Page:Peter Alexeivitch Kropotkin - The Commune of Paris (1896).djvu/6

 6 exercise authority, had no idea how to organise either the defence of France or its internal development. She had seen the Central Government at cross purposes with every manifestation of the intelligence of the mighty city. Finally, she had come to realise that any government must be powerless to guard against great disasters or to smooth the path of rapid evolution. During the Siege her defenders, her workers, had suffered the most frightful privations, whilst her idlers revelled in insolent luxury, and, thanks to the Central Government, she had seen the failure of every attempt to put an end to these scandals. Each time that her people had showed signs of a desire for a free scope, the Government had added weight to their chains. Naturally such experiences gave birth to the idea that Paris must make herself an independent Commune, able to realise within her walls the wishes of her citizens.

And thus this word—"The Commune"—the freely federated Communes, instead of the State—became the general cry.

The Commune of 1871 could be nothing but a first attempt. Beginning at the close of a great war, hemmed in between two armies ready to join hands and crush the people, it dared not unhesitatingly set forth upon the path of economic revolution. It neither boldly declared itself Socialist nor proceeded to the expropriation of capital nor the organisation of labour. It did not even take stock of the general resources of the city.

Nor did it break with the tradition of the State, of representative Government. It did not seek to effect within the Commune that very organisation from the simple to the complex which it inaugurated without, by proclaiming the independence and free federation of Communes.

Yet it is certain that if the Commune of Paris could have lived a few months longer, it would have been inevitably driven by the force of circumstances towards both these revolutions. Let us not forget that the French middle-class spent altogether four yearn, from 1789 to 1793, in revolutionary action before they changed a limited monarchy into a republic. Ought we then to be astonished that the people of Paris did not cross with one bound the space between an Anarchist Commune and the Government of the Spoilers. But let us also bear in mind that the next Revolution, which in France and Spain at least will be Communal, will take up tho work of