150 years since the Paris Commune
On March 18, 1871, the armed working class districts of Paris rose up and established the first workers state in world history, the Paris Commune.
Alex Lantier•
Saturday, April 3 • 1pm US Eastern Time
When the workers took power
150 years since the Paris Commune
An online meeting streamed at wsws.org/live
RegisterOn March 18, 1871, workers in Paris rose up to stop an attempt by the French army to steal cannons that had been purchased for the city’s defense in the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian war. The French government of Adolphe Thiers fled the city in panic, and power passed into the hands of the armed working class. Elections were held on March 26 to the Paris Commune, the first workers state in history.
The Commune was an entirely new form of state power that set out to build a classless society based on equality. But in the infamous Bloody Week of May 21-28, Thiers and the French army stormed Paris with heavy artillery—indiscriminately murdering men, women and children suspected of having fought for, participated in or sympathized with the Commune.
At enormous cost in blood, the Commune lives on as a priceless experience for the international working class of today, whose lives, health, and living standards depend on their struggle for state power in every country.
The speakers will include David North, Alex Lantier, and more to be announced.
SaturdayApril 31:00 PMUS Eastern Time
Time zone Conversions
Mexico City: 11am, Saturday, April 3
London: 6pm, Saturday, April 3
Paris: 7pm, Saturday, April 3
Istanbul: 8pm, Saturday, April 3
Mumbai: 10:30pm, Saturday, April 3
Beijing: 1am, Sunday, April 4
Sydney: 3am, Sunday, April 4
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Recommended reading for this event
Introduction by Friedrich Engels to The Civil War in France
On the 4th of September, 1870, when the working men of Paris proclaimed the Republic, which was almost instantaneously acclaimed throughout France, without a single voice of dissent, a cabal of place-hunting barristers, with Thiers for their statesman and Trochu for their general, took hold of the Hotel de Ville.
Friedrich Engels•
The experience of the Paris Commune of 1871: Marx’s analysis
This essay is Chapter 3 of the book State and Revolution, which Lenin wrote in the summer of 1917. At the time, Lenin was in hiding, first outside Petrograd and then in Finland, in the midst of the violent repression of the Bolshevik Party by the Provisional Government in Russia. The book was a critical component of Lenin’s preparation of the Bolshevik Party and the most advanced sections of the Russian working class for the October Revolution of 1917.
Vladimir Lenin•
Lessons of the Paris Commune
This essay by Leon Trotsky was first published in French as a preface to the book by C. Talès, La Commune de 1871. It was written in the town of Zlatoust, on February 4, 1921, in the lead up to the 50th anniversary of the Paris Commune.
Leon Trotsky•
Barry Grey•
Vladimir Lenin•
Leon Trotsky•
Clare Hurley•