"The Franco-Prussian war which began in July 1 870 causes the fall of Napoleon Iii's Empire." "A Government of National Defence, mostly made up of moderate Republicans, seizes power in an attempt to pursue the war." "It ends in failure." "The Government signs an armistice, against the will of the Parisians." "The Germans challenge its legitimacy and demand a new one be elected to sign a peace treaty." "The elections of February 1 871 bring back to power a strong majority of monarchists." "The Parisians express their discontent openly" "" in what are called the ""Red Clubs""."" "From September 1 870, District Committees shape their claims into a counter-power which throws Paris into a pre-revolutionary climate." "My name is Gerard Watkins and I play a TV journalist in this film which deals not only with the Paris Commune, but also with the role of the mass media in past and present society." "My name is Aurelia Petit and I play Blanche Capellier, journalist for the Commune TV." "First, what was quite difficult was that she's a credulous person, a naive optimist, and knowing the end of this story and the events of the Commune, it wasn't easy to keep smiling." "Secondly, she likes her work in front of the camera so much that she forgets to denounce and question the power of the media, which she represents entirely." "These premises are currently occupied by Armand Gatti" "" and his troupe ""La Parole Errante""."" "In April of this year, Peter Watkins and 1 3 Production started to construct a film set, recreating the atmosphere of the 1 1 th District during the Paris Commune." "We would now like to present our work-place during these past three weeks." "Yesterday we finished the shooting and the set is exactly as we left it after the last scene." "The following text will be added a few months later." "Above the barricade, flies the tricolour of the Government, replacing the Commune's red flag, which hung there earlier." "On the left is what remains of the Town Hall, where the revolutionary Sub-Committee, enjoyed absolute power, until yesterday." "Outside, a Government army officer sat at this table with pen and ink, sentencing hundreds of neighbourhood Communards to instant death by firing squad." "Beyond this table is the local courtyard with its flies and cesspool, and the cafe where we filmed discussions with the actors about revolution and contemporary society." "Behind it, the Mont-de-piete, a Government pawnshop, which kept the working class in permanent debt." "Precious goods:" "mattresses, sheets, shoes, kitchen utensils, sold if the families could not buy them back." "A cannon bought with the community's meagre resources stands abandoned." "Yesterday evening, this open space was littered with corpses." "An execution squad fired and reloaded without ceasing." "Among the people killed, were workers repairing rifles," "women from a workshop, children aged 1 3 and 1 4 who fought on the barricades," "and the local baker and his wife." "We ask you to imagine that it is now" "March 1 7, 1 871." "I'm grandfather Thibaudier." "There are 5 of us living in a small room" "in the 1 1 th District of Paris." "The 1 1 th is a very poor neighbourhood... not an easy place to live." "Many kids sleep out in the streets." "So our family is not among the most miserable in this society." "But we have to change it one day." "My name is Henri Dubrieux." "I live in this courtyard, as you can see." "I came to Paris from Franche-Comte" "24 years ago, during the economic crisis." "I lived through 1 848, and what's going on now reminds me of that period." "However, the circumstances aren't the same." "We've been defeated and humiliated by the Prussians who proclaimed their Empire in Versailles last January 1 8." "On what's happening in Paris - it's a shame that the newly elected National Assembly, representing the Provinces," "has passed a number of ridiculous decrees and laws, like paying the rents." "We've just lived through a siege and very difficult circumstances, it's no surprise that everyone is broke." "They could have waited and been more diplomatic." "I'm afraid it will all get worse." "We don't know where we're heading." "For work, I do odd jobs, but mainly I'm a public letter-writer." "I teach people, like little Marcel here." "He's my neighbours' son, very nice people." "He reproaches me for being strict when I ask him to read, write and count." "But that's what it takes to become a free man." "I'm still a bit worried that things might get worse." "If things go bad on either side, the one to laugh will be that bastard Bismarck." "The peace plan strips France of Alsace-Lorraine, imposes 5 billion fr. compensation and, supreme humiliation, allows the German army to enter Paris." "From 5:00 a.m., mothers are here with children crying in their arms." "It's sad, people had nothing to eat during the siege, they ate rats, roots, what they went through was awful." "And now, the children are sick, we hear things at the bakery, young children starving because the bread is of poor quality." "During the 6 month Prussian siege, the Parisians were cold and hungry." "The mortality rate doubled." "The jobless join the National Guard for 30p. a day." "For 30p., in January 1 871, one can buy a lettuce or a dog's brain." "Yes, for the bread, we do what we can, we are starting to get flour but it's not good quality." "So in order to make a lot we have to mix the flour." "We add buckwheat, rye, we add bran to try and make bread because people are hungry, and we have to make a lot." "People want bread." "It's almost the only food you can find today." "I can't stand seeing people so miserable any longer." "These people crying, mothers crying." "It can't continue, the people are suffering too much, they've had enough." "Nearly 300,000 strong, mostly opponents to the new Assembly, the National Guard is a Federation of elected delegates." "Its aim: to defend the Republic against a Prussian invasion or a monarchist Restoration." "'89 was a bourgeois revolution." "Nothing changed for us." "Same for Haussmann's building works in the fancy areas." "Sure, we pass by shop windows with splendid suits and hams hanging from the ceiling." "But for who?" "Three working lives couldn't buy that stuff." "We're as poor as ever." "I don't want my kids to live like that." "So I want to do something, I don't know what." "But being in the National Guard seems a good start." "Only 1 0% of Paris flats have drainage, 70,000 cesspools require sewage workers labouring at night." "Candle is the only source of light for 80% of Parisians." "My name is Constance Fillon, I live here with my daughter Frederique." "The courtyard is like a family for her." "I've been a widow for 5 years... and she's found her place" "at the orphanage on Rue Oberkampf." "We were lucky to have the sisters of St-Vincent de Paul." "I'm a midwife." "I couldn't take care of her." "Things are stirring in Paris now." "We elected the mayor" " Mottu - he's talking of organizing state schools." "We need schools, we need education, we can't have kids on the streets." "The nuns are here, they were here during the siege, they give us soup, medical attention." "You like it with them?" "Yes, the sisters are very kind." "I'm afraid they'll shut the school." "My name is Francoise Boidard." "I'm a primary school teacher... unemployed." "Unemployed voluntarily." "I refused to work." "I refused to swear allegiance to an education I loathe." "An education based on religion, which makes children withdraw into themselves... and submit to authority." "" ""The Black Army moves in fury, peddling night and darkness."" "" ""Each year state schools shut down by the hundreds,"" "" ""and more religious schools open in their place."" "" ""The plan for universal cretinisation is alive."""" "Blanqui, 1 870" "My name is Marie-Louise Beauger." "I'm a primary school teacher too." "I worked under Napoleon Iii, but I resigned because I had enough." "We had to make the young girls say prayers, teach them sewing, useless things, bring them up like their mothers, to be dressmakers, washerwomen, no more." "So I resigned." "My friend and I regularly read a review published by the Society for New Education and we firmly believe in what they say." "We want things to change." "These are very troubled times, everyone suffers enormously." "But we put our hope in the future." "We want all girls to learn to read and write, to get a real profession." "We want to change all that." "The National Guard, a militia with elected officers, is devoted to its democratic system." "A Central Committee, rejecting all government authority, is elected on March 1 5." "More than just a military force, it becomes a political power serving a revolutionary ideal." "Soldiers!" "Enlisted men of the 66th and 1 40th Battalions!" "I saw you assembling." "It's like a bordello..." "Silence!" "Listen to your captain!" "You're in the National Guard." "At least show some respect!" "Hold your noise!" " Obedience, discipline!" " Shut up!" "This morning, some of you came late again." " Shut up!" " You stop barking!" "You're not at home." "You're in the National Guard." " We know that!" " Stop this mess!" "How much have you had?" "I demand respect!" "Silence!" "We're not dogs!" "If you'd talk nice..." "The sergeant's always drunk!" "Now, we're going to listen to Captain Lemmonier, with respect!" " Be quiet!" " He said silence in the ranks!" "Citizens!" " Citizens!" " Go on, captain!" "Our National Guard has now become a Federation to face a Government that has betrayed our aspirations." "We must unite against tyranny and human exploitation." "Death to them!" "Long live universal brotherhood and solidarity!" "They say that the government wants to take the cannon we paid for." "Never!" "Let them come, we'll be waiting!" "Thiers' government has already passed many unacceptable measures against the Paris population which has courageously endured a long siege." "Regardless, they reinstalled the payment of rents and commercial debts." "We won't pay a penny!" "They also decreed that the items left at the pawnshops would be sold to the profiteers!" " They also banned our newspapers." " We want Thiers dead!" " lt's intolerable!" " Kill him!" "They are violating our rights." "Be brave, be courageous, and be vigilant, don't let them corrupt you!" "Many merchants and craftsmen are in debt." "Rents and commercial commitments had been suspended." "But the new Assembly cancels this, causing 40000 bankruptcies" "" and distress to the working class and ""petite bourgeoisie""."" "My name is Mme Theron." "My name is Emile Theron." "We have a little jewellery shop." "It's hard now because of the government's new decrees." "We must pay our rents and debts and we have little in reserve so it will be very difficult for us over the next few weeks." "Look at this new government, all the monarchists elected, it's quite frightening." "And things have gotten worse since the siege." "For everyone around here, there's more and more poverty." "Really!" "I'm very scared because since the start of these events, a lot of National Guard Battalions have been formed." "There's a lot of unrest and that scares me a lot." "Yes, we sense some catastrophe, a civil war or something terrible." "Because people have nothing left to lose." "Many of them really have nothing to lose." "This is true." "And I'm not going to fight against French people because I'm French." "I won't join the Guard, but we might have trouble with the others from this area later on." "We'll see about that, but he certainly won't fight." "He won't go fight in the National Guard. I'll stop him." "Fearing the Parisians, the new National Assembly moves to Versailles," "19 km from the capital." "Adolphe Thiers, Chief Executive, stays in Paris with his Government." "On March 1 8, Thiers sends units of the regular army to seize cannon held by the Guard." "He fears the weapons will be used against the Government." "There are a lot of you in Paris this morning, what's going on?" "The National Guard seized more than 300 cannon when the Prussians entered Paris." "They are stored in Belleville, Montmartre and other places in the capital." "These cannon symbolize the dissident National Guard's independent military power." "Negotiations to recover the cannon having failed," "Mr Thiers' government has decided to recover them." "What are you up to this morning?" "We really don't know." "It's totally vague." "We're starving, that's all." "We don't have cigarettes." "And we're not allowed to talk." "Taking the cannon is OK by me, we need them to control Paris." "But they want us to fire on the people." "That I won't do!" "I don't agree!" "Me neither!" "I think this operation is a total mess - if we're to recover the National Guard cannon, where are the horses we need?" "We don't have any." "The cannon weigh two tons." "Are we to carry them on our backs?" "The officers think we're animals?" "We have orders against men in arms grouping, to stop them from moving into the city's popular areas, where we are going to recover the cannon." "If we must fight, we will fight." "If we do, there will be no mercy." "I fear that some of our soldiers may refuse to fight Parisians." "Most of them are young recruits who don't grasp the need for vigorous action against the red elements." "I'm Marie-Louise Thibaudier." "I have 2 kids, Jacques and Celine." "My husband empties cesspools at night." "I do extra work for a big Paris department store to supplement my pay." "I work as a dressmaker during the day." "I live here with my 2 children, my husband, and Jules." "He doesn't get any pension, but he always gets something to eat." "Here in the 1 1 th District there aren't many families like ours." "So many unemployed." "I still feel privileged." "Many women are looking for work." "They come every day to the shop and it breaks my heart not to be able to help them." "Then again I can't go without work." "If I gave them what I do...." "Mother, come see." "What's going on?" "Please tell me what's going on!" " Stay inside!" " No, tell me!" "Stay home lady, it's nothing!" "What?" "Don't close the shutters!" "It must be the cannon, let's go see." "What's going on?" "Come on, it's the cannon." "Take your jacket." "Celine, put your shoes on." "Come with us!" "Are you coming?" "The damned door won't open!" "Nothing functions here!" "The scenes in the 1 1 th District were filmed in 1 3 days," "" mostly using long, 10-min.""sequence shots"","" "and chronologically following the Commune events." "Look at all those people!" " Calm down!" " We've got to see what's going on." "Go home!" "They want to take our cannon!" "The cannon are ours!" "It's ours." "We bought it!" "We paid for it!" " Disperse!" " No!" "First warning." "We will use force." "Disperse!" "Second and last warning." "We will use force." "Disperse!" "Long live Socialism!" "Long live the Republic!" "Fraternization with the army, led by the women of Montmartre, foils an attempt to seize the National Guard cannon." "lnsurrection spreads spontaneously throughout the working class areas of Paris." "By 9:00 a.m., government authority has vanished." "Two generals are captured, an officer is killed by the crowd." "His horse is hacked to pieces on the spot." "National TV Versailles." "News flash." "According to information just received, serious unrest has broken out in the capital since the army's attempt to recover cannon held illegally by the Guard." "Two of our generals, Lecomte and Clement Thomas have been arrested by the crowd." "Their lives could be at stake." "I repeat..." "Well, hello, live from the 1 1 th District, your reporter for National Television Versailles, to brief you on the incredible events in Paris this morning." "Indeed, several movements of... I'm from Versailles TV and we'd like to know what's happening..." "Tell jackass Thiers to come back to the 1 1 th and we'll see!" "You can see the strange atmosphere here in Paris." "You liar, back to Versailles!" "It's very difficult to get answers." "Can you tell us what you think of this?" "The situation is quite disconcerting... in my opinion." "And who are you?" "My name is Wickham Hoffman, I'm assistant to US Ambassador" "Washburne." "And what does the US think of the events in Paris?" "Personally, I find the situation very serious." "With this insurrectionary crowd in the streets, I'm quite worried." "For the property owners in Paris," " it's very disturbing!" " Thank you." "What do you think of the events unfolding in Paris?" "I'm extremely anxious and very worried." "My husband is a doctor." "What will happen to us?" "I'm really very worried." "Do you think this riot could worsen?" "Might it lead to civil war?" " l'm afraid so." " You fear that?" " And you Madame?" " l'm shattered!" "War was over, we had peace, and now this!" "I can't understand it." "I really can't." " Will you stay here?" " l must, I have workers, I must protect my business." " And you?" " l'm frightened." "It's like civil war, it smells of trouble." "I'm very worried for all of us." "I refuse to panic." "We've nothing to fear." "Who are these men?" "Ex-convicts, drunkards!" "Our army will come and sort this out." "The women saved the cannon." "Things are stirring in the 1 1 th in Paris." " Too much misery!" " Leave it." "They don't care!" "There's too much misery." " lt can't go on." " No more privileges!" "As you can see the atmosphere is hard to describe." "It seems that strong discontent prevails in the capital." "It's hard to grasp what's going on here." "It's a bourgeois TV, sold out to power!" "We've had enough." "We have journalists." "We must be able to set up a Commune TV." "Yeah, but you also need equipment!" "We can't, we don't have any!" "That's why we must do it together, in a different way!" " That would be great." " We have to stop censorship." "We need a TV for us, for the people!" "You have to contact the National Guard Central Committee, in charge of the people, of us." "See what happened today, why it worked?" " lt was great." " So many of us!" "The women spontaneously" " defended the cannon." " Up front with the kids." " l was fuming against the runt." " We did it!" "That means they'll stop at nothing..." "We should stay together." " They'll be back." " We must take the Town Hall." " They'll be back!" " lt's not over." " Defend the Republic!" " Fight on." "The Royalists want to return." "They want to nick our Republic." "I understand them, but it's mad." "Now that they've defended subscriptions to the cannon, they can defend contributions to parish costs." "According to information just received, serious unrest has broken out in the capital since the army's attempt to recover cannon held illegally by the Guard." "Two of our generals..." "What's that?" "They must be joking!" "That's not true, it's a bunch of lies!" " Liars!" "It's not true!" " l want to know how they take cannon without horses." "The Parisians paid for the cannon." "is it possible to recover cannon, without horses?" "It's just lies." "Their two soldiers?" "There's nothing to fear." "The cannon are better here than there." "Popincourt Street, at one of the Paris barricades." "Tell the people in Versailles." "We're going to fight." "We're not afraid to die." "We found microphones, if they work you'll hear us." "We'll interview people to explain the situation." "Hello." "Who are you?" "Charles Capellaro, of the Basfroi St. Sub-Committee." "What's going on here?" "We're taking the Town Hall, to run things in this area." " Who are you?" " F. David, Sub-Committee." "into the Town Hall." "Two guards here!" "11 th District Battalion Delegates from the Basfroi Sub-Committee." "In the Town Hall, a Municipal Delegation is formed to run the local National Guard and the District." "What's going on here?" "A new team is moving in." "Next door." " When did you arrive?" " ln September." "Hello, gentlemen." "We'd like to know what's going on." "What are you doing now?" "Today, the people of the 1 1 th District are back in the Town Hall to run their affairs themselves." "To fight against a Government of traitors!" "Enough, their confiscating the revolution!" "The events of '48 are over!" "This revolution includes all the National Guard." " Who are you?" " 1 1 th District citizens." "Elected National Guard Committee members!" "Long live the social Republic!" "Listen, citizens!" "We will never yield to attempts to overthrow the Republic." "No more alienation, no more Monarchy!" "Only we and our common interest are legal now!" "Last night, the people's conviction stopped fat Thiers." "Long live the Parisians and the new Republic!" "Liberty!" "Equality!" "Fraternity!" "What do you think?" "I think that with today's popular energy, we will go very far." "The people are angry." "They stopped the army, this anger is legitimate!" "It's exhilarating that they fraternized, a great hope for the future." "It's truly an exceptional day." "It's up to us to guarantee the power of the people, to resist the old regime." "What about Thiers' actions?" "They got what they deserved." "Worse than stealing bread." "They stole their hope." "Imagine wanting to fire on the people, on their own people." "We'd never do that." "The bodies of Generals Lecomte and Thomas, one of whom was partly responsible for the bloody repression of 1 848, lie riddled with bullets." "An autopsy reveals that most shots came from Government army rifles..." "National TV Versailles, latest news update." "Good evening." "With great sorrow we report the disturbances in Paris since yesterday." "We have just been informed that Generals Lecomte and Thomas were savagely killed by the crowd during the recovery of the cannon at Butte Montmartre." "The National Guard Central Committee moves into the Town Hall and Ministries." "They seize the power left vacant by the flight of the Government, and take over as city administrators." "They plan to elect a Paris Commune." "Citizens, hello!" "We're proud to present our first programme." "We'll call it Commune TV, as we're hearing a lot about the Commune." "We might have technical problems since we lack equipment." " Gerard Bourlet." " Blanche Capellier." "" With us we have the ""Pere Duchene"" reporter,"" " Joachim Riviere." " Hello." " So you're fictitious?" " Completely!" "I'm in this film as a witness to the role of the press in this revolutionary process." "" The ""Pere Duchene"" was banned?"" "" Yes." "General Vinoy banned the ""Pere Duchene"" 1 0 days ago."" "With the Central Committee now in the Town Hall, we'll re-publish by tomorrow." "" ""Pere Duchene"" was famous during the revolution."" "With a circulation of 60000," "" the 1 871 version renews the crude ""bugger"" formulas"" "inspired by its predecessor's political repertoire." "" ln the film we often quote from ""Pere Duchene"""" "" and ""Cri du Peuple""." "These are authentic."" "We will begin our investigation." "Interviews with people of the 1 1 th, to find out what they need now that social changes are coming." " Hi." " What do you need?" "Rich or poor man's TV?" " We're from Commune TV." " OK." "We won't ask the rich anything, or make any claims, because we have the weapons." "Nobody's taking them back." "We're the people in arms, we'll take, occupy, we won't beg Thiers for reforms." "We don't want reforms!" "Today's a revolution." "We've been sweating for so long." "With the weapons we take what's ours." "OK, thanks a lot." " What are you hoping for?" " l want work." "I was a cook in a bourgeois family, but was fired." "I've got nothing left." "What I want is work." "Washing, laundry, anything, I want to be able to work." "And you?" "Like everyone I'm hungry, but that's not all!" "It's important to say we also hunger for knowledge." "We're fed up with education and learning as privileges for people who use it to oppress us even more." "Equality means everyone has the right to education." "A right to culture." "There's a bourgeois culture, but we also have a sense of beauty and thought." "We should be able to criticize our world." "So we must learn, that's most important." "Thank you very much." "Hello, what do you expect from the recent changes?" "Well, we want schools to educate our children." "We're tired of..." " We're unemployed." "...kids in the streets." "There are empty premises and we want to put our children there." "We want girls to learn to read, write, get a real job." "Too many street-kids!" "Parents could bring them to us." "We must get organized." "I'll bring my child." "We also need parents to help plan these new schools, a compulsory state education, free for all children." " Thanks." " What are you hoping for?" "What I'm hoping for?" "For an end to slavery and exploitation." "We're fed up!" "We're treated worse than animals, it has to stop." "Dignity for men and women, there's no space for women." "We need dignity." "There's no space for women." "Women need to speak, a newspaper." "People aren't aware of women's problems..." "Whether it's work or speech..." "We want a newspaper, a rag, anything!" "An uncensored press." " No censorship." " Children, work, that's what counts!" "Your hopes with these changes?" "Work." "Everyone here is waiting for bread." "What we want is work." "Work is dignity, that's what counts!" "We need to find long-term solutions, we'll never slave again like we used to..." "Things have to change forever, for our future!" "Well said!" "Hello." "What are you doing?" "We're here to find some work, some people have jobs." "But that doesn't mean we're forgetting Versailles." "Because if we forget them, they won't forget us!" "We've come to see our mates, hoping to find a bit of work." "It can't go on like this." "What are your needs?" "I need money to run the workshop..." "And to get money, I need work." "I hope the future authorities will give me that." "Because I didn't have my mates come all the way from Picardy." "for nothing!" "I have needs, but I want recognition for all the women in the area, because it's thanks to us that the regular army didn't shoot." "So please, the Central Committee must acknowledge us, so we can become members of this new assembly." "We're the heart of this revolution!" " And you?" " You want to know?" " Just look at her." " Elisabeth!" "That's what!" "I never want to see her