The Paris Commune 1871 (Turning Points) by Robert Tombs

Author:Robert Tombs
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2014-06-11T07:00:00+00:00

Commitment and mobilization

So far we have seen two ways of analysing the Communards: by statistical occupational analysis, and by self-description. They create a broadly complementary stereotype: the Communards were, and considered themselves to be, the republican Parisian ‘People’. But this is not a complete explanation of being a Communard. There are two questions worth further consideration. First, even among people of similar social, cultural and political background, the degree of practical commitment varied greatly. What distinguished between those who participated actively, even to the very end – a small minority – and those who stayed clear of the Commune or fell away early on in the struggle? Here we need to look at what mobilizes, encourages or constrains people to strenuous and dangerous action. Second, in spite of the inclusive republican, patriotic and Parisian language of Communard propaganda, it appealed in fact disproportionately to manual workers, as we saw above, while other social groups turned a relatively or entirely deaf ear. Why?

There were over 400,000 male wage-earners in Paris, plus over 60,000 self-employed artisans. Undoubtedly most were republican in sympathy. But only 230,000 men voted in the Commune elections in March, and only 190,000 (mostly workers) supported revolutionary candidates. Moreover, after the civil war had begun, support shrank drastically: in the 16 April Commune by-elections only between a quarter and a third of voters supported Communard candidates even in the ‘reddest’ arrondissements, the 18th and 20th.27 Never more than about 170,000 (all classes combined) did some service in the Fédéré National Guard, and at a guess some 20,000 took part in the final combats. So only a dwindling proportion even of republican male workers participated in the revolutionary struggle. The proportion of female workers involved was far smaller.

What activated the activists? For some, the Commune was a liberation and opportunity. For the few hundred people who found themselves occupying important positions, it was a heavy responsibility but could also be a euphoric experience. Some, though not all, had looked forward to a revolution for years; others, republicans but not necessarily revolutionary militants, found themselves unexpectedly in power because of opposition activity in the 1860s or patriotic exertions during the siege. For example, Courbet, a long-standing republican, mainly interested in reforming art administration, now discovered the unexpected delights of power. As he wrote artlessly to his family:

Here I am, thanks to the people of Paris, up to my neck in politics, president of the Federation of Artists, member of the Commune, delegate at the mairie, delegate for Public Education, four of the most important offices in Paris. I get up, I eat breakfast and I sit and I preside twelve hours a day. My head is beginning to feel like a baked apple. But in spite of all this agitation in my head and in my understanding of social questions that I was not familiar with, I am in seventh heaven.28

Even after the disasters that followed, many must have looked back on it as the time of their lives: the artist

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