The Official History has watered down the role of the anarchists in the Parisian
events of 1871, the militants of the time were not mistaken: if the Commune ofParis is not entirely anarchist, it is strongly inspired by those- this. The veryidea of Commune is strongly linked to the development of the Bakuninian tendencyof the AIT. A socialist and anti-authoritarian current strongly marks thisrevolutionary experience. And, in turn, the Commune has repercussions on theconstruction of the anarchist movement. ---- The influence of the French sectionof the AITThe idea of a Commune matured within the International Workers' Association whichwas formed in 1864 and which Bakunin joined in 1866. With the support of the JuraFederation, the Russian revolutionary developed a series of collectivist,socialist theories and revolutionaries who form the cement of theanti-authoritarian tendency in the AIT. At the Congress of Basle in February1869, the collectivist theories prevailed over those of the Proudhonians and theMarxists. During this congress, in addition to the denunciation of privateproperty, a fundamental point was settled and concerned the organization ofsocialist society: in the future society the trade unions will form freecommunes, in which local government and management will be replaced by thecouncils of delegates of the professional unions of the workers ".The majority of French activists agree with this program. At the Basle congress,a French delegate, Pindy, defended the same idea as the Belgian delegation at theorigin of the resolution: " in the future society the trade unions will formfree communes, in which the government and local management will be replaced bythe councils of the delegates of the professional unions of the workers ".It is that the French section has an ideological repositioning, which favorssocial confrontation to the detriment of emancipation through cooperatives andmutualism. While a certain number of Proudhonians moved away from the AIT, manymilitants joined on these new bases, following social conflicts. The militants ofthe International, Eugène Varlin in the lead (see attached image), begin agigantic task of regrouping workers' societies in a single federation.All the members of the workers' societies are not in the AIT, but the mosthardened militants often meet there, and create sections of the International.Varlin has a clear idea of the syndicalist and revolutionary evolution of hisorganization:" Unless you want to bring everything back to a centralizing and authoritarianState, which would appoint the factory directors, who in turn would appoint thesub-directors, foremen, etc., and thus arrive at a hierarchical organization fromtop to bottom of work, in which the worker would be no more than an unconsciousgear, without freedom or initiative, unless we are forced to admit that theworkers themselves must have the free disposal, the possession of theirinstruments of work, under the condition of bringing their products to exchangeat cost price, so that there is reciprocity of services between the workers ofthe different specialties[...]Workers' societies, in whatever form they currentlyexist, already have this immense advantage of accustoming men to life in society;and thus to prepare them for a more extended social organization. They accustomthem, not only to agreeing or understanding each other, but also to minding theirown business, to organizing themselves, to discussing, to reasoning about theirmaterial and moral interests, and always from the collective point of view. ,since their individual, direct self-interest disappears as soon as they becomepart of a community[...]But the corporative societies (resistance, solidarities,unions) above all deserve our commitments and our sympathy, because they are thenatural elements of the social construction of the future; they are the ones whocan easily turn into an association of producers; it is they who will be able toimplement the social tools and the organization of production ".The war of 1870 disrupted the political situation in France and on July 8, 1870,the International was dissolved following a third trial. Varlin is forced intoexile in Brussels. It is in this context that the militants of the AIT mustposition themselves in front of the declaration of war from France to Prussia, onJuly 19th. Since March 1870, Bakounine and his friends had views on France, theyeven drafted a revolutionary program organized around the communes:" Art.1- The revolutionary Communes of Paris, Lyon, Marseilles, Lille, Bordeaux,Rouen, Nantes, etc., having jointly and uniformly prepared and directed therevolutionary movement for the overthrow of imperial tyranny, declare that theywill not consider their task as completed only when they have ensured the triumphof the revolution by the application of the egalitarian principles which theyprofess. Consequently they united federatively, made themselves provisionallyauthoritarian and decreed the following:[...]Art; 13- The revolutionary Communes will send delegates wherever necessary,either to have new communes constituted there, or to have the decrees promulgatedthere executed. »Bakunin's idea was to take advantage of the political and military situation tolaunch a revolutionary movement which had to start in the Province. Bakouninethinks indeed that the military situation is unfavorable to a movement startingfrom Paris. The Internationalists choose Lyon to start the movement. The bigcities of Provinces having to follow quickly. Then the countries where thecollectivists are in force in the International: Switzerland, Spain and Italy. OnSeptember 4, the Republic was proclaimed and Bakunin's predictions wereconfirmed. He also considers that the replacement of the Empire by theprovisional government does not change anything. He therefore continued thepreparations for the Revolution. Called by the Lyon internationalists, he leftfor Lyon where a Committee of Public Safety had been established on September 4.But the insurrectionary attempt turned into a disaster in the face of the lack ofdetermination of those who had called Bakunin and Bastelica as reinforcements. Inhis plan to expel Bakunin from the AIT, Marx mocked this initiative from hisLondon chair. Following him, many historians have been content to put it down tothe " revolutionary adventurism " attributed to the famous Russian, withoutlooking any further. This error is detrimental if we want to understand the realrole played by the International - and especially the collectivists - in thisperiod. Let us quote the communist historian Yuri Steklov, a companion of Leninand who cannot be suspected of benevolence towards Bakunin: Certainly, those whodo not share the anarchist views of Bakunin and his followers can and shouldcriticize his unfounded hopes and his proclamation of the abolition of the stateon paper. But, his imperfections aside, his intervention at this time was agenerous attempt to awaken the slumbering energy of the French proletariat anddirect it against the capitalist system[...]In itself, Bakunin's plan, if not notconsider the specifically anarchist envelope[...]is not so ridiculous.