Paris
1936-1938: The Workers of the Paris Region During the Popular Front - Michael Seidman
The Birth of the Weekend and the Revolts Against Work: Workers of the Paris Region During the Popular Front (1936-38)
Michael Seidman
The Birth of the Weekend and the Revolts Against Work: Workers of the Paris Region During the Popular Front (1936-38) in PDF Format (4.2MB)
The Paris Commune, 1871 - A short account by the WSM
A short history of the Paris Commune, weak on details of the revolution and working class organisation but with good information about the makeup of the elected Communards and details of the fighting and repression at the end of the Commune
The Paris Commune of 1871 - Undercurrent
The Paris Commune of 1871
undercurrent #6
Recently, the Sussex University library dedicated part of its space for a small exhibition on the Paris Commune. At first this came with some surprise: how was it that, in the midst of the boredom of academic life and the total lack of interest in any issues of importance, the library was willing to commemorate one of the most crucial proletarian revolutions of the nineteenth century? Yet, our surprise quickly vanished when we gave this exhibition a closer look. Not only is the exhibition of a purely academic nature (looking at historical events as spectacles and thus a-historically), but it is also taking the Commune out of context, describing it by using some of the most common illusions found in the bourgeois world. This article comes as a response to the exhibition.
Theses on the Paris Commune - Situationist International
"...it is time we examine the Commune not just as an outmoded example of revolutionary primitivism, all of whose mistakes can easily be overcome, but as a positive experiment whose whole truth has yet to be rediscovered and fulfilled."
Karl Marx and the Paris Commune - CLR James
From 18 March 1946 issue of Labor Action, newspaper of the Workers Party of the United States
C.L.R. James
They Showed the Way to Labor Emancipation:
On Karl Marx and the 75th Anniversary of the Paris Commune
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The American working class is not yet as familiar as the European working class with the history and traditions of the revolutionary socialist movement. March 14, anniversary of the death of Karl Marx, and March 18, anniversary of the Paris Commune will be celebrated by only a small minority.
The Commune: Paris 1871 - Solidarity
P. Guillaume and M. Grainger
Solidarity Pamphlet 35
I. THE COMMUNE... FROM MARX TO TROTSKY.
'Each time we study the history of the Commune we see something new in it, thanks to the experiences gained, in later revolutionary struggles...' Thus wrote Trotsky in 1921, in his preface to a book by Tales[1] which was to become basic reading for a whole generation of French revolutionaries.
Towards a History of Workers' Resistance to Work - Michael Seidman
"The implications of workers' resistance to work are far-reaching. The study of their reluctance to work shows that the claim by unions and political parties of the left to represent the working class is somewhat questionable. French and Spanish workers continued their traditional ways of resistance to labour in spite of calls by communists, socialists, anarchists or syndicalists for greater production.
The persistence of workers' resistance created tensions between members of the working class and the organizations which claimed to represent them. In both revolutionary and reformist situations, persuasion and propaganda which aimed to convince the workers to work harder was inadequate and had to be supplemented by force."
Workers Against Work: Labor in Paris and Barcelona During the Popular Fronts - Michael Seidman
Workers Against Work
Labor in Paris and Barcelona During the Popular Fronts
Michael Seidman
Pouget, Émile, 1860-1931
A biography of famous French anarcho-syndicalist Emile Pouget.
Émile Pouget
Born 12 October 1860 – Pont-de-Salars, France, died 21 July 1931 - Seine-et-Oise, France
Youth
Marx and Makhno Meet McDonald's
An account of the French "Solidarity Collective" group. Casualised workers in Paris win several strikes, honorably lose another with combined union and extra-union, legal and illegal tactics.
