire Popitlaire et P arlementaire de la Commune de Paris, vol.3, 97-98 ["The
1 5 2
Commune...was the first power...which applied itself without reticence to socialist principles...far from
assuming the task of authoritarianly organizing civil equality...it remained in the right by calling upon the
working classes to regulate their interests directly themselves."]
Ibid, vol.3, 119-120. Arnould states: "The evil is not that the State acts in the name of such and such a
1 5 3
principle—it is that it exists...the State...can be neither democratic, nor revolutionary...since it represents

Power, which is despotic...something which dominates...society...oppressing and crushing it."
the April 19 declaration represents the Commune's constitution and was chiefly written by the minorite.
1 5 4
155
Journal Officiel, 324. ["despotic centralization"]
32
communities. 156
Through a federation of decentralized "communes," power could be
restored to the people by "[1]'intervention permanente des citoyens dans les affaires
communales par la libre manifestation de leur idees." 157
Many historians have understood the term "commune" as a decentralist reaction to
the Second Empire devoid of any socialist program. For instance, Louis Greenberg writes
that the Paris Commune was "a political reaction to the structure of the state, rather than a
chapter in the history of world socialism." 158

While it is true that the authoritarian nature
of the Second Empire encouraged the Parisian Communards towards decentralism, this 159
anti-statist stance in no way impeded their overall objectives of obtaining social equality.
As Arnould clearly indicates, "social equality" was to be predicated on "collectivist" co-
operative ownership of the means of production. 160

However, rather than having one
dictatorial government for the entire nation of France, intervening into the economy to
ensure social equality, the minorite believed in creating multiple anarchist "cells" of
elected working-class communes intervening into domestic economic issues. 161

Whereas,
contemporary critics in the Western world believed communal associations advocated by
1 5 6
Ibid, 323.
Ibid, 324.. ["the permanent intervention of citizens into Communal affairs by the free manifestation of
1 5 7
their ideas."]
Louis Greenberg. "The Commune of 1871 as a Decentralist Reaction." Journal of Modern History.
1 5 8
March-Dec. (1969), 310; other historians have erroneously misinterpreted the April 19 declaration. Edward
Mason claims "nowhere was there a hint of an attack on property...nor was the word socialism
mentioned"(Mason, The Paris Commune, 256); Robert Tombs further concludes that "[t]he declaration is
remarkable for the vagueness of its social and economic content."(Tombs, The Paris Commune 1871, 79).
for instance see Louise Michel. La Commune. Paris: Bibliotheque Sociologique (1898), 165: "C'est
1 5 9
que le pouvoir est maudit...que je suis anarchiste." ["It is since power is cursed...that I am an anarchist."]
Arnould, Histoire Populaire et Parlementaire de la Commune de Paris, vol.3, 150. Specifically,
1 6 0
Arnould called for Parisian workers to control "work instruments."

161
Journal Officiel, 324; as the school teacher Edourad Vaillant of the minorite states on May 19 in the
Hotel-de-Ville: "when the State is named the Commune, it must often intervene...and...search to create
socialist establishments everywhere." (Bourgin, Proces Verbaux de la Commune [II], 426.)
33
Communards would lead to "disintegration and national death" 162

and that the authors of
the April 19 declaration were "destitute of common sense," 163

Communards believed the
commune to represent a first step towards the economic emancipation of the poor.
Clearly, the following passage from the April 19 declaration describes this communal
insurrection along 'socialistic' class lines. We read:
La Revolution communale, commenced par l'initiative populaire du 18 mars,

inaugure une ere nouvelle de politique experimentale...C'est la fin du vieux monde
gouvernementaL.du militarisme...de Sexploitation, de l'agiotage des monopoles,
des privileges, auquels le proletariat doit son servage. 1 6 4
Some historians claim that the Commune of 1871 simply represented an uprising
of urban Parisians frustrated with the conservatism of rural Frenchmen. Tombs feels that
the Commune should be understood as a protest against rural segments of France who
had betrayed the previous leftist 1848 revolution by overwhelmingly supporting
Napoleon III in the 1851 national plebiscite. 165

It does appear that to a certain extent,
Parisian Communards defined their struggles in terms of bitter hostility towards this
'backwards' populace of France. For instance, on April 30, 1871, Gustave Courbet
wrote: "Paris no longer wants to be led by France nor by the votes of the peasants." 166
In
the April 19 declaration, Communards demonstrated a mistrust for rural France by
reserving the right to pursue their own municipal initiatives without the consent of
"Is France on its Deathbed?" NYTimes March 31, 1871, 4.

