As we commemorate the #SemaineSanglante - crushing of the Paris Commune 149 years ago this week - today I'm focusing on Victorine Brocher... cantiniere of the Turcos de la Commune, and her action at the Bastille on Weds 24 May....
By 24 May the Communards had been pushed out of the Hotel de Ville and were defending the Bastille/Place de Voges. Victorine's unit took position at 3 Boulevard Beaumarchais (now a pharmacy) with an excellent field of fire over the entire intersection...
Victorine's husband was a regular soldier in an elite unit, which partially went over to the Commune - so not a National Guard battalion. They were called the Turcos de la Commune, and were similar to zouaves... she was technically the cantiniere...
They were shelled and outflanked: Victorian tried to place a red flag on a barricade but in the process several of the unit got killed... so they retreated towards Belleville...
Victorian survived and wrote the memoir Souvenirs d'une mort vivante... which I will come back to on the 26/28th - she ended up in Lausanne and married the anarchist leader Gustave Brocher...
Her original name was Victorine Louise Malenfant. This carte de visite in Northwestern University's collection is labelled "Louise Bonenfant, cantiniere". Side by side with her in later life it looks possible they are the same person. Any face recognition experts out there???
Victorine and Gustave rocked up in London just in time for the famous anarchist conference of 1891, where the census captures them living in Akerman Road, near Kennington, where I live! With a house full of, er, youngish anarchist sounding people and of course a servant...
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Galloway's victory in Rochdale is a "which side are you on?" moment, both for the left and democrats everywhere: 🧵1/ The #1 task is to isolate and ostracise him and any politicians/activists aligning with him... treat him like Greek Parliament treated Golden Dawn...
2/ I want to see Labour's NEC and Shadow Cabinet come up with a clear political strategy to defeat both Galloway and any party launched by Corbyn; a clear fight against Islamophobia combined with renewed efforts push for a ceasefire in Gaza and also reassure the Jewish community...
3/ The Tories need to cease tolerating Islamophobia among their MPs. I have little doubt their rhetoric fuelled Galloway's support in the past 10 days...
The most important event in British politics yesterday took place in Maryland. At CPAC Liz Truss declared war on Britain's "deep state" - the Environment Agency, the OBR and the Judicial Appointments Committee... I kid you not... 1/ 🧵
2/ ...it's a straight copy of Trumpism and no doubt designed to channel American fascist money into the vehicle Farage and the NatCons create in opposition. But consider the logic ...
3/ Why target the EA? It only does what the Magna Carta did: regulates the use of land and water. Why the JAC? It simply appoints judges without political interference. The OBR ensures HM Treasury cannot cook the books...but...
I don't know what @Keir_Starmer is going to say about the new costings for Labour's Green Prosperity Plan, but here's why they had to move on from the £28bn: 🧵 1/ The cost of borrowing has increased 4x since the pledge was made... medium.com/@paulmasonnews…
2/ The fiscal dynamics modelled in Labour's original scheme have probably worsened. Labour's 2021 chart (below) shows the cost of decarbonising late: it have probably worsened but we don't know what the baseline debt - the "zero" in this chart - actually is... medium.com/@paulmasonnews…
3/ Labour's "securonomics" agenda has matured. It's a mixture of borrow-to-invest, regulate for certainty and stability, and active state direction through industrial strategy... get it right and *some* of the £28bn will come from the private sector.... medium.com/@paulmasonnews…
The USA and it's Allies have adopted a strategy of non-escalation with Iran, as it triggers one proxy after another to attack bases, warships, civilian shipping 1/ Today's killing of US troops may not be an "escalation"...
2/ ... because without air defences, 97 previous attacks could have inflicted such casualties; likewise the attack on HMS Diamond overnight; but since 7 October the legitimate question is what is Iran's strategic intent? ...
3/ ... because unless we know whether Iran is merely exploiting the Gaza situation, or working to a wider Russian-determined hybrid strategy, knee jerk reactions can be counter-productive....
The Telegraph's mega MRP poll gives Labour a 120 seat majority - but only if a) Reform stand everywhere and b) Jeremy Corbyn refrains from starting a new left party... I would not bank on those conditions 1/ 🧵 telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/…
2/ Trouble with MRP is it models local demographics but local conditions... here's an example: Sunak's own seat of Richmond & Northallerton... is anyone seriously telling me that if it was in play for Labour 9% would vote Green?
3/ It's good news for Labour in Scotland but there's blue wall seats that stay Tory, or go Libdem that I think Labour could actually win in RL...
4 years ago I was tramping the streets of Birmingham and Coventry trying to limit the damage Corbyn's leadership had done to our chances of winning the election 1/ here's what I wrote three days later ...
2/ I said then we could turn things around in 5 years if we combined economic radicalism with mainstream Labour politics on crime, defence and national security ... I underestimated how badly Skripal had damaged us, how quickly Johnson's populism would fall apart, and how reluctant the left would be to learn lessons ...
3/ Some Labour ppl were saying we would need 10 years and to become a liberal party and achieve PR etc... I knew we could do it in 5 with the right leader... and because the left basically sidelined @labourlewis - because Lexit - it had to be Keir...