Tuesday, August 07, 2018

The Paris Commune: Our First Revolution

Stumbled upon this video, and I thought I'd post it here.  As someone who's read a lot about the Paris Commune over the years, I this was a pretty decent summary.  
In the abstract, the myth of the Paris Commune is pretty simple--the working class revolution against the bourgeoisie.  But once you delve into the actual historical details, it gets complicated quickly.  There were so many different factions and different personalities involved.
I think this video does as good a job as can be expected of making a simple narrative out of the whole thing.
My only criticism... the IWA actually didn't play much of a role in the Paris Commune.  (The association of the Paris Commune with Marx and the IWA is more myth than reality).  To its credit, this video acknowledges that Blanquists, Jacobins and Proudhounists were a much bigger influence than the IWA, but by repeatedly mentioning the IWA, they give the impression that the IWA was more influential than it actually was. 
That small nit-pick aside, everything else looks accurate to me.

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