again!" "She exploited me for 20 years." " You can't quit!" " She dares to come.... while we queue for bread." "Just listen..." "You have a moral commitment." "I want out, I can't stand this!" " l gave you everything." " What?" "A salary, a roof, everything." "I accommodated you and your family." "But I wiped her ass, she forgot that." "Even when she had her periods!" "You'll fall back into prostitution and drunkenness...." "l will pray for the soul of your son..." "You never did anything for my son!" "What do you want?" "I'm really fed up!" "indirectly, I'm slaving for my husband's boss, becoming my husband's slave, who's had enough." "I must go to the Town Hall to get ration coupons, this can't go on!" "Talking of work conditions, it's time for change." "We work night and day here without getting paid." " What's up?" " The pawnshop lady." " lt's shut. I just left." " But you know me!" "Too late, come tomorrow." "I have the money for my sewing machine." "What sewing machine?" " l worked 2 months for the money." " The cart left for the auction." "" You know, the ""fifth-quarter""."" "I work 1 7 hours a day..." "What you do at night is your business." " lt's all day." " Don't want to know!" "Women are the hardest hit in the poor working class areas." "An average salary: 4 fr. a day for men and 2 fr. for women." "Many dressmakers only get from 50 centimes to 1 .25 fr." "" 20-30,000 Parisian women practise the ""fifth-quarter"","" "the time set for illicit prostitution, in wine sellers' back shops, hotels, or their own homes." "At this hour, the Government has evacuated Paris." "Our army has withdrawn in marching order." "This information is completely false." "The troops retreated in such haste and chaos that several regiments were forgotten in Paris." "The National Guard Battalions have taken the Town Halls and barracks in east Paris." "We're approaching the National Guard." "Hello, we're from the Commune TV." "What are your needs?" "I'm very glad you're here." "We have the best men." "Look at them." "We have the cannon, what we really need is ammunition, boots." "Look at them, they're barefoot!" "We need uniforms, ammunition, modern rifles." "Our structure is very good, democratic and federal." "We're very pleased with it as it is." "But we need rifles and ammunition." "We have piston rifles from the start of the century." "They take 3-4 minutes to load, the powder's damp, the shot never goes off." "Their troops have chassepot rifles firing 8 shots a minute." "How can we fight modern rifles with medieval ones?" "It's totally crazy!" "We'll massacre them, because they're bourgeois shit!" "We'll beat them, take their guns and power!" "It seems the National Guard Central Committee has moved into the Town Hall and put the capital in an insurrectionary position." "What are you watching?" "National TV." "You mustn't watch National TV, you must watch the TV that belongs to the people." "" We'll publish ""Pere Duchene"" tomorrow."" " We were banned." " Tomorrow!" "" You must write to the ""Pere Duchene""."" "OK, but publish." "We'll trust you, but publish in full." "We'll publish!" "What we really need is to attack Versailles, because taking cannon without horses doesn't make sense." "To provoke an insurrection, they would have done just that." "And after insurrection?" "Repression." "Versailles is weakened, but not for long." "We must react right now, before it's too late, or we'll be the suckers." "What are your needs?" "We need a change of government, we're fed up with sick rulers." "We want to speak, we can't stay silent!" "You must talk about us, show our living conditions..." "Enough religious oppression, stupid catholics." "You must talk about us, see how we live." " You can't leave us like this." " We want bread every day." "She's got something to say, listen." "They make me ashamed of having syphilis. I have to hide." "The bourgeois have medicine, we want some too." "People avoid us like the plague." "After the revolution, maybe we can eat, love, think, do other real things." "Good evening." "What do you intend to do?" "We officers plan to offer our services to the new power." "It appears quite urgent to organize this great insurrection, that is to say, to train, run, supervise and equip it to defend the new power which is being set up." "Though the people showed intelligence and enthusiasm, they still lack organization." "Our role is to set up an effective and disciplined Parisian army." "There is indeed confusion, but there are many volunteer workers:" "shoemakers and others... but they have no experience." "We'll make men out of them to occupy the forts and attack Versailles." "Could you please introduce yourselves?" "General Dombrowski." "Colonel Okolowicz." "Why are you here?" "We have come to help the French in this struggle against tyranny... and to pursue the war we started years ago in Poland." "National TV, Laurent du Champetier." "Henri Gothie." "Good evening!" "Tonight a special new programme on a much debated topic: foreigners." "We know that the foreign camp played a leading role in the insurrection." "I've heard these ludicrous names that come up in the Commune!" "They come from all over." "At every meeting, in all the small groups, foreigners all over, that's all I can say." "If we consider the National Guard, it's infested with Poles..." "Yes, those Dombrowskis, Crapilinskis, Oklowisc" "" - and all the other ""skis"" on earth." " Whatever they came for,"" "they're not doing a very good job of it..." "Any experience in this type of conflict?" "Sure, urban warfare, guerrilla groups in Poland." "We have strong non-professional army experience." "Thank you." "As you know, we're in a rather special situation, with a revolution on one side and everyday life on the other." "We're in the St-Ambroise Church in the 1 1 th District." "I understand the fear, the anguished soul, the refusal to suffer, the anger of our friends and neighbours, but to kill!" "Why exchange even difficult dialogue for murder without reason?" "It's a triple error." "A political one, to kill without reason is to give martyrs..." "We'd like to know how the Church is reacting to yesterday's events." "The priest said people were killed," "" but the Church says:" """Thou shall not kill""."" "We killed 2 people, how many will come in reprisal?" "Four, five, a whole neighbourhood, we don't know." " What do you think?" " Violence was never a solution." "But who let my 2 children die of cold and hunger, who?" "They say that God is merciful." "These kids were innocent, they had no time to sin." "Where was the priest when I was raped by my boss?" "It didn't stop him from kicking me out!" " You practise regularly?" " Yes." "If you want to eat every day it helps." "We get some soup, and we can take food home." "I've been brought up like that." "The priest told me it was a sin to have an abortion." "What's the point of having kids, if they die?" "...left us free to choose what we do with the life He gave us, but killing never solved problems." "God gave us life for living, not destroying." "So be it!" "Hello ladies, you're not in Church." " No, we're not!" " No, really not!" "For us, religion keeps women ignorant and passive." "Have you noticed how they teach the children there?" "Heads down." "Those girls will never say:" "" ""No, I'm against that, never!"""" " They're taught hierarchy." " Submission!" " Church is power." " We're not taught to think!" " They get crumbs." " My son won't be a priest." "They teach them authority, divine authority." "Hello, here we are again with Joachim Riviere." "" ""Pere Duchene"" reporter, remember?"" "I'm recording the opinion of the Guard on elections by the Central Committee." "You have an interesting opinion, would you share it with us?" "Raoul from the 1 40th." "The Central Committee played a big role in the defence of Paris and the ousting of the Government, but today its legitimacy is mainly military." "We must give it a stronger authority, and therefore vote to elect a Commune to represent people more efficiently." "National TV Versailles, latest news update." "Good evening." "With great sorrow we report the disturbances in Paris since yesterday." "We have just been informed that Generals Lecomte and Thomas were savagely killed by the crowd during the recovery of the cannon..." "Madame, what are you doing here?" "I own the clothing shop and the wash-house." "What do you think of yesterday's events?" "I don't understand, I'm stunned." "Two generals killed, what for?" "We hoped things were better, we'd get back to work." "Now what will happen?" "There are no more orders." "I would take orders from anyone at all to pay my workers, I can no longer pay them." " May we ask them some questions?" " Of course!" " Do you work here?" " Yes, when there's work available." "I've been here 3 days, there's never any work for me." "There's no food at home." "What am I to do?" "What do you think of recent events?" "I think it's great..." "Two generals were killed because... we're dying of hunger." "It's our hope that killed 2 generals and poverty that's killing us." "It's time for change. I'm like my friend, waiting for work." "There's no work, no food, no education." "It's time for freedom and fraternity, and the time is right, girls." "I work in the shop here." "I'm quite old." "I've always been poor, I have a large family, I've never been able to give them what I'd have liked." "My situation has always been dreadful." "I don't know what to think of all this, but I would really like... my children to live more decently than me." "I've really led a life of misery." "I'm happy they killed those generals." "It's a good thing they eliminated those mad dogs." "And I want it to go further, that they all be eliminated so we can live in peace." "We want to work, eat, that's all..." "The cannon are our blood, let's not cry over generals." "The owner, she has her nice sides, but she's still a bourgeois." "The bourgeois stole everything." "Three revolutions and they even took over our good Lord." "That's enough!" "We want respect, access to schools for our children, and decent salaries." " What do you think of your owner?" " We're exploited." "We work for hours, late into the night, we're exploited, we want to eat, live a more decent life." "The difference is, she's our boss, OK, we respect her, but she eats and profits, not us." "She eats and does nothing to help us get food." "I'd rather not speak!" "I started a week ago but haven't been paid." "I don't know what to do, I have nothing to eat." "How do you feel about that?" "I have been doing my best." "I know they have kids, that their husbands have left." "They go home with no money to feed them, but I have no more orders, so what will happen toall of us?" "We all want to share the wealth, we want work, OK, but we want to be paid." "Enough's enough!" "We work and have nothing, she keeps it all." "It's not true that she's helping us." "Sure, we come here all day like scumbags, we depend on her." "I'm not sure I'll get any work now, having said this in her presence." "She could sell her necklace and share the money." "But that's not done." "It's not, and when she speaks of the market, she never shares the profits anyway." "We sweat for 1 3 hours, we have no food when we get home, but she does, it's warm in her house." "Will things change now for the workers?" "I'll take orders from anyone to be able to keep them, pay them so they can feed the kids, but I need a market." "But why do we always work for you, and you get the best out of life?" "Why are we dying off, and not you?" "We've always had bosses and workers." "" We'll end that ""always""."" "Times are changing starting now!" "We're going to fight, we'll go all the way, we won't stop!" "We're the future." "All the way!" "This street is ours now." "We need a doctor to take care of us." "What are your needs right now?" "I've only one thing to say." "I'm pregnant." "I don't want my kid to live like us, I don't want him to eat rats," "I don't want him to be building barricades..." "The sisters are coming!" " Where did you get your bread?" " l stole it." " Stole it?" " Yes." "Go on, let the ladies through." "Come on." "Blockheads!" "You poor girls!" "Ugly!" "What are you hoping for?" "To go to Versailles, to get ammunition for the Central Committee to act." "I'll tell you what I want!" "I want our working conditions changed." "Our kids, our 1 0, 1 2 year old children work 1 2 hours a day." "We work like slaves - women, children and adults for starvation wages, we earn hardly enough to survive." "We create the wealth, where does it go?" "What do you think of religious education?" "We've got to stop religious oppression." "Hell isn't up there, it's right here." "It's not really their fault." "I went to the sisters' school, what they stick in your head is crazy." "We need a state school." "Children must have an education other than religious." "A revolutionary education, we must teach them our principles today." "All children should be like those, with social principles." "They must fight with us." "That's how we'll make a revolution, it won't just happen, it'll take years." "We have to teach the kids to join us." "That's all." "Look, we have to take up rifles to earn respect, but it's crazy, we're not thinking straight, we should be normal school kids yet we take up rifles, you find that normal?" "One third of the children don't go to school." "Many young boys join the insurrection." "They supply the barricades and join in combat." "651 will be arrested by the Versaillais troops." "No statistics exist on the number killed." "Who gave me this rifle?" "The Guard." " And I'm going to fight." " There's no other way." " We'll use the rifle." " We'll kill them all!" "That's all I have to say." "I have a message." "My parents were bourgeois, I came here, I split from home." "I want to tell them I never want to hear of you again!" "Long live the Republic!" "Long live the social Republic!" "Hands!" "To class!" "Then with the women, it's almost the same story." "One of the leaders, for example a certain Elisabeth Dmitrieff, apparently a Russian aristocrat sent by Karl Marx from God knows where, is setting Paris on fire." "I haven't met her, she's said to be very pretty, a hot number, excuse my language!" "Paris is being set ablaze by a great number of uncontrollable people." "Even Arabs in the Guard?" "Yes indeed, the National Guard has Arabs as well." "They come from Algeria?" " From Arabia surely!" " Of course." "What do you think of the upcoming elections?" "We were talking about it with these ladies, who are now getting into politics." "Elections are useless." "As usual we have people saying:" "" ""Trust us, we'll do things for you""."" "A revolution is done with the people." "Not above the people." "We have to get organized down here, set up committees, because we have the weapons, we have the real power, production power." "Political power is crap." "Who needs all those bourgeois, they know how to read and write." "Will there be a worker up there?" "Precisely, now we have to build a popular government of workers and revolutionaries... people like us, who suffer and know what exploitation means, who know what humiliation and working for starvation wages means, who can give people the means to take" "their destiny into their own hands, to govern and gain an autonomy to escape the slavery we're in." "And what do you think?" "Well, personally, I don't have the right to vote, so that's the first issue for these elections." "If you really want all the people to be involved, women must also have the right to vote and participate." "We made this revolution together, so it has to continue." "As workers, we're ready to commit ourselves and to take action." "We can't vote, but we're organizing." "A lot of women workers throughout Paris are mobilizing - they're ready to fight for real changes." "And you?" "I was in favour of burning down the Paris Town Hall because the people there took great pleasure in enslaving us." "Now we might start to get a taste for sprawling in velvet armchairs, so I'm not sure I trust future events." "Are we ready?" "Citizens, good evening." "We're now in the Town Hall." "Imagine, it's my first time in this place." "Behind this door, there's a corridor, at the end of it is the hall where 20 Central Committee members, including E. Moreau, are meeting." "The Guard has no intention of holding onto power and is organizing for elections next Wednesday." "It will soon be up to you, to decide with your votes if there'll be a Commune." "And I quote Edouard Moreau:" "" ""We must prepare the elections and give you"" "" ""what you've always wanted, the birth of a true Republic."""" "He added that, meanwhile, the Central Committee would stay in control in the people's name." "Jenny Talbot, married to a teacher of oratory, lives in a quiet street near the Madeleine." "The Talbots read the Paris press:" "" ""Le Temps"", ""Le Gaulois"", ""Le Siecle""."" "Today, they'd certainly watch the TV news." "Mme Talbot writes regularly to her daughter Marie, married to a civil servant in Versailles." "The letters show the life of an upper-class household in Paris during the Commune." "Here I am in Paris with Government malcontents." "I loathe the Parisians being in constant revolt." "I cannot tell you what I think of a Government that did nothing for 3 weeks to recover the cannon from the rebels," "and then one morning decided to do that, without taking the necessary steps to ensure success." "And having failed, fled to Versailles, leaving the insurrection in control, and without the slightest resistance." "The Communards are convinced the Government wants to stop a socialist Republic, by restoring the Monarchy." "In fact, Thiers, while humouring the monarchists, is pursuing his plans in favour of a conservative Republic." "An upstart petit-bourgeois, Thiers, 73, has been in politics for 40 years." "" Parisians hate him and call him ""little runt"""" "" or ""Thiers I, King of the Defeatists""."" "A conservative Orleanist, advocate of law and order," "Thiers doesn't mind a Republic as long as he's President." "Gentlemen!" "Thiers plans to create a united front at the Assembly." "The war against the Commune will serve as a pretext." "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." "Amen." "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death." "Amen." "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." "Amen." "Sit down and work well children." "Take your reading books and turn to page 1 1 1." "Celine, you start." "The title of today's reading is:" "" ""Being happy means having a clear conscience""."" "" ""Child, true bliss does not come from without."" "" ""lt comes from deep within our soul."" "" ""From our conscience."""" "The Paris Town Hall in the 4th District." "March 28, 1 871." "Citizens, good afternoon!" "It's a wonderful day here in Paris!" "The Town Hall square is now swarming with people." "Parisians of all classes have come to witness the proclamation of the Commune." "The elected members are on the platform, their red sashes echoing the red flags covering the Town Hall facade." "The results: 80 elected members." "Only 1 2 seats are still vacant." "13 elected from the Central Committee, 4 radicals, 15 members of the Mayor's Party," "9 Blanquists, 4 Neo-Jacobins and 1 1 lndependent Socialists." "" To quote the press, and first the ""Pere Duchene"":"" "" ""Proletarians will finally claim their rights,"" "" ""and reap the fruit of their labour."""" "" And the ""Cri du Peuple"":" """The Commune"" "" ""requites for 20 years of Empire, 6 months defeat and treason."""" "Long live the Commune!" "Now some interviews." "Hope you'll be able to hear us." "Hello." "What's it like here today?" "It's a wonderful day!" "See that?" "The Republic and Socialism united at last." "See the flags!" "It's fantastic!" "What a day!" "I'm so happy!" "What will change?" "Everything!" "I never dreamed of this!" "Everything's going to change." "Come, let's dance!" "Thank you!" "Hello!" "What do you think of all this?" "Now it's the workers who are going to be the bosses." "Look at the poverty we live in." "Who cares about us workers?" "We're treated like dogs." "So today, I say long live the Commune!" "Thank you." "How do you feel about today?" "They have reasons to revolt, but I don't want it to get out of hand." "What do you mean?" "It's legal, they've been elected." "What do they want?" "They're being led by foreigners!" "Our highest values are ridiculed." "What are these elections?" "They're just a handful of rebels, they don't represent the population." "Not a bit!" "I'm very frightened." "What's your business here?" "We're Republicans but we want peace." " We want calm." " Order and peace!" "We're also members of the French nation!" "These people think they're back in 1 789." "It's grotesque and illegitimate." "They're lost." " lt's foreign-led manipulation." " Exactly, manipulation!" "...the Marseillaise is a revolutionary song, Madame." "What do you think of today?" "It's great!" " Really!" " A big change!" "And at last Paris is ours, tell him!" "Paris is ours... yes.. really!" "What will change for you?" "I was in the street for months, now I have shelter." "We'll have equality!" "It's a real revolution for the people." "What's it like here today?" "Very good!" "Long live the Commune!" " We won!" "We won!" " We've had enough." "We won!" "Death to poverty!" "Peace and work!" "That is where our future lies." "The Republic will make France the friend of the weak, the protector of the worker." "Hope... hope for the oppressed of the entire world... and the basis of a Universal Republic." "The Commune we establish today will be a model for all Communes." "The country and the Government will applaud this revolution, the most fertile in our history!" "Citizen Jourde wishes to speak for the Commune." "Citizens, we, the elected members of the Central Committee, now elected members of the Commune by popular will of the Paris population," "hand over to the Commune Council, in the name of the Central Committee, the power which recent events vested in us." " Now we'll hear..." " l haven't finished!" "The Central Committee will again take up the duties it originally held." "I thank you." "Citizen Varlin would also like to speak." "Your elected members will defend your freedom with energy and for all time." "Brothers among you, let your brothers show you the path to the future." "Make the task easier by helping in the necessary reforms." "Rally round your Commune with trust." "Our shared aim is a Universal Republic." "And with the women too!" "Of course with women!" "With everyone, children, women!" "We won't forget them." "Workers, everyone..." "Long live the Commune." "Long live France!" "The turnout at the polls is 48%." "Nearly the same as for the mayor in 1 870." "The figure varies greatly with the Districts." "" ln the ""posh areas"", fewer than 40% vote,"" "compared with over 62% in the working class neighbourhoods." "So many workers elected to the Commune Council is a first in European political history:" "21 members are proletarian, 30 are journalists or men of letters," "13 are employees or craftsmen." "Different political trends try to coexist inside the Council:" "1." "Supporters of the revolutionary Auguste Blanqui, 2." "Autocratic Jacobins, who long for a return to 1 789 and centralized power in Paris." "3." "Socialists trying to create a network of federated Communes." "It's a disgrace." "To hear the Carmagnole after what happened in '89, 1 830 and '48..." "But Madame, it's a celebration!" "They've been elected by only half the Parisians!" "So what are you doing here?" "We have a right to be here." "We belong to this nation." "Aren't you moved by all this hope?" "No." "They'll end up starving, Madame." "There'll be no-one left to pay them." "Look at their kids!" "Thank you." "Hello." "What do you think of this day?" "It's fantastic, I'm very moved." "I hope this will be the start of something new." "We've waited so long for this." "I hope this means something exceptional, but I'm not too sure." "I'm scared." "Near Versailles is the military camp of Satory, where the Government is busy regrouping its demoralized army..." "What are you doing here?" "I had to..." "I needed the money, without it I can't survive." "If your parents were watching you on TV, what would they think?" "Well, precisely, I'm here to save... save my farm and bring home money, but still... ls saving France something too?" "Well yes, but getting into this situation is something too." "In exactly 2 months, the Versailles army and its young provincial recruits will be facing the people of Paris... and their children." "" ""When Francinet was alone,"" "" ""he thought through..."""" "Go on!" "" ""...all that had happened since the previous day."""" "Louder!" "Start again!" "" ""lt happened to be just at that time, the day before..."""" "Come now!" "" ""...his heart was so full of gall and jealousy..."""" "Recently M. Thiers" "" suggested that newspapers like ""Le Gaulois"" and ""Le Soir"""" "be distributed among your soldiers, to boost troop morale." "Do you think this is a good idea?" "It's very important that this mental confusion stop." "Don't forget the Commune was built on crime." "Two of our generals were executed." "Our army has been disgraced by... the rabble in Montmartre." "We, the army, as well as the Government, must explain the nature of our struggle." "What we have here are yobbos." "They behave like good-for-nothings." "We'll show them who's in charge." "The soldiers will understand this." "We're not leaving Paris to this cosmopolitan scum." "Yobbos, probably led by a handful of... foreign agitators." "We have to make this quite clear." "The point isn't fighting French people, it's law and order." "French or not, it's the same." "A soldier's task is easy." "The Republic is in danger, and we respond." "We're trained for that." "Does everyone agree on this?" "French people have a right to know," "France is watching right now." "is the army united behind its leaders?" "Yes, absolutely." "No question, we'll have law and order." "No compromises." "You can guarantee that these soldiers from all over the country will bring