Prison Song – Louise Michel (1898)

Translated from the forward to the book, La Commune, by Louise Michel, 1898

When the crowd today mute,
Like the ocean will rumble,
She will be ready to die,
The Commune will rise.

We will return crowd without number,
We will come by all paths,
Vengeful spectres emerging from the shadow,
We will come clasping our hands.

Death will carry the banner;
The black flag fabric of blood;
And purple will bloom the earth,
Free under the blazing sky.

(L. M. Prison Song, May 71)

Excerpts from ‘Avant-Propos’, La Commune

Excerpts from the forward to the book, La Commune, by Louise Michel, 1898

[…]

As if anything could prevent the eternal pull of progress! One can’t kill the idea with canon shots, nor put one’s thumbs on it.

The end hastens all the more the real ideal appears, powerful and beautiful, more than all the fictions which preceded it.

And the heavier the present becomes, crushing the crowds, the greater will be the haste to get out of it.

[…]

In the struggles to come, one will not find such generous scruples any more, because with each popular defeat, the crowd is bled like the beasts of the slaughterhouse; what one will find will be implacable duty.

[…]

Heroic times commence; the crowds assemble, like swarms of bees in spring; the bards rise singing the new epic, this is indeed the vigil of weapons where the spectre of May will speak.

Trial of 1871

Excerpts from the Gazette des Tribunaux report on the trial of 1871 for Michel’s participation in the Paris Commune. Her charges were intention to overthrow the government, instigation of civil war, forgery, use of false documents, planning assassinations, and complicity in illegal arrests. Michel was sentenced to deportation to Kanaky (New Caledonia). She later republished the trial report in her own Memoirs

[…]

Question: Didn’t you wear a man’s uniform several times?

Answer: Once. On March 18. I dressed as a National Guardsman so I wouldn’t attract attention.

[…]

President of the Court: I cannot allow you to continue speaking if you continue in this tone.

Louise Michel: I have finished… If you are not cowards, kill me…

Trial of 1883

Excerpts from a poster printed in Bordeaux, ‘Défense de Louise Michel’, relaying Michel’s statement in a Paris court, June 22, 1883, where she, along with Émile Pouget and Eugène Mareuil faced charges of instigating and participating in looting. Michel was convicted and sentenced to six years solitary confinement, also to be placed under police supervision for 10 years

[…]

Why did we place the demonstration under the black flag? Because this flag is the flag of strikes and it indicates that the worker has no bread. If our demonstration had not been peaceful, we would have taken the red flag; it is now nailed to the Père-Lachaise, above the tomb of our dead. When we fly it, we will know how to defend it. (Sensation)

[Michel’s statement causes a commotion in the courtroom]

[…]

In short, the people have neither bread nor work, and we have no prospect other than war. And we want the peace of humanity by the union of the peoples. These are the crimes we have committed. Everyone is looking for his own way; we are looking for ours and we think that on the day when the reign of freedom and equality have arrived, the human race will be happy.

A Quote

“From the back of the room violent protests greeted the sentencing of the accused. A few cries of ‘Long live Louise Michel!’ were heard, and the session was adjourned in the midst of noise and the most varied outcries.”

– Gazette des Tribunaux on the trial of 1883 (republished by Louise Michel in her Memoirs)