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Today in Labor History March 1, 1871: The victorious Prussian Army paraded through Paris after the Siege of Paris. Three weeks later, on March 18, radical soldiers from the French National Guard seized control of the city and established the Paris Commune. The workers controlled the city for two months. They abolished child labor and gave workers the right to seize businesses abandoned by the owners. They also dismantled the police and established their own self-policing. The French army quashed the commune beginning on May 21 with the Bloody Week. During that time, they slaughtered up to 20,000 people and arrested over 43,000.