Editing Paris Commune (section)

=== Programme ===
[[File:communepawnshop.jpg|thumb|The Commune returns workmen's tools pawned during the siege.]]

The Commune adopted the discarded [[French Republican Calendar]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robb |first=Graham |url=https://archive.org/details/parisiansadventu00robb/page/181 |title=Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris |date=2010 |publisher=W. W. Norton |isbn=978-0-393-06724-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/parisiansadventu00robb/page/181 181] |url-access=registration}}</ref> during its brief existence and used the socialist [[Red flag (politics)|red flag]] rather than the [[Flag of France|republican tricolor]]. Despite internal differences, the council began to organise public services for the city which at the time consisted of two million residents. It also reached a consensus on certain policies that tended towards a progressive, secular, and [[social democracy]]. Because the Commune met on fewer than sixty days before it was suppressed, only a few decrees were actually implemented. The decrees included:
* remission of rents owed for the entire period of the siege (during which payment had been suspended);
* abolition of [[child labour]] and [[night working|night work]] in bakeries;
* granting of pensions to the unmarried companions and children of national guardsmen killed in active service;
* free return by pawnshops of all workmen's tools and household items, valued up to 20 francs, pledged during the siege;
* postponement of commercial debt obligations, and the abolition of interest on the debts;
* [[workers' self-management|right of employees to take over and run an enterprise]] if it were deserted by its owner; the Commune, nonetheless, recognised the previous owner's right to compensation;
* prohibition of fines imposed by employers on their workmen.<ref>''Marx and the Proletariat: A Study in Social Theory'' by Timothy McCarthy</ref>