REBELS AND THEIR DEMAND FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

MARX'S "THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN FRANCE" FOCUSES

ON FRENCH SOCIAL CONFLICT BECAUSE OF ITS INTENSITY 

-- Articles for the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, 1850

The new Babylon, Soviet movie on La Commune, 1929

Paris was...

"The promised land for progressives everywhere. There was the source of our belief in humanity, and of the faith that the Golden Age lies ahead of us, not behind.

Physically we lived in Saint Petersburg, but our spiritual life took place in Paris." 

-- Mikhail Saltykov-Schedrine, Russian revolutionary,1880's 

Because...

• The taking of the Bastille was considered the beginning of the modern world.

• The Revolutions of 1789-94, 1830 and 1848 and the insurrections of June 1848 and 1871 resonated throughout Europe.

• La Marseillaise was the long-forbidden working-class hymn until 1903. The Internationale, written in La Commune's smoking ruins, replaced it.

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Tricolor flags express admiration for France.

-- Eric Hobsbawm, 1962

• Adopted by the revolutionaries of 1848 they spread as far as the Russian frontier. For examples, please click here...

• ...and for those today, here

Lithuania

Italy

             Romania

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The tradition of struggle...

Les Indignés (like Occupy), 2012

...includes foreigners...

• Algerians

• Turks

• Ukrainians

•  Togolese

• Americans

 

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The 19th-century insurrections are voluntarily ignored.

We try to fill that gap.

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Exiles and expats