100 years ago, the ultra-left leaders of the German Communist Party prematurely launched a revolutionary offensive. This proved to be a fiasco, wrecking the authority of the party. The 1921 ‘March Action’ contains important lessons for today.

The Paris Commune of 1871 remains an inspirational episode in the history of the class struggle. Revolutionaries must study the lessons of the Communards’ heroic efforts to build the first workers’ state.

Jules Legendre, from Révolution – the French section of the International Marxist Tendency – discusses the inspiring, yet tragic, historical episode of the Paris Commune, explaining the lessons that revolutionaries must draw for today.