1 6 2

1 6 3
Journal Officiel, 324. ["The communal Revolution, started by the popular initiative of March 18,
1 6 4
inaugurates a new era of experimental politics...It is the end of the old militaristic, governmental world...of
exploitation, of monopoly speculation, of the privileges, to which the proletariat owes its serfdom."]
Tombs, The Paris Commune 1871, 118-120; Tombs writes: "This latest ordeal appeared part of a saga
1 6 5
in which Paris had repeatedly fought for progress and been defeated and punished by...French reactionaries.
Since... 1848, the instrument of Paris's subjugation had been the voting power of benighted peasants
manipulated by priests and nobles."
Courbet in Chu,ed., Letters of Gustave Courbet, 417.
1 6 6
34
outlying regions of the country. 167

Clearly, the Reds of Paris no longer wanted to be held
hostage by the conservative countryside.
Yet, while it may be argued that leaders of the Paris Commune had bitter
memories of rural France from 1851, these hostilities did not overshadow their
commitment of ending economic exploitation in all its forms throughout all regions of
France. For instance, in the same April 19 declaration we read:
Nos ennemis se trompent ou trompent le pays quand ils accusent Paris de vouloir
imposer sa volonte ou sa suprematie au reste de la nation...L'unite politique, telle que la
veut Paris, c'est l'association volontaire de toutes les initiatives locales...en vue d'un but
commun, le bien-etre...et la securite de tous. 168
Although members of the minorite lived in Paris at the time of the Commune, close to
two thirds of them were not even born in this city. 169
While it is certainly true that the
minorities decentralist vision had at its heart the municipal autonomy of Paris, a
commitment to the spread of anarchist egalitarianism throughout all of urban and rural
France is also apparent. Building on Proudhon's decentralist concept of 'federal
autonomous communes', the minority's, anarchist vision of 1871 was in large part a
reaction to the municipal disenfranchisement and economic hardships experienced under
Napoleon III.
Journal Officiel, 324. We read: "Paris reserves the right to operate the administrative and economic
I b 7
reforms that its own population demands."

168
Ibid, 324. ["Our enemies are confused or confuse the country when they accuse Paris of wanting to
impose its will or its supremacy on the rest of the nation...The political unity that Paris desires, is the
voluntary association of all local initiatives...in the aims of a common goal, the well-being...and safety of
all."]
Serman, La Commune de Paris, 278-279; Some members were not even French. Frankel came from
1 6 9
Hungary.
35
IX. Cultural Initiatives
There were also many important cultural initiatives undertaken by the minorite.
Gustave Courbet seized the opportunity to apply the socialist principles of the commune
to the realm of art. Under Napoleon III, an artist's life was very insecure. In particular,
creativity was severely restricted as over 54% of the annual arts budget was spent on
Imperial portraiture and religious art. Yearly exhibitions, or 'Salons' were controlled by
appointees of Napoleon III, who only tolerated 'safe' art in shows. As Sanchez claims,
"Napoleon III used arts policies both to co-opt artists and to reflect glory on his regime."
Artists only received 'secours' grants of a paltry 175 francs per year, under the condition
that their art did not offend the Imperial regime. 170
Further to this, although the number
of Parisian artists increased from 350 in 1789 to 3300 by 1863, art academies continued
to only admit 120 students each year. 171

Courbet attempted to reform 'bourgeois'
imperial art by expanding both funding to artists regardless of their style and also by
making art accessible to the working classes by placing museums under the collective
ownership or "safekeeping of the citizens." 172

Museums were opened to the public free
of charge. By April 15, Courbet outlined a declaration for a Communal Artists
Federation—a sort of co-operative for all Parisian artists. In the platform of the federation,
we read its core objectives:
La libre expansion de Fart, degage de toute tutelle gouvernementale et de tous

privileges ...L'egalite des droits entre tous les membres....L'independance...de chaque
artiste mises sous la sauvegarde de tous par la creation d'un comite elu au suffrage
Gonzalez Sanchez. Organizing Independence. London: University of Nebraska (1997), 15-16.

1 7 1
Ibid, 65.
1 7 2
36
universel des artistes.
This federation also pledged to replace capitalist promoters of art exhibitions with
communal art shows whereby all artists would receive an equal re-distribution of
generated revenues. 174
In the realm of education, we also see an attempt on behalf of the minorite in
favour of working-class children. One historian estimates that over 83,000 children aged
4-16 received no education whatsoever in Paris as of 1870. 175

Prior to the Commune,
education remained a privilege primarily for children of the wealthy. Schooling was also
predominantly controlled by the Catholic Church. However, under the guidance of the
Education minister Edouard Vaillant, serious attempts were discussed to grant free
compulsory secular education to all. On April 2, 1871, Vaillant outlined his proposals for
an "education nouvelle." 116

Under the Commune, former Catholic schools were to be
appropriated by the "collectivity" of the Communal government and converted into
instructional facilities open to all children free of charge regardless of religious beliefs. 177
The fact that girls were also to be granted free education was quite groundbreaking. 178
Sceptics of the Commune's education programs claim that secularization and anti-
Ibid, 273. ["The free expansion of art, liberated from all governmental tutelage and from all
privileges...The equality of rights between all members...The independence...of each artist placed under the
safeguard of all by the creation of a committee elected by the universal suffrage of the artists."]; the
democratic principles of the Federation aimed at ending the corrupt patronage associated with the arts under
Napoleon 111.(Sanchez, Organizing Independence, 61.)
Ibid, 274; 400 artists sanctioned Courbet's Federation on April 13, 1871 (Sanchez, Organizing
1 7 4
Independence, 61.)
1 7 5
["new education"]
1 7 6
177
Edwards writes: "In pressing for women's education the Communards were going against the practice of
1 7 8
the time." (Edwards, The Paris Commune 1871, 271.); In the 1850's a girls' education was restricted to the
diploma of'brevet superieur' which was granted at the age of 13; over 41% of married French women
could not even sign their name as of 1867. Most were illiterate.(Claire Moses. French Feminism in the
19th Century. New York: State University [1984], 175-177.)
37
clericalism were the main priorities rather than any real attempts at implementing free
education. 179
Some historians note that since the Education Committee received only
1000 francs, very few significant gains were achieved in this particular area of social
policy. 180
However, these critics fail to look at many important initiatives which were
implemented under separate municipal district funds allocated independently by Jourde.
In particular, under the guidance of Jules Allix, in the 8th district, several former Jesuit
clerical buildings were converted into secular schools, providing free access to over 3000
children aged 7 to 15. 181

In terms of educational curriculum, we see that indeed the
minorite had a very socialistic agenda. 182

A strong indication of its working-class roots
was the emphasis placed on 'practical' education. Children of the Commune were to be
taught both intellectual courses as well as subjects which focused on skills related to
manual labour. Serman writes that Vaillant envisioned a school system
favorisant 1'epanouissement simultane de leurs capacites intellectuelles et de leurs

aptitudes manuelles, de maniere a former des hommes qui soient a la fois des citoyens
eclaires, des ouvriers qualifes...aussi a l'aise dans le domain des lettres, des sciences
et des arts que dans celui de...l'atelier. 183
Education was to be reformed in order to incorporate practical skills associated with
working people, which previously received very little respect in French society.
The minorite's socialist education policies aimed at emancipating working women
both intellectually as well as economically. Vaillant attempted to destroy gender
1 7 9
1 8 0
Ibid, 99.
181
Journal Officiel
1 8 2
Ibid, 129.
' Serman, La Commune de Paris, 385. ["favouring the simultaneous blossoming of their intellectual
8 j
capacities and their manual aptitudes, in such a way as to shape people who would be enlightened citizens
as well as qualified workers...just as comfortable in the domain of literature, sciences and arts as in that of
the workshop."]
38
inequalities by including girls in previously male spheres of instruction. In particular, on
May 12, a vacant building on Dupuytren street was converted into a technical industrial
school for young girls. 184

Vaillant, in a coordinated effort with Maria Verdure of the
Commission for Girls' Education also planned on creating free nurseries for infant
children. 185
Women could now gain independence in the workplace without sacrificing
their right to be mothers. Interestingly, for the first time, a woman became a school
inspector in Paris, and Parisian women teachers were to be paid equivalent wages to
men. 186
XL Women's Issues
Although women were prohibited from voting in the Communal elections, female
Parisians were able to contribute to the Commune by direct fighting and through
providing nursing aid to the soldiers of the barricades. 187

Perhaps the most famous
Communarde, Louise Michel, exemplified the steadfast support of women for the
Commune. Michel was the daughter of a rural domestic servant, and migrated to Paris in
the 1850's. She refused to take the 'oath of allegiance' to the Second Empire and was
thus barred from teaching in public religious schools. After arriving in Paris, Michel
along with Andre Leo helped found the 'Association pour le droit des Femmes'' in
La Commune etl'ecole,
1 8 4
10; in the 8th district, a former charitable nunnery was to be transformed into an
industrial school for g\xh.{Journal Officiel)
Edwards, The Paris Commune 1871, 271; Verdure proposed that free nurseries "should be scattered
1 8 5
throughout the working-class districts, near to the factories" complete with "gardens" and "a play-room full
of toys."
Moses, French Feminism in the 19th Century, 193.
1 8 6
Ibid, 191.
1 8 7
39
1870. 188
In her memoirs, this self-proclaimed anarchist writes that a bullet grazed her
wrist while fighting to defend Paris from the onslaught of French Royalist troops. 189
Michel further notes that working women even more so than working men fought with
total dedication on the barricades in defence of the Commune's principles:
Our male friends are more susceptible to faintheartedness than we women are. A
supposedly weak woman knows better than any man how to say: 'It must be done'.
..Such were the women of the Commune. During Bloody Week, women ...defended
190
the barricade...till they died.
Contemporary opponents of the Commune such as the correspondent to the Times of
London, were shocked at the agency displayed by women who defended the Commune at
the barricades and through Vigilance Committees during the civil war. We read:
the wives...shame the timid...denounce the cowards who draw back from their
communist duties. They go themselves to work at the barricades, and lead their
husbands to the gates of the city. 191
Michel, along with many other women also contributed to the socialist policies of the
minorite, through local club initiatives. Michel presided over the Montmartre Women's
Vigilance Committee which issued a successful petition to the Commune calling for all
abandoned houses to be used to shelter the homeless. 192

