Aymeric Monville| International Committee for Democratic Rights in South Korea (CILD)
Introduction
The Paris Commune, which governed the French capital from March 18 to May 28, 1871, was much more than a mere municipal government or an uprising over working conditions. It was a patriotic cry, an act of legitimate defense of the French nation, betrayed by its own government. It arose from the convergence of a humiliating defeat at the hands of Prussia and the treason of a ruling class willing to capitulate rather than defend the honor and sovereignty of the people.
The Context: Defeat and Capitulation
The Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) was a disaster for France. After Emperor Napoleon III was captured at Sedan, a new republic was proclaimed. However, the so-called “Government of National Defense,” installed in Versailles, was dominated by monarchists and conservative bourgeois whose greatest fear was not the Prussian army, but the armed people of Paris.
While the citizens of Paris endured a brutal siege and hunger, withstanding bombardments and defending their walls with incredible heroism, the government of Monsieur Thiers secretly negotiated surrender. The armistice of January 1871 was a disgraceful capitulation that disarmed France and allowed the Prussians to hold a military parade on the Champs-Élysées. For the Parisians, who had sacrificed so much, this surrender was a stab in the back.
The Uprising: The Homeland Rises Up
The final spark of the Commune was an act of provocation by the government in Versailles. On March 18, Thiers sent troops to seize the cannons of the National Guard—cannons paid for by popular subscription from Parisians for their defense. This attempt to disarm the city, right after a national humiliation, was the spark.
But the reaction was not only one of anger; it was an act of patriotism. The soldiers sent refused to fire on the people and fraternized with the citizens. Thiers’s cowardly government fled to Versailles, abandoning the capital. Paris, having expelled the traitors, decided to govern itself.
The Commune: The Government of Resistance
The Commune rose up as the true representative of resistant France, in opposition to the France of capitulation.
Against the Capitulationists: The “Versaillese” were not only the party of the bourgeoisie; they were the party of defeat. They were the men who had signed a humiliating peace with Bismarck and who now allied themselves tacitly with the invader to crush their own people. For them, the main enemy was not Prussia but the revolutionary people of Paris.
Patriotic and Social Measures: The Commune issued decrees that reflected this spirit of resistance and national rebirth: the separation of Church and State, secular and free education, the abolition of compulsory military service and its replacement by the National Guard (the people in arms), and the democratic management of abandoned factories.
The Bloody Week: The Crime of the Victors
The response from Versailles was one of unprecedented brutality. With the tacit blessing of the Prussians, who released French soldiers from captivity for this purpose, Thiers’s army assaulted Paris on May 21. What followed was the Bloody Week.
The Versaillese did not enter as liberators but as a foreign army of occupation. They massacred tens of thousands of Parisians—men, women, and children—in the streets. This bloodbath was not merely the suppression of a revolt; it was the punishment of a ruling class against the people who had dared to challenge its authority and remind it of its cowardice.
Conclusion: The Legacy of the Commune
The Paris Commune was physically crushed, but its legacy is imperishable. It embodied the struggle for popular sovereignty, social justice, and, above all, the uncompromising defense of the homeland against the treason of its elites. It demonstrated that true patriotism does not reside in the palaces of rulers but in the hearts of the people when they rise up to defend their dignity, their freedom, and their right to exist.
The Communards were not merely insurgents; they were the last and most consistent defenders of France’s honor in a dark hour of capitulation and betrayal.
Of course, it is them whom I think of when I see many South Americans fighting against the imperialists of the United States.
Thank you for your attention.