Today in Labor History May 16, 1871: Workers of the Paris Commune destroyed the Vendôme Column ("monument de barbarie"), a monument to war that was topped with a statue of Napolean. The communards were particularly disgusted that this glorification of war, colonialism and national chauvinism had been erected on the Rue de la Paix (Peace Street). The communards promptly renamed the plaza “Place Internationale” in celebration of their ideal of international fraternity.
The communards governed from a feminist and anarcho-communist perspective, abolishing rent and child labor and giving workers the right to take over workplaces abandoned by the owners. They took over all aspects of economic and political life. They enacted a system that included self-policing, separation of the church and state, abolition of child labor, and employee takeovers of abandoned businesses. Churches and church-run schools were shut down. The Commune lasted from March 18 through May 28, 1871. Karl Marx called it the first example of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Marx had also predicted the fall of the Column in his 1852 political pamphlet The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. The Commune ended in massacres and mass executions known as Semaine Sanglante, or the Bloody Week. During this time, the French Army entered Paris and quashed the commune. They killed 10,000-20,000 men, women and children. They also arrested over 43,000 people, sentencing ninety-five to death, 251 to forced labor, and 1,169 to deportation. Thousands more fled to avoid prosecution. One of the leaders of the commune was a young school teacher named Louise Michel. During her trial she said “I do not wish to defend myself, I do not wish to be defended. . . . since it seems that any heart which beats for freedom has the right only to a lump of lead, I too claim my share. If you let me live, I shall never stop crying for revenge and l shall avenge my brothers. I have finished. If you are not cowards, kill me!” She was deported to the French colony of New Caldonia.
You can read my complete biography of Louise Michel here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/20/louise-michel/
#workingclass #LaborHistory #paris #commune #anarchism #communism #marx #louisemichel #massacre #prison #deportation #colonialism #feminism
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