The fact that nearly 1100 women
were tried before Councils of War after the fall of the Commune indicates that they
played a very active role in defending the insurrection. 193
1 8 8
Ibid, 173-192.
Michel in Lowry,ed., Red Virgin, 66; Michel also claims that by the end of the Commune her hat was
1 8 9
"riddled with bullet holes."; Michel fought with the 61st battalion.
Ibid, 67; Edith Thomas claims that on one particular day, Michel both fought on the barricades and also
1 9 0
played the organ in a nearby church to encourage Communards morale. (Edith Thomas. Louise Michel.
Montreal: Black Rose [1980], 86.)
191
1 9 2
Louise Michel. Je Vous Ecrit de Ma Nuit. Paris: Editions de Paris (1999), 80.
1 9 3
Thomas, Women Incendiaries, xii; Michel was deported to New Caledonia for her role in this
40
While it appears certain that many working-class Parisian women fought to
preserve the Commune, the question remains as to how effective the male-dominated
minorite promoted and addressed working women's issues in its socialist platform. Most
socialists of the Commune were also members of the A.I.T. and followers of the
philosophy of Proudhon. It is important to note that Proudhon—the "Christ" of the
Revolution, according to Courbet —was an unabashed misogynist. Proudhon even went

194
so far as to write philosophical treatises outlining the many ways in which women were
supposedly inferior to men. For instance, in his work entitled Amour et Mariage, he set
out to prove that women were weaker than men in terms of physical, intellectual and
moral points of view. 195
Whether or not male Communard sympathizers of Proudhon's political-economic
program adhered to this philosopher's personal sexist views on women is debatable. 196
The fact that French sections of the A.I.T. presented a petition aiming at excluding
women from the workplace proves that many male French workers did not support
economic emancipation for women in the 1860's. 197

Yet, attempts at excluding women
from the workplace do not appear to be predicated on bigotry against women. On the
contrary, as Claire Moses tells us, French feminism was closely linked to the urban
socialist movement. Many Parisian feminists such as Maria Deraismes argued that
women's equality could best be achieved by increasing men's wages, and removing
revolutionary struggle. (Michel in Lowry,ed., Red Virgin, 198.)

Courbet in Chu, ed., Letters of Gustave Courbet, 409.
1 9 4

1 9 5
Claire Moses feels that "the Commune's leaders were not misogynist. They were known to be
1 9 6
increasingly 'Proudhonian' in their politics but did not appear to hold such attitudes about women." (Moses,
French Feminism in the 19th Century, 192.)
1 9 7
41
women from the workplace in order to strengthen the family unit along a more equitable
relationship. 198
It does appear that the minorite within the Commune took important steps to
break with these ideas of the past years. Frankel set about redefining Parisian socialism
to include women's economic emancipation in its agenda. He wrote:
'all the objections produced against [sex] equality are of the same sort as those
produced against emancipation of the Negro race...By claiming that half the human
race are incompetent, man prides himself on appearing to be the protector of women.
199
Revolting hypocrisy.'
Under the minorite's socialist platform, divorces were legalized. Under the leadership of
the young 20 year-old Russian emigre, Elizabeth Dmitrieff, an important committee
entitled the Union des Femmes (U.D.F.) was created. 200

On May 6, 1871, the U.D.F.
published its manifesto expressing faith in the Commune as the embodiment of 'class
struggles' inclusive of both sexes:

profoundly convinced that the Commune, representing the international and
revolutionary principles of the people, carries in her the seeds of social revolution, the
women of Paris...will give, like their brothers, their blood and their life for the defense
and the triumph of the Commune, this is to say the people...workers, all interdependent,
201
by a last effort will destroy forever all vestiges of..exploitation.
As a co-affiliate of the A.I.T., the U.D.F. was most successful in promoting
women's co-operatives. Such was the case when it petitioned the C.T.E. to increase the
rates paid to seamstresses for military clothing. 202

Virtually all scholars of the Commune
agree that at least in the realm of women's issues, Communard ideas and legislation were
Moses writes: "All believed that a stable family unit fostered justice and equality in society." (Moses,
I y s
French Feminism in the 19th Century, 177-184.)

cited from Magraw, A History of the French Working Class, 267.
1 9 9
1 30 women officially joined the U.D.F. and held 24 public meetings between April and May, 1871.
2 0 0
(Moses, French Feminism in the 19th Century, 191.)

