Chapter 5 of the Civil War in France Report:
– The working class must smash the bourgeois state and create a new form of social organization and class rule
– This new form brings an end to the standing army, police, bureaucracy, clerical influence, judicature, etc, and the hierarchic division of labor which forms the bourgeois and feudal state and mystifies its going-ons
– The Commune was the social republic which specifically held the aim to do away with the conditions of its own existence: that of class rule
– The standing army was replaced by a militia made up of working men wherein the whole of the armed people stood against the reaction
– All positions were held by working, not parliamentary bodies made up of by working men or representatives of the working class that were elected with universal suffrage and able to be recalled at any time
– There was no “checks and balances” system: executive and legislative were one in the same, allowing for the interests of the people to be immediately employed
– The police force ceased being a political entity and was instead made up of publicly accountable and revocable agents of the commune, with the people policing themselves
– Officials of all other branches had their political positions revoked and worked at workmen’s wages
– Public functions became open to everyone and no longer held only by those with wealth and political prestige
– All functions of the state were held by the Commune
– Education was made fully secular and free of state interference
– Education and science was made accessible to all
– Judicial positions were brought under the Commune and made elective, responsible and revocable. Their old oaths were stripped of them
– It was a federation of social republics, and all member communities sent delegates, which in turn sent delegates to more central assemblies
– These delegates were bound by formal instructions by constituents and revocable at any time
– The few, but important, functions of the central government were carried out by agents of the Commune who were known
– Rather than any form of Balkanization, instead there was great centralization and organization of freely associated parties who sought union for their material interests
– Rather than elections every given period to select members of the ruling class to rule over them, instead universal suffrage was established in the political arena, and individual suffrage within businesses in terms of employers, workmen and managers
– Rather than top-down appointing of officials, instead real business was allowed to take place, putting the right people in the right place who redress mistakes immediately. The bureaucratic structure was removed
– By removing the standing army and state functionarism (including bureaucracy, mystified governmental positions which had massive salaries, etc), a cheap government was established
– It removed the trappings and structures upheld by the bourgeois state to mask class rule and make working class organization impossible. This allowed the state to take action without hesitation or false confusion through struggle against the masses. True democracy increased efficiency and speed multi-fold
– The Commune though did not simply aim for a cheap government or “true republic”. It aimed to:
– expropriate the expropriators
– allow the political power of the working class
– to be structured to emancipate labor
– to remove the social slavery of the worker
– to act as a level to destroy the basis for the existence of classes, and therefore class society
– By emancipating labor, every man would become a working man and productive labor would cease having a class character
– Through the expropriation of the expropriators and through transforming the means of production into mere instruments of free and associated labor: this would bring about Communism
– This Co-operative society must regulate national production under a common plan under their control
– This plan must end the anarchy of production and the boom/bust cycle
– This Dictatorship of the Proletariat understood that it would be a protracted affair with multiple stages to achieve emancipation and a higher form of society
– Rather than ideals to realize, instead the conditions of that emancipation exist materially in society to bring to fruition
– The Commune was the complete rejection of the bourgeois edifice.
