(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #249 - In 1905 Limoges
is covered with barricades (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
Friday, April 14, 1905, a few hundred workers and workers porcelain leave to tour the
Limoges factories closed by bosses who have decided to reduce famine too offensive working
population. To resist the intervention of the army, barricades are erected. The fight
mainly against the employer arbitrarily takes a turn as the press calls "revolutionary."
---- Tension rises in recent years in Limoges, "the Rome of socialism" that was all the
revolutions of the nineteenth century and which hosted the founding congress of the CGT in
1895. Since 1900, trade unionism is the extent, encouraged by strikes, often victorious.
---- The Initiative sets the tone ---- In April 1902, in the porcelain industry, which
employs nearly 13,000 men and women workers, strike nearly two months increases the
prestige of the Initiative, the oldest and largest union in the sector, affiliated to the
CGT. Manufacturers have tried to impose a production increase to offset the decline in
working hours imposed by the law of ten, passed in 1900.
Faced with the strike called by the Initiative, the Union of Manufacturers responds with
lockout and puts the unemployment of thousands of workers. But the management side, the
unit will crack: some plants reopen quickly to take advantage of the favorable
international environment for exports. The workers and workers of these factories are
working and paying into a strike fund. The strikers have unions unemployment funds for
various trades porcelain and aid from the socialist town hall. The Union of Manufacturers
must end its lockout, accepting the victory of the Initiative, which then registers 300
accessions few months.
The strikes are increasing in the following years in various sectors (including porcelain
and footwear), including solidarity strikes with movements in other cities, indicating a
high degree of class consciousness. In 1904, twelve strikes occurred, nearly all
victorious, and the year 1905 starts with sixteen strikes between January and May.
Federated unions in the CGT then tripled their membership in a decade. With 6,000 members,
the CGT then comprises 20% of the working population of the city, including 2600 working
in porcelain. Women account for 42% of union members in the sector, where they account for
40% of employment.
February 10, 1905, while a strike by the shoemakers Monteux factory has just finished a
great meeting brings together 600 people to the labor exchange to listen Auguste Delale,
Secretary of the Paris Union shoemakers. Anarchist, former manager of the Father Emile
Pouget cushy several times imprisoned for articles in the libertarian press, he heard
offensive speech, inciting solidarity between corporations, including the use of the
general strike. If local anarchist groups, close to individualism and illegality, play a
marginal role in the events, many libertarians are mostly active in trade unions and in
particular spread the idea of a general strike. This strategy, which is then imposed
across France to the CGT, is defended in Limoges since 1902 by Jacques Tillet, Secretary
of the Initiative. Tillet is not socialist anarchist but Allemanist[1]. Surprisingly, the
general strike is also supported by the most radical Guesdists as drive the revolution,
and therefore adopted at the Congress of the CGT Limoges in 1903.
Foreign agitator
Three days after the meeting of Delale, a new strike starts in one of Fougeras shoe
factories. It does not need more for the bourgeois press accuse Delale to be the cause, as
well as for the following conflicts. In fact, Fougeras workers and workers of asking for a
raise, but mostly director of the referral of some particularly authoritarian foremen and
foreign workers brought in by the boss during a previous strike. All frames requires that
the boss does not yield and are then organized demonstrations outside the homes of the
boss and two of the alleged foremen. On February 18, they leave for Paris and Limoges
recover their property under police protection.
The demonstrations then travel to other plants; where working men and women often take the
opportunity to demand the departure of authoritarian particularly zealous cadres in
anti-union repression. At the factory Lecointe Denis, the director of the Mechanics
Workshop, Josephine Prébosc is molested because it prevented the subscription for the
strikers Fougeras.
The meetings held by the strikers are out new claims against the foremen who generally
hire their own workers and pays them with an income given by the boss as the work done.
The sharing of this income is of course in favor of the foreman. This double exploitation
is becoming more unbearable. It was not until April 1 for Fougeras recently returned to
Limoges, agrees "placardiser" his foreman most hated. The work is expected to resume on 6
April.
Flashover
During this time, various movements have begun: March 25th, at Beaulieu (felt hat
factory), the strike is to a raise, lower working time and dismissal of a woman. On March
28, at Theodore Haviland (one of the largest porcelain factories, founded by the American
David Haviland 1842), the painters are on strike against the dismissal of three of them
deemed unproductive and against the "right de seigneur "that assumes the foreman Sheepish.
Haviland supports Sheepish reserve and refuses to accept the strikers. On 2 April, the
home of Sheepish is caillassée. On April 8, the strike extends for site engineers Charles
Haviland (brother of Theodore) to obtain the return of the foreman Sautour Catholic
activist, who had dismissed a worker guilty of having civil bury his daughter 5 years..
Then it was the turn of typographers April 8 Before the fear of fire, the response of
employers is the lockout: April 13, the twenty-one porcelain factories are closed, 13,000
working men and women become unemployed (while almost 10,000 were already on strike). The
bosses have decided not to give in. The multiplication of town parades to the sound of The
International behind the red flag and the black flag, make them fear being called into
irretrievable because of their authority. In addition, the military is increasingly
targeted by the slogans of the strikers: reception General Tournier, new commander of the
military region and militant Catholic, March 14, turned to the anti-military protest, to
the point that General had to take refuge in the Bank of France to escape the crowd.