[...]Nobodythen proposed a better plan... It must be said openly that if, at that time, itwas possible in general to use the defeat of France to awaken the energy of themasses and to try to achieve a profound social upheaval, then Bakunin's plan wasbetter suited for this than any other... The Paris Commune, which appeared sixmonths after Lyon's first attempt, was only a weak, incomplete and unfinishedsketch of the grandiose project that Bakunin had imagined.»The socialist and anti-authoritarian current of the Paris Commune.Historians, even anarchists, too often limit the libertarian character of theCommune to its manifesto, described as having arrived there somewhat by chance,without much conviction and to the presence of a few Proudhonians. The reality ismore complex.This manifesto is akin to the declaration of the Central Committee which hadtaken power in Paris. Indeed, on March 18, the government of Thiers tries to takeback the guns of the national guard, it follows an insurrection. Versaillestroops withdrew from Paris and the Central Committee, rather than retainingpower, organized elections to make way for the Commune. He then addressed amanifesto to the Parisian population in which he declared: "The Commune is thebasis of any political State, just as the family is the embryo of society.»This is because the Central Committee of the National Guard was, throughout theCommune, an essential element of the anti-authoritarian current. This can beexplained by the presence of many internationalists, but also by the fact thatthe battalions of the national guard, which remained in Paris, came fromworking-class neighborhoods and that the internal functioning of the guard obeysthe rules of the imperative mandate: the leaders are elected and the council isthe emanation of the decisions taken at the base. The guard is also marked by itshistory: it comes from the Revolution of 1789 and clearly represents the peoplein arms. We must not forget that Bakunin like Proudhon - and all the socialistsfor that matter - were marked by the great Revolution. However, during theRevolution, the people of Paris, the sans-culottes were strongly influenced bythinkers, the enraged, who claim "true equality" like Jacques Roux, or theimperative mandate, like Varlet. When the anti-authoritarians take up thesethemes, they do not rely on new values for Parisians but on the principlesdefended by their grandparents and transmitted by oral tradition. Also,throughout the Commune, the central committee is a counter-power and opposes thedictatorial attempts of the Majority of elected members (Jacobins and Blanquists)who want, by the creation of a Committee of Public Safety, to create adictatorship. they are not based on new values for Parisians but on theprinciples defended by their grandparents and transmitted by oral tradition.Also, throughout the Commune, the central committee is a counter-power andopposes the dictatorial attempts of the Majority of elected members (Jacobins andBlanquists) who want, by the creation of a Committee of Public Safety, to createa dictatorship. they are not based on new values for Parisians but on theprinciples defended by their grandparents and transmitted by oral tradition.Also, throughout the Commune, the central committee is a counter-power andopposes the dictatorial attempts of the Majority of elected members (Jacobins andBlanquists) who want, by the creation of a Committee of Public Safety, to createa dictatorship.Within the Council of the Commune, a minority of deputy refuses the authoritariandrift. These are personalities who evolve towards anti-authoritarian thought likeArthur Arnould, some Proudhonians like Vallès and above all members of theInternational like Thiesz, Frankel or Varlin.We see it, at every crucial moment, the internationalists play an important role.If they were not at the initiative of the Revolution (militants like Varlin werevery pessimistic about the chances of revolution), they are fully invested in it.They are the ones who most effectively revive the communal administrations andthe most socialist decisions which are taken by the commission of work andexchange are entirely theirs. But this communal Revolution lacks an essentialelement of 1792: the Parisian sections. Paris was divided into 48 sections whichmet in General Assemblies, made decisions and controlled the delegates. Duringthe Commune, there are only Clubs to express the popular will, and theirpetitions often remain dead letters. The International has failed to reorganizecollectively and its militants are overwhelmed with daily work. The people ofParis are coming out of the war and have not returned to work, the corporativecompanies are struggling to reconstitute themselves. More often than not, it isthe national guard's salary that sustains the family. It is thereforeunderstandable that guarding takes on such vitality. It brings together 200,000Parisians and applies the imperative mandate...One of the characteristics of the Revolutions is to see the collapse of thepolitical regime in place. Grassroots initiatives acquire an irresistiblemomentary force because they appear very quickly and reorganize daily life in thefirst days. The construction of a state apparatus takes longer, it may seemnecessary to some when these spontaneous initiatives fail to federate and themilitary situation makes counter-revolutionaries a threat. But " when in the nameof the Revolution, we want to make the State, even if only the provisional State,we make the reaction and we work for despotism, not for freedom". The attempts atdirect democracy begun in 1789 and 1871 are rich in lessons. The state, evenrevolutionary, always seeks to destroy popular power. It is not enough to decreedirect democracy, it still has to exist, that is to say that the primaryassemblies really decide.The Paris Commune of 1871 is the heir of the French Revolution, its internaldifficulties enlighten us, but too much light should not blind us. The fall ofthe Commune is the fact of the Third Republic and of Bismarck which provides itwith an army, by releasing the battalions of prisoners of the war of 1870. Let usnot forget the words of the national guard Elisée Reclus: "The Commune haserected for the future, not by its rulers but by its defenders, an ideal farsuperior to that of all the revolutions which had preceded it; it engages inadvance those who want to continue, in France and throughout the world, to fightfor a new society in which there will be neither masters by birth, title ormoney, nor enslaved by origin, caste or salary. Everywhere the word "Commune" hasbeen understood in the broadest sense, as referring to a new humanity, made up offree, equal companions, ignoring the existence of old frontiers and helping eachother in peace from one end of the world. to the other.»https://liberteouvriere.com/2022/12/19/les-anarchistes-et-la-commune-de-paris-par-jean-philippe-crabe-france-2021/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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