Journal Officiel
2 0 1
see Thomas, Women Incendiaries, 79-80; Tombs, The Paris Commune

2 0 2
1871, 135-137; Bourgin, Proces
Verbaux de la Commune (II), 348-355.
42
radically progressive. 203

According to Louise Michel, inherited problems of sex
discrimination were largely resolved under the Commune as "people didn't worry about
which sex they were before they did their duty. That stupid question was settled." 204
Overall, it appears that with respect to women's issues, the 'socialism' of the minorite
broke away from many aspects of its exclusively 'male' past. Most significantly, whereas
even as recently as the 1860's, women workers had been excluded from the male sphere
of workers' corporations, during the Commune, they were embraced by the co-operative
initiatives of Frankel's C.T.E.
XI. Conclusion
The Paris Commune of 1871 lasted only seventy-two days. Yet, historians past
and present continue to re-visit this complex event. It is above all the association of the
Paris Commune with the first socialist government in the modern world by conservative
and leftist commentators alike which has fuelled enduring ideological debates.
Contemporary critics sensed the novelty of this working-class government, writing in
1871: "the character of this new revolution ... appears to...have no precedent in the
history of any nation." 205

Bourgeois observers commented on the "wild and
Roger Magraw writes: "there is much evidence that the Commune made a serious effort to grapple with
2 U i
the women's issue." (Magraw, A History of the French Working Class, 267.); even the staunch critic of the
Commune, Robert Tombs, is forced to admit that "measures regarding women's work show a wish to
improve opportunities." (Tombs, The Paris Commune 1871, 104); Although women were not allowed to
vote in the March 26 elections, Tombs goes so far as to proclaim that with respect to women, "the
Commune's attitude was certainly more positive than that of earlier...governments." (Ibid, 142.)
Moses, French Feminism in the 19th Century, 192.
2 0 4
"The Civil War in Paris." Times of London, March 22, 5.

2 0 5
43
impracticable dreams" 206

of the Communards, who were "seeking the unattainable." 207
The Commune was viewed to be "the first outburst of a new force" 208
and "the first
muttering" of a "social storm which shall yet shake every capital of Europe." 209
Indeed,
conservative upper-middle class observers such as these felt quite relieved when the
"wild beasts" of Paris were crushed by Thiers' National troops during the Semaine
Sanglante? 10
One correspondent even toured the prison cells of captive communards,
commenting in disgust on the "stench and filth" of these "drunk, half mad...wild
animals." He even celebrated the impending execution of thousands of the Parisian poor
who supported the Commune: "in a number of cases capital punishment will be inflicted.
The exasperated public would not be satisfied with less." 211
On the opposite side of the political spectrum, Communard participants and
sympathizers also noted the novelty of this revolutionary government and in complete
contrast, believed it to demonstrate a practical step towards achieving future Utopia.
Benoit Malon believed the Commune allowed for the poor to "faire entrevoir la
possibility d'un etat social meilleur." 212

Other members such as Francis Jourde echoed
these sentiments that the red flag of the Commune would inspire future class struggles
and one day become "le drapeau de l'humanite." 213

Moreover, the petroleuse Louise
Michel predicted the Paris Commune to be simply the first of many future uprisings of
2 0 6
"The 'Reds' of Paris." NYTimes March 24, 4.
2 0 7
"An Apostle of Socialism." NYTimes, May 10, 1871, 4.
2 0 8
" The Paris 'Mont de Piete'." NYTimes, April 12, 4.
2 0 9
"The Coming Revolution of Labor." NYTimes, April 17, 4.
2 , 0
"Paris in the Hands of'Friends'." NYTimes, May 25, 4.
2 1 1
"The Captive Communists." Times of London, May 30, 5.
Malon, La Troisieme Defaite du Proletariat Francois, 536. ["foresee the possibility of a better social
2 1 2
state."]
Francis Jourde. Souvenirs d'un Membre de la Commune. Brussels: Kistemaeckers (1877), 78. ["the flag
2 1 3
of humanity."]
44
the poor: "the greater the poverty...the more quickly the hour will come and the more
numerous the combatants will be." 214

From London, Marx appropriated the Paris
Commune for his own economic theories referring to it as the "first dictatorship of the
proletariat" and "the political form at last discovered under which to work out the
economic emancipation of labor." 215
In the historiography of the Commune, ideological cleavages opened by the
Commune have hardened into mythical interpretations. In particular, the Cold War
produced many distorted analyses by taking this event out of its historical and cultural
context. Leftist scholars such as Frank Jellinek have severely misinterpreted this event by
filtering its social initiatives through a Marxist-Leninist lens. The Paris Commune is
judged in terms of its "revolutionary backwardness," by its failures to implement 'proper'
Soviet socialism such as nationalizations of private property and Banks. 216

In the West,
recent scholars have been equally guilty of analyzing the Commune's social policies from
Soviet definitions of 'proper' socialism. Therefore, liberal historians such as Edward
Mason note that "None of this economic and social legislation of the Commune...was
socialistic" since "[n]one of it involved the expropriation...of property owners." 217
In my own thesis, I have argued that the Paris Commune originated from class
antagonisms relevant to 1871. Many aspects of the minorite'% socialist vision represented
a direct response to new hardships faced by the Parisian poor under Napoleon III. In
Michel in Lowre,ed., Red Virgin, 193.