France victory?" "We must defend freedom, show what the Commune is:" "terror, crime... things the Republic cannot accept." "It's disorder!" "We're not enemies of France or the French people." "The Communards are creating unrest." "That's all there is to it." "We'll intervene and improve things!" "French people will understand." "No one wants to live in chaos." "We are the guarantors of law and order, and will act accordingly." "We shall use all means necessary." "With these good words we leave you." "France is counting on you." "Thank you." "Good afternoon." "It's a wonderful day here in Paris." "The Town Hall square is now swarming with people." "Parisians of all classes have come to witness the proclamation of the Commune..." "Despite the enthusiasm sparked by the election, the fear of centralized power is in the air." ""March 27, ""Pere Duchene"" writes:"" """"...a recipe against returning traitors,"" """"...in use at the time..." "the Committee of Public Safety! """" "During the revolution of 1 789, the Committee of Public Safety was an infamous instrument of political terror." "To talk of this Committee in 1 871 revives sinister memories." "TV Communale's editorial staff" ""has decided not to mention the ""Pere Duchene"" article,"" "for fear of negative reactions..." "We talk about the Committee of Public Safety and you don't." "I don't understand why." "It's quite clear." "We're talking about the proclamation... of the Commune, we're talking about people's hopes... lt's not the time to mention the Committee." "It's a celebration, everyone's happy and wants to enjoy the moment." "All in good time." "Rejoice, OK, but you must develop a critical attitude." "There's no analysis, you give the info plain." "It's important to produce analysis, proposals." "Yes, but it's a bit tricky because we also try to let people express themselves." "We show extracts..." "Look, there, we let the bourgeois women speak." "Frankly, we're not going to talk about that because there's no way the members of the Commune are going to establish a Committee of Public Safety, ever." "You have the right to disagree, but why don't you say so and explain your point of view." "It's a bit tricky." "We've chosen to go towards getting the people to express their opinions." "We don't give our opinion, the people..." "We ask the opinion of the bourgeois, the priest, etc., to create controversy in the situation." "You can criticize while supporting the Commune." "In my opinion, it's important to underline problems if they are to be solved." "It's also true that your interviews are very interesting." "Since people have things to say..." "They speak for the first time." "But it's too short, you've got to give them more time." "But you need to have rhythm to win people's attention on television." "It has to be fast paced like that for people." "If we have debates going on forever, they'll just turn off the TV." "Wait... it's their revolution!" "But this way, we allow everyone to express themselves." "It's chopped up anyway." ""Take any ""Pere Duchene"" quote:"" """"No mercy for jackasses!"" lt's always like that in the news."" "Of course, if you pick on one quote." "It's not one quote, everything's written like that." "Well, it's the same for our TV shots." "Read the whole paper." "Excuse me, are you journalists?" "Are you aware of the new insurrection that started last January in Algeria, after the return of the Spahis?" "The Spahis?" "The Spahis are... a kind of National Guard, or native police force which was supposed to operate on Algerian territory but was forced to fight against the Prussians." "When they returned after the war, - return isn't the right word - since a lot of them were killed on the spot, used as cannon fodder, that's actually what sparked things off." "It's a disaster over there." "Who are they fighting?" "The French troops in Algeria." "It's tough, it never stops..." "And that's not all." "Since they arrived in North Africa they've never stopped confiscating people's land and possessions" "to further European colonization." "Now the people have nothing left, they are manhandled by the French soldiers, they're helpless, they've got nothing." "They're killed." "It's total misery." "In 1 870, in an attempt to avoid defeat by the Prussians," "War Secretary Leon Gambetta issued orders for the mobilization of the Algerian Spahis." "Several Algerians from a Paris detachment rally to the Commune." """"The Spahis are not regular soldiers,"" """"but a type of National Guard or police force"" """"...their tasks are essentially sedentary"" """"...they can only be deployed within Algerian borders."" """"..." "This order has violated a tacit and traditional agreement."""" "Oran Prefect to Gambetta." "General Emile Eudes of the Blanquist National Guard picks an orderly from the Paris based Algerian Spahis." "He calls him Nigger because of the colour of his skin." "Citizens, good evening." "Live from outside the Town Hall Council, we will inform you of the ensuing debates." "Rather difficult, as the first decision has been to close the meetings to the public!" "There's been tension between the Commune and the Central Committee on the question of power sharing." "Delegates Chalin and Mortier apparently asked the Central Committee to disband and hand over its power to the Commune." "One question remains:" "who governs France - the Commune or the Versailles Assembly?" ""For the ""Cri du Peuple"", it's clear:"" """"lf the Versailles Assembly had an ounce of common sense"" """"it would admit its mandate is over,"" """"and retire in favour of the country's true elected members."""" ""The ""Pere Duchene"":"" """"Prove you've got guts by ordering the National Assembly to dissolve."" """"Dismiss and disband it, crush them if they resist."" """"Force is yours, but only by law."""" "The Commune passed the following decrees:" "suspension of payment for rents, and a ban on all gambling." "All dice, roulette, lottery gamblers will be arrested and brought to police headquarters." "That the debates are not made public is intolerable." "The Guard will ensure that all sessions are open to the public." "Not military matters." "We know what military secrets lead to!" "Elected citizens, speak up, it's the start of secrecy, trickery!" "People want to know." "What do you say?" "Why are they trying to confiscate the power we just won?" " We're reproducing the old system." " Exactly, enough!" "No one can confiscate our power and stop us attending the debates." "We want the power for the people, they should decide!" "Exactly the same old system." "What's the point if you copy the old system?" "I'm for having debates open to the public." "Then do something!" "We can't, that's why we elected you!" "The citizen is with us if he helps us." "What we really want is to attend the debates, it's our right." "Not absurd decrees on dice and lottery!" "Good morning." "April 3, very early in the morning, the Guard are preparing to march on Versailles." "There seem to have been attacks on Corbevoie yesterday." "Can you explain what you're up to?" "We're off to Versailles, we've waited for 1 0 days." "The Central Committee guys are incompetent." "They gave the Versailles guys time to get ready." "I fully agree with my comrade." "We're leaving with few resources, I'm practically weaponless, I hardly have ammunition or food." "The Central Committee isn't aware of these problems." "But I think that we're on our way to fraternizing with our Versailles comrades who are still unaware of the great popular tide in Paris." "We'll explain, and show them what's going on." "We must explain the Commune values, and that the Parisians support it." "I think any citizen can understand." "Look what happened on March 1 8." "One lowered his rifle, then they all did." "I still believe in man." "It's possible..." "No Stephane, watch out." "Last time they were lads from and around Paris." "This time we've got a monarchist army on our hands." "Led by aristocrat officers." "There are 400 monarchists in Thiers' Assembly, it's their army." "The monarchy's back to pinch the Republic." "Yeah, and we have to watch Thiers, he's a manipulator." "We've given him far too much time." "But come on, the real enemy is Bismarck, the Prussian's our enemy!" "What about the Vendee monarchists with the king's banner?" "The white flag." "Thank you very much." "Citizens Morterol and Heuzey, how's our police?" "Well my friend, we're organizing a new police." "New, because until now its job was to protect and preserve bourgeois interests, whereas our task will be to preserve, protect, serve the people's interests." "Hell of a difference, no?" "We're expecting the people to be their own police with our help and the help of the National Guard." "Our methods will differ totally from those of the Imperial Police." "Thank you." "One thing to know - this may sound a bit like denouncing, but when it comes to protecting the people, that's beside the point..." "At this very moment in Paris a certain number of policemen have dropped their uniforms to spy among us." "It's going to be a problem, they're busy transmitting the information they pick up in cafes, and it can do us a lot of harm." "So we have to be on our guard." "And vigilant, extremely vigilant!" ""Did you hear of the ""sortie"""" "and the decree on the separation of Church and State?" "It would be great if Church and State were really separated." "But Versailles will never leave it at that." "That's when things'll get rough." "The Versailles clergy will never permit the separation of Church and State." " We must struggle." " We'll struggle." "Citizens, have you read the French Republic's first principle?" "Freedom!" "Freedom of conscience is the first of those liberties." "Article 1:" "Church is separated from State." "Article 2:" "The religious budget is cancelled." "More money for us!" "Knock on the door!" "Can I help you?" "What do you think about the Church-State separation?" "Now's not the time." "Surely you have an opinion." "That may be, but this is not the time." "One can be a believer, but not necessarily in an institution that keeps making you feel guilty, particularly us women." "We never have the right to speak." "They have no right to tell us what to do." "Enough of that!" "I'm a believer and I go to Mass." "The Church should take care of religious matters, but not meddle with mine and tell me what to do." "They told me not to abort." "They never stop making us feel guilty, I don't think it's their business." ""Know what the priest said?" """What, madame, no baby this year?"""" "is that a normal thing for a priest to say?" "She doesn't agree." "I come from the province of Picardy." "The priest was fine, he helped the poor." "In Paris, the local priest is the only one to help us." "If they go, what about us poor?" "There'll be nobody to help us." "It's true that the nuns help us." "But it's not their job." "Anyway, the Republic will give us work." "And take care of you as well." "We have to go to Versailles to save the Republic." "With courage, even if it's hard!" "What do you think about the military situation?" "We don't know much about it." "And that's why I think we should go to Versailles, to find out." "There's a call to women in the newspapers." "Listen:" """"Let's tell Versailles about the Revolution."" """"Paris made the Commune because we want freedom."" """"The Government's responsible for our brothers' blood,"" """"we hold it accountable for our grief."""" "That's beautiful." """"Let's meet at noon at Concorde, and go to Versailles."""" "Let's go to Versailles." "You want to go to Versailles?" "Yes, but to talk, without weapons." "We must speak to them." "On the 1 8th, Versailles troops refused to fire on the Guard." "We must convince them once more." "The situation was different." "They were in Paris, outnumbered." "They had problems with the cannon, we rushed in the breach." "It's totally different today." "The Versailles army is powerful now." "Our enemy has one idea in mind, to massacre us!" "No, they won't fire on women." "We've been in a state of siege for several months." "We can't repeat it, we're isolated." "We must open ourselves to the Provinces, spread the word, so more people follow us." "We can't go right now." "You're naive, think they'll listen when you're there?" "They've been putting bad ideas in their heads for a week:" "we're barbarians to be eliminated." "You're crazy to go to Versailles, they're armed!" "But don't get the enemy mixed up." "It's not the people who face us...." "Thiers is our enemy." "We must tell them they're our brothers and our sons." "You don't grasp military organization," "Versailles is ready for us!" "We must go armed." "I can tell you, I know what handling a weapon means." "And we can all handle weapons." "There's no reason to separate men and women." "I don't want violence or bloodshed." "Even so, we need more women with the battalions, there's work for 4 women per battalion, why am I alone?" "Andre Leo, journalist and active socialist, rises against the misogyny within Commune staff, and notes:" """"...on the part of officers and surgeons,"" """"an absence of sympathy, curtness, insult,"" """"a bourgeois, authoritarian, narrow and mean mind."""" "La Sociale, May 6." "Hello, gentlemen!" "The women we've been speaking to would like to help the army." " What do you think?" " What's that?" "Women would like to help the army, join you in your attack." "Of course, we welcome all volunteers... in the army, women are very glorious, determined and brave, and they are more than welcome, I believe them to be good combatants." "We need all the help we can get." "And what do you think?" "Did I get this right?" "Women in the army?" "is this a joke?" "It's out of the question." "Did you hear that Brunet?" "Listen, I honestly think there are more important issues at stake right now, this matter can wait." "No, we've got to go to Versailles." "Let's be practical, the women can be used to cook, sew, perhaps in the infirmary, certainly behind the curtains to help warriors rest." "That's all!" "As a doctor with the National Guard, are you going to Versailles?" "That's my duty sir." "Would you be ready to accept women, for example as ambulance helpers?" "Madame, I'm afraid that women on the field of operations is inopportune for the moment." "Why should our presence by the side of our wounded be inopportune?" "They're our husbands." "Based on the ethics of a military situation, our oaths do not include recruiting women to the battlefield." "But some women have been trained to become doctors." "They don't have a diploma, but they could help." "Don't you understand that we're on the verge of civil war?" "Sure we understand, of course we do." "Your brothers and husbands will die." "That's why we should be there." "They're your kids, brothers, husbands." "These are bourgeois methods to make us feel guilty for sending them off." "The men are free." "Free to fight if they wish." "Don't you mind sending them off to die?" "We're not!" "You're sending everyone." "They decided, and you people will kill them." "If you feel guilty, go to Versailles and speak to them." "But you see, we didn't go to Versailles." "We stayed here with you." "You're with us, but don't want us to take part." "We don't want you to send your husbands and brothers off." "That's our business." "Now we must go to the barricades to look after these people." "We're offering help and support, but if nobody wants it, we'll do it alone." "Maybe later it'll be organized and you'll help." ""What's this ""later""?" "It's happening now,"" "not in 1 0 years' time!" "Where's your husband, has he left?" "But my husband..." "I'll try to find him and help you..." "He's your God, not ours!" " Why so upset over the Good Lord?" " Jesus was an anarchist, the carpenter always on strike." "Jesus the artist, the leader..." "You have made him the God of the bourgeois." "And our beautiful Virgin Mary, the Virgin Mary of my youth, with her little blue veil, and her little Jesus, you've raped her!" "Want to ask a question or get an answer?" "Bastards!" "Shame on you, preaching order and family." "Enough with order, family, husbands, we want to be free, free at last." "But nobody forces you to get married!" "You are parasites living on the people's back." "Church money should belong to the people." "That luxury is a disgrace." "But it's not our money, it belongs to God's people..." "To those who wish to come..." "To teach us to bend our heads!" "Come on, fight for the Commune." "You won't solve the problem with a gun." "On the right end of the gun you think you're right!" "If it's the other way round!" "Will it mean you're no longer right?" "Well, we'll grab his gun." "If he fires first, you'll die for nothing." "Reason is no gun." "Excuse me, Madam Defer, you seem quite annoyed?" "Yes, I'm completely shattered by this." "My husband died during the war." "What can I do all alone in front of this mob?" "I'm worried." "We must save the work tools." "What'll we do if everyone attacks us like this?" "I'm off to the countryside, I'm scared." "Scared?" "Well yes." "Because these women can't reason at all." "It's impossible to speak with them, so what'll happen?" "They could at least listen." "We've been silent for years, so we're angrier than usual!" "But we're women just like you." "What will happen next?" "Maybe you'll kill me." "Maybe. lf you're not with us, maybe." "Take off your dress, put on some pants, we'll see if you're a man." "Clubs, small popular gatherings, flourishing in Paris since the siege, are set up in the churches." "Night services are suspended, the faithful replaced by apprentice orators, including many elated women." """"The priests should be shot,"" """"they're the ones who stop us from living as we want."" """"Women shouldn't go to confession;" "I should know."" """"l urge all women to seize all parish priests"" """"and burn their ugly mugs."""" "Gabrielle, 1 7, St." "Sulpice." "Battalion, on my command..." "Attention!" "Citizens!" "Silence!" "The Sub-Committee delegation informs you... that monarchist conspirators have moved to the attack." "Despite our restrained position, they attacked." "This morning, soldiers from Vendee, Brittany, and the police force showered the innocent village of Neuilly with grapeshot and shells." "They've started a civil war against our National Guard." "Many were killed or wounded." "As elected representatives of the Paris population, our duty is to defend the city against aggressors." "We will defend it with your help." "We depend on your courage and determination to repel the Versailles troops." "Long live the Commune!" "Citizens!" "Let the Versailles spies lurking among us tell their masters of the energy glowing in our breasts!" "Show them a brave population, an army ready to spill its blood for our country." "Long live the Commune!" "Women citizens." "Listen!" "Let your husbands and children do their duty." "To Versailles!" "Battalion, on my command, to the right." "Right!" "Women of the 1 1 th District, you have the honour of carrying the flag." "Battalion, to Versailles, forward march!" "To Versailles!" "It'll be tough but we'll get them." "What do you think of the National Guard?" "We think these soldiers are full of enthusiasm." "But they lack training and equipment." "They're not well enough organized yet." "We think this will probably..." "cause heavy losses." "On the other hand, we have no choice, the soldiers must train on the field." "Why are you in France?" "How did you get here?" "You see, the situation in Poland is very difficult." "For us..." "do you mind if I speak Polish?" "No, of course." "After the defeat of the insurrection of '63... we were sentenced to exile to Siberia." "But we escaped on the way to Siberia... and chose France as our country of refuge... and offered our services to the French army in the war against the Prussians." "Are you concerned for what's going on right now?" "For us, our participation... in the National Guard forces is a continuation of the struggle we've been waging in Poland for years." "First of all, because Poland has not been independent for a very long time, and we have always supported the insurrections." "In our capacity as military professionals, we've always helped revolutionary movements." "After our departure from Poland, we offered our military help to the French forces who were then fighting the Prussians." "So our participation in the National Guard is a consequence of our participation in the battle of Paris." "Also, many of our colleagues fought against the Prussians in Italy, with Garibaldi." "For us, it's something of a tradition." "I was born in France, my father came here after the defeat of another Polish insurrection in 1 831..." "So I feel as much French as Polish." "What's more, I think Poland won't be free without a change in France." "That's why the Commune must win." "If you want to change Europe, you must change its unjust social order. lt's our goal." ""The ""Great Sortie"" is a disaster."" "The army puts the Guard to rout with its artillery fire, many prisoners are executed on the spot, including Communard Generals Duval and Flourens." "The surviving prisoners are brought to Versailles." "I have very little to say to this Assembly." "But what I can communicate is so satisfactory - if there can be anything satisfactory... in a civil war " "so satisfactory, I was saying, that the brevity of the account cannot diminish its importance." "Louder!" "We can't hear!" "I ask the Assembly to forgive me, my voice is faint." "I am extremely tired, and it will be very difficult for me to be heard" "at a distance from this gallery." "Yesterday, as we all know, we had to fight these poor souls, who... led astray by perverts, wish to follow foreign war with civil war." "The army has proven its deep sense of duty and, like the country itself, its understanding of the situation." "The army has shown... its remarkable vigour and worth." "Here are the traitors!" "Kill them!" "Shoot them!" "Murderers!" "General Flourens' body is taken to Versailles in a wheelbarrow." "Bourgeois ladies poke at his brains with their umbrellas." "It's awful, it's real savagery here." "Women hitting wounded prisoners with umbrellas and spitting on them." "It was hard to stop them." "I've never seen anything like this, I'm shocked!" "Anyone else, you?" "I was frankly completely stunned by the behaviour of the citizens we fought for." "I really never could have imagined such a thing." "Had we not been there, they'd have been executed." "You were really angry back there." "These people only understand things the hard way." "They are the shame of France." "It's a great humiliation." "France sold to anarchy, foreigners." " lt's unbearable." " No red dictatorship!" "Anyway, this is intolerable." "It's a disgrace for us, Sir!" "I was with friends." "I got carried away by violence." "They made us leave Paris." "I don't know what they want." "What's happening here?" "They respect nothing!" "They want our wealth or what?" "There's a risk of dictatorship, we'll stop it!" "The Prussians besiege Paris, they take advantage of our defeat, of the Emperor's sickness." "They take advantage..." "to bring chaos. it's a disgrace!" "They dishonour this country." "They're manipulated, that's all!" "We had to flee to Versailles." "We lost everything." "And the stink." "The lack of privacy." "No more Church, State, nothing." " Generals killed." " Back to Paris." " They deserve death." " l want my mansion back." "We know they're manipulated by foreigners, we know where these foreigners come from. lt's the Garibaldi mob." "The Emperor gave them permission to go to London, these are ungrateful people." "That's typical, give them a hand, they'll take your arm!" "A handful of so-called enlightened persons, and masses who only know brawn, when they agree to work." "They are manipulated by foreigners." ""They destroy everything, then want bread;"" "they've destroyed their work, the industry, it's all gone, too bad." "Back to work, food for them later." "There'll be food for their kids." " They're lost without us." " We surrendered?" "Let 'em wave cannon at the Prussians." " Who gives them work?" " Did they resist the Prussians?" "I didn't see any real sign of resistance." "What we want in Germany is peace, a stable government, in order to get back to business, that's what counts, business!" "The two governments should work together." "And we want to sign a peace treaty, that's the most important." "You can count on Bismarck." "There can be important business agreements between France and Germany, if we crush this wretched Commune and its workers..." "Bismarck even released French prisoners of war." "You don't understand, Germany isn't the enemy, you're killing yourselves, it's a Franco-French war." "This must stop right away, all the Communards must be crushed and killed, they're killers themselves." "The military rout and the execution of prisoners by the army thrusts the Commune into a state of war." "Draft dodgers are arrested, weapons and resources requisitioned to equip the National Guard." "On April 4, the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Darboy, is arrested." "What's going on?" " Says he's a journalist." " He is!" "What proof?" ""l'm a journalist for the ""Pere Duchene""."" "Think I'll simply believe you?" "Maybe you're a spy too." "He's a spy!" ""He works for ""Pere Duchene""."" "Don't speak to me like that!" "He's with the press." "You've no right to attack him... lf so, then by tomorrow we want to see you write about youth as you never have in your old newspaper!" "We want to take part in these elections..." "Write about the pawnshops, it's a disgrace to the Commune." "We want them closed!" "If we don't get our article tomorrow we'll find you my lad, you hear?" """"As the Versailles government openly tramples on"" """"the rights of humanity and the conventions of war,"" """"The Paris Commune decrees:" "Article 1:"" """"All persons charged with complicity with Versailles"" """"will be immediately indicted and imprisoned."" """"Article 5:" "Any execution of a war prisoner"" """"or a partisan of the Commune lawful government"" """"will be immediately followed by the