The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-09-02
THE CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE.
Address Of the General Council
OF THE
INTERNATIONAL
WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION
lNTINUFD.
Ill.

public, with which the revolution Of Feb
ruary was ushered in by the Paris prole-
tarlate, did but express vague aspiration
after Republic that was hot only to super.
sede the mOnarchical form Of class-rue, but
class-rule itself. The Commune vas the
positive form of that Republic
Paris, the central seat of the ola govern
mental power, and, at the same time, the
social stronghold Of he French working
class, had risen in arms against the attemp
Of Theirs and the Ruras to restore and
perpetuate that old governmental power be-
queathed to them BY the Empire. Paris
could resist onl y because, in consequence
of the siege, it had got rid of the army,
and replaced it by National Guard, the
bulk of which consisted Of wOrkingmen.
This fact was now to he transformed into
an institution. The first decree Of the
Commune, therefore, was the supp e sion
of the standing army, and the substitution
for it of the armed people
The Commune was formed Of the mum
cipal councillors, chosen by universal suf-
frage in the various wards of the town, re-
sponsible and revOcable at short terms.
The maj jorit of its members were naturally
workingmen, or acknowledged representa-
tlves Of the working ciass. The Commune
was to be working, not parliamentary,
body, executive and legislative at the same
time. Instead Of coIt nuing to Be the
agent. of the Central Government, the DO
lice was at once stripped of its political
attributes. and turned into the responsible
and at all times revOcsbe agent Of the
Commune. So were the officials of all
other brances Of the Administration. From
the members Of the Commune downwards.
the public service had to be done at work
mems wages The vested interests and the
representation allowances Of the high dig
mtaries of State disappeared along with the
bIgb dignltaries themselves. Public func-
tiOns ceased to be the private property Of
the tools Of the Central Government. Not
only municipal admins tration, but the
whole initiative hitherto exercised by the
State was laid into the hands Of the Com.
mune
navIng got rid Of the standing army and
the police, the physical force elements Of
the old Government, the Commune was
anxious to break the spiritual fierce Of re-
preston, the parson-power," by the dis
establishment and disendowment of all
churches a. proprietary bodies. The priests
were sent back to the rgcesses Of private
life, there to feed upon the aims of the
faithful u imitation Of their predecessors,
the Apostles. The whole Of tie education
al institutions were opened to the people
-TatultouaIy, and at tie same time cleared
OF all interference Of Church and State
Thus, not only was education made ae-
cessibie 10 ali, but science itself freed from
tile fetters which class prejudice and gov
ernnental force had imposed upon it.
The judicial funcliOnaries we're to be
div Nested Of tnat sham Independence which
had but served to mask their abject sub
servency 70 all succeeding governments to
which, il turn, they had taken, and broken,
the oathS Of allegiance. Like the rest Of
public servants, magistrate and Judges
were to be elective, responsible, and re-
vOcable.
The Paris Commune was, of course, to
serve as a model to all the great industrial
centres of France The communal reqtme
once established in Paris and the secondary
centres, the old centralized Government
would in the provinces, too, have to give
way to the self-governnent of the producers
In rough sketch Of national organization
which the commune had no time to develop,
it states clearly that the Commune was to
be the political foIm Of even the smallest
country hamlet, and that in the rural dis
tricts the standing army was to be replaced
by national militia, with an extremely
short t.rm Of service The rural com
munes of every district we're 10 administer
their common affairs by an assembly OF
delegates 10 the central town, and these
district assemblies we're again to send
deputies to the National Delegation in
Paris, each delegate to be at any time re
vocable and bound by the mandat imperatif
(formal instruction 81 of his constituents.
The few but imIOrtanr functions which
still would remain for a central govern
ment were not 10 be oppressed, as has
been in e1tioually mis-stated, but we're
to be discharged ~ Commana, and there
fore strictly responsible agents. The unity
/ Al The nation was not tu he broken, but,
I on the contrary, to be organized by the
l Communal constitution, and to become a
reality bv thc destruction Of the State
power which clained to be the embodi-
ment Of that unity independent Of, and
superior to, the nation ITSELF from which it
has but parasitic excresceUce. While the
merely repressive organs of the old govern
mental power were to be amputated, its
legitimate functions were to be wrested
from an authority usurpiug pre-eminence
over society itself, and stored to the re-
sponsible agents Of society. Instead Of
deciding once in three or six years which
member Of the ruling class should misrepre-
sent the people in Par lament, universal
suffrage was to serve the people, consti-
tuted in Communes, as individual suffrage
serve every other employer in the search
for the workmen and managers in his busl-
ness. And it is we'll known that COM
panies, like individuals, in matters Of real
business generally, know how to put the
right man in the right place, and, if they
for once make mistake, 70 redress il
promptly On the other hand, nothing
could be more foreign to the spirit of the
Commune than TO ~upersede universal
suffrage BY herarchie investiture.
1t is generally tho fate Of completely
new historical creations tp be mistaken
for the counterpart Of older and even de-
funct forms of social life, to which they
may bear a certain likeness. Thus, this
new Commune, which breaks the modern
State power, has been mistaken for re-
production of the medieval Communss,
which first preceded, and afterwards became
the substratum Of, that very State power.