This is precisely the reason that the demands of the ‘indignant’ resonate in a way that immediately brings to mind those who, with weapons in hand, came out to defend Parisian women and men during those heroic days in 1871, culminating with the constitution of the first working class government, albeit one restricted to the confines of the city of Paris. A government that lasted barely more than two months and was later smashed by the French army, with the open complicity and cooperation of Bismarck’s troops, which had just inflicted a humiliating defeat on the heirs of Napoleon’s armies. The cruelty against the Parisians who’d dared to storm heaven’s gate and establish a true democracy was terrible: it’s estimated that more than 30,000 members of the Paris Commune were put to the sword, in summary executions without trial. The Commune was drowned in a river of blood, and to atone for its ‘crimes’ the National Assembly decided to build the Sacré Coeur cathedral on the most prominent hilltop in Paris, at Montmartre, with funds collected from public donations throughout France, to honor the Parisians. Only a tiny amount was collected from the martyred city. Paris was defeated, but the Parisians were not brought to their knees.
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