Insurrection
The next day at dawn, 400 to 500 strikers Guerin factory, president of the Union of
Manufacturers, decided to go see if their leaders are not preparing orders, just to keep
winning money during the lockout. The factory gate is down. The municipal police,
especially composed of former workers unemployed and former union negotiates their
departure. It was then the turn of Jouhanneaud factory and then Lanternier of Barnardaud
and finally the big factory Charles Haviland, who invaded and decorated with the red flag.
The arrival of Theodore Haviland, in his car, causes anger: the car continued, with cries
of "Death to the thief." The employer must take refuge in the factory. Around 16 pm, the
crowd grew bigger and there are more than 1200 workers and workers who stormed the plant,
hunt the police kept it, burn the car but not the American flag, well protected by the
police. After booed the boss, the crowd leaves the factory and continues his tour to the
Orgy plant when the 21st regiment of mounted chasseurs load without warning.
We resist with stones, are built barricades with what we find (rails, an overturned
streetcar, a dead horse...). But the night ends the clashes and barricades are abandoned.
The soldiers who were about to load the next day to take the place are reduced to urban
cleaning. The case was sufficiently afraid that the authorities are making major ways: in
the night, the prefect withdrew the mayor's police powers, Theodore Haviland hoisted the
American flag on his house and demanded, in vain, help to US Embassy.
On Saturday, April 15, a threat event to storm the prison to free prisoners of yesterday.
But it is finally a statue of St. Joseph will be broken before the horse hunters load
again, again without warning. The next day, the tension is at its peak: we learn that
three armories were robbed in the night and a bomb exploded outside the home of a factory
manager. The press already evokes the return of anarchist attacks. It's Palm Sunday but
the churches are empty. By cons trains bring hundreds of additional police. The Prefect
announced in the afternoon the prohibition of any event.
Force of arms
On Monday, more than 3,000 people gathered for a meeting of Albert Levy, treasurer of the
CGT. But in the night, several workers were arrested, accused of hiding weapons... that
the police have not found. The crowd, always with a black flag and a red flag, so take the
path of the prefecture to demand their release early in the afternoon. The prefect said
that around 18 hours: the Minister of the Interior refuses release. At 19 hours, over 5000
people attack the prison. But just down the door, the sinister light cavalry, reinforced
by dragons, charge, swords. Over two hours of confrontation followed, throughout the
neighborhood. Tens of barricades went up briefly but are not effective in dealing with
1200 soldiers. Many working men and women take refuge in the Garden of Orsay, whose slopes
seem too stiff to allow the cavalry charge. Stones and bottles rained down on the place of
the fairground, below the garden, occupied by the army. Night has fallen and public
lighting was broken by the protestors.
The infantry then decided to clean the garden in the most barbarous manner: the order was
given to shoot the garden fully immersed in the dark; 52 balls are drawn. Within minutes,
the garden is empty and the surrounding streets too. 22 to 30 hours, the news spread:
there is a death. Camille Vardelle, porcelain worker of 19, was fatally shot. The hospital
says two others wounded by gunfire and one seriously injured hit in the head by a saber.
All are under 20 years old.
The order of the kingdom cemeteries
On Tuesday morning, order reigns: some curious gather on the square of the fairground,
once the charging army. But Wednesday, April 19, more than 10,000 people were present at
the funeral of Vardelle: it takes two to carry all tanks funeral wreaths in tribute "to
the victim of the capitalist system" , "our brother killed April 17 by French bullets ".
That day, hundreds of applications for protection tributary to the Prefect: everything the
city has to patrons of all kinds feared revenge. In the following weeks, the soldiers
avoid traveling alone in town.
Negotiations resumed quickly and from 2 April an agreement was reached: the foreman
Sheepish is returned, but not Sautour. Salaries are not increased but the strikers are
rehired. The strikes that follow the following months will rarely be victorious: military
discipline is restored in the factories and many working men and women are still
unemployed due to the slowdown in production. For cons, the May 1st demonstration brings
together over 4,000 people and rallies or demonstrations multiplied in tribute to the
victims of the strike: the police and the army are systematically rejected when trying to
prevent them. Rumors about the arms trade unionists and anarchists hordes turn a long time
to discredit the labor movement, but also occasionally help to calm the ardor of some bosses.
Nearly as revolutionary as the right would be said, this strike nevertheless illustrated
the strong class consciousness, desire to control the working space of the city and win
against the often oppressive frameworks. It took the use of armed force to stop them, but
without lasting initiate workers' militancy: July 30, 1914, the eve of the assassination
of Jaures, there were still at 5 000-7 000 people demonstrating in Limoges against the war.
Renaud (AL Alsace)
[1] The Allemanists are supporters of Jean Allemane former communard, spokesman for the
Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party (POSR). They are reluctant to integration in the
republican institutions, seek to place the anti-capitalist struggle in the hands of
workers and workers themselves. They advocate a general strike, unlike "Guesdists"
militants French Workers' Party (POF) Jules Guesde, for whom the emancipation of the
workers is the responsibility of a socialist state is left to build. View Miguel Chueca
dispossess the haves. The general strike to "heroic age" of revolutionary syndicalism
(1895-1906) , Agnone 2008.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Il-y-a-110-ans-Limoges-se-couvre
