Louise Michel

Life & Legacy

Louise Michel (French: [lwiz miʃɛl] ; 29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905), also known by her nickname of Enjolras, was a French teacher, writer, poet, philosopher, Communard, and anarchist. A major figure in the Paris Commune, where she was militarily and politically involved and was one of the most famous representatives of the role played by women in the Paris Commune, she was also a feminist figure and became one of the key personalities of anarchism during her lifetime, a movement she joined after the Commune and profoundly influenced.
Concerned with education from an early age, she taught for several years before moving to Paris in 1856. At the age of 26, she developed significant literary, educational, and political activity there and connected with several Blanquist revolutionary figures in Paris during the 1860s.
In 1871, she actively participated in the events of the Paris Commune, both on the front line and in support. Having turned herself in in May to secure her mother's release, she was deported to New Caledonia, where she converted to anarchist thought. She returned to mainland France in 1880, thanks to the amnesty for the Communards, and, being very popular, participated in numerous demonstrations and meetings in favor of the working class. She remained under police surveillance and was imprisoned several times but continued her political activism throughout France until her death at the age of 74 in Marseille.
She remains a prominent revolutionary and anarchist figure in the collective imagination. The first anarchist to display the black flag during the demonstration of 9 March 1883, she popularized it within the anarchist movement. She was also a precursor on the issue of animal welfare, denouncing animal cruelty and exploitation, in particular, alongside that of human beings.