ABSTRACT
A ccording to its first an d m ost influentia l analyst, Karl Marx, who wrote as events were unfolding, the C om m une was a historic tu rn ing p o in t above all as ‘the political form a t last discovered’ for the em ancipation o f the w orking class. U nlike previous revolutions, it h ad abolished oppressive an d expensive class institu tions — army, police, bureaucracy, C hurch - an d pow er was exercised by the citizens them selves ‘at w orkm en’s wages’. This alone, he declared, was epoch-m aking: ‘T he great social m easure o f the C om m une was its own w orking existence.’ Its legislation, in the sho rt tim e available, could only ‘b e token the tendency o f a governm ent of the peop le by the p eo p le ’, suggesting w hat it m igh t have done h ad it lasted - a claim also m ade by several C om m une leaders after the event.1
