meanwhile (in the present day) the people are in the streets of paris

'islands of freedom' - hannah arendt on the 1957 hungarian workers' councils. 

'the new commune held its first meeting on 28 march in a euphoric mood. the members adopted a dozen proposals, including an honorary presidency for blanqui; the abolition of the death penalty; the abolition of military conscription...' - wikipedia article on the paris commune of 1871.

on 28th march 1871 (also in paris) edmond de goncourt (noble, novelist,diary-writer and no fan of the commune) pens these thoughts

'the newspapers see nothing in what is going on but a question of decentralisation as if it had anything to do with decentralisation! 

what is happening is nothing less than the conquest of france by the worker and the reduction to slavery under his rule of the noble, the bourgeois, and the peasant. government is passing from the hands of the have's to those of the have not's, from those who have a material interest in the preservation of society to those who have no interest whatsoever in in order, stability, or preservation...'

here goncourt (though a reactionary) is uncharacteristically far sighted. 

in some ways the 26th march election of delegates to a ruling body by the commune is a distraction (for a lot has been happening since the 18th). what the commune really need to do is to march to versailles to stop the counter-revolution being plotted there by thiers and his republican government. but it is probably already too late for that and besides their troops are not ready. 

later (in 1892) zola will write the novel la débâcle about the franco-prussian war and based on his eye-witness accounts of the crushing of the commune  (he is a reactionary also, his is an unsympathetic account). 

nonetheless this is also an 'island of freedom' in history. 

meanwhile last night (in the present day) the people were in the streets of paris.  but so are the police - the CRS or whatever they are are currently called, moving from corner to corner. it is not hard to see parallels.  everybody was filming it and livestreaming it.

but nothing repeats exactly. and yet in repeating what was hidden may come to light. the people are out on the streets united by an attack upon them all. and president macron would have been in versailles dinning with a king.