Declaration to the French People
The Declaration to the French People is a summary of the 1871 Paris Commune's political program by its government, the Commune. It was written by three journalists: Charles Delescluze, Jules Valles, and Pierre Denis, a Jacobin, socialist, and Proudhonist, respectively. The Commune adopted the summary three weeks into their term. Only one elected official dissented. The declaration inveighs against the Versailles government and aligns the Commune with other provinces. The program is made in the name of Paris, not the working classes or revolution, and primarily demands a republican government and secondly, Commune autonomy extended to all of France, giving local bodies control over administration, economics, education, and security. It referenced a federation between communes.[1]
References
- Tombs, Robert (2014). The Paris Commune 1871. Taylor & Francis. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-317-88384-5.
Further reading
- Greenberg, Louis M (1971). Sisters of Liberty: Marseille, Lyon, Paris, and the Reaction to a Centralized State, 1868–1871. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-81000-6. OCLC 132664.
- McCarthy, George E. (2017). "'Declaration to the French People' and the Social Programmes of the Commune". Marx and Social Justice: Ethics and Natural Law in the Critique of Political Economy. Brill. pp. 285–290. ISBN 978-90-04-31196-1.
- Thomson, David (1968). "The Testament of the Commune, April 19, 1871". France: Empire and Republic, 1850–1940: Historical Documents. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-349-00578-9.
External links
The full text of the Declaration to the French People (in French) at Wikisource