execution"" """"of 3 times the number of hostages."""" "This macabre decree legalizes the people's call for revenge." "It will never be implemented." "Only in the last days of the Bloody Week will certain hostages suffer popular fury, a desperate reaction to massacres by the Versaillais." "Bloody hell!" "It's madness!" "We know the real hostages:" "Bank of France, state property." "The Commune ignores 3 billion francs from the Bank of France." "Anxious to keep a stable currency, finance Delegate Jourde contents himself with small advances: 1 7 million francs in all." "The Bank is more generous with Versailles: 257 million francs." "War is never the solution, though it may be necessary for the moment." "The Commune, the Revolution can't forget education and children." "Look around you, kids hanging out in the street." "They must be taken care of." "The Commune needs to open nurseries to help the women." "All the daily chores have exhausted and degraded them, this can't go on." "The Commune must take care of kids, from a very early age, even before they're old enough to go to school." "The children must be socialized." "It's the only way..." "We're now in the heart of the Commune military system, the office of General Cluseret, who's just been made War Secretary and Commander-in-Chief." "He's assisted by prestigious foreign officers, including General Dombrowski, a regular Polish soldier held in high esteem by Garibaldi." "He is made Commander of Paris and the Neuilly sector." "In the same spirit of internationalism," "Dombrowski has given command to General La Cecilia of Italian origin, and to Generals Wroblewski and Okolowicz." "We met your husband, how is he?" "Not so well." "He's exhausted." "He's trying to rest, but as you probably know, war has been declared with Versailles." "He'll have to leave again." "We're a bit depressed." "You're worried about him?" "Yes, I'm really scared." "Why only foreign generals in this army?" "Italians, Spaniards, Poles, they couldn't find a French one?" "So, what's the problem?" "Who's going to defend the interests of the people?" "They're perfectly capable, why not?" "It's not the first time a foreigner defends French interests." "What's Theron doing to fight, to defend the Commune?" "I'm not joking, he's the youngest of us all!" "What about the freedom to choose to fight or not to fight?" "Shouldn't we have that choice?" "Really!" " lt's unfair." " Why doesn't he fight?" "Why must others die while he hides in his jeweller's shop?" "That's crap." "Come with us to the barricades!" "Come!" " Mother doesn't agree." " What do your family think?" "Mother's against it." "She thinks it's dangerous." "But come on, Dad and Grandpa want us to go." "The young ones go and fight and Theron stays here." "It's outrageous." "It's a disgrace!" "Of course we'll go if we must." "I fought in Crimea, so there!" "Didn't you see what happened in Versailles?" "Bloody hell, see how worried Agnes is?" "Want to fight right here in the courtyard?" "is that it?" "Why not kill him!" "Present arms!" "Attention!" "Present arms!" "General salute!" "Thiers aims to build an army powerful enough to crush the Paris rebellion." "His army of 40,000 is reinforced by returning prisoners, accelerated by a peace treaty signed on May 1 0." "He will soon have a trained and equipped army of 1 30,000 men." "How are things going?" "I'm very happy." "Our boss has opened the workshop and wash-house, though we're not getting a salary increase." "Still, there's a bit of work, that's a good start." "Some have nothing." "Enough of empty stomachs!" "I'll save up for my mattress." "What do you think of the present situation?" "The thing is, the more work we get the less we get paid." "I fixed a price with the owner, but now she'll only pay half what she promised." "I can't live on that, I don't have time for all the work." "I think we should have a place to meet." "Some have no work, others have too much, some sleep outside." "We need a place to meet and discuss all this." "Discuss!" "What for, we have to act!" "We must have solidarity." "We must act." "Talking won't make things better." "Let's organize. I'll take the kids, or do other things." "Getting organized is fine, but we must act now." "It's no good waiting around." "Give us work." "All we have is our work." "I can only give what I've got." "Everyone's off fighting." "I know I'm paying less, but I'm doing what I can." "You're talking money, I'll show you real solidarity." "This sheet belongs to a woman who's too old to work, so I do it for her." "As for the salary, well, she needs it more than me." "Maybe the Town Hall will give you the 1 1 th District... military linen to wash." " And the pay!" " l'm negotiating." " lt's work." " What's the use if we're not paid?" "Let me speak for a second, you never let me." "I am negotiating with the Town Hall to get the contract for the officers' shirts." "But it's not easy, with the administration." "Here in the 1 1 th District a municipality has been organized since we last came." "Who are you and what are you doing here?" "My name is Baux-Picard and I'm in charge of the registry office as well as setting up a commission" "for war widows' pensions, and, as of now, financial assistance for the needy." "Citizen Verdure, why are you here?" "As an elected member of the Commune and 1 1 th District, I carry out administrative tasks." "Today we'll celebrate our first Republican baptism." "It's a big event!" "What do you do here?" "I keep the civil register, control security, and draw up information sheets." " What's your name?" " Blanche Capellier." "What are you doing here?" "I'm citizen Patey, Delegate for subsistence." "I distribute food stamps, with a meal... and 500 grams of bread for each person who's registered." "That's my role at the Town Hall." "And what do you do?" "I'm his assistant." "This procedure was set up during the siege, but we had little to give then." "Now we have something." "We're from TV Commune." "What are you doing?" "I'm Charles Capellaro, municipal Delegate, in charge of National Guard supplies:" "equipment, weapons, food stamps." "As a matter of fact, this Guard came for food stamps." "The problem is he doesn't have an inventory form." "A document." "My commander didn't give me one." "Ask him to give you the document." "Come back and I'll help you!" "Along with registry and National Guard supplies, the Town Hall is in charge of the revolutionary police, and denunciations against bourgeois enemies and draft evaders." "Who you are?" "Henri Appollon Guillaume." "I'm in charge of law and order:" "requisitions, searches, arrests, and sometimes denunciations too." "What are you doing here?" "I'm a member of the civilian delegation Sub-Committee." "I register statements for the arrest of draft evaders, searches and requisitions." "What's going on here?" "We're interrogating this citizen who hangs around bars, spreading lies." "He's a draft evader." "So, citizen!" "What has he done?" "He was spreading lies and making defeatist remarks." "He was completely drunk last night." "He was in the 1 1 th, because bars are cheaper here than in Versailles." "Any comment?" "I don't know, I just woke up." "I was in the bar yesterday, and now I'm here with you." "What's this spy thing?" "I was just in the bar, what do you want?" "Without morals, man is lost." "Save yourself and help the Republic." ""l'm preparing the first issue of ""Le Proletaire"","" "which we'll publish as soon as we find funds." "What will you write?" "Whatever the people of the 1 1 th want, within a certain political frame, defending certain ideas." "I'll give you an example of our political line:" """"We, the proletariat, defend solidarity, union, equality."" """"We want all privileges and monopolies to be replaced"" """"by the law of capacity,"" """"so the worker may truly profit from the product of his labour."" """"We want free, compulsory, and public primary education."" """"We want the elected delegate to always be accountable."""" "That's what we want, and will debate in the streets, meetings, and in this newspaper very soon." "Leontine Rombert." "You asked me to arrest her." "How dare you treat women so?" "The Paris police have asked the 1 1 th District Town Hall to collect information concerning certain citizens who are in contact with Versailles." "As police superintendent for the 1 1 th, I'll apply these measures in the most radical, even if unpopular, way " "to establish a tight, systematic surveillance of all activities in the District." "What about my husband?" "I already said..." "Start again!" "He went to Versailles to do his duty." "What for?" "The Commune is the government now." "It's his job and his business!" "I've a house to run, kids to raise." "Do you think it's easy?" "Divorce, citizen!" "You won't have to queue and you'll get 3 days' rations..." "Citizen Vatrin Gerard and citizen Desgranges Marie declare their wish to place their child Lucien under the protection of the legal authorities, elected by popular will." "You wish to give as special protection to your child, citizen Lazare Stephane and citizen Davis Lucie as godparents," "who accept the responsibility, should his parents ever fail him." "May he respect democratic institutions, develop necessary moral, human and civic qualities, so that when he comes of age, he may become... a citizen with ideals of brotherhood, understanding, respect for freedom and solidarity for his fellow men." "Gentlemen, today we have launched an offensive against Forts lssy and Vanves." "Both must be neutralized for us to begin the siege from the other side of the Seine." "If the Fort lssy doesn't fall at the start of the offensive, the risk, because of its dominating position," "is that it may rake the besiegers." "The Fort Vanves must also be silenced, as it can bring artillery support to its neighbour." "Once the two forts are neutralized, the main attack shall aim for the south-west angle of the defence line at the Point du Jour, where the wall is weakest." "Gentlemen of the press?" "is it true that you plan to bombard Paris?" "No sir, absolutely not." "It is a bombardment?" "No sir, the artillery has never bombarded Paris." "It has simply fired a few shells!" "Anyhow, the situation is simple." "I am currently working with a private corps of engineers who are setting up a battery on the hill, to reduce Fort lssy to silence." "So that our troops may enter through the Point du Jour." "I created the Paris ramparts, I should know how to destroy them." "We have Mr. Hoffman, assistant to the Plenipotentiary Minister for the USA in Paris, on the line." "The US legation is the only foreign representation in Paris, not with the government in Versailles." "Mr. Hoffman, can you explain your country's position?" "Yes, Minister Washburne believes that our interests would be better served by staying in Paris." "So we'll remain here despite the danger." "But do you truly sense danger?" "The legation was hit by shrapnel 20 feet from my office." "Yesterday, according to the Minister, the Arc de Triomphe was hit 27 times." "Have there been many casualties?" "Yes, I believe so, but I don't have any reliable figures." "There are casualties among the civilians." "Just yesterday a 70 year-old lady lost both her legs due to shell fire at the entrance of a church." "Even if one cannot predict the outcome of the unhappy events unfolding... we may hope that individuals won't suffer from the excesses of the looters which the Commune carries in its wake, because they're too busy fighting at the front." "The arrests of some clergy and the looting of a few coffers seem to quench their thirst." "Mr. De Gobineau had to abandon his flat on Josephine St., shells were falling there." "Paris is undergoing a real revolution." "Can you tell us what's happening in Algeria?" "Let's be honest here!" "Since the French army arrived in Algeria in 1 830, their only aim has been to plunder the country's wealth." "It's true!" "It began with confiscation of properties, and dispossession of land, and ended with deprival of rights." "The Algerian citizen is reduced to slavery." "The loss of his identity!" "What can people do?" "Everything's been taken from them." "He was over there..." "He just returned from Algeria." "People were being killed there, massacred." "They were shelling everywhere." "They broke into homes." "He says that the repression was terrible." "He confirms what's just been said about the dispossession of the land... and the repression." "He fled." "He managed to flee?" "Yes, but it wasn't easy." "The uprising has spread." "From east to west." "Especially in the east because..." "But our comrade is saying the repression is ruthless." "Villages being burned." "Over there for example..." "His brother had his land stolen." "People are being killed, we must react." "My family for example, they've been merchants for centuries." "They stole their land and their property." "Do you think that's normal?" "We must resist... this injustice." "The land is no longer ours, but the wheat is." "The bread you eat comes from our wheat." "I've been travelling around the world for years." "I went to poor countries, Algeria, Africa." "I saw lands plundered by colonization." "How they plunder people and culture in those countries." "And today?" "Money circulates and rules the world." "Goods circulate." "But the people from poor countries are denied entry." ""They tell them:" """Stop, no entry."" """"We'll rob you, but you can't come in."""" " That's true!" " We must fight against that." "They deny our right to our culture, they want to wipe it out." "On March 1 8, 1 996," ""350 ""illegal aliens"" from a Montreuil hostel"" "occupy St." "Ambroise Church to denounce the state's refusal to regularize their administrative situation." "Mgr Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, visits the occupants," ""to voice his ""solicitude"" and the ""mercy"" of his Church."" "The next day, the religious authorities ask the Home Office to eject them." "They justify lifting the inviolability of holy places, on the excuse of a foreign cult practising in the Church." "March 24, state security police invade the building with a violence and force usually reserved for hijackings." "Men, women and children are brutally evacuated." ""A victory for terminology: the media now speak of the ""paper-less""."" "Battalion, on my command." "Attention!" "There's a preparatory and an executory command." "A preparatory command prepares for what's next." "At ease!" "Attention!" "Citizens, hello." "It is the 1 1 th of April, a new National Guard Battalion leaves for the front." "We remind you of the headlines:" "Thiers attacks Paris, shells hit the Arc de Triomphe, but troop morale is good." "We now speak with Agnes Noiret, whom we met a few days ago." "It's hard for us to cover both the events, the interviews, and keep you informed of decisions at the Town Hall." "Your husband's still at the front?" " For 3 days." " You know where?" "No, I have no news at all." "I'm really worried." "All I know is there are many dead." "I must try to find out..." "How will you do this?" "I was told to go to the Legion." "The children must be told something." "It's so hard." "Thank you." "Good luck!" "To counter unceasing rumours of defeat and panic, the Commune has banned Versailles oriented newspapers advocating private property and social hierarchy." "The reactionary press slanders the Commune." "That's why information such as ours is so important." "Journalists query the bannings," """"Cri du Peuple"":"" """"We can resort to common law for liars and agitators,"" """"but we demand absolute liberty of the press."""" """"Pere Duchene"":"" """"The revolution is solid enough to let our foes write against it."" """"Freedom for all, including our enemies, will prove our strength."""" "On the pretext of war, censorship will shut down" ""not only 30 ""reactionary"" newspapers,"" "but also certain critical pro-Commune papers," ""such as Jean-Baptiste Milliere's ""La Commune""."" "Mark time." "March!" "We whose lamps are lit With the crowing of the cock" "We whose poverty Drags us to the anvil before dawn" "We who struggle endlessly With our entire being" "With no shelter From the cold and old age" "Let us love each other And if we may, unite" "To share a drink" "Whether the cannon ls silent or roaring" "Let us drink!" "Let us drink!" "To universal independence!" "Let us love each other And if we may, unite" "To share a drink" "Whether the cannon ls silent or roaring..." "Listen!" "I wish to announce the birth of the Women's Union for the Defence of Paris and Care for the Wounded, under the presidency of citizen Elisabeth Dmitrieff." "The aim of the Women's Union is to rally the working women of Paris, to unite in support of the Commune in its struggle against all tyrannies." "Long live the Commune!" "We must mobilize quickly because Paris and the Homeland are in danger." "It's not foreigners invading France." "No." "The French are slaying people and liberty!" "They are the privileged, all those who profit from our hunger, our struggle, our sweat, our misery." "We want no more masters and exploiters, but government for the people and well-being for all." "We want work, to profit from it, and become free human beings." "Citizens, we must act fast." "We must get organized to help our husbands, sons and brothers who have left to fight, but we must also protect the Commune and end the slavery we've endured for so long." "Long live freedom!" "The Commune doesn't depend only on those at the Town Hall, but also on us, on our will to build a world and a future that belong to us." "Each District must have its own local committee." "I invite you to form the Women's Union of the 1 1 th District." "The Town Hall should be giving us a room soon." "The next meeting place and date will be posted by tomorrow." "I'd like to see the Legion officers." "What for?" "I'm seeking news of my husband who's in the National Guard." "The Guard?" "Where exactly?" "The 66th Battalion." "I'll go ask." "A lady wants information about her husband who's at the front." "Fine, tell her to wait." "I come from Neuilly bridge, we've been holding for days." "I sent couriers for reinforcements:" "no reply." "What's going on?" "Captain, we receive 50 to 60 couriers a day, and we've got no time to answer." "Just wait!" "The men are demoralized." "We're isolated." "If your men didn't take orders from the Town Hall, without our permission..." "Orders are here, we're in charge." "I need men in good shape, equipped." "You'll get the 1 38th Battalion tomorrow." "Unless the Sub-Committee use it for parade." "You want efficiency?" "You'll get it." "General Cluseret gave very precise instructions." "From now on, all Battalion captains must arrest draft dodgers." "Start right now." "Here's an order for Berco, rue Folie-Mericourt." "Hope for support like this?" "You'll keep order in your Battalion." "We'll establish a disciplinary committee." "Tell the men who miss roll-call there'll be no pay." "Dismissed!" "People won't like the Commune this way!" "Let the citizen in." "Citizens, I need 3 guards to fetch a guy called Lucien Berco, 34, Folie-Mericourt." "I'm looking for my husband." "He's in the 66th Battalion." "What company?" "D Company." " What Battalion?" " 66th." " Your husband's name?" " Jean Lebert." "At which front?" "I don't know." "In Asnieres. I thinks he's there." " Let's see, Lebel..." " Lebert." "I think it's Asnieres." "On a proposal by citizen Jourde, finance Delegate:" "To widows, married or not, of Guards killed in action for the people's defence, a 600 franc pension and 375 francs for the children, legitimate or not, after an enquiry establishing these rights." "I have here a declaration from a group of women:" """"The gauntlet is down, we must conquer or die."" """"Let those who say, 'what good is victory if I lose those I love', "" """"be persuaded that the only way to save those you love, "" """"is to take part in the struggle."""" "The Commune makes an appeal on behalf of schools." "All interested citizens are invited to present themselves, with documents, at the Town Hall Education Commission." "Two days after the next scene," "Agnes Noiret will find her husband, dead, at an ambulance post." "She will receive a widow's pension for herself and her children, as decreed by the Commune on April 1 1." "We're back from the Legion, they didn't know." " No news?" " l said he left days ago." "I could come with you to the Sub-Committee... if that's OK with you?" " Can you take the kids?" " Leave them with me." "Shall we go?" "I know where it is." "Kids, you stay with me." "Hello, citizens." "We're looking for citizen Lucien Berco." " Don't know him." " l was told he lives here, no?" "Fair-haired?" "34, Folie-Mericourt." "No Berco?" "Over there, in the house across the street." "On the ground floor." "And you, citizen Theron, watch out." "You're not with us yet, it'll be your turn soon." "E. Theron, the jeweller, will be taken for questioning, but released with the advance of the Versailles army." "The Therons will shelter a Communard during the Bloody Week." "They will be denounced by a neighbour, and executed by a Government firing squad." "This is war, we must stick together!" "Citizen Berco, come out of there!" "We know you're there!" "Shall we try the other door?" " What is it?" " lt's for the Sub-Committee." " Who?" " Sub-Committee." "And who are you?" " 1 1 th Legion officers." " You blind?" "It's the Legion, for the Sub-Committee..." "What's going on here?" " Leave me alone!" " What's she done?" "I'm the law here, I ask the questions." "Let us through." "The Paris police fled Paris after the insurrection, often leaving their wives behind to take care of the furniture." "This is the case for Leontine Rombert, arrested with other citizens for secret dealings with the enemy." "End of part 1" "PART 2" "Citizens, good evening." "Tonight we meet Eugene Protot, Justice Delegate, who is just leaving the Commune Council." "You've now taken a measure against police arbitrariness." "Yes, indeed." "Following arrests, searches and requisitions of all sorts, which some citizens denounced, citizen Vermorel and I have moved to adopt a decree protecting citizens against the arbitrariness of police measures that may occur in these troubled times." "It is vital for our Republic that all traitors and conspirators be neutralized." "But we must guarantee the respect of individual freedom." "What do you intend to do?" "All arrests are to be announced within 24 hours to the Commune Justice Delegation to evaluate the validity of detention." "Persons abusing power - prison governor, guard or policeman - shall be prosecuted." "This is not a police state and never will be!" "Can I help you?" "We are from the Women's Union, we are delegates." "We've come for a meeting room which should have been granted by the Executive Commission." "You're not the first in line, please take a seat." "Citizen, it's urgent!" "In the year 1 871, on the 1 1 th of April at 3:00 p.m." "Birth certificate for Christian Ernest Antoine, male, born at 6:30 a.m." "I have 2 children." "I need to feed them." "That's all." "Please come back next week." " That's all I get?" " That's all!" "It won't get me very far." " We're from the Women's Union." " l'm listening." "We've come for a meeting room." "The Commune has allocated one in each District." " So I hear." " We've come for it." "The 1 1 th District Sub-Committee should be in charge of that." "The best thing is to see citizen Patey who'll direct you." "Citizen Patey?" "We've discussed this, there's work with the ambulances." "Also the wounded who need help and money, so we have to take up a collection." "No, we're not responsible for collections." "We have other priorities." " More important than charity." " Discuss this with Patey." " Over there?" " Next door, on the left." "Give me 5 minutes." "You're allowed 5 stamps." "Please, I'm with..." "There are problems at the wash-house." "Beatrice Jossiau, 5 stamps." "is that it?" "Yes." "For one week." "But the father of my children is a prisoner in Germany." "Prisoner in Germany?" "Since when?" "Last year." "Citizens, excuse us, but we are delegates from the Women's Union to get a meeting room." "Citizens, stop that racket, please!" "Listen, I asked Colonel Favy for an inventory of the troops in the District. I'm still waiting." "Bloody hell, how can I give you an inventory!" "We can't even assemble our men." "They're at the front, home, some we don't know." "It's the Sub-Committee's fault, giving orders to our soldiers." "It's your own incompetence!" " You're no judge." " Who gave you stripes?" "That's enough!" "I warn you Guillaume." "You know very well that staff orders are always short-circuited by you." "You're well aware:" "requisitions for futile parades, or police operations we're not informed about." "We need permanently garrisoned Battalions for District security and police affairs." "The conflict between the Town Hall and 1 1 th Legion officers reflects the one between the Central Committee and the Commune." "For the Sub-Committee, the non-elected Legion officers have no legitimacy." "Eventually, the Sub-Committee will monopolize all power in the 1 1 th District." "You can't control your own men!" "I remind you that you are supposed to help us in our work!" "Well then, citizen Marcellin, to help you, I'll write War Delegate Cluseret, for control over the 1 1 th Legion administration!" "I know your problems!" "You're always at headquarters!" "When Cluseret agrees, it will all become more efficient!" "We've come for the meeting room we've been allocated." "Do you have the keys?" "Ten minutes later...." "We are delegates from the Women's Union." "We're being sent from one office to the next..." "What's this?" "I'll handle it." "Francois, got the keys?" "May I leave now?" "No, no." "You stay here while I book you!" "You're not going to arrest a woman just to get to her husband?" "We've come for a meeting room." "There's no room." "What do you mean?" "They're giving us..." "We need a place legally recognized by all women." "You have lots of empty workshops, 142 Oberkampf St., there's one..." "There are hundreds of women.." "expecting a