As of March 29, the Council of the Commune forms within it ten commissions:Executive, military, subsistence, finances, justice, general safety, work, industry and exchanges, public services and education. On April 21, the Council decides that a member of the executive committee is "delegated" to each of the nine other committees to direct their work. Gustave Cluseret becomes War Delegate (replaced on May 1 by Louis Rossel himself replaced on May 10 by Charles Delescluze); Auguste Viard is Subsistence Delegate; Edouard Vaillant in teaching; Raoul Rigault at the General Security (where he will be replaced on April 24 by Frédéric Cournet, then on May 13 by Théophile Ferré); Léo Fränkel, is appointed to Labour, Industry and Trade; Jules Andrieu is at Public Works. The Committee of Public Safety, created on April 28, whose attributions have not been specified, encroaches on those of the commissions and creates a certain confusion (which will lead to the resignation of Louis Rossel, War Delegate on May 10) .
The Commune will administer Paris until May 20. Its legislative action is considerable, many measures are taken and applied in Paris during the 70 days that it lasted. Most were abolished after the destruction of the Commune. Vanguard measures were decreed that the republic did not take up until several decades later.
The Council of the Commune, begins by settling the questions which are at the origin of the uprising of March 18. On March 29, a decree postpones the unpaid rents from October 1870 to April 1871; the sale of objects deposited at the Mont-de-Piété is suspended. On April 12, the proceedings concerning unpaid installments are suspended, on April 16 a period of three years is granted to settle debts and installments. On May 6, the free clearance of deposits, made at the Mont-de-Piété, of less than 6 francs is permitted. Solidarity is also organized. A pension is paid to the wounded, to the widows (600 francs) and to the orphans (365 francs) of the national guards killed in combat (8 and 10 April). On April 25, a decree requisitions vacant accommodation for the benefit of victims of the German and Versailles bombings. Orphanages are created with the help of supplies from Parisian families. The question of supplies is less crucial than during the winter siege of Paris by the Germans. Except the bread which is taxed, the other foodstuffs are sufficiently thanks to the stocks accumulated after the siege, with the arrivals of the agricultural lands and gardens included between the fortifications and the German lines. However, by its circular of April 21, the Thiers government imposed a railway blockade of the capital. Public sales of potatoes, municipal butchers are created (April 22) to lighten the family budget (at the time essentially made up of the food item). Municipal canteens, meal distributions (such as the Marmites de Varlin) operate, bread vouchers are distributed.
The Commune takes some symbolic measures:the red flag is adopted on March 28, and the republican calendar (year 79 of the Republic) is again in force. The destruction of the Vendôme column, considered the symbol of imperial despotism, was decreed on April 12 and carried out on May 16. The confiscation of Thiers' property and the destruction of his mansion in Paris are decided (Thiers will be reimbursed more than one million francs).
Freedom of the press was reaffirmed on March 19 by the Central Committee of the National Guard. Anti-Communard newspapers therefore continued to appear in Paris, and engaged in violent attacks against the uprising and relayed Thiers' political slogans. Also from April 5, Le Journal des Débats and La Liberté, deemed pro-Versailles, are banned. On the 12th it will be Le Moniteur Universel. The pro-Versailles press continuing its attacks, on April 9, the General Security Commission recalled that the "prior declaration" remained in force for the press. As of April 18, the Commune threatens to ban newspapers which "are favorable to the interests of the enemy army" and which continue to appear all the same. It was especially in May that the fight against the pro-Versailles press gained momentum, on May 5, 7 newspapers were suppressed, on the 11th there were 5 other newspapers and on May 18, 9 others. It is obvious that the Parisian pro-communard press cannot be distributed in the provinces because of the vigilance of the Thiers government.
The Commune has to deal with the absenteeism of civil servants, who for the most part have gone to Versailles with Adolphe Thiers or who stay at home as the latter orders them. It is also a question of changing the state of mind of these public officials recruited under the Second Empire. The Commune decides on the election by universal suffrage of civil servants (including in justice and in education), the maximum salary will be 6,000 francs a year (the equivalent of the salary of a worker) (April 2) and the accumulation is prohibited (May 4). Civil servants no longer owe the political and professional oath.
The Council of the Commune, resulting from a popular movement, is concerned with improving the condition of the proletarians. On April 20, night work in bakeries is prohibited, but it is necessary to fight against clandestine work by seizing goods and displaying the sanction in shops. On April 16, a decree requisitions the workshops abandoned by their owners (likened to deserters) and plans to hand them over to worker cooperatives after compensation for the owner:two workshops will thus operate for the manufacture of weapons (the working day is 10 hours and the management is elected by the employees). To fight against a widespread employer practice, the Commune prohibits fines and deductions from wages in public administrations and private companies (April 28). To fight against wage dumping in calls for tenders concerning public contracts, specifications with an indication of the minimum wage. Labor placement offices, very flourishing private enterprises under the Empire, monopolies often acting as "slave traders", were abolished and replaced by municipal offices (April 20).
Most legal professionals having disappeared, all positions had to be filled (there are only two active notaries left in Paris). There are many projects but for lack of time few will be implemented. Legitimized children are considered as recognized by law. Free marriage by mutual consent is decided (16 years for women, 18 years for men); notarial deeds (donation, will, marriage contract) are free. To temper Rigault's repressive activity (at the General Security), a sort of habeas corpus was decided upon:suspects arrested by the Central Committee of the National Guard or the Security must have their case immediately investigated (April 8 ); searches and requisitions without a warrant are prohibited (April 14); it is compulsory to enter the reason for the arrest on the registers of prisoners (April 18); a prison inspectorate is created (April 23).
In education, the staff of the central administration took refuge in Versailles, the private congregational schools, numerous because favored by the Falloux law of 1850, were emptied of their pupils (more than about half of the 160,000 Parisian children schooled in the primary) since the decree of April 2 "separating the Church from the State". Secondary and higher education teachers, who were not very favorable to the Commune, deserted high schools and faculties. Édouard Vaillant, in charge of this sector, plans a reform aimed at standardizing primary and vocational training. Two vocational schools (one for boys and one for girls) are open. Education is secularized:denominational education is prohibited, Christian religious signs are removed from classrooms. A commission exclusively composed of women is formed on May 21 to reflect on the education of girls. Some arrondissement municipalities, that of the XXth in particular, which then had financial responsibility for primary education, made school free and secular. It should be noted that the teaching staff, who are paid for by the municipalities, receive an annual remuneration of 1,500 francs for assistant teachers and 2,000 for directors, with equal treatment for men and women.
In the field of worship, the Commune broke with the Concordat of 1802 which made Catholicism "the religion of the majority of French people" and priests and bishops civil servants. At the end of the Empire, the Parisian working classes were quite hostile to Catholicism, which was closely linked to the imperial regime and to the conservatives. Anticlericalism was reinvigorated by Blanquist propaganda, which was very atheistic, and by the attitude of Pope Pius IX towards the unification of Italy. On April 2, the Commune decrees the separation of the (Catholic) Church and the State, the abolition of the worship budget, the secularization of the property of religious congregations. The monks of the convents of Picpus, Dames Blanches and Arcueil were disturbed or arrested under various pretexts. The churches of Saint-Laurent and Notre-Dame des Victoires are searched. The Archbishop of Paris, Georges Darboy, was arrested as a hostage on April 2. The request for an exchange with Auguste Blanqui, detained by the Thiers government, was rejected on April 12 and then May 14 by Adolphe Thiers.