WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, Monde Libertaire - Ideas and Struggles: Long Live the Commune! (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 From Paris and Beyond! ---- Having a perspective on the Paris Commune

from friends from a neighboring country that welcomed many Communards
persecuted after the Bloody Week is always a valuable tool for assessing
perceptions of this event outside France. ---- Sixtine Van Outryve, a
doctoral student, Manu Scordia, a draftsman, Thibaut Dramaix, a graphic
designer, and Karim Brikci-Nigassa, a photographer, combine their skills
to create a delightful book entitled Long Live the Commune!, published
in 2021 and reissued in 2024 by Krasnyi. Another one? Yes, but this one
catches the eye from its cover. It consists of texts and drawings
inserted into photographs of key locations during the Commune. We could
write that it constitutes a guide to visiting Paris during the 1871
Commune, especially since a map is included in the appendix. On the
cover, women and men raise their fists and rifles to defend this Commune
in front of the City Hall with its red flags. They shout, like the Cry
of the People: Long Live the Commune. On the inside page, a flag torn on
three paving stones, a remnant of Bloody Week. And this phrase by Eugène
Varlin, still relevant today: "As long as a man can die of hunger at the
door of a palace where everything is overflowing, there will be nothing
stable in human institutions." The message has a universal scope, just
like the democratic, universal, and social Republic to which the people
on the cover aspired.

Building a New World

The Republic was proclaimed in September 1870, but as Henri Guillemin
points out, the bourgeoisie "would give them the word but not the thing:
a Republic without substance." And the winter of 1870 produced tragedies
caused by hunger, the death of children, the cold, and queues outside
stores. Let's go to the corner of Rue Myrha and Rue des Poissonniers, a
superposition of present-day life and starving, freezing Parisians. In
January 1871, the people rose up and freed Flourens, Cipriani, and
Louise Michel from the jails of Mazas Prison, now destroyed and located
in front of the Gare de Lyon. Le Cri de Peuple, Jules Vallès's
newspaper, was closed, a measure of censorship, on Rue d'Aboukir. Let's
also visit Rue de la Corderie, the headquarters of the International
Working Men's Association.

Through short texts, the authors bring the events back to life; this is
an excellent introduction to this story, which was hidden for years and
whose political significance the public authorities still deny today. It
is true that for them, the Republic was at Versailles. The current power
in France is very Versailles-like in its behavior. Let's experience the
beginnings of this Paris Commune in Montmartre, of course, in the
suburbs and the first defeats, Flourens killed in Rueil.

Traces and memories as far away as Liège

The Commune also included debates, in churches and clubs like the
proletarians' club in the Sainte-Marguerite church on Rue Saint-Bernard.
It resulted in achievements such as the functioning of public services,
developments in labor law, education, justice, culture, the arts, and
the role of women.

Bloody Week began on May 21st, with summary executions throughout Paris,
but particularly in the Luxembourg Gardens; the bullet marks are still
visible, on the steps of the Panthéon, at Père Lachaise. And the last
barricade on Rue Ramponneau. Also discover the building where Eugène
Pottier hid to write The Internationale. This book is invaluable for
this journey alone. The authors add the demonstration at Delcour Square
in Liège for the 15th anniversary of the Commune, initiated by the Liège
anarchist group. Arrests, violence, and strikes took place in Seraing
and Herstal. The workers' uprising spread to Jumet, troops were called
out, and corpses littered the streets. Sad days. Nevertheless, these
major strikes forced the Belgian bourgeoisie to make concessions: the
introduction of the first social laws.

No, the Paris Commune is not dead. It carries within it the beginnings
of fragile democratic conquests. Let us remain mobilized; there are
always reactionary forces ready to challenge these achievements. Current
events demonstrate this.

* Sixtine Van Outryve, Manu Scordia, Thibaut Dramaix, Karim Brikci-Nigassa
Long Live the Commune!
Published by Krasnyi, 2021, 2024

https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8276
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca