128:, the officer sent to retrieve the cannons and restore order, was himself arrested by his own men and quickly escorted to the nearby prison. Notified of the potentially explosive situation, the Vigilance Committee of Montmartre immediately sent an order to the commander of the National Guard responsible for the General, warning the commander to maintain control and to guard the prisoner until he could be put on trial. But the matter was already out of their hands. The enraged crowd demanded the General’s death and his own soldiers threw him against a wall and shot him down. The Commune, then, was the product of both organization and spontaneity.
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far from standard militias: even before 18 March, respective committees began to supervise the various arrondissements, secularizing and expanding education, assisting in the management of governmental affairs, contributing to the organization of the city’s defense, providing social services and relief, spreading propaganda, and facilitating communication. In many ways, the committees exemplified the
Communard principle of federal association. Too difficult to manage the entire city alone, the Commune’s very existence necessitated the coordination of decentralized committees.
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111:, which was officially incorporated into Paris as an arrondissement only in 1860, had long been free of both the Parisian tax system as well as stringent police authority, transforming it into a haven for nonconformists, criminals, and dissenters. Consequently, it provided fertile ground for the emergence of the most radical worker’s clubs and political action committees. The defeat of the French Army and
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The
Vigilance Committee of Montmartre, well prepared for the much expected popular revolution, played a crucial role in the successful defense of the cannon stored on the Butte Montmartre, the event that ignited the civil war and the subsequent establishment of the Commune. But these committees were
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negotiated by that
Republic in January 1871 produced an atmosphere of anger and resent that hovered over all of Paris. Having sacrificed so much for the defense of the capital, Parisian workers vehemently criticized the new Third Republic and the conservatives and monarchists that composed it. This
66:. On 15 September, twenty of these committees organized themselves around a common program. Beyond simple agitation, they also contributed to the administration of the various arrondissements during the chaotic siege of Paris. The most notoriously radical of these committees was the
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in Paris on 4 September 1870 signaled the almost immediate flowering of political clubs. Acting as poles of coordination, discussion, and preparation, these clubs and committees would come to play a significant role in the establishment, development, and defense of the future
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But despite their important role in the history of the
Commune, the committees often found themselves lagging behind the surging tide of popular revolution. On 18 March, after having given orders to fire on the crowd gathered at the Butte, General
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The
Committee continued to operate right up to the very end of the Commune, many of its members fighting and dying on the barricades. The survivors were either executed, like Théophile Ferré, or, like Louise Michel, forced into exile.
85:, an elected member of the Paris Commune who later issued a call for the burning of the Finance ministry and ordered the execution of six hostages, including the
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largely spontaneous surge of popular political activity further galvanized the committees growing around the city. An insurrection was imminent.
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Composed of militants drawn from almost every segment of the radical spectrum, the
Committee of Vigilance included such notable figures as
42:, its members had strong connections with the various anarchist and socialist tendencies of the time, particularly those represented by
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34:) was a political association and provisional administrative organization established on the Rue de Clignancourt shortly before the
101:, a member of the Russian section of the International Workingman’s Association, and a co-founder of the radical newspaper
97:, a feminist organizer responsible for the founding of a free school at the Church of Saint Pierre de Montmartre;
105:; and Jules-Henri-Marius Bergeret, a leading spirit of the Committee and the revolutionary movement as a whole.
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Chapter III, History of the Paris
Commune of 1871 by Lissagaray
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of countless communards by the
Versailles government;
236:, Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, 1998.
200:History of the Paris Commune of 1871 by Lissagaray
165:(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 997), 5.
152:(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 997), 3.
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222:, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.
16:Political organization during the Paris Commune
243:Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003.
215:, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004.
68:Comité de Vigilance de XVIIIe Arrondissement
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229:, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1967.
23:A barricade thrown up on 18 March 1871.
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241:Red Virgin: Memories of Louise Michel,
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225:Lissagaray, Prosper Olivier.
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220:The Paradise of Association
190:History of the Insurrection
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213:Surmounting the Barricades
195:Biography of Louise Michel
36:Siege of Paris (1870–1871)
218:Johnson, Martin Phillip.
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234:The Civil War in France
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