2 1 5
Marx, The Civil War in France, 78.
2 1 6
Mason, The Paris Commune, 254; likewise, Roger Magraw claims that the Commune did not represent
2 1 7
socialism but rather "piecemeal social tinkering" since there was no "systematic assault on capitalist
structures."(Magraw, A History of the French Working Class, 261.)
45
particular, their calls for municipal autonomy were a direct response to the municipal
disenfranchisement experienced during the Second Empire. The anarchist vision of the
minorite also represented an attempt at bringing more local control back to the working
classes. Pushed to the outskirts of the city as well as the lower periphery of the socio-
economic pyramid during Haussmann's reconstruction of Paris, artisans and manual
labourers strongly supported minorite candidates during the March 26 elections. The
minorities social policies represented a 'socialist' vision relative to specifically French
leftist Parisian political traditions of the late nineteenth century. Building on the theories
of Proudhon, the minorite aimed at gradually reforming the economic inequalities created
by competitive capitalism through the co-operative movement. Whereas earlier in the
nineteenth century, the French labour movement remained fractured in numerous rival
workers' corporations, under the newly created A.I.T., workers of all backgrounds were
able to unite and transform labour militancy into political power. The 'socialism' of the
minorite broke away from that of the early nineteenth century by attempting to include
workers in the parliamentary process. In the realm of co-operative initiatives, education,
art, finances and women's issues, many groundbreaking socialist initiatives were
discussed and implemented under the direction of the minorite.
The bitter class antagonisms opened during the Commune have not been resolved.
Instead, due in particular to the atrocities of the 'Bloody Week' during which over 30,000
Communards, including men, women and children were brutally massacred at the hands
of Conservative national troops, the Commune has taken on mythical proportions. 218
The
For example, Lenin is said to have been buried in a red flag from the Paris Commune, and during the
46
Mur des Federes where so many Communards were executed remains a holy site of
pilgrimage for socialists throughout France. By the 1930's, the French Communist Party
celebrated the Paris Commune as the "forerunner to the Russian Revolution of 1917." 219
In May 1968, student and union uprisings in Paris drew inspiration from the red flags of
1871. More importantly, in Paris, people continue to vote along 'class lines' similar to
those of 1871. Indeed, the new socialist municipal government of Bertrand Delanoe in
Paris owes its support largely to the same working classes of Belleville and Montmartre
who supported the insurrection of March 18. 220

From a cultural perspective, the Paris
Commune has left an indelible legacy in the minds of many of the Parisian poor.
Soviet Union, March 18 became enshrined in the Soviet calendar as a national holiday in respect of the
Parisian insurrection.
"La Commune ce fut l'aurore." L'Humanite, March 18, 1933, 5.
2 1 9
Le Monde, March 20, 2001, 5; see appendix 2B for a comparative analysis between Parisian voting
2 2 0
patterns of 1871 and 2001.

47
Primary Sources
Arnould, A . Histoire Populaire et Parlementaire de la Commune de Paris. Brussels:

Librairie Socialiste, 1878.
Bourgin, Georges, ed. Proces-Verbaux de la Commune de 1871, Tome II. Paris: A

Lahune, 1945.
Chu, Petra. Letters of Gustave Courbet. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Connor, James E. Lenin: On Politics and Revloution. New York: Pegasus, 1968.
Jourde, Francis. Souvenirs D'un Membre de la Commune. Brussels: Henri

Kistemaeckers, 1877.
Journal Officiel de la Commune. Coeures & Valsery: Editions Ressouvenances, 1995.
Lissagaray, Prosper-Olivier. History of the Commune of 1871. London: Fisher Unwin,

1902.
Lowry, Bullitt, ed. The Red Virgin: Memoirs of Louise Michel. Alabama: University of
Alabama Press, 1981.
Malon, Benoit. La Troisieme Defaite du Proletariat Francais. Neuchatel: G. Guillaume,

1871.
Marx, Karl. The Civil War In France: The Paris Commune. New York: International
Publishers, 1968.
Michel, Louise. Je Vous Eris de ma nuit: Correspondance Generate 1850-1904. Paris:

Editions de Paris, 1999.
Michel, Louise. La Commune. Paris: Bibliotheque Sociologique, 1898.

