Yesterday was March 18th, the day of the great victory of the Paris proletarian revolution. Reflecting on the last time I studied the Paris Commune’s revolutionary principles, I betrayed my own ignorance by dozing off during the reading session. It is truly shameful. I will make a self-criticism and change. In the following period, I plan to relearn the history of the Paris Commune’s revolution and use this post as a reading group note. Starting today, I will write a short reflection each day.
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Historical background: Intensification of French national and class contradictions
- Reactionary domestic and foreign policies during the Second Empire
To safeguard the interests of a small group of landlord nobles and the grande bourgeoisie and to consolidate his reactionary rule, Louis Bonaparte implemented a whole set of reactionary internal and foreign policies to crush the increasingly rising revolutionary movements. He had previously been reluctant to properly memorize and distinguish the names and deeds of various historical figures, especially foreign ones, so he often confused Napoleon I and Napoleon III, thinking their names were the same, all called Louis Bonaparte. This time, it is commonly understood that Napoleon refers to Napoleon I, who, after the French Revolution, usurped the fruits of the revolutionary people’s struggle and established the First French Empire. Here, Louis Bonaparte refers to Napoleon III, Napoleon I’s nephew, who conducted deception against workers and peasants domestically, pursued a狂的 dictatorship, brutally suppressed democratic and workers’ movements, banned freedom of speech and press, canceled secret societies, destroyed all democratic organizations, and sent spies and police into factories to surveil and suppress revolutionary workers. Many workers’ leaders were arrested, interrogated, imprisoned, or exiled. This portion of materials requires further searching; I would like to understand how revolutionaries at that time were brutally oppressed.
Externally, Napoleon III pursued chauvinist expansionist policies. He waged the Crimean War, the Austro-Prussian War, the expedition to Mexico, the Second Opium War, and suppressed the Taiping Rebellion. He extended his reach to India, invaded Vietnam, and established the colonial “protectorate” in Cambodia. His crimes were numerous. My prior study of history had a poor sense of time and space and I could not summarize the state of different countries in a historical period; this phase corresponds to the Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion in China’s modern history. After this study, I began to see connections between world history and Chinese history; the Anglo-French allied forces that invaded China were sent by this reactionary Napoleon III. For example, in August 1860, the Anglo-French allied forces suppressed the Taiping Army in Shanghai. - Worsening situation of the French working class
During the Second Empire, policies that benefited the grande bourgeoisie created conditions for financial speculation, and capitalism developed rapidly. However, the bourgeoisie, by cunning grab-and-run, brought immense disasters to the working class: nominal wages of workers rose by 10%–40%, but urban consumer prices for agricultural products rose by 67% and rents by 70%, so real wages continuously declined. In this period, French capitalism developed rapidly, and the working class created all the material wealth of capitalist society, yet they owned nothing; appearances show wage increases, but real wages trend downward, living standards deteriorated severely. The development of capitalism simultaneously enriched capitalists and impoverished the workers more and more. Yet capitalism’s development also continually created its own undertakers, and as capitalism rapidly developed, the ranks of the working class also grew. As they were cast into deeper poverty, their combativeness grew stronger. The reactionary Louis Bonaparte not only pursued policies favorable to the grande bourgeoisie domestically but also transferred the heavy military expenditures of perpetual wars onto the working people, burdening them with the heavy costs of armaments. The working class began with economic struggles, demanding higher wages and shorter hours, and started to fight. However, the French working class did not stop at economic struggle alone; they also engaged in political struggle, opposing the imperial government and demanding various democratic rights. Today I’ve only learned a little, but while reading, I searched for various historical materials. Tomorrow is Saturday, I expect to be busy at work, so I’ll rest for now, planning to study tomorrow under the guidance of the First International to see how the French working class would wage struggles and stand on the revolutionary position against the reactionary imperialist wars.
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I want to ask everyone: do you have any information about the figure of Varlán? Although I haven’t finished writing my reading notes yet today, I’ve already read through all the parts of the book before the March 18 Revolution. In the upcoming parts, it mainly talks about Varlán’s role in leading the struggle of French workers.
Last time I heard that this person was discussing Proudhon’s reactionary ideas, and it mentioned that Varlán was initially influenced by Proudhonism, then gradually shifted into being a Marxist, and walked the path of the correct revolution. I also feel that I’d like to expand my study of Varlán’s related experiences. Previously, in our reading group, we studied Proudhon and Proudhonism, and I felt that my own petty-bourgeois thoughts have some similarities with Proudhon’s, so I think I should engage in deeper study and criticism.
