Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

The Franco-Prussian War / 105
The future social organization should be carried out from the bottom up, by the
free association or federation of workers, starting with the associations, then going
on to the communes, the regions, the nations, and, finally, culminating in a great international
and universal federation. It is only then that the true, life-giving social order
ofliberty and general welfare will come into being, a social order which, far from
restricting, will affirm and reconcile the interests of individuals and of society.
30. Louise Michel: In Defence of the Commune (1871)
Louise Michel (1830-1905), school teacher, poet and protegee ofVictor Hugo (1802- 1885), was at
the time of the Commune a revolutionary socialist. She organized the Union of Women for the Defence
of Paris and the Care of the Wounded, which issued a manifesto callingfor "the anniililation
of all existing social and legal relations, the suppression of all special privileges, the end of all exploitation,
the substitution of the reign of work fo r the reign of capital. " She fought on the barricades
for the social revolution alongside her comrades, such as Theophile Ferre, most of whom
were killed or, as in the case of Ferre, summarily executed. Some 30,000 Communards were massacred,
with many more imprisoned and forced into exile. The fo llowing excerpts from her defiant
defence before the military tribunal are taken from The Red Virgin: Memoirs of Louise Michel
(Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1981), ed. alld trans. B. Lowry alld E. E. Gunter, and are
reprinted with the kind permission of the publisher.
The Testimony ofLouise Michel
PRESIDENT OF THE COURT: YOU HAVE HEARD the acts you are accused of. What do
you have to say in your defence
THE ACCUSED: I don't want to defend myself, nor do I want to be defended. I belong
completely to the Social Revolution, and I declare that I accept responsibility for
all my actions. I accept it entirely and without reservations.
You accuse me of having participated in the assassination of Generals Clement
Thomas and Lecomte. To that charge, I would answer yes-if I had been at Montmartre
when those generals wanted to fire on the people. I would have had no hesitation about
shooting people who gave orders like those. But once they were prisoners, I do not understand
why they were shot, and I look at that act as a villainous one.
As for the burning of Paris, yes, I participated in it. I wanted to block the Versailles
invaders with a barrier of flames. I had no accomplices in that. I acted on my own.
I am also charged with being an accomplice of the Commune. That is quite true,
since above everything else the Commune wanted to bring about the Social Revolution,
and Social Revolution is my dearest wish. Moreover, I am honoured to be sin-