Thursday, March 29, 2018

*IN THE TIME OF THE PARIS COMMUNE

Click on title to link to "Paris Commune Archives".

BOOK REVIEW

PARIS BABYLON, RUPERT CHRISTIANSEN, PENQUIN, NEW YORK, 1996

MARCH 18TH IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE PARIS COMMUNE OF 1871


March 18th every year is the anniversary of the establishment of the Paris Commune in 1871. That event rightly takes its place in an honored position in the revolutionary pantheon and is commemorated, especially in Paris, as such. Why? As the founder of scientific socialism, Karl Marx, noted in his spirited defense of the Commune against the raging reaction of capitalist Europe and the faint-hearted in the international labor movement at the time this was the first, trembling, expression of the `dictatorship of the proletariat'-the time of working class rule. That it was crushed quickly by that same capitalist Europe and repressed thoroughly does not take away from the grandeur of the experience. Historians have rightly taken it as a seminal event in late 19th century European history. The book under review takes up the narrative around the establishment of the Commune in an interesting way.

The study of history, like other major scholarly disciplines, goes through cycles and, frankly, fads concerning the important lessons of any period and about what and who to emphasize or not emphasize. This book belongs in the camp of the social micro-history school where setting up the milieu is decisive for interpreting the sequence of events. The author has done a creditable job of setting the milieu of the Second Empire in France under the dyspeptic Louis Bonaparte and his entourage, including his demanding and, at times, bizarre wife. Moreover he sets the scene by a rather vivid, and perhaps too vivid, detailing of Parisian manners, mores, cuisine, architecture and other cultural phenomena which point menacingly to the disastrous military overconfidence and woeful under preparedness that was about to occur in 1870 when confronted by the Prussians.

Less satisfactory is his analysis of the enigmatic but politically clever Louis Bonaparte and the social base on which his regime rested. Karl Marx did a much more thorough, if more polemical, analysis on that base of mainly rural farmers and their political dependents who stuck by Bonaparte to the end in his classic exposition of historical materialism, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Also the author's narrative of the establishment and crushing of the Paris Commune does not lend itself to drawing any lessons from the experience.

While the author is not overtly hostile to the Commune he is clearly no friend, and makes no bones about it. Seemingly the Communards got what they deserved, or at least what they should have expected. If you want to get an in-depth analysis of those lessons you must look elsewhere, especially if you are looking for the implications for future revolutionary strategy for the 20th century Marxist movement.
With those shortcomings in mind if you want a good literary Inside Edition-like social travelogue of Paris in the third quarter of the 19th century this is as good a place as any to start.

1 comment:

  1. As is always appropriate on international working class holidays and days of remembrance here is the song most closely associated with that movement “The Internationale” in English, French and German. I will not vouch for the closeness of the translations but certainly of the spirit. Workers Of The World Unite!


    The Internationale [variant words in square brackets]

    Arise ye workers [starvelings] from your slumbers
    Arise ye prisoners of want
    For reason in revolt now thunders
    And at last ends the age of cant.
    Away with all your superstitions
    Servile masses arise, arise
    We'll change henceforth [forthwith] the old tradition [conditions]
    And spurn the dust to win the prize.

    So comrades, come rally
    And the last fight let us face
    The Internationale unites the human race.
    So comrades, come rally
    And the last fight let us face
    The Internationale unites the human race.

    No more deluded by reaction
    On tyrants only we'll make war
    The soldiers too will take strike action
    They'll break ranks and fight no more
    And if those cannibals keep trying
    To sacrifice us to their pride
    They soon shall hear the bullets flying
    We'll shoot the generals on our own side.

    No saviour from on high delivers
    No faith have we in prince or peer
    Our own right hand the chains must shiver
    Chains of hatred, greed and fear
    E'er the thieves will out with their booty [give up their booty]
    And give to all a happier lot.
    Each [those] at the forge must do their duty
    And we'll strike while the iron is hot.




    ________________________________________

    L'Internationale

    Debout les damnés de la terre
    Debout les forçats de la faim
    La raison tonne en son cratère
    C'est l'éruption de la fin
    Du passe faisons table rase
    Foules, esclaves, debout, debout
    Le monde va changer de base
    Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout

    C'est la lutte finale
    Groupons-nous, et demain (bis)
    L'Internationale
    Sera le genre humain

    Il n'est pas de sauveurs suprêmes
    Ni Dieu, ni César, ni tribun
    Producteurs, sauvons-nous nous-mêmes
    Décrétons le salut commun
    Pour que le voleur rende gorge
    Pour tirer l'esprit du cachot
    Soufflons nous-mêmes notre forge
    Battons le fer quand il est chaud

    L'état comprime et la loi triche
    L'impôt saigne le malheureux
    Nul devoir ne s'impose au riche
    Le droit du pauvre est un mot creux
    C'est assez, languir en tutelle
    L'égalité veut d'autres lois
    Pas de droits sans devoirs dit-elle
    Egaux, pas de devoirs sans droits

    Hideux dans leur apothéose
    Les rois de la mine et du rail
    Ont-ils jamais fait autre chose
    Que dévaliser le travail
    Dans les coffres-forts de la bande
    Ce qu'il a crée s'est fondu
    En décrétant qu'on le lui rende
    Le peuple ne veut que son dû.

    Les rois nous saoulaient de fumées
    Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans
    Appliquons la grève aux armées
    Crosse en l'air, et rompons les rangs
    S'ils s'obstinent, ces cannibales
    A faire de nous des héros
    Ils sauront bientôt que nos balles
    Sont pour nos propres généraux

    Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes
    Le grand parti des travailleurs
    La terre n'appartient qu'aux hommes
    L'oisif ira loger ailleurs
    Combien, de nos chairs se repaissent
    Mais si les corbeaux, les vautours
    Un de ces matins disparaissent
    Le soleil brillera toujours.


    ________________________________________

    Die Internationale

    Wacht auf, Verdammte dieser Erde,
    die stets man noch zum Hungern zwingt!
    Das Recht wie Glut im Kraterherde
    nun mit Macht zum Durchbruch dringt.
    Reinen Tisch macht mit dem Bedranger!
    Heer der Sklaven, wache auf!
    Ein nichts zu sein, tragt es nicht langer
    Alles zu werden, stromt zuhauf!

    Volker, hort die Signale!
    Auf, zum letzten Gefecht!
    Die Internationale
    Erkampft das Menschenrecht

    Es rettet uns kein hoh'res Wesen
    kein Gott, kein Kaiser, noch Tribun
    Uns aus dem Elend zu erlosen
    konnen wir nur selber tun!
    Leeres Wort: des armen Rechte,
    Leeres Wort: des Reichen Pflicht!
    Unmundigt nennt man uns Knechte,
    duldet die Schmach langer nicht!

    In Stadt und Land, ihr Arbeitsleute,
    wir sind die starkste Partei'n
    Die Mussigganger schiebt beiseite!
    Diese Welt muss unser sein;
    Unser Blut sei nicht mehr der Raben
    und der machtigen Geier Frass!
    Erst wenn wir sie vertrieben haben
    dann scheint die Sonn' ohn' Unterlass!

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