Paris Montmartre in engl., The Commune

Paris Commune by Manu

The term "Paris Commune" (in French: La Commune de Paris) refers to the socialist government that briefly ruled Paris from March to May 1871.

·        Background :

• September 1870 :

- French defeat against Prussia (Sedan) : end of the Second Empire (Napoleon the Third). The Third Republic was proclaimed.

- Paris under siege. Growing discontent because of the military failures, the food shortages, the prussian bombardment and the gap between rich and poor.

• January 1870 :

- Armistice with the German Empire signed by the moderate republican government. The peace terms included a triumphal entry of the prussian troups into Paris.

- The National Guard (which was a sort of militia composed of workers), helped by ordinary people (workers, women, children...), collected hundreds of cannon on the hill of Montmartre to prevent their capture by the Prussians.

·        The Commune :

• March 1871 : Adolphe Thiers, head of the government, ordered regular troops to seize the cannon stored on the Montmartre hill. Instead of following instructions, the soldiers fraternised with the National Guard and local residents. Other army units joined in the rebellion which spread so rapidly that Thiers ordered an immediate evacuation of Paris. The government and administration went to Versailles.

• Central Committee of the National Guard was now the only effective government in Paris : it arranged elections for a Commune.

• Social measures with a few decrees (who tended towards a social democracy) such as the separation of Church and State, the abolition of night work, the right of employees to take over and run an enterprise if it were deserted by its owner, etc...

• April 1871 : the assault : First fights between the official army (Marshall Mac Mahon) and the Communards. The Versaillese enjoyed a centralised command and had superior numbers.

• 21 – 28 may 1871 : the Bloody Week : During the assault, the government troops were responsible for slaughtering National Guard troops and civilians: prisoners taken in possession of weapons, or who were suspected of having fought, were shot, and summary executions were commonplace. People shot against the Mur des Fédérés (Communards Wall) in the Père Lachaise cemetery. Last barricades in the more working-class districts of the East : Belleville, Ménilmontant...

• The number of killed during La Semaine Sanglante can never be established for certain, and estimates vary from about 10,000 to 50,000. A lot of Communards killed during the fights, some later condemned to prison and executed, and others deported for life to New Caledonia.

• Paris Commune = a symbol of Revolution who inspired a lot of thinkers (Marx, Lenine, ...) Socialist red flag.