A Brief History of The Paris Commune with Carolyn Eichner

Charlie and Rudy join Carolyn Eichner, author of The Paris Commune: A Brief History and Surmounting the Barricades: Women in the Paris Commune for a discussion on the Paris Commune, its origins, its place as a  transitional state in a civil war, its tragic end as well as its  legacies. We talk about the situation of Paris in 1871, the forming of  the Commune, the meaning of "social republic" and how women had to fight  for a place in it, the political tendencies in the Commune, the  cooperatives and their contradictions, and the grassroots movements in  the form of political clubs. We discuss the Union des Femmes  (Women's Union), the struggle against patriarchy and the Catholic church, how public space was reclaimed and how education and culture  were re-imagined. We continue with the end of the commune in the Bloody  Week, how women were particularly demonized through the myth of the pétroleuses, and the mass executions. We end by discussing the legacies  of the Commune in feminisms and political thought, as well as the more negative episodes with the deportation of communards to New Caledonia  and their role in upholding settler-colonialism.

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