The Manhattan Commune – 1857
The events in and around New York City in the year 1857 were to send shockwaves throughout the entire world as for the first time in world history the working class seized power for themselves and for a few breif months established the first ever socialistic society.
The reasons for the outbreak of the Commune cannot be separated from the economic conditions that caused it – industrialisation under an almost totally unrestrained capitalist system. Just as parts of Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and Britain were starting to industrialise so too was the North-East of the United States of America – with New York being the centrepiece of this industrial region. The working classes of America’s emerging industrial cities, similarly to their European counterparts, were forced to endure inhuman living conditions whilst bowing the total dominion of the property owning elite. The dichotomy in the interests between these two classes had been causing a growing level of frustration and even outright anger amongst the working class. The pent up rage caused by these grievances is what led to the violent insurrection of the workers in 1857.
It also cannot be forgotten that the longstanding crisis within the Union over the issue of slavery was coming to a head. Again, the workers of the Northern industrial cities were militantly against slavery – frustration at the continued politicking of the government that only prolonged the institution was a lesser source of anger.
The actual spark that set off the conflict was linked to the latest Mexican-American War. Over the past two decades the US had been to war with Mexico twice before and both times the weak Mexican Army had faced defeat and the loss of some of its territory. However, since the last war, the Mexican Army had been reformed and modernised. So when the American Army crossed over into Mexican territory in 1856 it faced a string of humiliating defeats and was forced to fall back. Crucially, the Mexicans chose to halt and not advance into actual American territory – forcing their opponents to make the next move. The war had only enjoyed lukewarm public approval from the start and the defeats coupled with the failure of the feared Mexican invasion to materialise created a large lobby for peace. In New York the majority seemed to be firmly against the war. However the recently elected President, James Buchanan, was determined to secure victory and save America from humiliation. He therefore made the fateful error of instituting conscription.
In New York, a city filled with rage at the political and economic system as well as the hated war, attempts to conscript young men led to riots. As the riots and demonstrations continued to grow in strength with each day and each battle with the police many radical elements started to call for serious political change as well as an end to the war and a refusal of conscription. As calls for an 8 hour day started to become more prominent than those for peace in the West government officials panicked and called upon the US Army to restore order immediately before things got any further out of hand.
As troops began to enter the city events were headed towards a climax and bloodshed seemed almost certain. However, in the first days at least, there seemed to be an uneasy calm – many working class New Yorkers seemed to think that the army might be here to save them from the brutality of the police and there was certainly a high degree of fraternisation. The radicals too, now convinced that there was no hope of conciliation with the government, looked to amiable relations with the soldiers and just as they had done amongst the crowds they attempted to spread radical ideas amongst the soldiery and convince them that this was a battle between one class and another – nothing more, nothing less.
The period of fraternisation and calm came to an end on April 2nd as a huge demonstration was called. With tens of thousands on the streets the troops were deployed around government buildings. These same buildings happened to be the targets of the protestors – making a confrontation inevitable. After repeated attempts to hold them back the crowds started to grow rowdy and a panicking commander ordered soldiers to fire on the protesters in order to disperse them. At this moment a quite extraordinary event occurred. One soldier, Simon O’Reilly (who would later become a major figure in the Commune before being executed later in the year), turned his gun on the commander and declared him under arrest, amazingly his fellow soldiers supported his actions. As he would later put it ‘’I do not wish to live in a country where men, women and children are murdered for expressing an opinion – that is not the America I thought existed’’.
After this events began to move exceedingly fast as the mutinies spread and numerous commanding officers were shot by their own troops. Government institutions were being taken over by the soldiers and workers and all semblance of the old regime was being brought down. On April 3rd all state and Union officials began an evacuation from Manhattan and they were to be joined by thousands of the wealthy, property owning elite who were terrified of the new world emerging around them. At this time things were still chaotic and the evacuation was allowed to take place largely peacefully.
On April 5th the leaders within the city agreed that elections for a new Communal Council should take place on April 9th.
