When Karl Marx looked at the revolutionary self-governance of the 1871 Paris Commune, he saw an embodiment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Decades later, James Connolly, the leading Irish Marxist, seized on that same ethos of worker democracy. Writing in Workers’ Republic in May 1899, Connolly argued, “[T]he Commune, if it had been successful, would have inaugurated the reign of real freedom the world over — it would have meant the emancipation of the working class.”

The 1871 Paris Commune, an urban insurrection that lasted from March 18 until its brutal suppression on May 28, has always retained an important place in radical history and memory, synonymous with workers’ barricades in the streets and defiant red flags.