Greetings to the French Workers on the 20th Anniversary of the Paris Commune

Author(s) Frederick Engels
Written 17 March 1891


First published in Le Socialiste, No. 27, March 25, 1891
Priented according to the newspaper
Translated from the French
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 27
Collection(s): Le Socialiste

London, March 17

Citizens and citizenesses,

It is twenty years ago today that working-class Paris rose as one man against the criminal attack of the bourgeois and the rurals, led by Thiers. These enemies of the proletariat trembled when they saw the workers of Paris armed and organised to defend their rights. Thiers thought to deprive them of the arms which they had used with glory against the foreign invasion and which they would use even more gloriously against the attacks of the Versailles mercenaries. To crush Paris in revolt the rurals and the bourgeois begged for and obtained the Prussians ' assistance . After an heroic struggle , Paris was crushed by weight of numbers and disarmed.

For twenty years now the workers of Paris have been without arms, and it is the same everywhere: in all the large civilised countries the proletariat is deprived of the material means of defence. Everywhere it is the adversaries and exploiters of the working class who have armed forces under their exclusive control.

What has all this led to ?

It means that today , when every able-bodied man serves in the army, this army increasingly reflects popular feelings and ideas, and this army, the great means of repression, is becoming less secure day by day: already the heads of all the big states foresee with terror the day when soldiers under arms will refuse to butcher their fathers and brothers. We saw it in Paris when the Tonkinois[1] had the audacity to claim the presidency of the French republic; we see it today in Berlin , where Bismarck's successor [2] is asking the

Reichstag for the means to strengthen obedience in the army with non-commissioned officers bought for money-—because there are thought to be too many socialists amongst the N.C.O.s! [3]

When such things start to happen, when day starts to dawn in the army, the end of the old world is visibly approaching. May destiny be fulfilled! May the bourgeoisie in its decadence abdicate or die, and long live the Proletariat! Long live the international social Revolution!

F. Engels

  1. ↑ Jules Ferry. — Ed.
  2. ↑ Leo von Caprivi. — Ed.
  3. ↑ During the presidential elections in France in early December 1887, Paris witnessed mass demonstrations and meetings staged by workers and other democratic forces in opposition to the candidature of the former Prime Minister Jules Ferry (nicknamed Ferry the Tonkinois because of the expeditions he undertook in the 1880s to conquer Tonkin—Northern Vietnam—as well as Tunisi a and Madagascar). He had been nominated by moderate bourgeois republicans, the so-called opportunists , and enjoyed the support of the monarchists. Having received an insignificant number of votes in the first round, Ferry was forced to withdraw his candidature before the second round. In his letter to Paul Lafargue of December 5, 1887, (present edition, Vol. 48 ) Engels described Ferry's failure as the people's victory over allied monarchists and opportunists. On February 27 and 28, 1891, the German Reichstag debated the issue of bonuses to non-commissioned officers. Chancellor Caprivi substantiated his request for funds for this purpose by the need to build up this section of the army to counteract the Social-Democratic influence among the men which began to mount after the repeal of the Anti-Socialist Law. With the Centre, the conservatives and the National Liberals voting in favour, the Reichstag approved the allocations at a level corresponding to 80 per cent of that requested by the government.