Louise Michel
by Radiyah Shakur
Louise
Michel, French anarchist and school teacher, was born
in 1830 in Vroncourt, France and raised by her mother
and paternal grandparents. Afforded a progressive and
liberal education, Louise developed social awareness
at a young age, and vehemently opposed the monarch
and the Catholic Church.
 In 1853 she became a schoolmaster, and opened a
private school in Audelancourt. However, her aspiration
to fight the Empire impelled Louise to move to Paris
in 1856. While living there, the poverty she witnessed
inspired her revolutionary spirit even more. Nine
years later, she bought a private day-school in Montmartre.
In this period she attended political meetings, and
met many highly-organised revolutionaries.
On 14 July 1870, war broke out between France and
Germany. It was during this time that Louise Michel
became politically engaged. She organized shelters
and food and was president of Montmartre Women's
Vigilance Committee. She became an ambulance nurse
and soldier, belonging to the Montmartre sixty-first
battalion. She was later arrested for insisting to
receive arms; the first of many arrests, but this
never deterred Louise Michel from sacrificing her
life for the ‘’conquest of freedom’’.
When the Franco-Prussian War ended in 1871, the
worker-residents of Paris refused entry to their
Prussian conquerors. The Paris Commune was formed,
with Louise Michel as one of its leaders. The Commune,
which only lasted for 3 months, severed all state
connection to the church, nationalized all church
property, and secularized the schools. After the
fall of the Commune, Michel was arrested for trying
to overthrow the government. She eventually turned
herself into the authorities, as they threatened
to shoot her mother. Thousands of people, even women
and children, were executed and imprisoned; however,
Michel became one of the 30,000 that were exiled.
In 1873 she was deported to New Caledonia. After
spending five years in exile, she grew to know and
respect the Kanaks, which are the island’s
indigenous people. In addition to teaching, she learned
about anarchism, and even supported Kanack’s
in their struggles against French colonialism and
racism. In 1818 general amnesty was granted to prisoners,
and Louise Michel returned to France and became even
more involved in opposing the church and state.
In this period she attended many meetings in France
and abroad, where she spoke about her struggle for
Social Revolution and anarchism; eventually becoming
known as the Red Virgin, for her radicalism. She
often traveled to London; and opened a school there
for children of political refugees, which closed
around 1893.
Louise continued to fight for social justice, better
wages and working conditions for labor, despite the
risk of being arrested. She was pardoned during her
last prison stay so she could be by the side of her
dying mother. Louise Michel continued to lecture
at home and abroad until her death in Marseilles
on 9 January 1905. Her funeral drew two thousand
mourners, with memorial services all over France
and London.
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