The Paris Commune 1871
Translated: from the original for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2005.
Proposed by:
The International Workingmen’s Association
The Federal Chamber of Labor Societies
The Delegation of the Twenty Arrondissements
This is the list of candidates presented in the name of a new world by the party of the disinherited, an immense party but one which up till today could not be certified for any purposes by the classes that govern society.
From the first day of the siege it never ceased to protest against the incapacity, if not the perfidy, of the so-called Government of National Defense. It pointed out the abyss into which we were marching. It tried to turn Paris away from that fatal road. And as the price of these efforts it received only slander, threats and persecution.
That which it feared, that which it was unable to prevent, has fallen upon France and struck it down.
When it’s a matter of lifting it up, will we finally accord this party the means of legally giving a word of advice? Or will those who struck it until now with an implacable ostracism persist in pushing it like a pack of pariahs into those forbidden regions where every demand is taken for a revolt?
France will reconstitute itself anew. The workers have the right to find and take their place in the order that is being prepared.
It is necessary that the Republican Socialist Party be freed to take up its responsibilities.
The revolutionary socialist candidacies signify:
The prohibition for anyone to put the republic in question;
The necessity of the political accession of the workers;
The fall of governmental oligarchy and industrial feudalism;
The organization of a republic that, by giving to the workers their instruments of labor like that of 1792 gave the land to the peasants, will realize political freedom through social equality.
List of Revolutionary Socialist candidates
Ant. Arnaud, former railroad employee
Avrial, mechanic
Ch. Beslay, former representative of the people
Blanqui
Demay, sculptor
E. Dereure, shoemaker, deputy-mayor of the 18th arrondissement
E. Dupas, doctor
Eug. Dupont, instrument maker, French secretary of the General Council of the International
Jacques Durand, shoemaker
Emile Duval, foundry worker
Eudes, dismissed battalion chief
Flotte, cook
Frankel, jeweler
F. Gambon, former representative of the people
Garibaldi
Dr. Edmond Goupil, former battalion chief
Granger, farmer, dismissed battalion chief
Alph. Humbert, former editor of “La Marseillaise”
Jaclard, deputy mayor of the 18th arrondissement
Jarnigon, tailor
Dr. Lacambre, dismissed battalion chief
Lacord, cook
Langevin, mechanic
Lefrancais, deputy mayor elect of the 20th arr.
Leverdays, chemist
Ch. Longuet battalion chief
Macdonel, cabinetmaker
Malon, dyer, deputy mayor of the 13th arr.
Léo Meillet, deputy mayor of the 17th arr.
Minet, ceramic painter
Oudet, porcelain painter, resigned deputy mayor of the 19th arr.
Pindy, carpenter
Félix Pyat
Ranvier, ceramic painter, mayor elect of the 20th arr.
Arisitde rey, man of letters
Ed. Rouiller, shoemaker
Auguste Serrailler, shoe form worker
Theisz, engraver
Tolain, engraver, deputy mayor 10 arr.
G. Tridon, editor of “La Patrie en Danger”
Ed. Vaillant, civil engineer
Jules Vallès
Varlin, bookbinder