meeting place in the Town Hall." "Go look, you'll see the great space you got!" " lt's a shed!" " That's all we've got." "We can't hold meetings here!" "That's all we've got." "We can't hold our meetings here." "You have to clean it up!" "Do you know that hundreds of women will meet here tomorrow morning?" "Tomorrow morning!" "There's nothing I can do." "You exit here and enter there." "I have to lock this door." "What's that?" "Give us the keys first!" "I can't." "This is a security zone." "I'm sorry I can't." "What's wrong with him?" "Citizen, give us the keys." "We have to get them back." "He shut the door!" "They're making fun of us!" "This isn't a meeting place." "Women can't come here!" "We'll find another." "For tomorrow morning we'll have to use this, we've got nothing else." "OK." "Let's do the poster for tonight." "We'll convene here, but tomorrow we look for another place." "See all the work there is... I don't believe this!" "Citizens." "The Commune War Delegate, General Cluseret, inspected the southern forts and said:" "" ""My impression is good."" "" ""Attacks by a large number of enemy troops,"" "" ""repelled with few casualties, gives us"" "" ""great confidence in the future."""" "We remind you that in its Official Gazette, the Commune has issued a document which should help you to keep a healthy diet under siege." "A healthy diet in the midst of tragedy!" "We've seen it all!" "Incredible!" "Could you please switch it off, Marie." "This reminds me of an article" "" l saw in this morning's ""Gaulois""."" "I'll read you a brief quote:" "" ""The rebels' false stories."" "" ""Dispatches sent to the newspapers by the Commune"" "" ""contain more lies than ever before."" "" ""What will the rebels say when they learn the truth?"" "" ""The Commune states the Versailles army is repelled and put to flight."" "" ""According to them,"" "" ""our troops face enormous casualties."" "" ""Of course, the trapped Parisians"" "" ""cannot verify these facts."" "" ""We know this is completely false."""" "So this communard press... is really a lot of nonsense." "It's practising disinformation." "And deep down we know it." "I'm deeply shocked, even worried by this." "Because using television to spread false news means we can't trust any information." "National TV Versailles, Laurent Duchamp Pothier." "With us in our studio - a man most of our viewers know, F. Foucart." "An expert political editor, whom I've invited to talk about the Commune's social and economic policy, a much debated subject recently." "Good evening, my dear friend." "Tell us about these so-called revolutionary achievements." "If I was to really speak about the Commune's revolutionary achievements, I would be very brief, for they've done nothing!" "However, I think it's useful to give an example of the demagogy and futility of their actions..." "You know, when you are devoid of any economic or political experience, but rely on verbiage, you end up with a totally mad situation." "On the subject of rents." "Would you like me to...." "Yes, it seems quite complicated." "The Commune decided, to the crowd's delight, that no more rents would be paid." "Wonderful indeed!" "One could also say, we won't pay for bread or meat, anything." "This is nothing new." "Demagogues have always promised to cancel debts, because quite naturally there have always been more debtors than creditors." "It's a very cheap way to make new friends." "Also, the owners must pay their own taxes and mortgages." "Exactly!" "Because it's a whole system, a bit like a castle made of dominoes." "If one falls, the others follow." "So we don't pay rents." "Fine, but how will the owners pay their taxes?" "Taxes that run the Government." "Since most buildings are mortgaged, the owners owe large sums of money to the Credit Foncier." "How will they pay what they owe?" "They don't say, because they don't know." "If we follow this logic all the way, the Credit Foncier collapses, and no more building sites are opened in Paris." "I remind those who are talking about people's rights." "The Paris working class is partly made up of construction workers, including our brave natives of Limousin," "our bricklayers and plasterers of Creuse." "These are the unemployed today." "There'll be more tomorrow." "This is a cooperative." "And with the Commune, it'll work." "The bench, tools, workshop will be ours." "We'll have equality." "There are 30 of us." "If we earn 300 francs, it means 1 0 francs each for sure." "Watch it!" "The boss has left, OK." "We're the managers, OK." "But he still owns the place." "If he comes back, he'll get the same as everyone else." "The foundry workers must follow us." "We're also waiting for a workshop." "But we really need work." "And we'll get work if the mechanics get orders." "Then there'll be work for the foundry." "We can make ammunition for the weapons they repair and manufacture." "But we shouldn't lose any more time and establish a cooperative right away." "Otherwise we won't make it." "We need that too." "Sure we need a cooperative." "But we must be careful." "We must all agree, so that things go well." "Don't forget what happened with the state-owned workshops of 1 848, let's not fall into a trap like that." "The cooperatives will work because we want them and everyone needs them." "It's our hope against capital." "Following the Saint-Maur Street mechanics, the foundry workers' cooperative opens on April 1 9." "In order for them to stock up on raw materials, the Commune allows requisitions from inactive workshops." "I've also been told of a new craze concerning revolutionary taxes." "The Commune is going tax-crazy." "Yes, well, these people who are always talking about liberty and independence, haven't come up with anything other than to overburden everyone with taxes." "What was the situation at the start of the Empire?" "As we know, there were the huge building works by Baron Haussmann." "But especially the railroads." "Today, all 5 railroad companies have been taxed excessively." "There is a tax which we must admit is quite unpopular:" "the tax at the city gates." "" Ah yes, the ""octroi."""" "They could have lifted it." "" To the contrary, the ""octroi"" was maintained."" "They have taxed everything." "All this shows a total lack of political intuition and will." "We all know by now that these people are a bunch of loudmouths." "I don't want to lay it on, but I'd like to add - loudmouths who mistake blabber for action." "This bunch has done absolutely nothing in the field of economics." "Silence!" "Citizens!" "Silence please, this is for TV Commune." "Thank you." "Citizens." "With us here are citizens Avrial and Frankel, both Commune members, to explain the decree on the requisition of abandoned workshops." "During the siege, the federation of mechanics had asked for the requisition of abandoned workshops in order to manufacture guns." "Two cooperatives were set up in the 1 1 th District." "Unfortunately this experience failed, because of the capitalists, the money-makers lending at 1 7% interest." "Today, circumstances are more favourable." "Avrial belongs to the lnternational Workers' Association, striving for working class emancipation." "He led cooperative projects with fellow workers during the siege." "As Commune Director of Artillery, he supports cooperatives of mechanics and foundry workers." "How does this decree apply?" "This decree of April 1 6 allows the Employers' Federation to make an inventory of all workshops abandoned by owners who fled Paris, leaving many workers with no income." "It applies to whom?" "To all existing corporate bodies of workers who'll now be able to open cooperative workshops." "Also to women in difficult situations." "Leo Frankel is behind many of the Commune's social reforms." "A Hungarian Jew, lnternational Workers' Association member, he is the spokesman for the working class, and favours the economic emancipation of women." "He bans night-work for bakers, supports cooperative projects... ls that you, Marie?" " You're back already?" " Yes." "You've done all the shopping?" "And found everything you wanted?" "I found everything you wanted, madame - meat, vegetables." " lt's not a problem, you know." " That's good." "But the cost!" " l can imagine." " Prices go up every day." "It's normal in wartime." "Still, it's not as bad as the siege." "Just think what it was like for people during the siege." "I don't think we have the right to complain." "Madame, youdon't have the right to complain." "What do you mean?" "You don't see what's going on." "But I go out, Marie!" "I go for walks in the Tuileries." "I don't live locked up in this room!" "You still go out?" "Why do you say that?" "All the streets are full of furniture." "Everyone is moving out." "Because some people are frightened." "Those who can, leave." "We chose to stay." "You'll never stop people from being frightened." "You may not be able to leave the building tomorrow." "What makes you say such things this morning?" "Shops shutting down every day." "Giroux is closed!" "The National Guard headquarters moved in." "That's next door!" "They say they're going to build a barricade." "There'll be one tomorrow." "Those are rumours." "I don't think it's possible." "Not in our little street." "Don't exaggerate." "There are some barricades not far from the house already." "But you know there'll be fighting." "We can't avoid that." "I'm frightened." "No." "Things will go back to normal." "The Commune can't win." "On April 1 4, Guillaume, of the Municipal Delegation, hands Director Heuzey a search warrant for the religious school." "The National Guard takes up post in front of the school." "A Guard tells an orphan trying to reach her classroom:" "" ""There are no more sisters, thank God!"" "" ""They're fools who talk rubbish."" "" ""Come back later,"" "" ""you'll find citizens who'll teach you life!"""" "We don't know what will happen to us, though we always have the mother house, and communities in the provinces, where we can shelter." "We'll take the girls who have been entrusted to our care." "Many of them have no parents at all, or possibly just a father or a mother." "We're responsible for them." "We'll protect them whatever happens." "Yes, we are very worried not only for the little girls but also for the future of this neighbourhood." "Every day, we offer home-care and sometimes assist births." "Local volunteers help distribute up to 6,000 meals a day, thanks to donations." "What's going to become of the poor?" "Who will feed them, care for them?" "We're worried." "I'd like to remind you of 2 tasks of the Women's Union." "The first is the defence of Paris." "To mobilize, and to set up ambulance posts to help those who are fighting." "But the second, equally important, is to contribute to the social revolution" "" which is the Commune's ""raison d'etre."""" "For this revolution to succeed, women workers must free themselves from their state of slavery." "The best way to do that is to own our own work tools." "We must reap the benefits of what we produce." "This can only happen through cooperatives." "These cooperatives should enable us... to radically modify working conditions, and to master the means of our production." "We should, for example, be able to diversify our tasks, to stop repeating the same gesture all day long." "We must earn decent salaries, equal to men's." "We need to have time off for education and for our children." "There!" "I think it's very important that women organize themselves officially." "And that they allow themselves to become active and conscious of what they do and why they do it, at work, and to free themselves of the household." "And be recognized at last by men... and other women." "For me, cooperatives represent a recognition of that." " A new work relation." " Another way of life." "Absolutely." "Another way of thinking." "It's also obtaining a certain autonomy." "That's the main idea of a cooperative - to be self-managing." "To acquire a certain freedom." "including with work which is in itself alienating." "It's to have more freedom." "More space." "It's also to free oneself from the way work has been conceived up to now." "Work is not an end in itself." "It must be a means towards other ways of living, other associations, since a cooperative is a free association of workers." "That's what it's called." "It must be the base from which we can build new possibilities, it could open the way for something new." "We should have time off." "The Commune isn't.... the men's or women's Commune, it's a completely new society, closer to the workers' aspirations." "Women's work didn't emerge yesterday, it has always existed." "It could be a way for the recognition of our place in society with men, not against them, but together." "It's not an eccentricity, it's a reality, and also a necessity." "First of all, it's a means of survival." "But I think it's especially a path towards something else." "Since now we have nothing, we must create it all!" "So people have to be able to learn." "Learn other trades." "Escape from all the jobs to which women are confined." "Open up new possibilities." "I'm also eager for women to express themselves on an artistic level." "For the moment, women are cut off from all creation." "I really think that we can establish associations that will take care of women, open up new horizons to them." "Teach them literature." "Teach them to do other things with their hands and lives, than just work for survival." "Today in France, 60% of women work in 6 professions which represent only 30% of the labour market:" "for example, 98% of all secretaries are women." "Yet, women's success rate, from A levels to University, is significantly higher than men's." "If we can obtain financial success, it will bring us political power and a recognition of our independence." "In any case it will allow us more freedom to choose what's best for us." "Yes, but profitability isn't enough in itself." "Being in control of a structure to obtain recognition and independence might also lead to a kind of alienation in the way that is already happening to others working in a profitability system." "I think it's important to add the social or artistic aspect, to link profitability and human intentions." "To combine profitability with creation." "To find something other than this alienation that will trap us again in this system of producing, working, etc." "You give a woman the means to work differently... and less." "She's left with very little time to do anything else, to think of new things and she is very diminished by that." "So there's also an educational task which must start from childhood... and be organized very quickly." "That's also what a cooperative is." "A better sharing of tasks, more free time." "To go collectively towards other knowledge... through discussion, towards new things." "To stop only identifying with work." "Even today that's how it is." "It's not who are you, it's what do you do?" "It's the first question you're asked." "I'm often confronted with it." "I've been unemployed for ages, I don't have a profession." "" Then they ask:" """What are you looking for?"""" "" ""l don't know, it's not easy."""" "It's what do you do, not what is your activity, which is something one could accept." "I do something, like stringing pearls... I do something." "It's not what do you do!" "It's always your professional status." "That's what's so painful." "" You'd like to say:" """Spend some time with me, 5 minutes,"" "" ""you might understand what's up,"" "" ""and even slip me some ideas."" "" ""Since I seem to be stuck here."""" "I don't agree with that, because I think that women don't even need to be asked what they do." "It's obvious." "Even if we work, it's substandard." "Our priority is to take care of the kids, the laundry," "to put up with the old man." "Ultimately..." "I'm a dressmaker, and who gives a shit?" "In France, 80% of all domestic work is done by women." "This represents 3h30 of work each day for a woman with children and a full-time job." "I would like to learn." "To be able to choose." "Exactly." "Right now, I can't choose." "I can't do anything else..." "Maybe I don't feel like working, I'd like to have time to think." " That's good." " Me too." "Today we don't have time to think." "Yes, and it's serious." "The system gives one the least possible time to think." "It's all the same thing... lt goes beyond all this." "First, there's this cooperative business." "A way of sharing the means of production." "But what we really need is to free ourselves totally from work." "Life is elsewhere." "It's not work." "What's going on?" "Why did the National Guard come?" "Don't be scared. lt's safe here." "Get on with your work." "The National Guard came because... they might shut this school and set up a state school." "We'll talk about this later!" "A state school." "Will we have to go?" "We'll talk about this later." "Why?" "It's important!" "You will frighten the young ones." "Get on with your work." "But what are you going to do?" "We'll see, don't worry." "Will we return to our parents?" "Mother Superior will speak to you about this later." "Does God like state schools?" "God loves all things." "We were saying that there was more to life than work." "But the problem is we're staging the Commune now." "What is that, if not an attempt to think radically differently." "To challenge everything." "Profit, education, all that." "I can't see.... any other revolutionary way." "Then come problems of the individual abuse of power." "Those are ego problems." "Maybe we can forget our ego a second..." "You can't." "I know." "But it's a fantasy, just like revolution." "It's a dream." "Let's at least try and talk about this." "What can we dream up?" "A new system, without profit, etc." "And how do we invent it?" "The main question is how?" "It's easy to dream..." "The Commune isn't dreams, it's acts." "If we'd at least listen to everyone." "Regardless of social class, sex, age." "For me, school acts as the brake." "My son was much more open in his younger years than he is now." "It's not only school's fault." "It's the whole system." "We hear a lot about social organization of labour." "It's very fashionable these days." "Listen!" "I lived through the Empire, and I can assure you the social organization of labour the Commune keeps harping about goes back a long way!" "The Prince, while imprisoned in Hamm in 1 844," "" wrote an interesting book called the ""Extinction of Pauperism""."" "Allow me to read 3 or 4 lines from it." "By Prince you mean Napoleon Bonaparte?" "Yes, since for me at the time he was first Prince, then Emperor Napoleon Iii." "This is what Louis Napoleon Bonaparte wrote:" "" ""The working class possess nothing."" "" ""We must make owners of them."" "" ""Their only wealth is their labour."" "" ""We must ensure that this labour is useful for all."" "" ""They are like Helots"" "" ""amongst the Sybarites."" "" ""They must be given a place in our society"" "" ""linked to the interests of the country."" "" ""Finally, they are an organization"" "" ""without ties, with no rights, no future."" "" ""We must give them rights and a future,"" "" ""and get them back on their feet through Associations."""" "You know what Association is?" "It's the right, given by the Empire, to assemble, to organize, to unionize and go on strike." "They forget this today." "The Commune talks of people's and workers' rights." "These rights were already granted by the Empire." "In other words, nothing new under the sun!" "No, absolutely nothing new." "If it had been left to evolve naturally, things would have turned out fine." "But they wanted revolution, not evolution." "They provoked what became terrible and bloody, we now know this." "A workers' association... which is collective and egalitarian!" "In other words, we all earn the same, everyone is boss." "But what does this mean, money-wise?" "Because you have to eat, live." "And sharing?" "We share equally." "The same share for everyone." "We take one share for each." "For example, if there are 4 of us." "One share to cover accidents." "One share for... how do you say?" "To invest in machinery." "And one share for the Association established by Frankel." "So you want other associations set up to continue the chain." "You want to set an example?" "That's good too." "But everyone is paid the same?" "Regardless of seniority?" "An apprentice who doesn't work very well?" "He gets the same share?" "Yes." "Those who don't work well can learn to work better." "is there a share for accidents?" "The second share's for accidents." "There's one for the owner if he comes back." "So you don't know where the owner is?" "He ran away." "We have no idea." "If he comes back, he'll get the same as everyone else." "No more, no less!" "Today it's hard to know who owns most companies." "And today responsibility is very diluted." "Responsible but not guilty." "Guilty but not responsible." "Cooperatives work like capitalistic enterprises." "They're hit by the market." "They adapt for the market." "They save money." "They lay off." "It's not only a question of work equality and profit sharing." "It's also equality of speech." "Everyone has the right of say." "And then everyone discusses it..." "That's real citizenship." "That's what strikes me during the Commune." "People experienced citizenship all the way." "And people participated fully." "They were no longer subjects of the King or the Emperor, but their own masters." "They decided, they advanced." "Do people have the right of speech today?" "TV talks to you but you can't answer." "It's the first time in history that we have a box at home that talks like this, but you can't say:" "" ""No, I'm sorry, I was there just now, it didn't happen like you say."""" "Of course, what makes it worse is that television sides with those who have power and money." "How can we discuss with them?" "That's how their ideology is relayed." "And the media are a party to that, all the media!" "We must give back meaning to citizenship." "Because now it's a word..." "you used it, the bourgeoisie, the wealthy use it." "It's like consensus:" "Law-abiding Citizens, cast into the same mould." "In the Commune, being a citizen meant making decisions, joining forces." "It's something to win back now." "Take women's power, the Women's Union... we should think about that too." "Careful, they say it's getting better." "They propose things like women's right to vote, social progress, etc...." "What I mean is..." "For the European elections, 50% didn't vote." "What is democracy, with people elected with so few votes?" "Why don't people vote?" "They can't blame it all on their fishing habits." "The political class is like a caste." "Away from the world, its realities." "The Commune set up the possibility of dismissal from office." "Now we delegate power to people for their entire mandate." "They betray their program: no sweat." "The Commune set up removability." "Something to consider!" "People are no longer represented." "I totally agree." "What do the elected do?" "Hide behind the technocrats who tell us," "" ""We're doing our best but it's complicated."""" "There's one world vision: theirs." "That's monolithic thinking:" "one economic world vision." "Without it, there's no solution." "You were talking about cooperatives with a social aim." "It was also a way out for us when the bosses failed us." "We had a need then..." "But today employers are very different." "Workers don't have much say." "The board of directors and the president make the decisions." "And the worker.... lf he complains, he gets the boot." "On the other hand - l don't mind being hard on the bosses, but they're confronted with an international situation where some groups don't pay their workers at all." "They have to face that, and so do we." "Our social gains... should be applied in those countries." "We could fight for that." "This brings us back to ideological pressure, and the question of the media." "The monolithic thinking you talked about." "They want us to believe economic problems come before social ones." "That's a lie!" "It's inhuman and an economic deception." "Take Japan for example." "It was supposedly economically successful 1 0 years ago." "Workers and employees accepted minimal social progress." "Today they're sinking, because if you don't combine social and economic issues, you've got no chance." "You're sure to scupper!" "In 1 870, the wealthiest 20% of the world population had 7 times the income of the poorest 20%." "In 1 997, this difference was 7 4 to 1." "Today, the richest 20% share 86% of the world GDP, vs. barely 1 % for the poorest." "The world's 3 richest persons own more than the total GNP of the world's 48 least-developed nations, that is to say, 600 million people." "There are problems everywhere:" "outcasts, illegal aliens," "destitute, people who need help." "Now's the time to open the phone-book, call, do something." "That's how you change things." "Not by saying let's go to the barricades, we're revolutionaries." "It's easy to say there are problems in the Third World." "Sure there are." "But there are just as many right here." "A lot can be done right here." "So you open the phone-book, what page?" "There are plenty of NGOs..." "Against unemployment..." "to fight against poverty." "Or to help disabled elderly." "Small things." "Changes don't come with great speeches." "It's possible, at a given time, to work on a political level too, for a peace agreement, etc." "But it's up to us, each one of us, in our own environment, with friends, etc." "What you're saying sounds almost like some humanitarian thing." "In other words, swallow the pill." "Accept the system as it is and... stick a band-aid on the wounds it has inflicted." " What would you do?" " l'm wary of that." "You think charity is good?" "But it's not just charity." "It's the state handing over to NGOs the job of making band-aids for its own survival." "That's not normal." "He wasn't talking only about charity." "He said NGOs." "There are many NGOs, fighting unemployment, destitution." "It's not necessarily just a poultice on a wooden leg." "I think what you said is important." "But people won't become militants because