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In recent days, I finished reading comrade Ame’s content about Valand, but due to various reasons I did not update the post.
[Outstanding Paris Commune activist—Valand]
Valand, as a French worker movement activist, his life embodies the growth process of the French proletariat in that era. In early 1865, France saw the first International branch in Paris, but the initial leaders of the French branch were Blanquists. This was due to the rapid development of French capitalism during the Second Empire, as many petit bourgeois producers and little capitalists went bankrupt and joined the ranks of the proletariat, bringing petty-bourgeois ideas into the workers’ ranks, providing a social basis for the popularization of Blanquism within the workers’ movement. At that time, the French workers’ movement was deeply influenced by Blanquism. Blanquists denied the necessity of political struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat, opposed the complete abolition of private property, and advocated the establishment of cooperatives, mutual aid associations, and exchange banks to achieve a future society. This ideology is clearly petty-bourgeois in nature and harmful to the proletarian revolution. But Valand firmly believed that only by overthrowing the bourgeois government could the workers attain their own liberation. He thought the concrete steps were to unite the proletariat within various economic associations, where workers would learn to discuss and manage their own affairs, so when the revolution arrived, they would seize the factories into their own hands. This idea, although valuable to some extent, did not go beyond Blanquism. His theory had significant weaknesses, closely related to his practice.
Valand came from a poor family and had to drop out of school to work at thirteen. After several years he became a skilled bookmaker, working in a famous workshop to produce royal orders; his work clearly possessed the nature of petty production. However, because Valand had been oppressed by the old society from a young age, with deep-seated grievances and a willingness to fight those who oppressed or abused him, after the economic crisis of 1857, France temporarily suffered a defeat, and the proletariat launched a new assault on capitalism. Under this historical condition, Valand also led the bookmakers’ mutual aid association to demand economic concessions from the employers and to strive for rights. In 1864, Valand organized a strike by bookmakers, demanding shorter working hours, higher wages, and better working conditions, achieving an eleven-hour workday. In the past, workers had to work twelve to fourteen hours a day! (Hearing this is profoundly shocking; every right of the working class was won through their own struggle, not through capitalist charity. Thinking of our current eight-hour workday as a product of workers’ struggles in the past, while today working conditions are generally deteriorating and hours are extending again, the living space of the working class is being squeezed, and we urgently need to start the struggle of our era. This is not only to improve our current working conditions but also to train ourselves and reshape our stance in revolutionary struggle, just as Valand did.)
After the strike victory, the bookmakers presented Valand with a silver watch as a token of recognition. By then he had become a recognized leader of Parisian bookmakers. Valand enriched his combat experience through practice; he also represented French workers at the London World Exposition, interacted with workers from other countries, and broadened his political horizons. Therefore, he became even more actively involved in the workers’ movement. It was precisely because Valand continuously fought alongside the working class and honed his abilities in practice that his stance gradually changed. Some contemporaries noted, “Driven by the proletariat’s instinct for scale and the broad network of workers, Valand frequently overcame his theoretical weaknesses through practical action, and as class struggle intensified, gradually developed into a left-wing Blanquist, thus adopting more radical and mature views on many major issues.” Recalling what was discussed earlier, only class struggle can train a person’s abilities. I previously wondered why Valand could differ from other Blanquists and gradually shift to the correct position; now I understand: the key lies in revolutionary practice.
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- The Impact on the First International
In 1865, the International Paris Distributed Council was established. In 1868, under the leadership of workers’ leader Varlin, the Paris branch of the International implemented the organization’s charter, actively established workers’ organizations, strengthened solidarity, and sponsored and led strike struggles. “The emancipation of the working class must be achieved by the working class itself.” - National contradictions: the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War and the September 4th Revolution. The French people’s struggle against domestic and foreign enemies
Franco-Prussian War 1870–1871: a war between Prussia and the Second French Empire for European hegemony.
Napoleon III vainly sought to smother the increasingly revolutionary movement at home through foreign wars, to consolidate the Bourbon-Orleanist regime. On the external side, he aimed to block German unification and expand France’s influence on the European continent. On the German side, Bismarck attempted to achieve German unification from top to bottom through dynastic wars, thereby expanding territory and occupying Alsace and Lorraine in France.
