The P aris Commune

132 Pages·2003·5.24 MB·English

KARL MARX
.
The P aris Commune
With Introduction by
FREDERICK ENGELS
NEW YORK
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THE PARIS COMMUNE
.
THE BALANCE-SHEET OF BOUR-
GEOIS VENGEANCE.
Twenty-five thousand men, women, and
children killed during the battle or after;
three thousand at least dead in the prisons,
the pontoons, the forts, or in consequence
of maladies contracted during their cap-
tivity ; thirteen thousand seven hundred
condemned, most of them for life; seventy
thousand women, children, and old men de-
prived of their natural supporters or thrown
out of France; one lundred and eleven
thotuand victims at least. That is the bal-
ance-sheet of the bourgeois vengeance for
the solitary insurrection of the eighteenth of
March.
What a lesson of revolutionary vigor
given to the workingmen! The governing
classes shoot in a lump without taking the
trouble to select hostages. Their vengeance
lasts not an hour; neither years nor vic-
tims appease it; they make of it an admin-
istrative function, methodical and contin-
uous.
Lissagaray’s “ History of the Commune
of 1871.‘9
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
THE two manifestoes on the France-Prussian War and
the essay on the Civil War in France, which form the
bulk of this volume, were originally issued in 1870 and
1871 by the General Council of the International Work-
ingmen’s Association, as will be seen by the dates affixed
to the documents. The Twentieth Century Press, of
London, England, reprinted them a few years ago in a .
pamphlet entitled The Commune of Paris, the pamphlet
including an abridgment of Frederick Engels’ introduc-
tion to the standard German edition of The Civil War
in France, which was published in Berlin in 18g1.
In an edition recently issued by a New York publisher,
the two manifestoes on the France-Prussian War are
omitted, and the English abridgment of Engels’ intro-
duction is still further abridged to make it conform to
the absence of the omitted documents.
Deeming it but just to both Marx and Engels that
their work should be given to the public in an unabridged
form, we present in this volume the first complete edition
of the essays by Marx and the introduction by Engels
published in the English language.
The only liberty we have taken with the. text is the
addition of chapter titles to The Civil War ira France.
In the Appendix will be found (I) a translation of
the anti-plebiscite manifesto, referred to on pages 23 and
24 ; (2) further details regarding “ Bloody Week,” con-
”
vi PUBLI.51iEKS’ NOTE
sisting of a compilation of testimony from capitalist
sources, with brief comments! on the same by Lucien
Sanial ; (3) the reply of the Secretary of the General
Council of the International to Jules Favre’s circular letter
of June 6, 1871; (4) the personnel of the General Council
of the International when the manifestoes on the Franco-
Prussian War and the Civil War in France were issued.
These documents throw additional light on the events of
\y 1870 and ,thetragedy. of 1871.
NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY.
.
CONTENTS
PUBLISHERS' NOTE - - - - - - - - - v
INTRODLJCTI~N TO 'THE GERMAN EDITION, BY FREDERICK
EXCELS _ - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I
THE INTERNATIOKAL WORKINGMEN’S ASSOCIATION
C)S THE FRASCO-PRUSSIAN WAR
FIRST MANIFES'L‘O-THE DECLARATIOS OF WAR - - - ZI
SECOX~ MASIFESIW-AFTER SEDAN - - - 31
THE CIVIL \\'AR IN FRANCE
CHAPTER
I. THE S.4~1ox.4~ DEFESSE - - - - - - 47
II. THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH - - - - - 60
III. THE IIISTORIC SIcSIFICASCE OF THE Co~rMusE - 70
IV. THE REPRESSIOS 1 - - - - - - - $10
APPENDIX
ANTI-PLEBISCITE AIANIFESTO - - - - - - - 107
UB~~~~~ WEEK” - - - - - - - - - IIO
JULES FAVRE ON THE INTERNATIONAL - - - - - 114
PERSONNEL OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE INTERNA-
TIONAL _ - - - - - - - - - 116
.