of this film." "This experience was very interesting." "But I hope that a lot of us were already active in NGOs, and felt they were already doing things." "is that how to change society?" "That's another subject." "I think we can change society if we want to." "It's just a question of joining forces." "To discuss things with people, with friends." "The problem is we are silent." "What about the pervading lethargy?" "No one's angry." "We're angry, but it's not enough." "No, I don't think we're angry." "We are, in a way." "We're indoctrinated into accepting our individual comfort." "Then we complain." "Where did the anger come from?" "We have no problems." "We live well." "Working conditions might be worse than ever." "No." "Come on." "They have their TVs, their flats." "They didn't have that before." "They don't suffer as much." "It's insane. I've realized this after having read books on the terrible conditions in the 1 9th century." "Here everyone's in costume and we've recreated the houses and the street kids." "But think about today - what do you see?" "More than a century later, we've sent people to the moon, etc." "But it's exactly the same thing." "Homelessness, precariousness, destitution." "Growing inequalities...." "The rich getting richer." "All this under a left-wing government, or so they say," " that's been in power for..." " 1 4 years." "So, fine, we've got internet, the moon, space... mobile phones, but..." "The soup kitchens are also very good business." "500,000 meals a day." "Don't you find that the experience of this film showed us that... incredible things happened between us?" " For sure." " Free speech!" "Let's not think that we made a revolution!" "No, but we experienced that human relations... that's essential for me." "Do you realize the relations we have between us?" "Yes. lt's fantastic." "That's where it starts." "Human relations, relating to a person sitting next to you all the time, even when things change, as they often do." "To convey things... to give and to receive all the time." "I had that feeling of giving and receiving." "Especially receiving, a lot and from everyone... on all levels." "The participation of the cast in the making of this film is precisely what the global media are afraid of, and probably one of the main reasons why the TV channels which were asked for support, refused to finance this film." "What the media are particularly afraid of, is to see the man in the little rectangle replaced by a multitude of people, by the public...." "Good evening." "Important news has just reached our teleprinters." "The Official Gazette informs us that a court-martial has been set up to rule on cases of insubordination among the National Guard officers." "The Commune has also recently faced a grave loss of manpower through desertion." "Let us wager that their unpopular measures will have a reverse effect." "Soldiers!" "A grave moment." "The Versailles troops are at our gates." "You marched bravely to Versailles." "You fought bravely at the barricades." "Brave but foolish!" "What?" "I'd say courageous!" "Soldiers!" "A soldier may be brave, never foolish." "The enemy troops are sheep, but disciplined sheep." "Look at yourselves." "Half-undressed, badly shaven, drunkards!" "C. de Beaufort is an aristocrat." "He shares the political views of his cousin Edouard Moreau." "But his dandyism and position as Aide-de-camp arouse animosity." "After a few drinks, he makes threats against the 66th Battalion which will cost him his life." "Who are you?" "Word has it you're something of an aristocrat." "Don't you know that the National Guard can't stand aristocrats?" "Tell me, citizen captain, Count!" "Life's not too hard on you, eh?" "If your mother wasn't born in the gutter, what would you say?" "A useless bunch." "Look at yourselves!" "Filthy boots." "Badly shaven." "Caps on crooked." "Disobey and I'll purge you all!" "The Commune has admitted inefficiency by restructuring its executive power." "Renouncing collaborative administration, it proclaims a new, 9 member commission." "" The ""Executive High Commission"""" "is established to centralize all operations" "" and, I quote, ""to charge into war""."" "" The newspaper ""Le Temps"" sums up the situation very well..."" "I truly believe that change is possible in France." "To take for example education - since its easier to be precise in this case - it's a question of global culture, how people are trained in life to commit themselves through their actions." "Let's take participation in this film." "There are school children here." "When asked what they learn at school, what they remember, whether they feel that history relates to their present life, if this subject enables them to understand the world today, has the teaching of history changed," "as history itself has changed?" "" l found out that the answer is ""no""."" "It's the same stuff we had 1 0 years ago." "There have been huge changes over the last 1 0 years." "There's an urgent and important need for awareness." "This film showed me the huge gap between reflection and action." "In a barricade situation, for example, deeply involved in a direct, strong, chemical, physical struggle:" "as soon as the camera comes up and we have to speak, it's a very difficult relationship." "For reflection to connect with action." "Real change will come from this type of work." "" Not through resignation based on the usual: ""it's always the same,"" "" ""it's hard to get on together"", etc."" "No." "Change will come from a search for a stronger relationship between action and ideas." "If we don't want physical and violent struggle, we need to go on fighting for our ideas and for the means to..." "physically defend these ideas." "Have you had time to get yourselves organized in a more structured way?" "But we don't want organization." "Events show what happens when power is centralized!" "Enough of that system, state-run or not." "We'll find ways to organize differently, or not at all." "You're the only media around, the only authority for those who can't read or write." "We're all at your mercy, depend on you, believe you." "We've had enough!" "We must do things our way, collectively." "We need houses, so we occupy one." "Stop all this hierarchy.... and power struggle." "What's it for?" "To be under a dictatorship again?" "Every rebellion is the same:" "people set up a structure, a hierarchy:" "it always ends the same." "People have to change." "But you're not saying anything!" "Yes I am!" "People must change." "People, fine." "They, they!" "What are you going to do so they change?" "I'd love to loot that pawn shop, distribute all the stuff." "We'll give Mme Thibaudier her mattress." "Let's go then!" "I've got a message." "If any women need a babysitter, I don't mind doing that while they're at work." "Me too..." "If any elderly people need a hand, shopping or laundry," " they can ask me." "I've got a message for the bourgeois." "They're gonna have a headache, 'cos we're here to kill 'em." "One thing for sure, we're not going to starve." "Because now the granary gates are open for the taking." "People wait and say," "" ""Can you give me?"" No, now we'll take."" "But if everyone did that?" "But that's exactly what happens!" "The bourgeois have always taken and never given." "We'll do the same, and then you'll see a change." "They must stop wanting to possess." "They must change their acts and thoughts." "Not to accumulate goods." "That's bourgeois thinking." "We want to destroy that." "It's over now!" " We loot for others!" " lsn't that extreme?" "Isn't their way extreme, to have starved us for centuries?" "How far are you prepared to go?" "We're ready to die!" "It'll be the same." "It's hell here already!" "We're not afraid to die, we prefer to go to heaven." "We have faith." " What faith?" " The faith of believing." "We shouldn't talk to you." "Your manipulation methods are those of National TV." "We don't need to prove our ideas to you." "Your role is a bit strange!" "Do you really broadcast what we say, what you're filming?" "Will people see this film?" "We try." "What'll you do with it?" "You can change our soundtrack." "Let's not exaggerate." "Come to the cafe and see." "We show what you say." "National TV uses propaganda all the time." "They manipulate people very strongly." "And you see the kind of press that's around." "We're with you!" "We can't trust anyone any longer!" "Even the Commune." "They get a mandate and then forget us." "They forget the people's demands." "How can we trust anyone, you or them?" "We've got to do things on our own." "We're on our own, we'll act alone." "Not for ourselves - to share." "That's what counts, sharing." "It would be good if one could say that the educational system develops critical thinking towards the media..." "But more and more film courses in schools and faculties limit their training to Hollywood or publicity film-making." "This education reproduces" "" a consumerist and violent ""popular culture""."" "However, it's encouraging to see people increasingly aware of the role played by the education system and media, in support of economic globalization." "National TV Versailles." "Laurent Duchamp Pothier." "Henri Gothie." "Well Henri, tonight we have a very special programme on the women of the Commune." "You're just back from Paris." "You're constantly at risk, for we know what lies in store for many of our correspondents." "You have fresh details on these Commune women we hear so much about." "What's it like in Paris?" "Sheer madness." "Women in all kinds of clothing:" "knickers, pants, rifles, pitchforks." "They attack, they shriek, they climb whatever they can." "They scream, sing, shout, harangue." "TV national PRESENTS:" "A special programme on the Communards with quotes from our most famous and admired literary figures." "" G. Sand: ""We see all kinds of essays, fantasies,"" "" ""pretences at social science,"" "" ""deep down, there is only passion, dreams, appetites."" "" ""Ambition, ignorance, and vanity dominate all..."""" "" M. Du Camp: ""ln my view,"" "" ""the women of the Commune are malicious and mad."" "" ""Women excel in acts of cruelty which they mistake for courage."""" "" E. Zola: ""This rebellious spirit"" "" ""which makes Paris such a revolutionary town,"" "" ""is embodied in some women who become true harpies,"" "" ""shrews spewing fire and flames."""" "" F. Sarcey: ""ln this insanity, women show more ferocity than men;"" "" ""it is because they possess a more developed nervous system;"" "" ""for their brain is smaller, and sensitivity sharper..."""" "Well, all this goes to prove that, as stated paradoxically by the socialist ideologue Proudhon:" "" ""When women get to think, they become mad, hideous, or old hags."""" "With this wise maxim, Henri Gothie, ends our special programme." "We invite viewers to tune in again... for more of your fresh stories." "With a touch more courage than the reporters in Gucci camouflage suits reporting from their Baghdad hotels on the 1 991 Gulf War," "H. Gothie now ventures into the 1 1 th District." "What's that you're reading?" "" The ""Cri du Peuple""." "It's out again."" "" The ""Cri du Peuple"" is available?"" "A good thing too." "We need a newspaper to cover Commune events." "And to communicate with the provinces." " You're a reporter?" " Sort of." " That's why..." " l follow different events." "You know the women are getting organized in each District, so they too can have a political voice." "We actually want to have our own newspaper." "Many new papers are coming out." "I don't know how they'll operate." "But they need to be autonomous." "You have a printer?" "You need a printer and paper." "That's something to work out with the Commune." "Women will reorganize the production." "But I thought..." "We're part of the Commune." "We'll reorganize the printing trade." "You mean men's or women's papers?" "No, we must re-evaluate the social relations between men and women." "In education, etc...." "l think these forces must meet, but now we need to organize..." "Lucienne, watch it!" "I'm sure you're a Versailles TV reporter." "Spy!" "What are you doing here?" "You've got no business here!" "With all the lies you tell about the Commune, the people of Paris who are starving." "You think this is fun?" "You think it's a joke?" "All the dead soldiers!" "He ridiculed me!" "Kill him." "Don't let him continue!" "Know any washerwomen?" "Ever wash your laundry?" "Want to talk about our life here?" "Go on, listen to them." "Listen, I work for National TV, which informs the French people...." "Liar!" "Shoot him!" "Which informs the French people!" "That's what you call what we saw on TV about the women?" "Caricatures!" "It's difficult to discuss with you." "You piece of shit!" "We'll show you poverty." "You've seen nothing yet!" "This is just the beginning, I warn you." "Look at where l live." "Here, with 5 people." "Two kids." "We sleep 5 in the same bed." "Can you feel the smell?" "Watch out, you'll get dirty." "Feel the moisture on the walls?" "I've been around here before!" "During the siege, it was minus 25." "But I'm not a journalist I'm a caricaturist." "You caricature people, for sure." "But you caricature the bourgeois." "You know how the media work..." "Listen!" "Shut up!" "During the siege, we were freezing here." "I have to work day and night for my children." "For what?" "They might even have to work, though I didn't want that." "I have to queue for hours at the Town Hall for food stamps." "is that fair?" "While you people stuff yourselves." "I can't take this life or this work any more." "We're all sick here." "We're dying off!" "And you in the meantime..." "Caricatures!" "Speak about reality!" "Reality!" """ " Reality is stronger!" " ""Pere Duchene"" caricatures too."" " No, wait." " What do they do?" "You're a journalist at Versailles TV." "Think they'll let you speak about this?" "About the Commune?" "To speak about the people, their lives. 5 in each bed!" " You want to be on TV?" " We couldn't care less!" "is that what you want?" "According to recent information, the Commune denounced the role of the Central Committee, while the latter has suggested that all decisions by the War Delegate be under its supervision." "The main question is, whowill obtain power?" "The Commune is debating setting up a Committee of Public Safety." "The Executive Commission, set up on April 20, is apparently not strong enough." "Due to the gravity of the situation," "Jules Miot has demanded radical measures." "Most of the debate centres on whether this new Committee will have 5, 7, or 3 members." "In desperation, General Cluseret has established in each District, a military office to pursue draft evaders." "An attempt to bridle the struggle for power that splits the National Guard, and to coordinate the municipalities, the Central Committee and the Legions." "Given the spirit of sedition animating this useless militia, we can rest assured that this measure will only stir up the rivalries." "Citizens!" "Fort lssy is in danger." "General Rossel has replaced General Cluseret as War Delegate." "I'd like to add that Cluseret was arrested on charges of treason... 1100 cannon are scattered throughout the city, instead of at the ramparts." "Part of the problem is the autonomous artillery battalions which refuse to merge with the Central Committee." "In short, Paris is a town paralyzed by endless committees." "To counter this, General Rossel has promised to coordinate military command." "He aims to restructure the Guard, form independent regiments, and merge the artillery into a single body." "The National Guard Central Committee finds Rossel's reforms unacceptable." "And I quote Edouard Moreau:" "" ""Today, 1 5 Districts were represented at a meeting"" "" ""of the Central Committee, which voted"" "" ""to abolish the War Office and leave the Committee alone"" "" ""in charge of the war effort."" "" ""Given that the Commune is only"" "" ""a 'communal administration', if this request is denied,"" "" ""we, the men of March 1 8,"" "" ""will act as revolutionaries"" "" ""and regain control over our revolution."""" "Hard to avoid conflict with such varying opinions!" "Amidst growing chaos, the Jacobite majority votes to create a Committee of Public Safety to centralize power." "Citizens!" "We're in the Town Hall." "This is a historic event." "The moment is very grave..." "After much debating, the Commune set up a Committee of Public Safety." "This 5-member Committee will run the entire Commune to deal with the crisis." "45 members voted for, 23 opposed this decision." "The Commune members discussed at length whether or not to publish the minutes of these divisive sessions." "Will we ever be allowed to see them?" "Alright, cut!" "What's the matter?" "You're at it again?" "We've had no proper information for 3 weeks." "Giving negative information isn't your job." "ltisnegative information!" "They spent all day wondering what to call it..." "That's your opinion." "You know why?" "They thought it might scare people." "Committee of Public Safety!" "Of course it scares people!" "That's Robespierre!" "Let's start recording again, maybe we can talk about what's going on now!" "It's not our job." "What are you saying?" "So?" "We'll give our opinion from now on and that's it." "Or I'm going home!" "The next day, the reporter resigns, stating that this Committee betrays Commune principles, and that he can no longer act non-critically in his work." "The Versailles army shells Paris:" "80 cannons fire on lssy, Vanves, Montrouge and le Point du Jour." "Thiers' own battery of 70 naval guns joins the assault." "The Grenelle and Passy Districts quickly become uninhabitable." "Good evening." "Every hour, the news from Paris describes an increasingly chaotic situation." "Unable to govern itself, the Commune has established a Committee of Public Safety." "A return to a dictatorship, which could, as before, deny the people the rights it was pretending to protect." "Furthermore and predictably," "General Cluseret has been arrested and replaced by his private secretary," "Colonel Nathaniel Rossel." "This apparently very cold man deserted the regular army to join the rebel camp, asserting - and I quote " "" ""his horror for a society"" "" ""which has signed France's surrender in such a cowardly way."""" "As Thiers is persistently negotiating details of the Prussian peace treaty," "" we believe that Colonel Rossel's ""horror"" is very badly aimed."" "This officer," "" who knows nothing of the ""socialist"" system he has joined,"" "clearly has no chance of succeeding in the chaos currently affecting the National Guard Battalions." "It is in the nature of the Commune to dump its villains." "But unpardonable for it to waste its talents!" "Thank you so much, my friends, for this lovely time!" "How nice of you!" "And this delicious dinner!" "With all the shortages, how did you manage?" "We don't really have any problems." "Marie moans about costs, but everything is available." "Except milk." "She was all over Paris and found none." "What about this cream?" "Tinned, my dear." "You should try it." "It works very well." " lt's an idea!" " Why not?" "I'm trying to live as normally as possible." "But deep down, I'm very worried these days." "I feel the situation is deteriorating rapidly." "The Committee of Public Safety brings back sinister memories." "Distant, but sinister nonetheless." "I'm surprised that no one else seems to worry about it." "What do you think, Mr. Veuillet?" "The income from your business and rent must be quite disrupted?" "My business is in a deplorable state." "Already, the first siege made a considerable dent in my turnover." "With the Commune, it's a catastrophe." "incomes have dropped drastically." "Some of my clientele have taken refuge in Versailles." "I'm waiting for this comedy to end as quickly as possible." "A sinister comedy." "Yes, really!" "Grandfather's liqueur." "There's some left." "An excellent occasion for it." "Thank you." "And you Mr... I forgot your name, M. Renaud, forgive me!" "Dear colleague, come now!" " How clumsy!" " lt's the liqueur!" "What worries me is Thiers' statement to the Parisians." "You've read it as well but... to me, it sounds like an incitement to civil war." "If you listen to what he says:" "" ""The Government wished that you might free yourselves independently"" "" ""of the tyrants who scoff at your liberty and life."" "" ""Since you cannot, it becomes our task."" "" ""Therefore, we have assembled an army at your gates."" "" ""An army which comes not to conquer but to set you free."" "" ""lt prevails upon you to prevent the disasters linked to any assault."" "" ""You outnumber the Commune sectarians."" "" ""Regroup!" "Open the doors"" "" ""that they have shut on law and order."" "" ""lf you don't act, the Government will be forced to take"" "" ""the swiftest and surest means available to set you free."""" "That is a bit worrying." "It's quite menacing." "But he has to do something." "With these recent arrests of priests." "Mr. Veuillet, you're quite concerned....." "Very concerned indeed." "Because I spend a lot of time with the nuns, and I'm shattered by the Commune's latest measures." "May 7, the 1 1 th Sub-Committee requisitions the St." "Ambroise Church, transforming it into a revolutionary debating club." "Thousands of people gather there every evening." "The red flag is hoisted over the pediment." "We don't have time to film a club scene in the Church right now, so if it's OK, we'll hold the club in the cafe today." "If we were there, what would you tell me, what would you say in the Church?" "You have things to say, anyone can talk: express yourselves." "First, I'd like to correct you on one point." "We'll tellyounothing, because we've got nothing to say to you!" "We're going to speak among ourselves." "About things we need to talk over." "We requisition the Church as it has the most space." "And symbolically, we're happy things are said in there, where we've never been allowed to speak." "Where our heads were filled with ideas, so we would never speak." "So we'll tell you nothing!" "Can clerics participate?" "Are they not people?" "No priests in social affairs." "Not their business!" " Yes, as plain citizens." " Like everybody else." "Then why isn't he in the National Guard?" "If he's of age, why isn't he on the barricades?" "All citizens aged 1 8 to 40 must join the National Guard and go to the barricades or the forts." "The Commune had no time to put things into practice." "It had to cope with everything plus a war." "How to organize ourselves and build a true democracy?" "That's also a question of power." "This power gives you enormous responsibilities." "Power and duty must be shared." "Any human being can fall into a trap, if left with too many responsibilities." "We can't." "We're not built for that." "That's why we need direct democracy." "Participation..." "Everyone should find a place." "If we're all here, there must be a reason." "I tried to find my place among all this." "I'm a bourgeois from the 1 1 th." "I was against the Commune, but I stayed to help my neighbourhood." "Then I realized it was everyone for themselves." "I was very disappointed." "They sent their own kids to the barricades." "It's inhumane." "Those children should have been protected." "That's not true, we did protect the kids." "But you didn't hesitate to send them to the barricades." "That depends." "In the beginning we tried to... I realize that in the end, the Commune...." "" The ""legal"" government troops massacred children"" "and people in hospitals." "The Commune people fought for their kids' future." "To change it!" "It doesn't mean sending your own son..." "Mme Thibaudier didn't want her children on the barricades." "The kids did because they believed in it." "But in the end..." "Don't tell me it's the question of kids that's bugging you." "What bugs you is that you're the doctor's wife." "Your friends owned a workshop..." "The workers dare to take over workshops left by the owners..." "Absolutely not." "...and can do the work they were doing in the first place, alone." "Absolutely not." "I wanted to help." "" lf l try to help, I'm told:" """Bourgeois, sell your earrings""."" "I can't carry the miseries of the world." "What would it change?" "I try my best..." "Changes for the Commune?" "I'm impressed!" "Why?" "You can oppose the Commune and still love thy neighbour." "The problem is she wants to help the poor, it's not revolutionary." "No insult intended: she's nice!" "You continue being bourgeois and help the poor." "No revolution there!" "In May, the Women's Union starts to recruit, to register working women in federations and to establish cooperatives." "Did you hear about our Union in the 1 1 th?" "Yes, we heard." "The Women's Union." "It's time for us to unite!" "We're already united at our workshop." "We've started, we share the work." "Now we'll do it for the whole District." "All women unite." "We'll do things together." "We must organize." "During the siege, we saw that we weren't recognized politically." "We must have political recognition, and a place in the Town Hall." "We request equal pay and shorter work days." "Have women organize their own workshops." "Take their children into account." "We work... but we're hardly paid, even less than before." "We need workshops without bosses, where women will reap the fruit of their work." "When bosses won't recruit anymore, we can pool our money." "The unemployed must go to the ambulances to look after the wounded." "We tried!" "Why are you here, Mother?" "I told you I didn't want to see you here. lt's not for kids!" "War isn't for children." "Charles!" "How often have I fed you?" "is this how you thank me?" "No." "Listen to me, Celine, I don't want you here." " You're coming with me." " No, I won't!" "In 1 0 days, Celine Thibaudier, 18, seriously wounded, will be buried alive among corpses in a public garden." "Her younger brother's body will never be found." "What I've noticed is that the Versailles Government had the will to destroy us long before we took up arms." "And I feel that in 1 999, this will of destruction reappears each time we try to move forward a bit, to take a little bit of power, of freedom." "If