"THE FIRST step in the revolution by the working class," Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote in The Communist Manifesto, "is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class--to win the ...

On March 18, 1871 , the people of Paris rose against a despised and detested government, and proclaimed the city independent free, belonging to itself. This overthrow of the central power took place ...

One hundred and fifty years ago today, on March 18, 1871, the working class districts of Paris rose up to prevent the French army from stealing the cannons of the Paris National Guard. This ...

In France, historical anniversaries tend to divide rather than unite. This year, which marks the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune and the bicentennial of Napoléon Bonaparte’s death, certainly ...

May 28, 2026, marks the 155th anniversary of the Communards’ last stand at Père-Lachaise Cemetery and the end of the Paris Commune. A few days ago, the Tricontinental Institute published an article by ...

We generally don’t see Paris as a city scarred by war. It is not like London and Berlin, where the drab modern architecture of the urban centers offers silent reminders of past aerial bombardment. It ...

Bruno Braquehais, "Toppled bronze statue of Napoleon from the Vendôme Column" (1871), albumen print (all images courtesy Getty Research Institute) This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Paris ...

A brief history of the world's first socialist working class uprising. The workers of Paris, joined by mutinous National Guardsmen, seized the city and set about re-organising society in their own ...

I DID not anticipate that I would be asked to prepare a new edition of the Address of the General Council of the International on The Civil War in France, and to write an introduction to it. Therefore ...

The essay below by Leon Trotsky was first published in French as a preface to the book by C. Talès, La Commune de 1871. It was written in the town of Zlatoust, on February 4, 1921, in the lead up to ...