The Paris Commune. Monday, April 10, 1871. Today the Commune approves a decree on pensions that for the first time states that all families, “legitimate” or not, have the same rights. A pension is granted to women whose partner serving in the National Guard has been killed. The same applies to children, who will receive a pension until the age of 18, and if they have also lost their mother, they will be raised at the Commune’s expense. It is worth noting that in the text of the decree there is never any mention of “legitimacy” or “illegitimacy” for either the children or the women. Let us keep in mind that in our 1871, one third of family unions in the working class were free, without either religious or civil marriage.