we seize those things, we'll face guns and cannon in exactly the same way." "I don't know..." "They didn't take control of the bank." "Will we take control of the bank?" "Do something besides education, fighting the Church, those crumbs they let us play with?" "Are we going to tackle the real powers?" "As I was saying, revolution is the search for happiness." "It's simple, but to build..." "A revolution... destroys to build." "Because if you build on the old system..." "We know history repeats itself." "Yes, destroy, but during the Commune the history of France was destroyed." "They burned the archives, part of France's memory was destroyed." "Go to the archives today, you'll see, that's what they tell you all the time." "And it's true." "They say it." "Doesn't make it true." "On the question of memory - and I've noticed that whether in school or at university, where l did a master's degree in history, the Paris Commune is neglected." "This has to be made quite clear." "So we must talk about what the Commune teaches us." "Yes, the Commune was a failure..." "No." "The Commune is not a failure!" "Well OK, it's a revelation." "When I heard about this film I reread my Valles, my Louise Michel, my Lissagaray." "I finished these 3 books and thought:" "I understand Lenin!" "" He said: ""This is no joke."" "" ""One guy runs the army:" "Trotsky." "Everybody else shut up."""" "He commands." "He was responsible for Kronstadt!" "Yes, he did that but their revolution was successful." "Same story." "Thanks for the anarchists killed!" "At a time like that, there are no hesitations, you ban this, you do that." "There's no question of foreign troops managing to help the Czar." "We have to win..." "" Listen!" "In ""State and Revolution"", Lenin talks only about the Commune."" "I say it's another story because what impressed me is that the Commune opens up many paths and reflections on its failures." "This one by Lenin." "For others, it's because the Sub-Committees were disorganized." "Others might think it a lack of audacity towards the banks." "Some think it's very simply a lack of military daring, for delaying their attack." "The Commune was not a failure." "The Commune wanted the power to stay with the civilians." "To organize elections." "It was their fall and their glory." "It wasn't a failure - many things were done in just 2 months." "Things that continued germinating long after the event." "And if we're still bickering like this about the Commune, it proves it's not a failure." "We're not moving fast enough." "We're wasting time chattering." "We pass decrees which we don't enforce." "On the level of education..." "it's useless." "We haven't managed to put anything into practice." "I'm facing enormous difficulties with state education." "We couldn't expel the religious staff in some Districts." "In the 3rd it went very well." "By April, the religious were replaced by lay teachers. ln other areas the religious are still there." "We've barely started the new education programme." "We can't set up free education due to a lack of funds." "We can't recruit competent teachers, let alone pay them." "This creates big problems." "It's true, we spend a lot of time talking, instead of implementing our decrees." "And the budget..." "What can one say?" "Nothing!" "Three quarters of the available funds goes to the army." "The remainder to supplies and administration, which functions miraculously with so few civil servants." "We should talk about the worsening military situation." "This is more serious." "Because that's the situation." "About our finances - we'll probably manage, thanks to efficient work and scrupulous savings." "But we must all watch out for wastage." "As Thiers' army advances," "Commune delegates assess their position." "Present are Eugene Protot, Edouard Vaillant, Eugene Varlin," "Augustin Avrial, Leo Frankel, Francis Jourde and Augustin Verdure." "Concerning the artillery, there's no shortage of cannon, ammunition, even gunners." "What's lacking is organization." "We always come back to this." "Instead of endless discussions and quarrels, the Commune should split into 2 groups." "One would stay here, and the other would go and fight." "That's our role and our duty." "Enough discussion and waste!" "We must act!" "You might recall how enthusiastic I was about a month ago." "Today I can't hide my despair." "Being so close to the cause of women, I find, we've done nothing for them... even though they have such dire needs." "Sorry to come back to this again..." "We're talking about organization, wasted time, our failure towards women and education." "But I believe that it's due to our lack of clarity regarding the central political question." "We can tackle social progress with strong republican institutions, and a firmly established power and administration." "Instead we tried to handle everything in one go." "No. lt's a question of time." "You can't say that!" "We're assessing 40 days' work." "We can't do everything!" "So we need an executive power." "Yes." "A strong executive power." "Right now we have an assembly of 85 members." "Everyone debates, no one obeys." "We're often fewer than 85." "True, and probably so much the better!" "What are our priorities?" "We can make long-term plans, but if the Versaillais arrive, it's finished." "We've lost Fort lssy now!" "So let's not forget the urgency of the military situation." "But wait a minute. I was the first to talk about priorities." "The National Guard, feeding the people, keeping alive trust, etc." "But we should not go against our own principles." "We've been chosen to organize a government, a Commune, to be as democratic as possible." "Circumstances are difficult." "We know that." "We did our best." "If we don't succeed, it will serve as a lesson for others." "And I'm not at all in favour of handing over power to a dictatorship, just because the situation is extreme." "You prefer not to take the necessary means to save a revolution because of your principles?" "What other solutions do we have?" "None." "People getting ruffled if it's called a Committee of Public Safety is of no importance compared to what will happen to us if we're not swift and efficient." "Citizens." "The fall of Fort lssy has caused considerable losses." "The bodies of the National Guard are piled high in the cellars." "Throughout Paris, people have read Rossel's statement:" "" ""The tricolour hangs over abandoned Fort lssy."""" "Citizen Rossel later declares:" "" ""l'm incapable of carrying responsibility for command"" "" ""when everyone debates and no one obeys."""" "Delescluze is appointed War Delegate in his stead." "Today, he made the following speech to the National Guard:" "The situation is grave, you are aware of this, the horrible war waged by the feudal conspirators together with the remains of the royalist regime has already cost you much generous blood." "However, in lamenting these painful losses, I consider the sublime future of our children, and even if we do not reap what we have sown... I will still salute with enthusiasm the revolution of March 1 8... which brought to France and Europe" "prospects none of us could have hoped for just 3 months ago." "Therefore, fall in, citizens, and stand firm facing the enemy." "Our ramparts are as strong as your arms and hearts, you know that you are fighting for your freedom and for social justice, for this promise which has eluded you for so long." "If your chests are exposed to Versailles bullets or shells, the assured prize is the emancipation of France and the world, the security of your homes, and the lives of your wives and children." "" l say ""Bravo"", because at least"" "Delescluze makes everyone face his own responsibilities." "We're the Commune, we made it, we should defend it." "Citizen Delescluze belongs to the Committee of Public Safety... so I don't know..... he belongs to a centralized power at the same time." "It's thesecond Committee of Public Safety, so what's going on?" "We from the Sub-Committees support them because they represent the people, but it's something of a contradiction." "This hierarchy, with people who manipulate and centralize power and give orders that sometimes get us, our friends and brothers, killed on the field because of tactical errors." "Who's really calling the tune here?" "Us, the Committee of Public Safety, the Sub-Committees?" "Who?" "It's up to us to regain power, it's our Commune!" "Well, it's slipping away from us!" "No." "Everyone can take action." "We must stop delegating our authority and power." "We're active." "We support the Commune, but we must organize." "Not each man for himself." "I agree, especially now." "We must re-focus our efforts." "You support the Sub-Committee, I don't." "They always screw things up." "It's very easy to criticize attempts to reorganize the National Guard." "But the real problem is that the Central Committee and the Sub-Committees always give counter-orders." "You mean the Sub-Committee members who come from our neighbourhood." "You don't recognize their authority?" "I know them, we led the struggle together." "But now we're at war, shit!" "We've got to win this war." "But they were with us." "We must focus our energies..." "orders must be centralized." "I don't mind being a hero, but it's all a bit obscure." "It's totally obscure, there's no coherent strategy." "We never know what to do." "This, that..." "We'll develop a strategy if organizations stop screwing things up." "Wouldn't it be easier to make decisions in a state of urgency if things were centralized, rather than orders and counter-orders left, right, and centre:" "Public Safety, Sub-Committee, etc.?" "That's renouncing the power the Commune gave you!" " We made March 1 8." " We must adapt." "We can't delegate, or quit." "The Commune has abandoned its power and rights by electing a Committee." "That's bad." "And the Sub-Committee was with us when we took power." "Sorry, but the people up there, I've never seen them here myself." "The Sub-Committee led us to where we are today, a situation... not only beyond us, but increasingly difficult on a military level." "What we are witnessing is a free-for-all regarding who's going to take power, make decisions, send orders." "One person disagrees and sends a counter-order, and so on." "The mess isn't the lack of authority, but too many authorities." "Gentlemen," "the criminal insurrection which dared compound the agony of the foreign war with an equally painful civil war," "and a particularly disastrous one, had also caused problems in our foreign relations." "Thankfully, recent negotiations have removed all uncertainties." "A final peace treaty has been signed with Germany!" "Africa, which we are struggling to help," "will now be provided for." "Moreover, I can say that the dangers threatening our colony" "have been partly averted." "One of the dispatches, all of which as Head of Government l have the right to see, even when not personally addressed to me," "contains these words, written by a son to his father, one of our most valued Generals:" "" ""l'm fine." "Superb 8 hour battle."" "" ""Al-Mokrani, head of the insurrection, killed stone dead."""" "Thus, gentlemen, the danger which threatened our beautiful African possession has passed, and will hopefully, in a few days, have completely disappeared." "When the Commune is crushed, 100,000 soldiers leave for Algeria to suppress the Muslim revolt." "They carry out threats made by a General in the 1 847 campaign:" "" ""l will enter your mountains;" "I will burn your villages and your crops;"" "" l will cut down your fruit trees..."""" "The resistance lasts until January 1 872, when the French seize the last rebel bases in the oases of Touggourt and Ourgala." "" Yesterday our area looked like a real desert;"" "it was surrounded by the National Guard arresting all young or young-looking men." "It was desolation everywhere." "I don't know why our street was spared, since people were being arrested elsewhere." "Some streets had house searches." "The concierge said our turn would come on Monday." "Your father and Suzanne saw the dressmaker, who told them she had had great difficulty trying to save a young man of 20 in the Faubourg Saint-Germain." "The 5th and 6th Districts are also being searched, and the men of the 5th immediately drafted." "Since last night, the wind brings the sound of the cannon, making us believe that the Army is in Paris." "But even though shells reach the Boulevard Malsherbes, the troops, whom we await so impatiently, have not yet arrived." "The Proletarian Club has opened a debating venue" "" at the Sainte-Marguerite Church;"" "it's the second Church requisitioned by the Commune in the 1 1 th District." "A red flag hangs beneath the Church warden's pew, with this inscription:" "" ""lt is forbidden to touch this flag"" "" ""on pain of death."""" "Things are looking better now." "The Commune has obtained, or rather, imposed a contract for me." "I've had to lower my prices." "Still, I think I'll be able to do a bit more for my workers." "But will it be enough to satisfy them?" "It is hard for them." "How do you feel about what she said?" "It's true we have work." "But it's much more difficult than before, and with less pay." "Also, when you start getting old, you worry about retirement." "What will I do?" "You, Jeanne, last week you were out of work." "Yes, and I can't just always criticize." "It's true I have a job." "But the boss is paying us only half." "If not, she says, the Commune wouldn't give her the contract." "Frankly, I'm not so sure." "It's not fair." "We work 1 2 hours a day for the war effort." "We're paid peanuts, and when we get our money, usually we have to wait." "It's completely absurd." "Our salaries were already low." "It's all topsy-turvy." "The Commune is in power." "And the boss says they're only paying half." "On May 4, following workers' complaints," "Frankel ordered an inquiry into the clothing trade." "It showed that the Commune is signing cut-price contracts with entrepreneurs who lower the price of salaries." "Mr Frankel, please!" "Salaries have been cut considerably since the Commune." "Any comments?" "In support of the workers, we've led an inquiry into this serious matter." "Since April 25, exploiters have been fraudulently contracting with our supplies Office." "As I told the Commune:" "" ""This vile haggling diminishes the Commune's dignity."" "" ""Let us not forget that the March 1 8 revolution"" "" ""was won by the working class."" "" ""l fail to see the Commune's raison d'etre,"" "" ""if we who advocate social justice,"" "" ""do nothing for this class."""" "What are you going to do now?" "We passed a decree authorizing the review of fraudulent markets." "We'll do all we can to end these abuses, which are beneath our revolution." "Despite war and division, the Commune pursues its social work." "Other decrees are passed in favour of the workers:" "banning of fines and salary deductions, access to objects pawned for less than 20 francs, alimony for abandoned women with children..." "Citizens please, we would like to speak." "So, the rats are leaving the ship!" "" ""The members of the Commune Minority"" "" ""had decided to read, at the regular May 1 5 meeting,"" "" ""a declaration which could have removed"" "" ""misunderstandings in the Assembly."""" "We need unity!" "" ""The meeting was cancelled"" "" ""because most Majority members were absent."" "" ""lt is therefore our duty..." "please..."" "" ""to present the public with our beliefs,"" "" ""and to reveal the points separating us from the Majority."""" "Your treachery!" "" ""Through a special and specific vote,"" "" ""the Paris Commune handed over its power to a dictatorship"" "" ""called Public Safety."""" "You're the dictators!" "" ""By this vote, the Commune Majority has declared itself irresponsible"" "" ""and handed over our obligations to this Committee."""" "" ""The Minority"" "" ""affirms to the contrary:"" "" ""we owe it to the social and political revolutionary movement,"" "" ""to accept all responsibilities"" "" ""and abandon none."""" "May 1 8." "The Women's Union holds a meeting to establish trade union federations for women." "They decide to meet again on May 21." "This meeting, crucial for the future social development of women in France, will never take place." "I want to talk about the film I'm doing with Peter on the Commune." "It's quite a new way of working." "It's a process, there's a beginning and an end." "It's about the Commune, and we speak of revolution." "As actors in this film, we all had to build our own democracy, move forward in this process, leave space for others, and find our own." "And I find there's a parallel with the Commune." "Because I think it's very difficult to be democratic when desires are so strong." "When people are driven by such strong expectations, the crowd makes it very difficult to go deeply into things." "In this film we were sometimes driven by this joy which swept us away." "And sometimes disappointments brought us back down to find our place again." "I found all that fascinating." "I would like to add that just before the camera started filming, we voted on whether to have men with us here or not." "I voted against, as I believe we don't have the same concerns." "Even if some men do understand us, it's not the same." "And that's not being anti-men." "Not at all." "We like men!" "But I think that when it doesn't affect you, it's difficult to speak for others." "And it's time that women start speaking for themselves." "It's time we stop being represented, and start being." "Men and women aren't the same." "But I think we're entitled to the same things:" "respect and dignity." "It would be nice to get to that point." "Here we are in 1 999, and the Commune echoes, because we're still at the same point." "We've traded privileges for the power of money." "Sure, there have been changes, women work now." "I think they're still being had, because now they work outside, as well as in the home." "It's still the old ladies taking care of the kids and everything." "Of course, there are people who share, but we can't say we've made it." "We're being taken even more, because we think we've got it made." "That makes it even worse." "Because we have a bit of comfort and semblance." "Before, it was clear." "They fought during the Commune because they were really crushed." "Whereas we got screwed by comfort." "We talked about the question of film and TV production, etc." "What about the distribution of a work like this?" "It really bears a lot of hope." "If our small group could do this, with modest resources, it would be wise and important to explain this process." "It asks relevant questions." "To help us question ourselves." "It's disturbing too." "We also need to question everything, including ourselves." "To find answers like:" "we must act, control our destiny!" "We must move ourselves." "This experience is full of hope, and in that sense, extremely positive." "We should distribute not only the film, but also the life that took place around it." "USA's number 1 export industry is not aeronautics, computers or cars, but the entertainment industry:" "films and TV programmes." "TV is now a global presence:" "the number of TVs per citizen has doubled from 1 980 to 1 995." "Since 1 976, Hollywood foreign profits have risen from 30% to 50%." "In 1 996, the US film industry held 76% of the European market and 83% of the Latin American one." "Foreign films in the USA make up less than 3% of the market." "" ""l don't want my house to be completely surrounded by walls,"" "" ""l don't want my windows to be sealed."" "" ""l want the cultures of every country"" "" ""to enter my home as freely as possible."" "" ""But I refuse to be crushed by any one of them."""" "Gandhi" "Resistance is a form of violence." "Not the same violence as going to the barricades or being crippled, but escaping the comfort we're used to is quite a violent move." "How far are you prepared to go?" "It still happens - maybe not in France right now - but there are violent street fights against police forces." "It can happen." "Once you start thinking about it, where do you stop?" "The illegal immigrants' cause made me react." "Talking about confrontations, last month the security police evicted us violently from the Vendome Square." "They didn't have helmets or shields, so they looked human." "But they were stronger and had orders to use force to move us." "Even if this is a democracy, we weren't free to demonstrate, we had to be crushed." "So we were hit, pushed around, beaten and suppressed." "But this forces us to react even more." "Like when you're cornered." "What surprises me, is that unlike some of you, I feel I discovered something, something happened to me to make me commit myself." "I wasn't born with this, some things were important to me like respecting others, hospitality, tolerance, openness, cultural diversity." "Trying to understand why things are accepted or even valued in one society and completely denigrated in another." "When you're bicultural, you ask yourself these things." "Then you apply it to people of your own culture." "I saw that these principles of tolerance and openness were not applied to people of another culture, or rather of another class, the poor really." "The problem for French immigration isn't the foreigners, but the poor in France." "I'm a foreigner, I lived in the 1 6th District." "No problems between Saudi Arabians, Iranians and old French." "We got along fine." "The only differences were on the economic scale." "So when illegal aliens started saying," "" ""Enough, your society is killing us off"","" "it forced me to take into account my own egotism, of the luck I had, which I really didn't want to waste." "I live in the rich part of the world, I've had an education." "Do I sit on it all, or stand gaping until I die?" "Or will I make the effort to get out of my shell and meet people who don't necessarily share my point of view." "Once again it's that question of struggling alone to confront this famous barricade, finding out one's limits and desires, also maybe learning how to ask others for help to overcome this famous barricade." "May 21, the Versailles troops enter Paris through an unguarded gate." "Delescluze abandons all organized resistance" "" and calls for a ""revolutionary war""."" "He puts up posters throughout Paris:" "" ""Citizens, enough militarism,"" "" ""no more brass hats trimmed with braid!"" "" ""Give way to the people,"" "" ""to combatants with naked arms!"""" "At the Town Hall square, the objects to be taken from the pawnshop are chosen by drawing lots." "Until May 24, despite the proximity of the war, crowds of Parisians go there to profit from a decree allowing them to withdraw objects pawned for less than 20f." "Well children, we won't have the history class" "we planned for today." "You can hear what's going on outside." "And we'd like to know if you're aware of what's going on." "Serious events are happening outside this classroom." "What's happening?" "Celine isn't with us anymore." "Do you know why she left?" "Where is she?" "Why?" "Doesn't anyone know where Celine went?" "Somebody know?" "She went to fight." "On the barricades!" "With her brothers, exactly." "Are they going to die?" "People risk their lives." "Do you know why?" "Because of the Versailles troops." "Why, what are they fighting against or for?" "The Communards want equality, the people in Versailles want inequality." "On May 22, Thiers' army starts murdering" "" prisoners in the ""liberated"" areas."" "During the next days, thousands of Parisians, men, women, children, are shot or bayoneted on the spot." "Thousands more are sent to summary military courts, given arbitrary sentences, and sent to the firing squad." "Troops invade Commune TV." "The broadcasts cease." "Gerard Bourlet decides to use his radio microphone to cover events in the 1 1 th District." "What's going on here?" "We're queuing for our stuff." "I can't hear!" "We were told we could recover our things now." "She doesn't want to!" "Why not return their stuff, a decree has been passed." "It's been passed, but only for items pawned from end of October to beginning of November." "Forget the decree." "I need my mattress, my things." "The stuff's been here a year, and we can't get it." "Citizen Jourde," "Joachim, what's happening here?" "What's the situation?" "Ask Jourde why he didn't scrap the pawnshop." "Ask him!" " We can't scrap it." " Why?" "It's necessary!" "It replaces the moneylenders." "We can at least return the people's stuff, for the barricades!" "They will get their things." "I'm sorry, 800,000 items must be returned." "There are 3 offices, 3 shops." "We can't return more than 4,000 a day." "We need a method." "Will the pawnshops be shut?" "We'll replace them one day." "Now the priority is to defend and supply Paris." "We don't yet have one institution to replace the pawnshop, to avoid usury, transfer profits to state care, to hospitals, to pay for popular savings." "Let me finish." "It's important to say that the money from the pawnshops allows working people to be reimbursed at least to save small amounts towards future difficulties." "Poverty feeding poverty!" "And the Bank of France?" "It's got nothing to do..." "Future seems difficult right now!" " The Bank of France?" " Why not money from there?" "There's almost nothing there." "They evacuated the money during the siege." "Sorry." "Not for the few millions there should the Commune risk a slump in the currency rate and in our national economy." "Marion, an example of inequality vs. equality." "Rich people are allowed to do things that the poor can't." " Do you think that's fair?" " No." "No, it's not fair." "Will you give us an example?" "They have many privileges?" "Yes, can you or someone else give me an example of these privileges?" "The rich don't pay taxes but the poor do." "Do you know who pays for this school?" "The state." "Yes, the state." "Do you know why we're here today?" "To learn to read and write." "And to learn about what's happening!" "Any changes in this school since we've arrived?" "There's more..." "Go on." "Before, we learned to be good housewives and all that." "Now we