The Paris Commune 1871 (part 2)

Part 2 of the lecture on the Paris Commune is below. This part deals with the National Guard and the establishment of the commune. Part 3 follows monday...

Many ordinary Parisians objected to the Prussian presence in the city and joined an armed militia known as the ‘National Guard’ who saw it as their duty, in light of government’s capitulation, to defend their city. Units of the guard, usually situated in the poorest districts of the city, elected their own leaders who included many radical and socialist leaders. Thus, the increasingly organised working class population of Paris was defiant in the face of France’s defeat and were prepared to fight if the German army provoked them. A further factor was the vacuum in power in the city caused by the move of France’s national assembly from Bordeaux to Versailles, just outside Paris. The government, in its chaotic state, was concerned that the National Guard had so many weapons at their dispersal and also a growing authority within the city itself. They ordered French soldiers to seize weapons and according to soem commentators they were also ordered to fire at a crowd of the National Guard and civilians. Yet the soldiers were too demoralised to carry out these orders and one by one many army units joined the popular rebellion. In a state of panic, the government then ordered an evacuation of the city by all remaining forces, by Police and by administrators of every kind. Effectively the central committee of the National Guard was now the new government in Paris. It hastily arranged elections and formally established a government on 26 March 1871. During the uprising Haussmann ruefully regretted that he had not been able to complete all his renovations, especially those in the East of the city, in time to prevent the revolt.

The new commune, as it became known, discarded the tricolore flag replacing it with a socialist red flag. It also introduced a number of policies such as the separation of church and state (forbidding the teaching of religion in schools), the abolition of night work in bakeries and the right of employees to take over and run and enterprise if had been deserted by its owner. Many districts also implemented their own projects such as the IIIe, which provided school materials for free and established an orphanage. There were also feminist inspired policies to disregard the distinction between married women and concubines and between legitimate and illegitimate children. They also advocated the abolition of prostitution and the closure of official brothels.