ROAR Magazine is an independent journal of the radical imagination providing grassroots perspectives from the frontlines of the global struggle for real democracy.
From the very first days of its short-lived existence in 1871, exactly 150 years ago today, the revolutionary Commune of Paris has occupied a central place in the radical imagination of the international left. For the Communards themselves, the revolution did not end, but rather began at the city’s limits. In their perception, the founding of the Commune in Paris was but a first step towards the building of the Universal Republic: a Commune of Communes encompassing the entire globe and uniting all peoples in a confederacy of liberatory democracies.
ROAR places itself firmly in this tradition. Our first print issue, “Revive la Commune!”, was entirely dedicated to the revival of the commune in the 21st century, both in spirit and in practice. Now, on the 150th anniversary of this historic chapter in revolutionary history, we once again turn to those fateful 72 days between March 18 and May 28, 1871, to draw the necessary lessons from the Communards’ heroic struggle for freedom and democracy and to explore the forms and ideas in which the Commune lives on today.
This page will be regularly updated with new essays and content until May 28.
For 72 days, the Communards fought to build a democratic and social republic, organizing elections for their popular commune, initiating radical social measures and discussing political issues in revolutionary clubs, all while organizing armed resistance with the National Guard against the counterrevolution from Versailles.
March 18 – French government troops attempt to seize the cannon of the National Guard, but the city’s population rises up in resistance. The government evacuates the capital and the National Guard takes control of the Hôtel de Ville.
March 19 – The Central Committee of the National Guard takes possession of public offices and proclaims elections for the Commune. In the ensuing chaos, the National Guard fails to take control over key strategic points surrounding the city.
March 26 – Parisians go to the polls to choose their representatives to the Commune. The elected delegates are an eclectic mix of members of the National Guard’s Central Committee, socialists, conservatives, Jacobins, Proudhonists and others. Pierre Vésinier, Secretary of the Commune, calls it “a great and peaceable victory gained by the social and democratic Revolution.”
March 28 – The Commune is proclaimed on the steps of the Hôtel de Ville. The Central Committee of the National Guard resigns and cedes power to the Commune. In the words of journalist Jules Vallès, writing in his newspaper Cri du Peuple: “The Commune is proclaimed by a revolutionary, patriotic celebration, a day of peace and joy, excitement and solemnity, splendor and merriment worthy of the days lived by men on 1791… Today is the festive wedding day of the Idea and the Revolution.”
April 2 – After its retreat from the city and its regroupment in Versailles, the French government begins its siege of Paris. It marks the beginning of weeks of bombardment and fighting between the Communards and the Gendarmes of the French army.
On the same day the Commune decrees the separation of the Church from the State, and the abolition of all state payments for religious purposes as well as the transformation of all Church property into national property. Religion is declared a purely private matter.
April 6 – The 137th batallion of the National Guard organizes the public destruction of the guillotine, burning it in the Place Voltaire to the great excitement of many spectators. The official journal of the Commune reported:
“They burned it at the foot of the statue of the defender of Sirven and Calas, the apostle of humanity, the precursor of the French Revolution, at the foot of the statue of Voltaire.”
April 16 – The Commune announces the postponement of all debt obligations for three years and the abolition of interest. This debt moratorium was in fact a reinstatement of measures put in place by the old bourgeois Government of National Defense at a time of national emergency, which had been abolished by the National Assembly.
The day before, on April 15, the Federation of Artists of the Paris Commune of 1871 had published its manifesto, outlining a revolutionary new approach to art.
April 19 – In the Declaration to the French People, the Commune outlines its political program, presenting a powerful vision of the role the Commune can play in bringing about a “new era of experimental, positive, scientific politics.”
April 23 – Thiers breaks off the negotiations for the exchange, proposed by the Commune, of the Archbishop of Paris and a large number of other priests held hostage in Paris, for only one man, Blanqui, who had twice been elected to the Commune but was a prisoner in Clairvaux.
May 16 – The Vendôme Column is pulled down. The Vendôme Column was erected between 1806 and 1810 in Paris in honor of the victories of Napoleonic France. It was made out of the bronze captured from enemy guns and was crowned by a statue of Napoleon.
In the words of Élie Reclus (brother of Élisée): “The column had to fall when confronted by the Universal Republic.”
May 22 – 28 — The “Semaine Sanglante,” or “Bloody Week” as it has since become know marks the end of the Paris Commune and the victory of Versaillais army over the Communards. After a week-long bloody fight in the streets of Paris, more than 30,000 Parisian will have died at the hands of the French army, a great number in mass executions.
ROAR Magazine is an independent journal of the radical imagination providing grassroots perspectives from the frontlines of the global struggle for real democracy.
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