HEADLINE: The Centrality of Violence: Babeuf, Marx, and the Paris Commune GUEST AUTHOR: Professor Sean McMeekin 50-WORD SUMMARY: Communism relies exclusively on extreme political violence and the disintegration of governance norms, never the ballot box. E

HEADLINE: The Centrality of Violence: Babeuf, Marx, and the Paris Commune GUEST AUTHOR: Professor Sean McMeekin 50-WORD SUMMARY: Communism relies exclusively on extreme political violence and the disintegration of governance norms, never the ballot box. Early radical Gracchus Babeuf established a violent precedent, advocating the abolition of private property and the extermination of class enemies. Karl Marx embraced the bloody Paris Commune (1871) as proof that a true revolution required killing class enemies.