Paris Commune

Paris, 1871.

The city was transformed into an autonomously organized society, a [[commune]] that experimented with alternative ways of structuring social and political life based on collaboration and cooperation

• The Judgment of Paris | Lizzie O’Shea

An example of the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]].

Didn't last long (72 days) - it was crushed by the state.

It was not completely [[Marxist]], not completely [[anarchist]]. It had its own thing going on. (And existed before these distinctions were that clear, anyway).

The Paris Commune was instructive to both Marx and Lenin.

Marx’s observation in the context of his analysis of the lessons of the Paris Commune, that 'the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes' - is hard to miss.

– The Bolsheviks did not 'smash' the old state // New Socialist

when the armed people of the French capital raised barricades not only to defend the city council of Paris and its administrative substructures but also to create a nationwide confederation of cities and towns to replace the republican nation-state.

– [[The Communalist Project]]

Resources

• Revolutionary Left Radio: The Paris Commune: A Brief Blossoming of Proletarian Power
• [[After Storming Heaven]]
• [[Communal Luxury - NovaraFM]]
• [[The Radical Imagination of the Paris Commune]]