Contents of file: ---- Action retreat, collapse: ten tragic days ---- Saturday, July 25:
warning ---- Sunday, July 26: The Battle union takes the initiative ---- Monday, July 27:
pacifists in the street ---- Tuesday, July 28: cane CGT ---- Wednesday, July 29: The
meeting of Wagram canceled ---- Thursday, July 30: renewed fighting ---- Friday, July 31:
Jaures assassinated ---- Saturday, August 1: decree of general mobilization ---- Sunday,
August 2: the labor movement disarticulated ---- Monday, August 3: rallying national
defense ---- Tuesday, August 4: the "truce of parties" ---- Fractions of the labor
movement in 1914 ---- Viviani: the art of government enfumage ---- Against the war, three
strategies (CGT, PS, FCA) ---- Why book B has he not been applied? ---- Verbatim: Emile
Aubin: "Silence, the loudmouths!" ---- Epilogue: Resisting the sacred union ---- Timeline:
Four-year climb to the war
war 1914-1918 Could be prevented?
What happened exactly?
Between Saturday, July 25 - the day when the press gives knowledge of the Austrian
ultimatum - and Tuesday, August 4, 1914 - creation of "sacred union" after the declaration
of war - it takes ten days.
These ten tragic days, the memory holds generally that the sudden collapse of the pacifist
positions and rallying to the defense.
But the place of events is more complex. This file tells the story at breast height,
showing the reluctance of some, the renunciation of others, but also attempts to resist
that contradict, if need be, the myth of a unanimous patriotic enthusiasm.
This special issue is adapted from the last chapter of a book to be released in the fall
of 2014: Too young to die. Revolutionary workers and facing war (1909-1914), The Insomniac
/ Libertalia, 544 pages.
All information about http://tropjeunespourmourir.com
Editorial
The Great War she was "inevitable"?
That would be to say that fatalism. Inevitable, no. But highly probable, yes. During the
fifteen years preceding 1914, the imperialist rivalries led to a war that could erupt
earlier - in 1901, 1905, 1911 or 1912.
It would perhaps also have never burst, if the hawkish bourgeoisie had enough fear its
consequences in terms of "social disorder" - that is to say if she had enough fear of the
labor movement. It was there the desire to prevent war? It is unmistakable. Had he force?
In July 1914, in France, it is of course not.
After the war, the protagonists of the CGT will all leanings, their examination of
conscience. All recognize their discouragement in July 1914 revolutionary Pierre Monatte
declared from the rostrum of the Confederal Congress Lyon in 1919. "I will not in the
office Confederal the reproach of not having triggered a general strike before
mobilization. I do not! We were helpless, and each other. The wave has passed, we swept
them. " Alphonse Merrheim, secretary of the Federation of Metal, considers as the working
class, "raised by a great crisis of nationalism, would not let the agents of the police
care to shoot us; it would have shot us herself. "
In the end, all the witnesses of that time will agree that even if the direction of the
CGT, against all odds, called for insurrectionary general strike, it would not have been
followed, and that would be received 'sending his militants firing squad for "high treason".
However, what happened exactly?
Between Saturday, July 25 - the day when the press gives knowledge of the Austrian
ultimatum - and Tuesday, August 4, 1914 - creation of "sacred union" after the declaration
of war - it takes ten days.
These ten tragic days, the memory holds generally that the sudden collapse of the pacifist
positions and rallying to the defense.
But the place of events is more complex. This file tells the story at breast height,
showing the reluctance of some, the renunciation of others, but also attempts to resist
that contradict, if need be, the myth of a unanimous patriotic enthusiasm.
A file created by Guillaume Davranche (AL Montreuil)
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