Anarchism and Communalism: The defeat of the Commune and the rise of communal anarchism

This paper examines nineteenth-century anarchist evaluations of the 1871 Paris Commune and three post-Commune defences of commune organisation to conceptualise anarchist communalism. The argument is that anarchists characterised the Paris Commune as a defeat and that a generation of post-Commune anarchists defended commune organisation as the revolutionary aspiration in need of articulation. I use Albert Camus’ idea of defeat as the pacification of a noble cause and Christopher Hill’s theorisation of ideation shift to develop the conception of defeat. I discuss the work of Peter Kropotkin, Gustav Landauer and Rudolf Rocker to present the account of commune organisation. By showing how each used Marx’s Civil War in France as a foil, I relate the perception of the Paris Commune’s defeat to the rejection of state socialism and the defence of anarchist communalism.