Sen. , the specific features of the Commune he singled out for praise were radically democratic ones—like making all elected officials recallable by their constituents at any time and for any reason, and limiting them to the average salary of a skilled worker.
Speaking of the Franco-Prussian War, here’s what Marx wrote about the beginning of that war:
“The English working class stretch the hand of fellowship to the French and German working people. They feel deeply convinced that whatever turn the impending horrid war may take, the alliance of the working classes of all countries will ultimately kill war.”
In other words, working-class people everywhere are used as cannon fodder in wars they have no say in starting. It’s in their interests to join together across national boundaries to “kill war.”
Who do you think the author of that quote would have identified with more—Russian and Ukrainian draft resisters desperate not to have their lives thrown away in the conflict, or the conservative nationalist politician, supported by wealthy oligarchs and the Russian Orthodox Church, who started the war?
It’s not a hard question.