– It rejected chauvinism, electing a German workingman as Minister of Labor while France fought Prussia. It put Polish fighters at the head of defenders of Paris
– It rejected nationalism, tearing down the symbols of Bonapartism and expansionism
– The economic positions of workers were assured
– Capitalists who fled or refused to serve the Commune had their workshops and factories seized and put under the control of associations of workmen
– It published all its actions and words in public, and brought the public to criticize and inform so they could improve
Welcome back we are about to read the last in our series investigating what marks and Eng Les had to say about the dictatorship of the proletariat this will be the postcript to the Civil War in France written in 1871 this is by this was 1891 introduction by Fredick Les on the 20th
Anniversary of the Paris commune so we’ve learned a lot from the previous sections but let’s get directly into this so postcript with a footnote at the very beginning at the time Eng Les wrote the introduction he was writing for the large audience who had already read the
Popular book by Marx his intention was to give new historical data making for a preface that would remind readers of the content inside the book but also provide additional postcript information to prompt the reader to reread the work in whole in this publication we have put the postcript information into this file
And the historical background and detailed account of the Civil War into the introduction in the original document the introductory information was placed before the section above I following the paragraph ending quote as has never again been obained on all the massive literature which has been written on the subject end quote okay
Sorry I did not anticipate that I would be asked to prepare a new addition for the address of the general Council of the international on the Civil War in France and ran introduction to it therefore I can only touch briefly here on the most important points I’m prefacing the longer work
Mentioned above by the two shorter addresses on the general Council on the Franco Prussian War chapters 1 and two in the first place because of the second of these which itself cannot be fully understood without the first is referred to in the Civil War but also because these two addresses like lives drafted
By marks are no less than the Civil War outsanding examples of the author’s remarkable gift first proved in the 18 PR of Louis bonapart for grasping clearly the character the import and the necessary consequence of great historical events at time when these events are still in process before our
Eyes or only just taken place and finally because we in Germany are still having to endure the consequences which marks prophesies would follow from these events has that which has declared in the first address not come to pass that Germany’s defensive war against Louis bonapart degenerated into a war of
Conquest against the French people all the misfortunes which befell Germany after the socalled wars of Liberation would revive again with renewed intensity and footnote the National Liberation War the German people against Napoleon’s rule in 1813 to 14 uh back to the text have we not had a further 20 years of bismar government
The exceptional law and the anti-socialist campaign taking place at the prosecution of demagogues with the same arbitrary police measures and with literally the same staggering interpretations of the law footnote qu in the 1820s in Germany demagogues was applied to participants of the opposition movement along with the German intelligencia who came out
Against a reactionary political system in the German states and advocated the unification of Germany demagogues were ruthlessly persecuted by the authorities and the anti-socialist exceptional law or the law of exclusion was a law which outlawed socialists and and communist organizations and ideas in Germany bismar was aware of the growing
Power and Prospects of the working class ever since he had become Prussian Chancellor in 1862 after the Franco Prussian War however his armies had to contend with the threat of the Paris commun bismar a keen opportunist patiently waited for the impetus to assault the popular movement while being constantly
Antagonistic but relatively discreet in 1878 there were two attempts on the life of Kaiser wam the the first was on May 11th by a 10 worker named Hodo who fired at but missed a Kaiser he was executed on August 16th at moabit the second attempt was made by D
Dr Carl nobling who shot and wounded the Kaiser and then shot himself on June 2nd this was the opportunity bismar needed through the social Democrats though the social Democrats had nothing to do with it the first attempt bismar made was to feed and the Reich sag after a debate
Mate 23rd to 24th by 250 votes to 51 votes to 57 after the second attempt on the Kaiser however bismar dissolved the Reich sag on June 11th and new elections were held on July 30th at which bismar gained 38 seats on October 18th the new
Reich sag passed the law by 221 votes to 149 regardless the law is put into operation even before it was passed the law outlawed all Social Democratic organization the name German German Socialists use at the time all workingclass organizations all working class or socialist presses and order the confiscation of all socialist literature
