Speaking on the 1871 Paris Commune at the IMT Winter School in Berlin, Greg Oxley explained: "The history of the Paris Commune is not just history, but it is our history. It is really the beginning of the concsious struggle for socialism. The Paris Commune was the first time the working class rose up, took power, held on to power for ten weeks before it was brutally crushed in the last week of May 1871."