French bookbinder and activist in the Women's Union of the Paris Commune
Born in Brest in Brittany, Le Mel worked as a bookbinder in Paris and joined the workers' movement. In 1865 she helped win equal pay for women and men in bookbinding, joined the International Workingmen's Association, and ran the cooperative restaurant La Marmite with Eugène Varlin. During the 1871 Paris Commune she was a leading activist in the Women's Union and fought on the barricades. Arrested after the Commune's defeat, she was deported to New Caledonia with Louise Michel and returned to Paris under the 1880 amnesty.
Career timeline
- 1865Helped win equal pay for women and men in bookbinding; joined the International Workingmen's Association.
- 1860s–1871Ran the cooperative restaurant La Marmite with Eugène Varlin.
- 1871Worked in the Women's Union of the Paris Commune and fought on the barricades.
- 1871–1880Arrested and deported to New Caledonia; returned to Paris under the 1880 amnesty.
Montmartre teacher who fought on the Commune’s barricades, was deported to New Caledonia and became the anarchist “Red Virgin”
Louise Michel led Montmartre’s Women’s Vigilance Committee and fought in the Paris Commune. Deported to New Caledonia after its defeat, she returned to France in 1880 and devoted herself to workers’ meetings and anarchist activism.
Born in a château in Haute-Marne to a servant, she became a teacher, opened a school in Montmartre in the 1850s and frequented republican and socialist clubs. On 18 March 1871 she turned out to defend the cannon on Montmartre, and during the Commune she served on the vigilance committee, in ambulance work and with a Guard battalion. After Bloody Week she surrendered in place of her mother, demanded death in court and was sentenced to deportation to New Caledonia, where she supported the Kanak revolt of 1878. Amnestied in 1880, she spoke and was jailed again and again as an anarchist, dying on a lecture tour in Marseille in 1905.
Career timeline
- 1850s–1860sAfter teaching in villages, she moved to Paris in 1856. She opened a school there in 1865, published poetry, associated with Blanquist revolutionaries, and joined efforts for women’s civil rights and girls’ education.
- 1871During the Paris Commune, she headed the Montmartre Women’s Vigilance Committee, fought with the 61st Montmartre Battalion and organized ambulance stations. During Bloody Week she surrendered to protect her mother. At her military trial she demanded death, but was sentenced to penal transportation to the French colony of New Caledonia.
- 1873–1880Deported to New Caledonia, she befriended Kanak people, taught French, and supported the 1878 Kanak revolt. She returned to France in 1880 under the amnesty for participants in the Commune.
- 1880–1905After returning, she spoke at workers’ meetings and demonstrations and continued activism in France and Europe despite repeated imprisonment as an anarchist. She led an unemployed workers’ demonstration in 1883 and co-founded the anarchist periodical Le Libertaire with Sébastien Faure in 1895. She died in Marseille in 1905.
Bookbinder who led the Paris International, ran the Commune’s finances and was shot on the last day of Bloody Week
He linked the bookbinders’ union to the First International and helped build a Paris federation of workers’ associations, then organised the Commune’s finances and labour relations. Captured by Versailles forces, he was shot with other prisoners at Montmartre on 28 May 1871.
A peasant’s son who became a bookbinder in Paris, he led the bookbinders’ strike of 1864 and founded mutual-aid societies and the cooperative restaurant La Marmite. The central figure of the International’s Paris section, he was tried twice in 1868 and organised a federation of trade unions. In 1871 he joined the Central Committee of the National Guard and, as a member of the Commune, handled finance and supplies; he belonged to the minority that opposed the Commune's Committee of Public Safety. Captured on 28 May, he was dragged to Montmartre, beaten by a crowd and shot.
Career timeline
- 1857Helped found a bookbinders’ mutual-aid society.
- 1864Was a principal organiser of the first Paris bookbinders’ strike.
- 1869Helped found the Parisian Federation of Workers’ Associations.
- 1871Elected to the Paris Commune, he became commissioner of finance and handled labour relations.
