Marx & the Paris Commune. Warnings on the massacre of Bloody Week

Marx was in close touch with left leaders of the Paris Commune during its existence and the First International was widely (if wrongly) thought to be the organisation behind it.

Marx warned the Commune’s leaders a week before ‘Bloody Week’ at the end of May which saw the massacre of Communards and the end of the Commune of plans to destroy it. Varlin a left Proudhinist, syndicalist and union organiser had participated in the International prior to the Commune. He was not a supporter of Marx. By contrast Frankel who saw himself as a Communist, joined the leadership of the First International in London after escaping Paris. He died in 1896

Dear Citizens Frankel and Varlin,

….I have written hundreds of letters on behalf of your cause to all the corners of the earth where we have branches. The working class was, incidentally, pro-Commune since the latter’s inception. Even the bourgeois papers in this country have departed from their earlier ferocity. From time to time I contrive to slip a favourable paragraph into them.

 I believe that the Commune wastes too much time over trifles and personal squabbles. One can see that there are influences at work other than those of the working men. None of this would matter if you had time enough to make up for lost time. It is very necessary to do quickly what you intend to do outside Paris, in England or elsewhere.

 The Prussians won’t hand over the forts to the Versailles people, but after the definitive conclusion of peace they will allow the government to invest Paris with its gendarmes. Since Thiers & Co. had, as you know, stipulated a handsome bribe in their treaty concluded by Pouyer-Quertier, they refused to accept Bismarck’s offer of assistance by German bankers. Had they done so, they would have forfeited their bribe. Since the prior condition for the accomplishment of their treaty was the conquest of Paris, they asked Bismarck to delay payment of the first instalment until the occupation of Paris. Bismarck accepted this condition. Prussia, being herself in urgent need of that money, will therefore provide the Versailles people with every possible facility to hasten the occupation of Paris. So be on your guard!

13^th May 1871

Varlin shot 28^th May 1871

Frankel. Escaped to London and joined the leadership of the First International

If only the Commune had listened to my warnings! I advised its members to fortify the northern side of the heights of Montmartre the Prussian side, and they still had time to do this; I told them beforehand that they would otherwise be caught in a trap; I denounced Pyat, Grousset and Vésinier to them; I demanded that they should at once send to London all the documents compromising the members of the National Defence, so that by this means the savagery of the enemies of the Commune could to some extent be held in check—thus the plan of the Versailles  people would at least partially have been frustrated.

Marx to Beesly 11^th June 1871

There is a new book on the Commune and its impact from Verso (2026)

The Paris Commune:A Global History

by Quentin Deluermoz