By the state social Democrats and various other Pro working class groups were arrested and deported 900 workers are expelled from their homes 1,500 sentenced of various terms of imprisonment 1,300 Publications were suspended and 332 organizations of workers were forcibly dissolved the Social Democratic party would not waver under the pressure
However and adapted itself to underground tactics the party began publishing the paper Social Democrat in Switzerland the party held regular congresses 1880 83 and 87 operating under a Central Committee using what legal means it could the party strengthened its ties with the workers of Germany and its influence Grew
Steadly From 1878 to 90 the number of votes at pulled in the Reich sag elections more and tripled the mounting pressure of the underground working class coupled with growing popular support repealed the anti-socialist law the law had been renewed until 1890 when bismar was dropped it was reinstated
Nearly 40 Years Later by the Nazis back to the text and has not the prophecy uh in this case I assume that he’s talking about oh I see okay been proved to letter that the annexation of alsas lorine would quote Force France into the arms of Russia and
That after this annexation Germany must either become an the avowed tool of Russia or must after some short rest fight arm for a new war and moreover quote a race war against to combined syonic and Roman Races end quote has not the annexation of the French provinces
Driven France into the arms of Russia has not bismar for fully 20 years vainly woed the favor of the SAR wooed it with Services even more lowly than those in which little Prussia for it became the quote first power in Europe was want to lay at Holy Russia’s feet and is there
Not every day hanging over the head the dally Sword of War on the first day of which all the Char covenants of princes will be scattered like sh chaff a war which of which nothing is certain but the absolute uncertainty of its outcome a race war which will subject the whole
Europe to Devastation by 15 or 20 million armed men and is not already raging because even the strongest of the great military Saints shrunk before the absolute incalculability of its final outcome all the more is it our duty to make accessible to German Workers these brilliant proofs now half forgotten of
The far sidedness of the international workingclass policy in 1870 what is true of these two addresses is also true of the Civil War imprs on May 28th the last fighters of the coming succumb to Superior forces on the slapes of Belleville and only two days later on
March 30th Marx read to the general Council the work in which the historical significance of the Paris Comming is delineated in short powerful strokes but with such clearness and above all such truth as has never again been attained on all the massive literature which has been written on the
Subject if today we look back at the activity and historical significance of the Paris Comm of 1871 we shall find it necessary to make a few additions to the account given in the Civil War of France the members of the commune were divided into a majority of the blanks who had
Been predominant in the Central Committee of the National Guard a minority member of the international working men’s association chiefly consisting of adherence of the prone School of socialism the great majority of the blankets at the time were socialists only by revolutionary and proletarian Instinct only a few had attained greater Clarity on the
Essential principles through Valiant who is familiar with German Scientific Socialism it is therefore comprehensible in the economic sphere much was left undone according to our view today the commun ought to have done the hardest thing to understand is certainly the holy awe with which they remain stead standing steadfast respectively outside
The gates of the bank of France this is also a serious political mistake the bank in the hands of the commune this have been worth more than 10,000 hostages who have meant the pressure to hold the French bisi on the Versa government in favor of Peace of the
Commune but what is still more wonderful is the correctness of so much of that was actually done by the commune composed of it was by the blankets and ponist naturally the prodist were chiefly responsible for the economic decrees of the commune both for their praiseworthy and their unpraised worthy
Aspects as a blanket were for its political actions and omissions and in both cases the irony of History W as is usual when dos come to helm that they that both did the opposite what the doctrines of their schools prescribed rone the Socialist of the small peasant and its Master Craftsman regarded
Association with positive hatred he said that there is more bad than good in it that was by Nature sterile even harmful because it was a Fed onto freedom of the workers that was a pure Dogma unproductive and burdensome in Conflict as much with the freedom of the workers as with economy of
Labor that disadvantages multiplied more swiftly than its advantages that as compared with it competition division of labor and private property were economic forces only for the exceptional cases as prone called them of large scale industry and large industrial units such as rail warries was there any place for the association of
Workers by 1871 even in Paris at the center of handicrafts large scale industry had already so much ceased to be an exceptional case that by far the most important decree of the commune instituted an organization of large scale industry and even a manufacturer that was not based on on the association
