Michael Löwy & Olivier Besancenot - Marx in Paris

As all socialist eyes turn to the current rebellion in France it is instructive to look at historic examples of French revolution. The greatest of all of these, from a Marxist point of view, was the Paris Commune. The 1871 workers' revolution that saw the city taken over by it's working population and run, albeit briefly, un a radical democratic way. One of Karl Marx's greatest writings is his Civil War in France. His trenchant defence of the Communards and how he articulated the lessons he had learnt from the Commune.

Marx never saw the Commune in real life. He learnt what he knew from its documents and its refugees, and the active participation of members of the International Workingmens Association. But this short volume imagines that Marx, led by his daughter Jenny, did visit Paris in 1871 in disguise, at the height of its struggles. The novel, written by to great socialist activists, Michael Löwy and Olivier Besancenot, imagines how Karl and Jenny Marx were inspired to travel by the news of workers' revolution, and their impressions. The book is supposed to be a forgotten notebook by Jenny, hidden for fear of alerting the authorities to Marx's visit to Paris and further threatening activists there.

On arrival in France, the authors have Karl and Jenny visit great revolutionaries, all of them working every hour possible to organise the Commune and to implement socialist ideas. Their conversations draw out both the achievements of the revolution both in terms of its transformative policies and the mass participation. In particular they visit Elisabeth Dmitrieff, a member of the IWA who founded the Women's Union to Defend Paris and Care for the Wounded. This organisation was much more than a medical organisation. It was an activist body that fought to demand the participation and equal rights for women in the Commune. They also meet with  Louise Michel, a more famous participant, who placed herself on the front-lines militarily and politically.

The are some fascinating moments in this little piece of alternative history, and I did like the moments when Karl showed Jenny the places he knew from his own history and sites of historic organisation. But I found the book marred by its clunky prose. Too many of the conversations between Karl Marx and Communards felt like quotes from Marx's books and articles. The discussions felt stilted and unauthentic, rather like two conversationalists reading out polemics at each other. 

Jenny's own thoughts are better constructed and her excitment at the participation of women and her reacquaintance with friends is well depicted.

The authors have done well to draw out the main arguments (Karl repeatedly suggests that the Communards should appropriate the central bank and march on Versailles). But these pieces of politics cannot rescue the novel itself.

Related Reviews

Lissagaray - History of the Paris Commune
Abidor - Voices of the Paris Commune
Marx - The Civil War in France
Merriman - Massacre: The Life & Death of the Paris Commune of 1871
Gluckstein - The Paris Commune - A Revolution in Democracy