learn..." "" more important things." "Also you tell us what's going on;"" "before we didn't know what all the noise was about." "What's happening here?" "They're breaking and burning everything." "What'll we do now?" "Who's breaking everything?" "Who?" "The Communards." "They'll screw up the whole economy." "They're barricading." "The Versaillais are coming!" "But they're burning everything." "Then what'll we do?" "What'll you do when the enemy's here, and no one's left?" "Nothing." "The same thing happened in '48 and for what?" "Only misery and destitution." "We're fed up with all these Communards." "Really!" "That's what you really think?" "Really?" "!" "Absolutely, because they're breaking everything anyway..." "We've filmed in your cafe, people drank, spent money, and now you've had enough!" "Now you've had enough!" "We don't want trouble, and that's what's happening now!" "We're going...to fight." "I'd rather fight than wait for their soldiers to come and kill us." " They won't spare the school." " For sure!" "They'll come here." "They'll come and hurt us." "Even if we're weaker, we can manage if there are many of us." "If one very strong person and thousands of kids fight, it's the children who'll win." "You shouldn't try to stop us from going to the barricades!" "The first large-scale massacres." "The wounded of the St." "Sulpice Hospital are brutally killed by the regular army under General Lacretelle." "Dwellers in a slum are murdered by General Bocher's brigade...." "The French educational system" " which denied us any financial help - maintains silence on these and other Commune events." "This film is dedicated to French filmmakers who were prevented from completing films on this subject." "Do you know what's happening in Paris?" "I was at the barricades in 1 944 at the Liberation." "I'm ready to go again for my children's freedom." "What are you doing?" "We're building barricades, it's really urgent!" "Would you have gone to the barricades in 1 871?" "Absolutely." "We had real power all together." "The people could have won this Commune." "We should have done everything to win it." "is there a way out of this situation?" "Of course." "We will fight and go on fighting." "We'll win, that's why we're here." "Would you have gone?" "Yes." "And today we must go on fighting." "They've established a world..." "Why fight?" "...of goods and capital, and we're fed up with that." "We can't stand it anymore." " And you?" " No, I wouldn't have." "I wouldn't go today either." "It's always the same:" "a nice idea of freedom, used for one's own ends." "Here, fighting between a Central Committee and Commune." "Today, it's the same..." "That's not important." "The thing is to fight to stay free." "Free to choose our future, to do as we want, to act." "But it's not possible..." "Why not?" "Systems manipulate us - we just carry out orders, become products." "Automated products, never waking to revolt." "I don't know." "Today it's easy to say yes or no." "It's a war of the poor who have a luxury - utopia!" "Utopia's a reality no one wants to see." "History will tell!" "Rebels have knowledge." "I can't hear!" "We can die, as long as we can express ideas." "Being here means we used our brains." "Even if we must die." "I might not have gone then, but what counts is expressing ideas." "Today the revolution is economic." "We tried to revolt against God." "We failed." "It's not economic, the Versaillais are right here!" "The only way is to die." "At least we struggled." "How can you fight on an economic basis?" " Burn down supermarkets." " You would do that?" "Yes." "Same ideas, other methods." "To get out of this shit." "There's nothing to lose." "People are ready to die when they have nothing." "It's freedom or death." "" ""Only force will guarantee freedom"", Blanqui said that."" "What doyouthink?" "Not Blanqui!" "I don't know." "I'm a literary person, a romantic." "I don't know what I'd do now." "Power has changed. lt's across the Atlantic, it's economic now." "It's a different fight." "A cultural and economic one." "Money is power now." "They judge people on what they earn, not who they are." "It's money, full stop." "It wasn't like that before." "You're wrong, forceneverguaranteed freedom." "It never guaranteed freedom, on the contrary." "Today... lt's fight Versailles or die, what's your choice?" "Like the resistance against the Germans." "Whose side are you on?" "Everyone can resist in their own way, every day." "Revolt is still possible." "In spite of economy and all that." "If we listen to each other." "If we leave space for others." "That would change a lot." "History is violence, all the time." "The last barricades were in 1 968." "Just over 30 years ago." "You're comparing these 30,000 deaths and '68?" "In a way." "'68 should have gone farther." "If people had died in '68, there would have been a stronger power shift, more benefits with an all-out struggle." "You talk about 30,000 dead in 1 871, what about those who die today despite all this wealth?" "We've as much cause for revolt." "But we fell asleep at some point." "What's going on?" "Over there?" "Seems some of them are more than ready to fight." "They're singing!" " They're blind to death." " Let's go!" "What's happening here?" "We're at the barricades, to stomp on the Versaillais, we're here and we're going to go all the way, to death." "There!" "We're going to fight." "Move your ass!" " We've got work!" " Join us, take a gun." "Come fight!" "For freedom." "Versailles is finished." "Thiers is dead!" "Enough of this rotten life." "Enough!" "We don't even earn enough to eat." "It's crazy!" "We must fight!" "You'd do the same thing?" "Yes. I prefer to fight." "I'd rather fight." "This is no way to live." "Let's fight!" "Boot out the bums!" "What do you think?" "I don't know!" "I'm afraid of the barricades." "We've got nothing to lose!" "Given the latest tragic developments, TVN's editorial board has decided to devote a special programme on the events in Paris." "I've asked our political editor, Mr Francois Foucart, to speak about the terrible massacres in the Commune prisons." "It seems, my dear Francois, that the hostages rotting in the Commune gaols have all been executed." "The news came this morning." "Yes." "A series of insane, irreparable and awful crimes have just been committed." "And the Commune will have to bear witness to History." "It has now been confirmed that the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr." "Darboy, has been shot." "Executed, assassinated in a cowardly way." "Abbot Deguerry from the Madeleine, court magistrate President Bonjean, and other priests." "All shot in the most cowardly way at the Roquette Prison." "The rapid advance of the Versaillais, their bloodthirsty behaviour, set the Communards against the hostages." "May 26, Colonel Gois, escorted by National Guard and rebels, executes 51 hostages in Haxo Street." "Eugene Varlin tries in vain to stop them." "The 66th National Guard Battalion, based in Popincourt, defends the Madeleine barricade next to Mme Talbot's flat." "It is decimated by the advancing army." "Survivors flee towards Popincourt... where they meet Charles de Beaufort." "We're still in the 1 1 th District." "People have seized Beaufort." "I don't know what he's done." "The men now distrust their officers." "There's the coward!" "You and your gold decorations!" "Happy that the army got us at the Madeleine?" "!" "And you'll finish off the job, you scum?" "!" "Not enough medals?" "He must be eliminated!" "That's him, I recognize him!" "He's a traitor!" "Shoot him!" "Bloody murderer!" " You play Marguerite Lachaise." " Yes." "You know what happened to him?" "Well, yes..." "That he was killed?" "He was killed a bit later." "A court-martial had acquitted him...." "How do you feel about it?" "You were inciting the crowd just now." "Well, I think this character, Marguerite Lachaise... I meanyou!" "Personally, I'm against summary execution." "People should have the right to defend and explain themselves." "He wasn't a traitor, but unfortunately he was still killed." "And Marguerite Lachaise said that since he had been acquitted, killing him would be murder." "Before that, she thought he was a traitor, because he had insulted the National Guard, was an aristocrat, etc." "It was a terrible situation, the community in danger..." "Anger was building in her and all around." "There had to be a scapegoat, a release." "There were others on the Commune side." "More or less 1 00 murdered." "But though the Commune murdered 1 00, the other side massacred nearly 30,000." "Where does violence come from?" "Where does it lead?" "What to do when people are angry?" "How can you stop this anger and violence?" "Today, violence is everywhere." "Economic violence." "Countries, or continents like Africa going to the dogs, sacrificed in the name of global economy." "All the impoverished in our own country." "The unemployed, some of whom are here." "The homeless." "And the illegal aliens we want to send off." "It's a catastrophe." "And increasingly more socially destitute." "Those who live in inhuman housing estates, who can only respond to this violence by their own physical violence, and theft." "And it keeps growing." "How will it end?" "What can we do?" "The Versailles troops are advancing!" "They've already reached the Bastille!" "We were going to have biology, but..." "Come on!" "We must protect ourselves!" "We have to block the doors." "We must do something!" "We can't go on with class." "Let's go to the barricades." "We can't allow that." "But remember what we said 2 days ago?" " We can block the doors." " With tables!" "We can do that." "Why not the barricades?" "Stop praying, Frederique!" "If God exists, why a war like this?" "Stop it, it won't help." "When my father died, I inherited his faith." "So I pray." "Faith...what for?" "" During the ""Bloody Week"","" "Mr and Mme Talbot flee their 1 1 th District flat to take refuge with their daughter, not far from the Luxembourg Gardens..." "Before her departure," "Mme Talbot writes describing the arrival of the Government forces:" "We cried, we applauded, we assured them that there were no traitors." "This great joy was disturbed by gunshots up the street, near the Boulevard." "But what despair and horror, when we saw regular army soldiers bringing back a Battalion officer who had spent two days among us," "to shoot him." "I'm recording." "What's going on?" "Strengthening the barricades." "It's win or die." "What did you say?" "Save the Commune, shoot all draft evaders and cowards!" "It's our duty to save the Republic." "Stop asking questions!" "We need help." " Build the barricades!" " What's happening?" "I'm showing them how to use a rifle... I'm...we're defending the barricade." "Would you do the same today?" "Sure, with people like that who've treated us like dogs for centuries." "We must react." "There's no choice." "But we'll go all the way..." "Today, what would you do?" "To defend ourselves?" "The same!" "is there room for utopia today?" "Not utopia, reality." "Here at the workshop, we're still mending guns." "Many workers at the barricades?" "All the working class support the National Guard." "Their struggle is our struggle." "Citizen Verdure!" "A Commune delegate fighting?" "Defending the1 1 th." "God!" "We've had over 700 killed at the Pantheon." "I don't see the other elected members!" "We need to fight ignorance, ...including orders like slaughtering in the hospitals." "Where are the others?" "We don't know!" "There are about 1 0 of us here trying to regroup, gather news." "Come on, they could be here anytime." "Freedom or death!" "What areyoudoing here?" " Anyone from the Town Hall?" " Us, why?" "Some people say you..." "Couldn't find a gun?" "People say you're to blame for this situation." "You'd rather a General who'd bring back the Empire?" "No, maybe I prefer..." "We saved the Republic, organized the people, helped them speak up, and learn." "You withheld weapons?" "We found weapons where we could." "We requisitioned weapons." "We tried, but also had orders and counter-orders." "Sure, we had our problems." "But we believe in our ideals." "Where were the other cannon hidden?" "Never in the 1 1 th." "On the Buttes Chaumont." "We weren't in charge." "The problem today is global." "It's economic." "We must strengthen the rights of countries that are oppressed by capitalist ones." "Today the problem goes beyond a simple barricade." "People are oppressed in capitalist nations as well." "" Oppression for poor nations;"" "and for the poor in rich ones." "Shit, we're human beings!" "It's always the morals of the bourgeoisie." "They destroyed the workers' fighting spirit." "I hate war." "But I hate our enemy even more." "They despise us, have no mercy, so neither do we." "If there are any barricades in Paris in the year 2000, I'll be there fighting." "We're defending ourselves." "They're not far." "We must resist to the death." "What would you do in such a situation?" "The same thing." "I'd take up arms." "But today it's up to each person to be his own barricade." "What about what's going on now?" "Now when?" "Today?" "It's the same." "Not the same form but the same alienation." "I'm ready to defend what I believe in, no matter what." "And it's not to set people against each other, or to enrich the industrialists and the stock market." "The minorities aren't responsible for today's war." "It's the big capitalist industry." "What would you do today?" "I don't know if this kind of barricade would help to fight economic globalization." "I'm not sure." "What then?" "I'm scared now." "I don't know where my enemies are." "I can't see them." "We don't know who they are, they're all over." "We can no longer build barricades like this." "We have to fight the media." "We have to use the same weapons:" "computers, Internet, TV." "It's about fucking time!" "Not to fight means dying inside." "We bring the Commune with us to the barricades." "It's our choice and our freedom." "Thanks to the struggle." "That's all I wanted to say." "Think you'll survive this?" "I don't know but..." "I have faith." "I couldn't fight if I didn't." "Heard about what's happening in Paris?" "What's happening to the wounded Communards?" "Yes, but I'm free to fight." "By doing that, I can escape manipulation." "It's the first time." "The biggest pain in the ass, is that you're still here recording, watching everything but not giving a fuck." "Whether it's a film or reality, you just stand there." "And I'd like to kill that!" "You think I don't give a fuck?" "Often you don't, otherwise you'd be with us." "You hide behind your TV and watch us die off." "TV is slavery." "In our country, the entire media..." "is in the hands of 4 groups, whether it's radio, press, or TV." "Isn't that censorship?" "You have to join us!" "Drop your microphone." "Fight with us for utopias." "There are still some left to defend." "Give your microphone to everyone." "We're fed up with corruption at the expense of the poor, the nightly charity collections on TV." "The Commune Council abandons the central Town Hall after setting fire to it, and retreats to the 1 1 th District Town Hall, where the walls are covered in blood." "Use those in front there!" "We should stack them up like this..." "We can get out through the window." "Don't waste ammunition!" "I wrote my mother 8 days ago." "I said Paris was heroic, never saw such devotion." "History will tell that Paris was fundamental in the struggle for freedom." "We'll be skinned alive." "They'll drag our corpses through the mud." "They'll kill prisoners, wounded." "Survivors will die in penal colonies." "History will see the truth, and say:" "they saved the Republic!" "The Commune holds its last session on May 25." "At 7 p.m., on the Boulevard Voltaire," "Delescluze, wearing hat and frock coat, red sash around his waist, climbs a barricade - and is shot down." "The Versailles army advance towards the remaining bastions of resistance." "All the children of Paris are here." "It's monstrous!" "Stinking reds!" "You lot, with me!" "Come out of your holes!" "Long live the Commune!" "Shut your mouths!" "We'll never be quiet!" "Never!" "Gentlemen!" "Until now, each time I came to you with news, I could only say we were nearing our goal." "And I was speaking the truth." "Today, I can tell you much more:" "we have reached our goal!" "Come on you bitch!" "Whore!" "Eyes down!" " Name?" " Clementine." "Name?" "Boidard." " What did you do?" " Public school, and I'm proud!" "Long live the Commune, you sod!" "Gentlemen, we'll have order here." "Name?" "I can't hear what she's saying." "The Commune!" "I'm the Commune you want to kill." "Estelle Thaler." "There!" " What did you do for the Commune?" " Everything!" " l'll die for the Commune." " Vermin!" "Vermin yourself!" "Ah, here's a likely lad!" "Your role in the Commune?" "Your name?" "The cause of justice, order, humanity and civilization has triumphed, thanks to our dutiful and brave army!" "Thanks to you, too!" "General-in-Chief, corps and divisional commanders," "officers of all ranks, and above all soldiers - each one has done his duty, fully." "You must be informed... that this victory was difficult, very difficult." "" ""Nigger"", the Algerian Spahi"" "fighting alongside General Eudes, joins the National Guard Battalions defending the Palais de la Legion d'Honneur." "On May 24, he is arrested by a Versailles patrol, and immediately shot." "100,000 men have been working with France's highest ranking generals." "Our brave soldiers have earned the highest esteem, and the strongest admiration from abroad." "You won't win!" "You won't win..." "But after victory, we must punish!" "We must punish legally, but unrelentingly." "All week long, we've had extremely confused rumours concerning the repression of the insurrection by our troops." "Our control room has just received some spectacular and ghastly footage." "I feel it is my duty to show it to the viewers." "Scenes showing certain streets in Belleville littered with corpses and flowing with blood." "I suggest we see this together." "I'd rather not!" "I think it preferable not to show pictures pandering to the basest instincts of the viewer." "It's a disgusting form of voyeurism." "Here's one!" "I did nothing!" "Come on, get out!" "Kill them!" "Kill them!" "Down with the Commune!" "Crush them!" "Shoot them!" "Kill them!" "Throughout Europe, the spectre of the Commune justifies a repressive policy towards social movements, not only by Bismarck and the monarchies but also by conservative republics, existing and to come." "Terrible things are happening in Paris." "And we don't have the moral right to flatter our lowest instincts." "I'm afraid that in the future, things will go from bad to worse, and that whatever form it will take, the media will be a spineless affair, seeking to sell its merchandise by appealing to the lowest instincts." "Mirroring the anti-Commune sentiment in the USA, the New York Times writes:" "" ""Let Versailles turn Paris into a mass of ruins,"" "" ""let the streets become rivers of blood,"" "" ""let all the population perish,"" "" ""so long as the Government maintains control"" "" ""and demonstrates its power..."" "" ""May they crush all signs of resistance,"" "" ""whatever the cost,"" "" ""so as to give Paris and France"" "" ""a lesson they will remember and enjoy"" "" ""for centuries to come."""" "I only show these scenes to underline that this blood bath might seriously compromise the new regime's future." "What do you think?" "Will Mr Thiers be strengthened by this ordeal?" "I'm convinced of it." "You know my feelings." "I've always been a Bonapartist and supported the Empire." "But as things are today, despite the royalist majority at the Assembly, I'm convinced that Thiers will play his game well." "He'll propose a Republic of law and order." "I would like this to be a serene Republic, firm but generous." "I want to forget all this." "It's absolutely awful... I will never forget this day." "I'm completely... lost." "We're living in... a truly horrible world." "I didn't think Thiers was behind this massacre, and I still don't." "In the film, I played an upper middle class bourgeois, a Versailles supporter by ideology." "Who of course thought that all those responsible for a civil war are criminals." "And that contempt for institutions, in the way the Communards, for example, rejected elections in the end, etc., is something very serious." "Therefore, I had to adopt an extremely radical position in the film." "I think that what happened in 1 871, and what's happening now is rather the same thing in that there is an urgency for a new social contract." "And that today, as in 1 871, we think that the role of economy, the dominance of the market, has a price, a cost." "And that it's even normal that there be people who pay for this cost." "Whereas I think that, as at the time of the Commune, what people want and wanted, isdignityandequity." "That's what I had to say." "" ""Bloody Week"" lasted 5 days."" "During 5 days we witnessed human butchery." "In the film I was asked to give substance, to give flesh to a character who'd be hostile to the Commune." "So, I did that, I cried out that they must all be killed." "But it's thanks to the Commune that we moved forward on all ideas of democracy," "on the refinement of democracy in a practical sense, of struggle against social inequalities, against exclusion." "Today we still have outcasts, and many social inequalities." "But at least we know what it is, what the words mean." "And I'm convinced that this is thanks to the Communards." "What the army did is scandalous, the graves at Saint-Jacques where they buried people alive." "I find Vavre's atrocities at the court-martial in Chatelet unacceptable." "General Gallifet's cruelty towards the prisoners, and Lacretelle's massacre of the wounded at the Saint-Sulpice Hospital." "I'm ashamed of the army, I'm ashamed for my brothers." "We killed Communards." "It's quite natural." "They're shit!" "They think they're French." "But they're nothing really." "They want anarchy." "Dough." "They want it all." "I killed...without remorse." "France needs to become strong again." "To regain its army, its officers, its values." "This was the beginning, I hope it will continue." "I regret nothing." "It had to be done." "We killed women and children." "I didn't think we French" "" could fall so low in order to build a ""mighty"" France."" "As a soldier, I don't regret what we did." "But I couldn't do it again." "It really wasn't a nice thing to see." "No, never again." "I have something to say." "Once more, the army has gone overboard." "It went too far." "I'm very disappointed because even if the army is a tool for repression and conquest, I always thought that it should also... serve as an example." "We should all behave as righteous, honest people, here to do a job, and to do it as well as possible." "That's not what happened." "We witnessed scenes of very personal sadism." "It's very worrying." "In the end, those who were the most brutal in these past days, were those hoping for the marshal's baton." "I feel strong compassion for people from both sides and for man in general." "This recent example proves again that man is capable of the worst extremes, of tearing another to pieces, at the same time, he can drink a glass of wine with his enemy, and be best friends " "just give him a friendly tavern and a nice sunny day." "That hurts me a lot." "Fire!" "Reload!" "Take aim!" "Murderers!" "They can't always hide what they did." "They can't always lie." "The Algerian rebels will be interned with the Communards, and accompany them from one prison to another:" "Oleron Island and Re Island citadels, castle-prison at Thouars, prisons in Belle-lle, Avignon, Saint-Brieuc and Calvi." "Those sentenced to hard labour end their journey with the Communards, in New Caledonia." "Unlike the Communards who are liberated by 1 880, amnesty for the Algerians will only be passed in 1 895" "24 years after the uprising." "Very few of them will ever see their native land again." "Let us love each other" "To share a drink" "Whether the cannon is silent or roaring" "Let us drink!" "Let us drink!" "To universal independence!" "" ""Bloody Week"" was enforced by France's highest ranking generals."" "The worst atrocities were carried out at the order of General Courtot de Cissey, Second Army Corps Commander and General Felix Vinoy, Reserve Army Commander." "4th Army Corps General Felix Douay" "" let a colonel of the ""loyal"" Guard,"" "run the Chatelet Theatre Court-Martial." "The latter alone will be responsible for the death of thousands of people, who will be shot in the Luxembourg Gardens." "Courts-martial were established at the Gare du Nord, the Luxembourg Palace, the Military Academy, and the Roquette Prison." "Executions took place in the chic Parc Monceau, the Tuileries terrace, in the Lobau barracks, and other killing fields in Paris." "Using a brand new machine gun, the French army will execute" "20,000 to 30,000 men, women, and children, many of whom had no connection with the Commune, in record time." "Varlin is dragged through Paris." "" ""Under a hail of blows,"" "" ""his young face, full of fraternal thoughts,"" "" ""became minced flesh, the eye hanging out of its socket..."" "" ""He was sat down to be shot."" "" ""Soldiers defiled his corpse with the butts of their rifles..."""" "Summary executions were followed by a huge roundup in the proletarian areas." "The official registers note 43,522 arrests." "The military tribunals pass 5,000 deportation sentences and 95 death penalties." "6,000 Communards choose exile." "This film was made with the participation of more than 200 citizens from Paris and its suburbs, from Picardy, Nord-Pas-de-Calais," "Limousin, Burgundy," "" and a group of ""illegal aliens"" from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia."" "The working process of this film included group discussions and personal research, with the cast able to develop their characters according to their own experience and motivations." "What they say is largely based on their personal beliefs and feelings." "Subtitles by Patrick Watkins" "Processed by C.M.C." " Paris"