Gustave Boulanger (1824-1888). "Episode de la Commune, place de la Concorde". Huile sur toile. Paris, musée Carnavalet. (all images courtesy Wikimedia Commons) Louise Michel, leader of the Montmartre ...

The Paris Commune was a defining moment for the European left: the first self-consciously socialist uprising — as opposed to the liberal nationalist revolutions of 1830 and 1848 — that aimed to put ...

"THE FIRST step in the revolution by the working class," Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote in The Communist Manifesto, "is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class--to win the ...

In France, historical anniversaries tend to divide rather than unite. This year, which marks the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune and the bicentennial of Napoléon Bonaparte’s death, certainly ...

My discussion of the Paris Commune’s relevance, and of the relevance of Marx and Engels’s reflections on it, will revolve around three key points. First, the worldview through which Marx and Engels ...

It was 150 years ago when citizens of Paris rose up against the government and declared independence. The Paris Commune of 1871 was a model for the revolutions of the 20th century — freedom, liberty, ...

In 1871 France went to war with Prussia and was defeated. The head of the national government was Adolphe Thiers, he had negotiated the details of the peace with Prussia. After doing this he was faced ...

IN 1871, the working class in Paris rose up against their rulers and proclaimed the Paris Commune. It was the first example in history of ordinary people taking control of society and running it ...

A brief history of the world's first socialist working class uprising. The workers of Paris, joined by mutinous National Guardsmen, seized the city and set about re-organising society in their own ...