Louise Michel, born on this day in 1830, was a French anarchist, feminist, educator, author, and militant leader of the Paris Commune.
Born in 1830 as an illegitimate daughter and raised by her grandparents, Louise Michel worked as a schoolteacher before revolution came to Paris, and, in 1865, opened a school dedicated to methods of progressive education.
There, Michel came into contact with radical thinkers such as Jules Vallès and Auguste Blanqui, and was concerned about the impoverishment of those on the margins of French society. In 1869, she was one of the founding members of the “Society for the Demand of Civil Rights for Women”, focused on improving girls’ education.
In 1870, war broke out between France and the Empire of Prussia. The war quickly ended in defeat for France, and, the following March, discontented members of the National Guard mutinied against the new national government in Paris, marking the beginning of the working class uprising known as the Paris Commune.
Michel joined the rebellion and was elected head of the Montmartre Women’s Vigilance Committee, playing an important role in the provisional revolutionary administration. She had a romantic relationship with Théophile Ferré, a senior member of the Commune’s Committee of Public Safety.
Michel personally fought on the front lines at the barricades, also organizing ambulance stations to transport the wounded. She expressed a willingness to sacrifice herself for the sake of revolution, stating “I like the smell of gunpowder, grapeshot flying through the air, but above all, I’m devoted to the Revolution.”
Michel survived the fall of the Commune and was brought to trial in December 1871. She dared the judges to sentence her to death, saying “It seems that every heart that beats for freedom has no other right than a bit of lead, so I claim mine!”
Unlike Ferré, who was executed, she was instead punished by deportation to a penal settlement in the French colony of New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean.
In New Caledonia, she became acquainted with the indigenous Kanak people, and took an interest in their culture and language, later supporting them during an 1878 revolt against French rule.
Michel also befriended Nathalie Lemel, another exiled figure from the Commune, and became an explicit anarchist under her influence. In 1880, amnesty was granted to former Communards, and Michel returned to Paris, where she was greeted as a hero by the downtrodden of the city and resumed her revolutionary activity.
Michel later moved to London for five years, where she ran a school for children of political refugees, and became a famed speaker across Europe, meeting figures such as the Pankhurst sisters, Peter Kropotkin, and Emma Goldman.
In 1904, Michel embarked on an anti-colonial speaking tour in French Algeria, before falling ill shortly after. She died in Marseille on January 9th, 1905 at the age of 74. Her funeral was attended by over 100,000 people, receiving delegations from socialist and anarchist groups all across Europe.
Today, Michel remains one of the most famous icons of the Paris Commune and is regarded as a pioneer of anarcha-feminism.
-
Louise Michel: a leading light and feminist figure in the Paris Commune
-
Louise Michel: the revolutionary woman who led the Paris Commune
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
- 📀 Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube
- 🔥 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread
- ⚔ Come talk in the New Weekly PoC thread
- ✨ Talk with fellow Trans comrades in the New Weekly Trans thread
reminders:
- 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
- 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
- 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
- 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
Lol the loser db0 admin says we only claim to be trans-friendly but we arent because we dont accept western libs.
anyways, always
on the imperial coreMy cat died today at noon, we had to put her down. For the last few days she has been making frequent morning visits to the vet with my mother to have her checked and given serum…, she made one final visit this morning as she was very weak. The vet told us she had a very slow heart rate and it was evident she was suffering, she advised us we could put her to sleep if we so desired. She returned back home to allow us to say our final goodbyes to our 18 years old sweet baby, and I’m glad I was able to pet her one last time.
At around noon she was put to sleep, I wasn’t there to see it. I couldn’t bear it, I wanted my last sight of her to be when she was still alive. We buried her in the garden, next to our old dog that died many years ago.
That’s her during happier and simpler times. She loved to lay and take a long nap by the sunlight, she would even cry for the sun during cold and cloudy days.
She will be missed.
I recently started playing the Mad Max videogame in preparation for Furiosa and it fucking rips. Ramming into an oncoming car at full speed with nitro boost never gets old no matter how many times I do it. Turns out that videogames are awesome
I’m addicted to linkedin. I used to think it was just the linkedin style, but there are subcultures, and every single person in each subculture is as dumb as the dumbest boomer in facebook. Analytics linkedin is constantly explaining high school math to eachother. Data science linkedin is constantly discovering regression and sorting exists. Just saw HR linkedin and it was a guy listing HR kpis and they were all like “hiring cost per employee = total cost of hiring divided by total employees hired”. He had like 6 of these and every single one was just this tweet
I’m never leaving that place it’s a fucking goldmine
There was a thread on reddit /r/games 1-2 months ago about a few neonazi dogwhistles being found during development of a life is strange sequel.
The evidence was clear - Anyone who has seen these symbols before knows that one is suspicious, multiple in the same place is undeniable proof something is up.
I checked it before falling asleep and the thread was packed full of comments denying there’s anything wrong with these symbols, it’s virtue signalling to complain about them, that people taking issue with them are in urgent need of therapy, at worst it’s all just a coincidence.
And then a bunch of weird nerd types whose main takeaway from “The Wire” was somehow that its cool to swear repeatedly when investigating a murder scene and any racist memes that reference the same line are therefore A-OK!!!
By the time I woke up the thread had been cleared and only more reasonable discourse remained, so there is some decent moderation on the hellsite, but I recognised it as the same pattern I see in a bunch of other places such as sports subs - the moment a divisive topic comes up the thread is flooded with transphobia and xenophobia or just straight up nazi shit, and attempt to argue back will be drowned out by 10s of other comments from fresh accounts or ones with no history in that community.
No real point here, just
living up to it’s well deserved reputation.so far hexbear is supermajority queer based on the survey
maybe we should issue some pell grants for cishets on hexbear who post between 9am and 5pm on fridays to sundays in idaho
I would like to once again thank Bernie for giving his email list to the fucking DNC. Just saw one email from Jon “I love genocide” Fetterman. I think its about time to get myself a new email.
Ana Kasparian calling Biden “a good little whore for Israel” caught me a little off guard. I thought TYT would be way too liberal and civility-pilled for that.
Ana Kasparian redemption/radicalization arc incoming haha come on please haha I can fix her
No. She sucks
Sad!No you don’t understand she’s very attractive and I also want to fix her
The fascists would win any civil war, they just have to send 1 fascist lady with angular/strong features and half the sapphic batallions will fucking defect.
That’s why we need the gays and especially the blessed by God Twinks
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
mulling over applying for a position at a “faith-based” non-profit, then i read “A good understanding of Israel is helpful but not required.”
gee wonder what they consider a ‘good understanding’ to be
One of my cats is very ill, she has been developing problems in her kidneys for about a year or two now, but this week she has been feeling very bad, she wont eat nor walk around for too long. Vet says she has symptoms of kidney failure. She’s quite old too, we found her and her sister back in 2007 when they were just newborns, we rescued them from the streets.
Name’s Mila, she’s very sweet but I can’t see her like this, it’s breaking my heart. Deep down I know she wont be here for long.
Go hug your cat.
I hate to be a joyless tankie about shit but it’s a little sad to see so many lgbt people get swept up in rainbow capitalism from target this year, especially in light of how quickly they doubled back last year from reactionary pushback
(Some of the stuff is cute tho I get it)
talking electoralism with my dad and there’s an off-handed remark that “Gaza will be wrapped up by August,” father what exactly do you mean with those words, please spare no detail, you have a rhetoric red check to pass