Of workers in each Factory but also aimed at combining all these associations into one great Union in short an organization which as Marx rightly says in the Civil War must necessarily have led in the end to Communism that is to say the direct antithesis to the prone Doctrine and
Therefore the commune was also the grave of the prudon school socialism today the school has vanished from French workingclass circles among them now among the possibilist no less than among the marxists quote unquote Marxist theory rules unchallenged only among the quote radical bisi AR sists take that the blankets Fair no better brought
Up in the school conspiracy and held together by the strict discipline which went with it they s out from the Viewpoint that a relatively small number of resolute well organized men would be able at a given favorable moment not only to seize the S state but also by
Energetic and Relentless action to keep power until they succeeded in drawing the mass of the people into the Revolution and ranging them around the small band of leaders this conception involved above all the stricted dictatorship and centralization of all power in the hands of the new revolutionary government What did the
Commun with its majority of these same blankets actually do in all of its proclamations to the French in the provinces it appealed to them a form free of all French communes in Paris National Organization which for the first time was really to be created by the nation itself it was precisely a
Pressing of power to former centralized government Army political force and bureaucracy which Napoleon had created in 1789 1798 and cson had taken over by every new government as a welcome instrument to be used against its opponents it was precisely this power which is to fall everywhere just as has already fallen in
Paris okay that from the outset the commune was compelled to recognize that the working class once come to power could not manage with the old State machine and order not to lose again with its only just conquered Supremacy this working class on the one hand do away with all the old repressive Machinery
Previously used against itself and on the other Safeguard itself with its own deputies and officials by declaring them all without exception subject to recall at any moment what have been the characteristic attribute of the former State Society had created its own organs to look after its common interests originally through simple division of
Labor but these organs at whose head was Su state power had in the course of of time in pursuance of their own special interests transformed themselves from the Servants of society into the masters of society as can be seen for example not only in the hereditary monarchy but
Equally also in the Democratic Republic nowhere do quote politicians for a more separate powerful section of the nation than in North America there each of the two great parties which alternative alternately succeed each other in power is itself in turn controlled by people who make a business
Of politics who speculate on seats in the legislative Assemblies of the Union as well as in the separate states or who make a living by carrying on agitation for their party and on its Victory or reward with positions yeah this is uh this is written in 1891 just
Saying it is well known that the Americans have been striving for 30 years to shake off this yoke which has become intolerable and in spite of that of all they can do is continue to sink ever deeper into the swamp of corruption it’s precisely in America that we see
Best how there takes place this process of the state power making itself independent in relation to society whose mere instrument it was originally intended to be here there exists no Dynasty no nobility no sending Army Beyond a few men keeping watch on the Indians no bureaucracy with permanent
Posts or the right to pensions and nevertheless we find here two great gangs of political speculators who alternatively take possession of the state power and exploit it by the most corrupt means and for the most corrupt ends and the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of part
Politicians who are sensibly its servants but in reality exploit and plunder it I’m just going to take this because it is so true against this trans formation of the state and the organs of the state from servants excuse me of society into masters of society and an evitable transformation in all previous States
The commune made use of two infallible expedients in the first place bu all posts administrative judicial and educational by election on the basis of universal suffrage of all concerned with the ride the same elector to recall their delegate at any time in the second place all officials high or low were
Paid only the wages received by other workers the highest salary paid by the commune to anyone excuse me with 6,000 Franks in this way an effective barrier to place hunting and careerism was set up even apart from The Binding mandates of delegates the representative bodies which were also added in profusion okay
I guess I’ll just take the entire thing okay this shattering of the former state power and it’s replacement by new and really Democratic state is described in detail in the third section of the Civil War but it was necessary to dwell briefly here once more on some of
Its features because in Germany par particularly the superstitious belief in the state has been carried over from philosophy into the general consciousness of the bisi and even to many workers according to a philosophical notion qu the state is a realization of the idea end qu or the
