• The Paris commune
  

   

  (1871)

  Communards at the barricades, 1871. (Photo: public domain)

• This, the most celebrated, defining example of a commune, saw the City of Paris run as a revolutionary proto-socialist state for two months in 1871. It followed the messy endgame of the Franco-Prussian War, when, after French defeat at the Battle of Sedan in September 1870, the Third Republic was proclaimed, and fighting continued, only to see Paris besieged for four months, its residents reduced to eating rats. Finally in January 1871, the provisional French government sued for peace.
  
  In the power vacuum that followed, the National Guard in Paris, dominated by left-wing revolutionaries, seized power and a red flag was hoisted over the Hotel de Ville. Elections held in March, resulted in a new Commune Council consisting of nine committees and with no single leader. A flurry of decrees followed, abolishing the death penalty, dividing Church and State, regulating working hours and establishing free schooling, while steps towards the emancipation of women began, with demands for gender and wage equality.
  
  However, in late May the army moved to reconquer Paris, and in “the Bloody Week” that followed at least 7,000 “communards” were summarily executed. But though the Paris Commune collapsed quickly in failure, it was hailed by Karl Marx as a “dictatorship of the proletariat” – a step towards the hoped-for classless society to come. I (rgw)

• COVER

  COVER

  Cover

  Commune Revisited
• Table of contents

  Table of contents
• EDITORIAL

  EDITORIAL

  Editorial

  Commune Revisited
• ESSAY

  ESSAY

  Communities of Consciousness

  From Drop City to the digital by Fred Turner

  Text: Fred Turner
• FOUND

  FOUND

  New Harmony

  (1825-1827)

  Text: Fiona Shipwright
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Arthouse Revival

  Xucun, China

  Text: Elvia Wilk
• INTERVIEW

  INTERVIEW

  On Cooperation

  An interview with Richard Sennett by Rob Wilson

  Text: Rob Wilson
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Let’s Get Gated

  International Residential Complex Rosinka, Moscow

  Text: Florian Heilmeyer
• FOUND

  FOUND

  The Paris Commune

  (1871)

  Text: Rob Wilson
• PHOTO ESSAY

  PHOTO ESSAY

  A Natural Order

  Photographer Lucas Foglia portrays outsider life in rural America

  Text: Sophie Lovell
• FOUND

  FOUND

  The People’s Commune

  (1958-1983)

  Text: Fiona Shipwright
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  The Mothership

  Auroville, Tamil Nadu State, India

  Text: Sara Faezypour
• ESSAY

  ESSAY

  The Rule of Hours

  James Marriott on Hans van der Laan's Abdij Sint Benedictusberg

  Text: James Marriott
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Eco Beach

  Lima, Peru

  Text: Sara Faezypour
• ESSAY

  ESSAY

  Enduring Concensus

  Malcolm Miles on Freetown Christiania at forty-three

  Text: Malcolm Miles
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Connected Communards

  Mount Telaithrion, Euboea, Greece

  Text: Florian Heilmeyer
• PHOTO BOOTH

  PHOTO BOOTH

  In the Photo Booth with...

  Piet Hein Eek

  Text: Sophie Lovell
• KLAUSTOON

  KLAUSTOON

  Klaustoon

  XXIV. Fifty years inside the bubble

  Text: Klaus
• NEXT

  NEXT

  Next

  Bricks

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