International: A Lesson from the Paris Commune: Theoretical construction & Negative Effects of Blanquism and Proudhonism on the Commune Revolution
Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Paris Commune
May 2021
Author: Prof. Chen Feng is Vice President of the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Administration
Editor’s note: On March 18, 1871, the Paris working class and the working masses staged an armed uprising, overthrew the bourgeois reactionary government, and subsequently established the Paris Commune, the first working-class regime in human history. However, due to the immature leadership and policy errors of the Paris Commune, it failed under the brutal suppression of powerful enemies. An obvious internal cause of the failure was the insufficient theoretical preparation and theoretical armament of the Paris Commune. On May 30, 1871, Marx systematically summarized the lessons learned from the Paris Commune and published the pamphlet “The Civil War in France”. While commemorating the heroic and fearless struggle of the Paris Commune, we must deeply understand and learn from this painful lesson.
150 years ago, the Paris Commune established the world’s first proletarian regime. In French, the Paris Commune has always been called “La Commune de Paris”, and the spark of the communist movement has been ignited since then.
On March 18, 1871, workers and working people in Paris revolted against the traitorous bourgeois government, and 10 days later established their own regime, the Paris Commune. The Paris Commune introduced a series of governance measures, including democratic elections for public officials, stipulating that salaries do not follow job promotions, the right of the masses to supervise and dismiss “people’s servants”, the implementation of an eight-hour workday, the promotion of gender equality, the announcement of the separation of church and state, the popularization of primary education and the establishment of vocational education, welcome of foreign revolutionaries to join the Commune, and the practice of the internationalist principles of the proletariat. Marx praised it as a first “working class government” in essence, and “the dawn of the great social revolution that will forever liberate mankind from class society.”
However, after the establishment of the Paris Commune, it did not form a strong organizational leadership, did not consciously unite the peasants to expand the revolutionary camp, did not decisively control the financial lifeline by confiscating the Bank of France, and did not seize the opportunity to concentrate on dealing with the enemy’s encirclement and suppression. As a result, it was brutally suppressed two months after taking of power.
The Paris Commune movement was a courageous attempt of the proletarian revolution and a fruitful beginning of the proletarian dictatorship. Paris Commune movement played a pioneering role in the international communist movement. At that time, Marx and Engels, who were living in London, had been paying close attention to and strongly supporting the revolutionary actions of the Paris Commune.
On May 30, the third day after the last batch of fighters died, Marx delivered a report entitled “The Civil War in France” to the General Council of the First International, systematically summarizing the Paris Commune movement and deeply analyzing its historical significance and lessons learned. See. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/civil_war_france.pdf
In 1891, on the 20th anniversary of the Paris Commune, Engels supplemented and deepened the relevant discussions in “The Civil War in France”. The important discussions of the revolutionary mentors have strengthened our understanding and experience of the extreme importance of theoretical construction in the communist movement.
The Paris Commune established a leadership body that combined deliberation and execution, which was named as the Commune Committee.
However, its fatal shortcoming was that it did not have direct and specific guidance of Marxism and did not achieve the correct combination of ideology and theory. Therefore, it did not form a conscious and consistent leadership group that could implement the will of the working class through correct leadership actions. The leadership of the Paris Commune was mixed and divided in theory. A few people had only heard of certain principles of Marxism but had not yet known them. The majority of the Commune Committee adhered to Blanquism, while the minority of its members were mostly believers in Proudhonism.
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