What is it about?
This article reviews some of the key elements of the 1871 Paris Commune and demonstrates how this brief but paradigmatic episode in European history relates to current rising interests in the relations between socialism and democracy in contrast with the escalating inequalities and hierarchies of late capitalism.
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Why is it important?
It is important for anyone on the left concerned with social justice to see how some of the resources of the 19th-century counter-movements to capitalism can aid the struggles to resist the exploitation of workers and indigenous peoples.
Perspectives
My research into the history of the Paris Commune led me to some remarkable insights related to our contemporary situation, so I hope that a reader might appreciate those links as well.
David Downing
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Struggle Between Communality and Hierarchy: Lessons of the Paris Commune for the Twenty-first Century, Socialism and Democracy, May 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/08854300.2018.1513757.
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