A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #348 - History, one hundred and thirty years ago: The Anarchist Commune of Montreuil (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

From 1892 until the major arrests of anarchists in 1894, there existed 
in Montreuil-sous-Bois (Seine) a small "Anarchist Commune", founded on 
the principles established by the great theorists of the libertarian 
movement, Pierre Kropotkin and Élisée Reclus. Little known, we only find 
traces of it in rare writings of the time, which evoke it as an 
exemplary attempt at anarchist communism. ---- Vaux, Aiglemont, 
Méry-sur-Oise... From anarchist community attempts, a rich history of 
free circles from the very beginning of the 20th century has essentially 
come down to us. So many attempts to return to nature led by anarchists 
of the individualist movement for whom the social revolution was no 
longer to be hoped for. What is the point of transforming society? The 
important thing is the emancipation of oneself, for oneself, here and 
now. But the first of these tests was forgotten. Because at the end of 
the 19th century, companions with ideas far removed from individualism 
were already giving shape, in Montreuil-sous-Bois, to a completely 
different project.

The cabinetmaker Méreaux
At the origins of the history of the Anarchist Commune of Montreuil lies 
that of the activist who is its center of gravity: Émile Méreaux. This 
discreet cabinetmaker from Charonne is little known; he is remembered as 
the one who managed Le Révolté when in 1885 the Geneva newspaper was 
brought to Paris by Jean Grave. Never far from the notorious anarchist 
editor, Méreaux appears on numerous occasions in the latter's 
memoirs[1]. "Fair, wise mind, thoughtful rather than brilliant 
intelligence"[2], he is a grassroots activist whose rich career goes 
under the radar, with nothing being written under his name. However, all 
his life, he was a tireless and relentless propagandist for the cause, 
"convinced to the point of fanaticism"[3]of libertarian theories.

In the 1880s, he was already very active in an anarchist party that was 
then in full development. Like many of his political comrades, he 
regularly calls for agitation within meetings. This ardor turned into a 
"reflective revolutionism"[4]following the two years in prison served in 
Poissy for having fired on agents leaving a meeting of Louise Michel, 
boulevard Ménilmontant in Paris. Released in 1890, he became more 
temperate but his revolutionary aspirations did not cease: applying the 
ideas of the theorists of the movement, developed in the papers 
published by his friend Jean Grave, became the new direction given to 
his efforts.

Life and death of the commune
From April 1891, a few companions from eastern Paris met every week at 
his home, rue Armand-Carrel in Montreuil. The social revolution must 
come, but for them it is not a matter of one big evening; anarchism is 
still young, we must first establish its ideas. To the "negative 
current" of revolutionary propaganda, that of the struggle, must be 
added a "positive current", which must first "demonstrate what the 
future society will be"[5]; the one which will be proof in action, 
"through production, through anarchist exchange, of the superiority of 
our economy over the current political and bourgeois economy"[6]. At the 
end of 1892, the group gave itself a name, the "Anarchist Commune" and 
set itself an objective, "the putting into practice of anarchic 
communist ideas"[7].

Rue Armand Carel
The project is launched. The companions begin by organizing themselves 
around a cabinetmaking workshop, where they meet after work to produce 
furniture, without pay. Everyone is free to take one, but priority must 
be given to the most pressing needs; it is the taking from the heap, 
without estimation of value - that defended by Kropotkin in The Conquest 
of Bread[8], published the same year.

The business is going well but it is becoming necessary to expand. A 
call is launched for other companions to join them, grouping themselves 
by professional corporation. For their work to last in the long term, 
the commune workers know that the riches of the earth are essential to 
them - "bread", in other words Kropotkin would have said. Priority are 
therefore the artisans whose know-how would be useful to the anarchist 
peasants of the surrounding communes, whom we would help free of charge 
from the plowing of February 1893. This project did not come to fruition 
but the call was heard: in March, the town is enriched by the presence 
of painters, shoemakers, housewives, diggers, masons. There is not 
enough information to reconstruct the rest of the story. Only scattered 
testimonies make it possible to estimate the subsequent developments of 
the experience; one comes from one of its founders, Lucien Guérineau: 
"It was above all a place of example of libertarian-communism and mutual 
aid in useful things. At work everyone helped out in the evenings after 
work with the boss. There we mended each other's shoes, we improvised as 
shoemakers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, tinsmiths, mattress makers, etc. 
for making benches, tables, sewing machine covers, for tinning spoons, 
soldering holes in saucepans, etc. There was no remuneration for the 
work, it was taken from the pile for the needs of the things necessary 
for each person and the family. Every week a conference took place on 
technical, scientific and sociological subjects.»[9]

