Comité de vigilance de Montmartre

Closely affiliated with the International Workingman's Association, its members had strong connections with the various anarchist and socialist tendencies of the time, particularly those represented by Karl Marx, Mikhail Bakunin, and Auguste Blanqui.

Acting as poles of coordination, discussion, and preparation, these clubs and committees would come to play a significant role in the establishment, development, and defense of the future Paris Commune.

Composed of militants drawn from almost every segment of the radical spectrum, the Committee of Vigilance included such notable figures as Louise Michel, who would become known as a feminist, writer, and anarchist; Théophile Ferré, an elected member of the Paris Commune who later issued a call for the burning of the Finance ministry and ordered the execution of six hostages, including the archbishop of Paris, in retaliation for the summary execution of countless communards by the Versailles government; Paule Minck, a feminist organizer responsible for the founding of a free school at the Church of Saint Pierre de Montmartre; Anne Jaclard, a member of the Russian section of the International Workingman’s Association, and a co-founder of the radical newspaper La Social; and Jules-Henri-Marius Bergeret, a leading spirit of the Committee and the revolutionary movement as a whole.

Montmartre, which was officially incorporated into Paris as an arrondissement only in 1860, had long been free of both the Parisian tax system as well as stringent police authority, transforming it into a haven for nonconformists, criminals, and dissenters.

The defeat of the French Army and the humiliating armistice negotiated by that Republic in January 1871 produced an atmosphere of anger and resent that hovered over all of Paris.