Newspaper Articles (Primary Sources)
" A Dying Revolution". New York Times. 31 May, 1871,4.
" A n Apostle of Socialism." New York Times. 10 May, 1871, 4.
"Is France on its Deathbed?" New York Times. 31 March, 1871, 4.
"Paris in the Hands of'Friends.'" New York Times. 25 May, 1871, 4.
"Paris under the Communists." New York Times. 28 March, 1871, 4.
"The Captive Communists." Times of London. 30 May, 1871, 10.
"The Civil War in Paris." Times of London. 22 March, 1871, 10.
"The Coming Revolution of Labor." New York Times. 17 April, 1871, 4.
"The Commune." Times of London. 8 May, 1871, 10.
"The Commune and Liberty." New York Times. 31 May, 1871, 4.
"The Commune of Paris." Times of London. 30 March, 1871, 5.
"The Commune of Paris." Times of London. 1 April, 1871, 5.
"The Commune of Paris." Times of London. 20 May, 1871, 5.
"The Communists and the Communalists." Times of London. 29 March, 1871, 5.
"The New Socialistic Republic in Paris." New York Times. 27 April, 1871, 4.
"The Paris 'Mont de Piete'." New York Times. 12 April, 1871, 4.
"The 'Reds' of Paris." New York Times. 24 March, 1871, 4.
"The Universal Republic." New York Times. 12 April, 1871, 4.

49
Secondary Sources
Agulhon, Maurice. The Republican Experiment. Cambridge: Cambridge University,

1983.
Boime, Albert. Art and the French Commune. New Jersey: Princeton University Press,
1995.
Bourgin, Georges. La Commune: que sais-ie?. Paris: Presses Universitaires, 1965.
Cavaterra, Eric. La Banque de France et La Commune de Paris (1871). Paris:

L ' Harmattan, 1998.
Clapham, J.H. Economic Development of France and Germany: 1815-1914. London:

Cambridge University, 1966.
Curzi, Lucien. "La Commune de Paris racontee sans fard." L'Humanite 13 March,
1971, 10.
Duveau, Georges. 1848: The Making of a Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard, 1967.
Edwards, Stewart. The Paris Commune 1871. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1971.
Ferguson, Priscilla. Paris as Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Greenberg, Louis. "The Commune of 1871 as a Decentralist Reaction." The Journal of

Modern History. March-December 1969, pp304-318.
Gullickson, Gay. Unruly Women of Paris: Images of the Commune. Cornell University
Press, 1996.
Home, Alistair. The Terrible Year. London: Macmillan, 1971.
Jellinek, Frank. The Paris Commune of 1871. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1965.
Kamenka, Eugene. Paradigm for Revolution: The Paris Commune 1871-1971. Canberra:
Australian National University Press, 1972.
"La Commune, ce fut l'aurore." L'Humanite. 18 March, 1971, 5.
Leith, James. A , ed. Images of the Commune. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University

Press, 1978.
50
Leon, Max. "Le Centenaire de la Commune de Paris Celebre a Moscou." L'Humanite

18 March, 1971,5.
Magraw, Roger. A History of the French Working Class. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1992.
Martelli, Roger. Mai 68. Paris: Editions Sociales, 1988.
Mason, Edward S. The Paris Commune: A n Episode in the History of the Socialist
Movement. New York: Howard Fertig, 1967.
Moses, Claire. French Feminism in the 19th Century. New York: State University, 1984.
Noiriel, Gerard. Workers in French Society in the 19th and 20th Centuries. New York:
St. Martin's Press, 1990.
Nugent, Neill. The Left in France. Hong Kong: Macmillan, 1982.
Price, Roger, ed. 1848 in France. New York: Cornell University, 1975.
Price, R.D. "Ideology and Motivation in the Paris Commune of 1871." The Historical
Journal. X V , I (1972), 75-86.
Price, Roger, ed. Revolution and Reaction: 1848 and the Second French Republic. New
York: Barnes & Nobles, 1975.
Sanchez, Gonzalo. Organizing Independence. London: University of Nebraska, 1997.
Serman, William. La Commune de Paris. Paris: Fayarat, 1986.
Sewell, William H. Work and Revolution in France. Cambridge: Cambridge University,

1980.
Stewart-McDougall, Mary Lynn. The Artisan Republic. Montreal: McGill, 1984.
Thomas, Edith. Louise Michel. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1980.
Thomas, Edith. The Women Incendiaries. New York: George Braziller, 1966.
Thompson, E.P. The Making of the English working class. New York: Vantage Books,
1966.
Tombs, Robert. " 'Harbingers or Entrepreneurs'?" The Historical Journal. 27,4 (1984),
969-977.
Tombs, Robert. The Paris Commune 1871. London: Longman, 1999.

51
Vincent, K . Steven. Between Marxism and Anarchism: Benoit Malon and French
Reformist Socialism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Williams, Roger. The French Revolution of 1870-1871. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 1969.
Winock, M . and J.-P. Azema. Les Communards. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1964.
Wolfe, Robert. "The Parisian Club de la Revolution of the 18th Arrondissement 1870-
71." Past and Present. 39,82-83.
Zeldin, Theodore. France 1848-1945: Politics and Anger. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1979.
52
Appendix 1
A . Social geography of Paris in the 1860's: the working classes were largely pushed to
the eastern outskirts of Paris at the time of Haussmann's reconstruction of the city.
B. In the 1850's, 8 new districts were incorporated into the city of Paris in order to house
many workers who could no longer afford to live in the rebuilt centre of the city.
M HI M S
AHIll'-RVII UI'.KS
GENTILLY
© Hotel de Ville @ P e r e L a d l a i s e ceme tery