According to Guérineau, Reclus visited them, making a strong impression 
on the companions. He is "charmed with innovation"[10]. So much so that 
nearly two hundred local residents signed a petition to demand the 
release of the companions following their arrest, without success. The 
Commune, the work of grassroots activists, was not large enough to be 
evoked in more than a handful of writings. When Reclus and Grave, trying 
to describe "the anarchic ideal" or "the future society"[11], stumble 
over the fact of having to provide an example, it is the Montreuille 
experience that they cite. Despite its short existence, has it not 
achieved the objective it had set for itself, of having given a few 
companions a glimpse of what the society of tomorrow could be? The only 
vestige left to posterity: La Clairière, a 1900 play by Maurice Donnay 
and Lucien Descaves, describing the life and death of a small 
libertarian colony. The Commune of Montreuil gave Descaves, according to 
his own words, "the setting, the decor and the scenario"[12], but also 
the characters, inspired by the group of communiers he met in 1899; 
"ardent and thoughtful, a man of thought and action"[13], Méreaux 
recognizes himself in Rouffeu, the main protagonist.

Cover of the Glade
In 1903, the play gave its nickname to the Clairière de Vaux, a free 
environment supported among others by Reclus, Donnay and Descaves. In 
Vaux, it seems that people were unaware that the name was linked to a 
small suburban town, a decade earlier... whose ambitions were eminently 
more political.

Elie Oriol, Museum of Living History, Montreuil

To validate
[1]Jean Grave, The libertarian movement under the Third Republic, 1930.

[2]Dr Durand, "The cabinetmaker Méreaux and the "Workers' Evenings" of 
Montreuil", Bulletin of the Society of Friends of Old Montreuil, no. 6, 
July 1939.

[3]Charles Malato, From the Commune to Anarchy, 1894.

[4]Charles Malato, "Memoirs of a Libertarian - From Paris to Paris via 
London", Le Peuple, January 4, 1938.

[5]La Révolte, no. 14, December 17, 1892.

[6]La Révolte, no. 11, November 26, 1892.

[7]La Révolte, no 9, November 12, 1892.

[8]Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread, 1892.

[9]Letter from Lucien Guérineau to Max Nettlau dated January 1, 1928, 
International Institute of Social History, Nettlau papers, ARCH01001.2839.

[10]Ibid.]and only expresses his fear that the authorities, seeing the 
Commune expanding, will launch its repressive arsenal against it. Time 
proves him right. At the end of 1893, anarchist terror worried. The 
attacks multiplied, and when Auguste Vaillant's bomb exploded in the 
National Assembly on December 9, 1893, the immediate response was the 
vote for "villainous laws" a few days later. From January 1, 1894, 
hundreds of anarchists were arrested, including the communists who were 
imprisoned for several months without trial. The Anarchist Commune of 
Montreuil ends like this. However, the adventure of Méreaux and his 
companions continues. In 1895, they gathered again to form a mutual 
teaching group which subsequently became the Soirées Ouvrières de 
Montreuil, dean of the Popular Universities movement.

A play and then what?
The Commune had a local influence. According to Daniel Halévy, "the 
propaganda was continuous and simple, neighbors led neighbors and things 
went as desired"[[Daniel Halévy, Essays on the Labor Movement in France, 
1901.

[11]Élisée Reclus, Evolution, revolution and the anarchic ideal, 1902; 
Jean Grave, Future society, 1895.

[12]André Gaucher, "Our interviews - Among the authors of La Clairière", 
La Presse, April 13, 1900.

[13]Lucien Descaves, "The Congress of the U.P.», Le Journal, May 22, 1904.


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