Kingdom of God on Earth translated into philosophical terms the sphere in which Eternal truth and Justice is or should be realized in other words you know you just have to Contin workshop and perfect the state there’s no internal structural issues with it this is a common view with liberals no don’t
Reject the two-party system don’t reject the bgea relations instead we have to do these small scale tiny fixes um over time and just trust system back to the text and from this follows a superstitious reverence for the state and everything connected with it which takes root the more readily as
People from their childhood are accustomed to imagine that the Affairs and interests common to the whole society could not be looked after otherwise than they have all been looked after in the past that is through the state and its well-paid officials and people think they have taken quite extraordinarily bold set
Forward when they GID themselves in belief of hereditary monarchy and swear by the Democratic Republic in reality however the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another anded in the Democratic Republic know less than the monarchy and it best an evil inherited by the
Proletary after its Victorious struggle for class Supremacy whose worst side of par proletar just like the commune cannot avoid having to Lop off at the earliest possible moment until such time as a new generation reared in new and free social conditions will be able to throw the entire Lumber of the state on
The scrap heat okay of late the Social Democratic fellow scene has once more been filled with wholesome Terror at the words dictatorship of the proletariat well and good gentlemen do you want to know what this dictatorship looks like look at the Paris commune that was the dictatorship of the proletariat Frederick
Engles London on the 20th anniversary of the Paris commune March 18th 1891 okay and that is the end of this text we will be deciding whether for the next section of this investigation because we’re done with marks and Eng Les on the dictatorship of the proletariat for the
Time being I will come back later and put together a Full Compilation of the various things that we have read in order to be able to say okay this is exact what they had in mind based on all the different things that were written by them on this topic same as with the
Communist mode production so on so forth the other things that we are going to be looking into are as follows one worker organization required to establish the dictatorship with the prolar this would involve analysis of worker councils the party form so on and so forth this is one option that we
Could go down it will not be focusing on Marx and Les while they were involved in Party politics and talked about it I think that this in particular has evolved over time the next would be more investigation into the Communist mod production only in this case it would be
Writers after marks and Eng Les and within this the reading list that I have prepared is very extensive we’ll probably be trying to break it down some this would include women in socialism by August Babel 1879 some sections of the conquest have bred by kopkin in 1892 the group of international
Communists fundamental principles of communist production and distribution in 1930 Paul Maddox was communism in 1934 and worker councils and communist organization of economy in 1935 tsushima’s understanding labor certificates on the basis of the theory of value 1956 Cen the meaning of socialism 1965 Blanc a world without money communism
1975 Paul shots towards the new socialism 1993 HUD this’s Marxist concept of the alternative Capital 2012 and shat pii Marx’s Associated mode production a critique of Marxism 2016 and socialism in kamay production 2018 the other thing that we could do a reading of would be postmarks writers analyzing the
Dictatorship of the prolan a continuation of what we have just completed here this would include and not be limited to Lenin’s material for the preparation of the program of the rsdlp notes on pleau’s second draft program from 1902 Rosa luxenberg’s the mass strike 1906 linen again in the state and Revolution
1917 Cy’s dictatorship of the proletary 8 198 linen again with the proletarian Revolution and Renegade kowsky 1918 luxembourg’s the Russian Revolution 1918 again and Rosa luxembourg’s what does the Spartacus League want December 1918 marov marks in the dictatorship of the proletariat 1918 lots of stuff from 1918 very busy
Uh period lenon the dictatorship of the proletariat in 1919 leninism under linen 1929 uh that was written I did my thing oh I’m sorry proletarian dictatorship and Class party by the international Communist Party Drapers marks the dictatorship of the proletar 1962 rubell the dictatorship of the proletar 1976
Balibar on a dictatorship of the proletary 1977 Johnson is a Marxist tradition Democratic 1981 basic principles of Marxism leninism a primer by Jose Marie San 18 1982 Johnson Marx Blan and majority rule sorry Johnson’s Marx blankee and majority rule 1893 19 1983 and again Drapers the dictatorship of proletar from Mark sen Lenin
1987 I do not have a reading list yet for the party form or analysis in worker organization but I will get back to you guys on that and I will make a poll for deciding where we go from there meantime thank you for attending
And I do not believe I will be able to attend tomorrow I will let you know later have a great night everybody