Show Notes
For 72 days, the Paris Commune turned the capital into a living experiment in working-class democracy. Parks opened, palaces became public space, newspapers and clubs exploded with debate, and a wave of reforms tried to remake daily life from the ground up: secular schools, cooperative workshops, equal pay in the National Guard, and a new vision of the “social republic.” But outside the city walls, Versailles gathered an army, and the dream of peaceful federation gave way to civil war. Inside the Hôtel de Ville, the Commune’s contradictions sharpened into open conflict. Jacobins demanded unity and discipline. Blanquists pressed for emergency powers. Internationalists and Proudhonists resisted anything that resembled a new state. As shells fell and bread ran thin, fear began to replace the exhilaration of March. The Decree on Hostages, the return of a Committee of Public Safety, and the tightening grip of censorship exposed a brutal question that had haunted every revolution since 1793: how does a movement built on liberty survive when surrounded? Then, on May 21, as Parisians gathered for a concert in the Tuileries, Versailles troops slipped quietly through an undefended gate. What followed was not a conventional battle, but a methodical annihilation as Versailles conquered Paris district by district. The week would end in massacre, executions, and fire: the Tuileries in flames, the Hôtel de Ville reduced to ash, the Commune’s leaders hunted down, and tens of thousands of working people crushed in the streets. In the aftermath, the revolution would put on trial, especially in the figure of Louise Michel, who refused repentance and claimed the Commune as “the Social Revolution” itself. And from the ruins of Paris, the left would inherit its defining divide as Marx and Bakunin both hailed the Commune but drew opposite lessons—centralism versus federation, discipline versus spontaneity, the workers’ state versus the negation of the state. The Commune lasted seventy-two days, but its fires would continue to burn for a century. This is Season One—The Origins of Socialism: Paris and the Making of Modern Revolution Next: Marxism vs. Anarchism: The Question of the State Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack: https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/ Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ Support the Show: PayPal Contact: [email protected]
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismhistorypodcast.substack.com
More from -ism | Ideas Meet Power
In the summer of 1886, eight anarchists went on trial for a murder the state could not prove they had committed. Unable to identify who threw the bomb at Haymarket, prosecutors built their case around a broader theory of conspiracy, arguing that years of revolutionary speeches, newspaper articles, and political organizing had created the conditions for violence. But as the trial moved toward its conclusion, the defendants turned the courtroom into a political platform. August Spies, Albert Parsons, and their comrades defended anarchism, condemned industrial capitalism, and accused the State of Illinois of carrying out a judicial murder. During the trial, appeals for clemency that first grew within Chicago’s labor movement quickly spread to prominent reformers and public figures around the world. The Haymarket case then became something larger than a murder trial; it became a struggle over revolution, conspiracy, free speech, and the limits of political dissent. Next: What is State Power? The Claim on Legitimate Force Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack: https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/ Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ Support the Show: PayPal Contact: [email protected]
History never answered who threw the Haymarket bomb. But it forever changed what Americans believed about labor, radicalism, and political dissent. As tens of thousands of Chicago workers walked off the job in May 1886, hopes for peaceful reform collided with years of mounting class conflict. Following a deadly police shooting at the McCormick Reaper Works, August Spies issued a desperate call to workers, a rally was organized in Haymarket Square, and a single bomb transformed one of the largest labor movements in American history into a national panic. In this episode, we follow the events leading to the Haymarket Affair, from the growing militancy of Chicago’s anarchists to the explosion that changed the labor movement forever. We then examine the wave of repression that followed and the beginning of the trial that would make Haymarket one of the defining political dramas of the nineteenth century. Next: Chicago 1886: Anarchism on Trail Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack: https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/ Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ Support the Show: PayPal Contact: [email protected]
The Haymarket Affair did not begin with a bomb. It began with a movement. In the years before Haymarket, Chicago became the center of a growing labor revolt as workers demanded shorter hours, greater dignity, and more control over their lives. At the heart of that movement stood a small group of radical organizers: Albert and Lucy Parsons, August Spies, Samuel Fielden, Lizzie Holmes, and others, figures whose ideas of anarchism, solidarity, and direct action helped transform the campaign for the eight-hour day into one of the largest labor mobilizations in American history. In this episode, we explore the rise of Chicago's anarchist movement, the spread of the Knights of Labor, the impact of mechanization on skilled workers, and the extraordinary events leading to the first May Day on May 1, 1886. Next: Chicago 1886: The Haymarket Affair Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack: https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/ Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ Support the Show: PayPal Contact: [email protected]
How can workers build power in an economy dominated by giant corporations and monopolies? To explore that question, we turn to the history of unionism and the rise of the American labor movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1905, labor organizers gathered in Chicago to found the Industrial Workers of the World, better known as the Wobblies. Their goal was to unite workers of every trade, skill level, race, nationality, and gender into One Big Union capable of challenging the power of industrial capitalism. In this episode, we trace the origins of that idea through the history of the Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor, Eugene Debs, Big Bill Haywood, Lucy Parsons, Samuel Gompers, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Along the way, we explore the central debates that shaped the labor movement: craft versus industrial unionism, reform versus revolution, and the challenge of building working-class power in an economy increasingly dominated by concentrated wealth and corporate power. From Chicago to Spokane, this is the story of revolutionary industrial unionism and the movement that sought to transform not only the workplace, but society itself. This is Season Two—The Age of Anarchism: Chicago and the American Labor Revolt Next: Chicago 1886: The Fight for the Eight-Hour Workday Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack: https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/ Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ Support the Show: PayPal Contact: [email protected]
The moment when the belief that the United States was immune to class conflict was shattered. In July 1877, railroad workers across the United States stopped work. What began as a wage dispute in a small rail town in West Virginia quickly became the largest labor uprising in American history. Trains sat idle, freight yards were occupied, and entire cities ground to a halt. In Chicago, unemployed workers, socialists, labor organizers, and immigrant communities joined a movement that seemed capable of bringing the nation’s economy to a standstill. In response, business leaders armed private militias, police opened fire on crowds, and federal troops occupied American cities. The violence of 1877 exposed deep divisions between labor and capital and helped lay the foundations of both the modern labor movement and American anarchism. In this episode, we follow the strike from the rail yards of Martinsburg to the streets of Chicago, where Albert and Lucy Parsons first encountered the movement that would transform their lives and American history. This is Season Two—The Age of Anarchism: Chicago and the American Labor Revolt Next: What is Unionism? Building Power From Below Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack: https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/ Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ Support the Show: PayPal Contact: [email protected]