The Acts of the Commune

The Acts of the Commune

The time that the Paris Commune actually spent in power was the most important six months of revolutionary experimentation that had ever occurred. Each of the political parties in positions of authority were passing legislation often and some of it had never been attempted before. What was happening at this time was some of the most revolutionary and most important social change.

The Working Class

The Second Siege was in full gear, and the Paris Commune was fighting for it’s survival. Regardless, it’s leaders were unwilling to let their time in office go to waste, and they continued to work towards social and revolutionary reforms. Many were taken out of the Revolutionary handbook, such as the disbanding of the Church, which had been done repeatedly in the previous history of the French Revolutions. The Commune also took strides to simply improve the life and morality of the city. Gambling and prostitution were both banned, and there was a public ordinnance ordering that the public make use of the public urinals.

Many of the changes made were attempts to better the lives of the working class. Their living conditions had been horrendus during the First Siege of Paris, and following the victory of the Prussians, even with the millions of dollars worth of relief funds, little was done to improve their lot. Employers were previously allowed to summarily fine their workers, that was done away with in short order. The wages of any government worker was reduced to be approximately equivalent to that of a typical working class citizen.

Socialismin the Commune

Several other ideas were somewhat communist in origin. The Commune government attempted to nationalize all workshops in the city, which had been abandoned when a large percentage of the bourgeios population fled Paris. This, while it could have helped sustain the Commune as a self-sufficient entity, never came to pass. Also, plans were made to establish a public education system, something which was cut short with the collapse of the Commune. [1]

Even following the entrance of Thiers into the city the Commune continued to pass legislation. They had agreed to secularize education, nationalize all city theaters, and punish all officers caught fraternizing with the cocottes that Paris was notorious for. One of the first welfare systems was put into place: all women and children who were unable to provide for themselves because of the death of a man in the defense of the Commune were to be adopted by the Commune, and recieve up to six hundred francs a year - more than most of the soldiers themselves.

Responsible for all these changes were a remarkable group of men and women, who caused the creation of the Commune. Their ideas were responsible for the legislation passed during the reign of the commune, and their thoughts and ideas were passed on to the next generation of revolutionaries.