53
Appendix 2
A . In the March 26, 1871 municipal elections, Parisians voted along 'class' lines. The
Parisian poor concentrated in the over-populated eastern and north-eastern districts
supported socialist candidates to a much larger extent than did the wealthier western
districts. .... „ . ,, „ „
I lif I fins (.innIIIiinr. IS/I
40,000
H i Average share of revolutionary candidates
registered
electors • Average share of moderate (mayors') candidate;
10,000 1=1 S p o i l e d ballets
registered The outer circles show the proportion of electors
electors w h o did no) v o l e .
B. In the recent 2001 Parisian municipal elections, voter sympathies appear to be very
similar to those of 1871. Once again, the poorer eastern districts of the city elected
socialist candidates to the H6tel-de-Ville.
Paris
Listes
Verts
PRG SEGUIN
Listes
TIBERI
NOUVEAU CONSEIL Djv '3

d
Liste
LELLOUCHE
| ARRONDISSEMENTS |ARRONDISSEMENTS
REMPORTES REMPORTES
PAR LA GAUCHE PAR LA DROITE

Thesocialistminority Andtheparis Communeof1871 A Unique Episode in The History of Class Struggles

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Thesocialistminority Andtheparis Communeof1871 A Unique Episode in The History of Class Struggles

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Thesocialistminority Andtheparis Communeof1871 A Unique Episode in The History of Class Struggles

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

THE SOCIALIST MINORITY A N D THE PARIS C O M M U N E OF 1871

A UNIQUE EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF CLASS STRUGGLES

B.A.(Honours), The University of British Columbia, 1999

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL F U L F I L M E N T OF

We accept this thesis as conforming

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH C O L U M B I A

© Peter Lee Thomson Nickel, 2001

The University of British Columbia

Date AkgaS-f 30. ZOO I

ever predominantly working-class government. Communard initiatives are viewed as having

culturally distinct socialist programme undertaken by the minorite in 1871.

C H A P T E R II The Climax of Class Antagonisms

C H A P T E R III Municipal Elections

C H A P T E R IV Formation of the Minorite

CHAPTER V The Minorite Defines Class Conflict in 1871

C H A P T E R VII Social Reform and the Co-operative Movement

C H A P T E R VIII The Socialist Anarchism of the Minorite

CHAPTER X Women's Issues

Appendix I. A . Social Geography of Paris in the 1860's

Appendix I. B. Reconstruction of Paris City Limits

Appendix II A . March 26, 1871 Municipal Elections

Appendix II. B. 2001 Parisian Municipal Elections

of London wrote from Paris:

uprising initiated in the poorest sections of north-eastern Paris.

Conservative observers looked on in disgust. For them, the March 18 uprising

degradation," inspired by a "magnetic current of insanity." Communard sympathizers

inspired Commune, often celebrated the "enfants de la foule" of Belleville and

revolutionary government to be something quite novel in the history of France, writing in

Hatters, boilermakers, bookbinders, bohemian journalists and artists found themselves

Press (1978), 329.

from within a Marxist-Leninist theoretical straight-jacket. For example, in 1937 Frank

cannot be sustained until the proper industrial circumstances are in place. 13

approach is disheartening because it belittles the initiatives and devotion of many

interpretation even goes so far as to reduce the Communards to Marx's "disciples." 14

"suppress the bourgeoisie" with "sufficient determination." 15

overly-reductionist accounts of the Paris Commune. However, Serman's liberal

behalf of liberal scholars. 16

any other historian's.

In general, liberal Western scholars have ironically been as guilty as leftist

'socialist' because "[fjhere was no attempt to round up members of the economic or

Commune to patriotism without considering underlying social antagonisms. For

The inadequacy of the majority of scholarship on the Paris Commune has

"the Paris Commune was a unique event...peculiar to France in the mid-nineteenth

Soviet standards of Communism, I plan to analyze the successful initiatives undertaken

by this short-lived government in terms of the 'socialism' defined by the Parisian

counterparts' calls for a revolutionary five-man dictatorship. 24

largest proportion of workers and members of the newly-formed International Working

Unlike the most recent quasi-leftist French revolutionary 1848 provisional

legislation. Therefore, a study of the minorite's socialist vision is of prime importance

particular, as William Sewell's brilliant work on the history of early nineteenth-century

forbade strikes and associations. 26

'compagnonnage' societies, substantial organizations of working-class tradesmen were

over governmental institutions in France until 1871.

In 1848, the 'socialism' of this revolutionary government was confined to limited

unofficial discussions in the Luxembourg Commission. Moreover, the 'socialism' of

working classes. As outlined in Blanc's influential work Organisation of Labour (1839),

amongst the poor. 28

government of France could be entrusted with their administration. As William Sewell

The 'socialism' espoused by the minorite of 1871 represented a significant break