and the Commune ... The Commune shows us the heroism of th working masses, their capacity to unite into a single bloc, their talent to sacrifice themselves in the name of the future, but at the same ti it shows us the incapacity of the masses to choose their path, their indecision in the leac ship of the movement, their fatal penchant t come to a halt after the first successes, thus permitting the enemy to regain its breath, to re-establish its position. ...If the power was found in the hands of th proletariat of Paris on March 18, it was not because it had been deliberately seized, but because its enemies had quitted Paris.
These latter were losing ground continous the workers despised and detested them, the petty bourgeoisie no longer had confidence i them, and the big bourgeoisie feared that the were no longer capable of defending it. The soldiers were hostile to the officers. The Government fled Paris in order to concentrat its forces elsewhere. And it was then that the proletariat became master of the situation.
But it understood this face only on the morrow. The revolution fell upon it unexpectedly.
The first success was a new source of passi vity. The enemy had fled to Versailles. Wasn't that a victory? At that moment the governmer tal band could have been crushed almost without the spilling of blood. In Paris, all the ministers, with Thiers at their head, could hạv been taken prisoner. Nobody would have raise a hand to defend them. It was not done. Ther was no organisation of a centralised party, having a rounded view of things and special organs for realising its decisions. ... The real revolutionary task consisted of assuring the proletariat the power all over the country. Paris had to serve as its base, its support, its stronghold. And to attain this goal, it was necessary to vanquish Versailles without the loss of time and to send agitators, organise and armed forces throughout France. ... We can thus thumb through the whole history of the Commune, page by page, and w will find in it one single lesson: a strong party leadership is needed. More than any other proletariat, the French has made sacrifices for the revolution. But also more than any other, has been duped. Many times has the bourgeois dazzled it with all the colours of republicanisn of radicalism, of socialism, so as always to fasten upon it the fetters of capitalism.