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32 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
announced that the Municipal Council was to be compelled
to accept the program of the red proclamation of
September 26 or to resign, and he proposed to name
Cluseret general of the revolutionary army. Cluseret,
cheered by the crowd, appeared in the balcony, thanked
them, and announced that he was going to Croix-
Rousse" (the working-class district). (8) He went there,
it is true, but not to call to arms the national guards of
that quarter. Indeed, his aim appears to have been to
avoid a conflict, and he simply asked the workers "to
come down en masse and without arms." (9) In the
meantime the national guards of the wealthier quarters of
the city hastened to the Hotel de Ville and penetrated
the interior court, while the Committee of Safety of
France installed itself inside the building. There they
passed two or three hours in drawing up resolutions,
while Bakounin and others in vain protested: "We
must act. We are losing time. We are going to be invaded
by the national bourgeois guard. It is necessary
to arrest immediately the prefect, the mayor, and General
Mazure." (10) But their words went unheeded.
And all the while the bourgeois guards were massing
themselves before the Hotel de Ville, and Cluseret and
his unarmed manifestants were yielding place to them.
In fact, Cluseret even persuaded the members of the
Committee of Safety to retire and those of the Municipal
Council to return to their seats,
do.
which they consented to
Bakounin made a last desperate effort to save the situation
and to induce the insurgents to oppose force to
force, but they would not. Even Albert Richard failed
him. The Revolutionary committee, after parleying with
the Municipal Councillors, then evacuated the Hotel de
Ville and contented itself with issuing a statement