Building Barricades: the Political Transfer of a Contentious Roadblock

Abstract

This article traces the origins of the barricade as one of the most widespread and powerful political symbols of the international socialist labour movement. As a practical instrument of urban revolt barricades have a long history that seems indissolubly linked with Paris. The Paris Commune of 1871 marked the end of an ‘Age of Revolution’ in France. At the same time, however, the Commune constituted a crucial factor for the international transfer of the barricade as a political symbol that would be used and understood by socialists and their opponents worldwide. Socialist international remembrance and veneration of the Paris Commune became the key factor in the international dissemination of the barricade, not only as a symbol but also as an instrument of battle. The mythical representations of the Parisian barricades, in images, in speeches by party officials, in political literature and poetry, informed urban rioters in places were the barricade hitherto had been an unknown phenomenon.