The Arcades Project - Operi

epic. One has not yet understood that the other class has organized itself scientifically,
has entrusted itself to implacable armies. Its leaders have long since acquired
a clear vision of the situation. Not for nothing had Haussmann built broad,
perfectly straight avenues to break up the swarming tortuous neighborhoods, the
breeding grounds for mystery and for the feuilleton, the secret gardens of popular
conspiracy." Jean Cassou, " La Semaine sanglante," Vendredi, May 22, 1936.
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Engels and the Commune: " As long as the central committee of the Garde Nationale
was directing the military operations, he remained hopeful. It was doubtless he
who gave the advice which Marx transmitted to Paris: 'to fortify the northern
slopes of Montmartre, the Prussian side.' He feared that, othenvise, the uprising
would land in a mousetrap.' But the Commune failed to heed tIns warning and, as
Engels regretfully confirmed, let the right moment for the offensive slip past. . ..
Initially, Engels believed that the struggle would drag on . . . . In the General
Council, he emphasized . .. that the Parisian workers were better organized militarily
than in any earlier rebellion; that the street widening undertaken during the
administration of Napoleon HI would necessarily work to their advantage, should
the assault on the city succeed; that for the first time, the harricades would be
defended by cannons and regularly organized troops." Gustav Mayer, Friedrich
Engels, vol. 2, Engels und dm' Au/stieg der Arbeiterbewegung in Europa (Berlin