The Elusive Search for Worker's Self Rule

Today is the sesquicentenary of the establishment of the Paris Commune in France on 18th March 1871 which was hailed by Karl Marx as the first worker's capture of state power. It lasted just two months as it was crushed in what is known as the "bloody week" of repression from May 21st to 28th of the same year. It would be helpful to study the circumstances that led to this brief rule by workers in Paris to understand the difficulties involved in the overthrow of capitalism and its replacement by a worker run dispensation that is more equitable.

France had been in turmoil even since the French Revolution of 1789 and the republic established by it collapsed and was followed by the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte I and the establishment of the first French empire. Subsequently, after Napoleon the old monarchy was restored for sometime. This too did not last long as the discontent of the workers in Paris came to the fore and they rose in revolt in 1848. This revolt was suppressed but the monarchy was removed and a second republic was established under the presidency of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte III who was a nephew of Napoleon I. However, Napoleon III converted the republic into a monarchy establishing the second French empire and declared himself as the emperor in 1851. The German principalities which had been warring each other for quite some time began to come together under the leadership of Bismarck with the victory of Prussia over Austria in 1866. This upset Napoleon as he felt that if Germany became united, it would pose a threat to the dominance of France in Europe and so he declared war on Prussia on July 19th 1870. He had been told by his generals that Prussia did not have the military strength to withstand a French onslaught. The wily Bismarck, however, was able to raise the bogey of French imperialism and bring all the German states behind Prussia to fight a united war against France and soon began to pile defeat upon defeat on the French forces. Finally, on September 2nd the French lost the crucial battle of Sedan and Napoleon III was taken prisoner. Subsequently, on September 4th a new national government was formed in France after deposition of Napoleon III and the third republic was established. The Germans pressed on against the new French Government and laid siege to Paris which finally surrendered on January 28th 1871.

A large portion of the regular French Army had earlier surrendered to the Germans so during the siege, Paris was defended by only 50000 regular soldiers whereas to help them there were 300000 workers recruited to do temporary military duty in the National Guard. The condition of the armistice with the Germans was that the army would move out of Paris and it would have only the National Guard. The radical leaders of the workers who had been agitating against the Government for quite some time during the siege began demanding that the National Government be dissolved and a new worker's government be installed in the country. The National Government refused to accede to this demand and ordered its army to sieze the cannons and disarm the National Guard. The National Guard repulsed this and killed two generals of the army and siezed power in Paris and the National Government moved out to Versailles. A central committee of the Paris Commune was formed on March 18th and it released a manifesto which said inter alia, “The proletarians of Paris amidst the failures and treasons of the ruling classes, have understood that the hour has struck for them to save the situation by taking into their own hands the direction of public affairs.... They have understood that it is their imperious duty, and their absolute right, to render themselves masters of their own destinies, by seizing upon the governmental power.”

Even though the Paris Commune was in power for just two months it passed some important decrees -

• separation of the church and the state;
• remission of rents owed for the entire period of the siege (during which payment had been suspended);
• abolition of child labour and night work in bakeries;
• granting of pensions to the unmarried companions and children of national guardsmen killed in active service;
• free return by pawnshops of all workmen's tools and household items, valued up to 20 francs, pledged during the siege;
• postponement of commercial debt obligations, and the abolition of interest on the debts;
• right of employees to take over and run an enterprise if it were deserted by its owner; the Commune, nonetheless, recognised the previous owner's right to compensation;
• prohibition of fines imposed by employers on their workmen.

Most importantly, the police was at once stripped of its political attributes and made answerable to the Commune. So were the officials of all other branches of the administration. From the members of the Commune Central Committee downwards, the public service had to be done at workman’s wages. The vested interests and the allowances of the high dignitaries of state disappeared along with the high dignitaries themselves. The elected councillors could be recalled by the electorate. 

Another important development was the active involvement of women in the political work of the Commune. Even if they were not given the right to vote but they openly participated in the managment of public affairs.

Unfortunately, the radicalisation of workers in France had taken place only in a few cities like Paris, Lyon and Marseilles where there were units affiliated to the First International, the International Working Men's Association, formed by Marx and other socialists. The rest of the population of France, which was mostly rural at that time was still steeped in religious obscurantism and a considerable section owed allegiance to the Republican French National Government and the deposed emperor Napoleon III. So the Communards could not replicate their rebellion in other parts of the country and remained isolated in Paris. Therefore, after two months the National Government reached an understanding with the invading Germans and was able to put an army together and attack the Commune and crushed it. Subsequently thousands of workers and all its main leaders were executed in the same way as the earlier rebels of the revolution of 1848.

A century and a half later, at a time when capitalism is far more deeply entrenched than it was at the time of the Paris Commune, there are a few important points that we can learn from this first attempt by workers to overthrow it -

1. The capitalist state can only be overthrown when it is in disarray and unable to muster the army and the police to suppress popular uprisings.

2. There has to be hard mass mobilisation work to increase the political consciousness of the masses. In those early times the critical analysis of capitalism done by Marx and Engels and the need for worker's mobilisation against it was propagated well by the First International, leading to a large mass of politically aware workers prepared to overthrow the state.

3. This mobilisation has to be in all parts of the country and must be able to equally influence both urban and rural masses.

4. The post revolutionary administrative set up has to be completely egalitarian with elected functionaries who can be recalled and who receive the common worker's wages. 

5. Participation of women in political activities on equal terms with men is a must.  

It is easy to see that all these are absent in the prevailing milieu in this country. The biggest problem is that there is neither a viable political alternative nor an organisation that is mobilising the masses around this alternative. There are many agitations taking place across the country on various issues but there is no nationwide organisation with a common and viable political programme that takes into account the prevailing dominance of capitalism and has an alternative to it that can get the masses behind it. The dominant control of education and the media by capitalism makes it even more difficult to build up such a credible political organisation with a mass base.

The many attempts that have been made over the past four decades or so since the 1980s have been summarily crushed by the state. The situation today is much more complex than it was a century and a half ago. And it is also not very clear that a revolutionary overthrow will result in a better and more just society given the way in which the Russian and Chinese revolutions degenerated later. But definitely there is a need to counter the hegemony of capitalism which is devastating both the lives of the vast majority and nature.