The new 92 man Communal Council amounted to the revolutionary leadership. Many of the council were factory workers (it was almost unheard of for such individuals to attain high office), others included professionals like doctors and also intellectuals. Whilst universally leftwing the Council’s representation varied from liberals to revolutionary socialists, however the momentum was most definitely in the hands of the socialists.
The new government proceeded to make numerous radical proclamations:
• Equality for men and women
• Equality for all races
• A ban on slavery in the entire country (at this time the Commune had ambitions of one day becoming the national government)
• The seizure of church property – the property was to be put under public ownership
• The abolition of the standing army – to be replaced by a citizen’s militia
• An 8 hour working day
• The postponement of debt obligations
• The right of the workers to take over factories which had been abandoned by their old owners
• The Union flag was replaced by the socialist Red Flag as the flag of the Commune.
Whilst the central Communal government itself was highly radical it was greatly surpassed in its actions by the local Councils which were under more direct workers’ control and were again democratically elected. In these Councils the revolutionary socialists (Anarchists, Marxists and others) were even stronger and were more determined to secure workers’ control over the means of production and thus a socialist state of being. Whilst the central Communal Council had accepted to continued ownership over factories and other means of production by those who had stayed the most radical local councils promoted the seizure of control of these by the workers.
Before long the Commune started to come under attack as Union ships began to encircle Manhattan and areas under Commune control beyond Manhattan itself started to suffer from attacks by the US Army.
Forming their own army of volunteer workers the Commune prepared the barricades and readied themselves for attack. Surprised by the strength of the Commune’s defences the government would delay its concerted effort to destroy it as forces where gathered for the operation.
Between May 24th and June 1st the battle for Manhattan raged. Over the previous month government forces had been making slow progress in the areas beyond Manhattan, however on May 24th a ship filled with marines was allowed to dock on Manhattan itself, whom let them in remains a mystery, although the finger is frequently pointed at bourgeois elements that were allowed to remain in the city (although these claims have never been conclusively proven). Either way, New York City was utterly ravaged and thousands were killed. In the aftermath of the battle mass executions of anyone suspected of being involved in the leadership of the Commune took place whilst thousands more, indeed anyone suspected of taking part in the resistance to the government forces, were arrested with some even being deported to several islands in the Caicos. Estimates point to at the very least 10,000 New Yorkers being killed in the battle for Manhattan and subsequent ‘White Terror’ with 50,000-70,000 suffering from imprisonment.
In the aftermath of the Commune the period of ‘White Terror’ in America began in earnest through a mixture of a mass propaganda Campaign (the first Red Scare), the near total suppression of Trade Unions and other labour movements and the arrest of socialist leaders and even suspected socialist leaders. James Buchanan himself explained the reaction of the US government ‘’we must blot out the aberration of the Commune from history, this new movement must be utterly destroyed lest it be allowed to bring down America itself’’.
Just as it inspired outright terror amongst the ruling classes the Commune was an incredible inspiration and vindication for the socialist movement. As Karl Marx put it ''Workingmen’s Manhattan with its Commune, will forever be celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society’’.
Ironically, it would be in Britain, more so even than America, that the impact of the Commune hit the hardest. The workerist infrastructure put in place by the Labour party and the strong Union movement in Britain, coupled with a lack of state censorship as in other countries, allowed for the proliferation of information on the Commune on a massive scale. The news of the workers taking control over a great city and the subsequent atrocities of the government caused a great upsurge amongst the radical elements of the labour movement. In October some 200,000 marched through London in solidarity with the Communards – an incredible moment in which internationalism became of great importance within the labour movement when it had previously held a lesser position. Calls within the ranks of the Labour Party were decisively dismissed by George Harney at this very protest, when he addressed the crowds he made it clear that armed insurrection was not only unjustified in Britain but would be counter to the interests of the workers. He called for the workers to express their rage at the ballot box, not at the barricades. It seemed that there was a serious risk that the labour movement in Britain might drift even further to the left of the Labour Party if nothing was done.