(en) Britain,AF Organise #83 - The French Silk Workers Revolt of 1834

It is now 180 years since the silk workers revolt in Lyon in France in 1834. This and the 
preceding revolt there in 1831 were some of the first workers uprisings at the beginning 
of the Industrial Revolution and the development of the working class. ---- Lyon had 
become the silk weaving centre of France by the beginning of the 1830s. More than half the 
population was employed in the silk industry and silk workers were known as canuts. In 
1831 the production of silk in Lyon was still organised in a pre-industrial way. 1,400 
bankers and traders ruled the industry. Below them were 8,000 craftsmen who in their turn 
employed 30,000 apprentices who generally lived, ate and slept in the homes of the 
craftsmen. Women were employed at a lower wage, as were the apprentices and errand boys. 
Most of the production took place in craftsmen's homes with only one factory employing 600 
workers.

Because of an economic crisis in
1831, the demand for silk goods
dropped drastically. Wages were
cut, so the canuts asked the
departmental Prefect (Regional
governor) to negotiate with the
manufacturers for a fixed price.
This was not appreciated by the
manufacturers and 104 of them
refused to implement it. This was
met with mass anger among the
silk workers. They formed a semi-
secret paramilitary organisation,
The Rhone Volunteers.

On 21st November, several
hundred workers toured the
workshops in the Croix Rousse
municipality. They convinced the
few workers still working in their
workshops to stop work, set up
barricades and then marched to
Lyon with a black flag of revolt at
the head of their procession.
In Lyon they stormed the fortified
police barracks at Bon Pasteur
and armed themselves with
weapons from the arsenal. There
were then clashes between the
workers and the military. The
National Guard, a sort of state
militia and in Lyon recruited in
the main from the canuts,
refused to fire on the workers
and changed sides.

After pitched fighting which left
100 dead among the forces of the
State and 69 among the workers,
with barricades being built
everywhere in the streets and with
many black flags flying, bearing
the slogan Live Working or Die
Fighting, Lyon fell into the hands of
the insurgent workers. Both the
mayor and the local military
commander fled. The leaders of
the insurgents seemed unsure as
to how to proceed, insisting that
the struggle was still around the
fixed rate for silk goods.

Troops sent

In Paris the revolt was met with
consternation by central
government. King Louis Philippe
and the President of the Council
of Ministers blamed the revolt on
republican and socialist agitation.
Twenty thousand troops were
sent to Lyon. They entered Lyon
without meeting any resistance.
The fixed rate was abolished, the
National Guard was disbanded,
and a garrison was installed. In
addition a fort was built to
separate Croix Rousse from Lyon.
The first revolt had failed, with
the arrest of 90 workers.
Radical republican groups now
began to agitate in Lyon
establishing links with local silk
workers organisations. Workers in
Lyon had realised that Louis
Philippe and his government
were supporters of the silk
bosses. The next 28 months saw
a growth in class consciousness
among the Lyon workers.

The Le Chapelier Law of 1791
forbade the forming of unions so
the Lyon workers organised
secretly. They rose from 250
members at the end of 1831 to
2,400 members in 11 different
bodies in 1833. In addition there
was a society of ferrandiniers
(manufacturers of silk and wool)
with 400-420 members. The
government now threatened
these unions. The silk workers
newspaper L'Echo de La Fabrique,
influenced by socialist ideas,
warned that the workers had had
enough and would reply in kind.
L'Echo encouraged workers to join
these associations and to form
links with other groups of workers.

Attack on Wages

By the end of 1833 there were
good economic conditions and a
boom began in the Lyon silk
industry. As a result, the
government felt that the chances
of another revolt were slim. The
employers were now concerned
that workers were earning too
much. They tried to drive down
wages. This unleashed a period of
unrest. On 14th February sixty
thousand female and male silk
workers went on strike in Lyons.
This was one of the first general
strikes in an industry anywhere in
the world. Ten days later there was
a vote to return to work. In the
aftermath 13 workers regarded as
ringleaders were arrested.

The trial began on April 5th. This
coincided with the Chamber of
Peers meeting to pass a law
leading to further repression
against republican groups. The
following day up to 10,000
workers turned out for the
funeral of a silk worker who had
been active in one of the unions.
On 8th April a general strike was
called for in Lyon by the workers
associations for the day that the
trial had its next hearing. It was
also decided that they would
reply to any armed attacks by the
police and military. The State
replied with a massive show of
Organise!

force with soldiers and artillery
surrounding the main public
buildings. When a large crowd
gathered, soldiers fired at will on
them, killing several people
including children.

Insurrection

In reply, barricades went up all
over Lyon. One military barracks
was seized by the workers and
became the HQ of the uprising.
During the night of 9thI April one
of the main republican groups
planned on an insurrection for
the following day. Faced with the
well organised workers, Adolphe
Thiers, the Minister of the
Interior, withdrew all the troops
from the centre of the city and
had them encircle it. The workers
now occupied the telegraph
office and the nearby town of
Villeurbanne. Black flags were
raised in many of the workers
districts. Meanwhile, uprisings
broke out in towns near Lyon,
Saint Etienne and Vienne. The
military bombarded the workers'
stronghold of Croix Rousse. By
14th April, the military had
retaken Lyon, massacring many
workers in the process. The
casualty figures give 131 military
dead, with a minimum of 200
workers killed and 600 wounded.
More than 500 were arrested and
many sentenced to long prison
terms or to deportation

In the following years, the silk
bosses attempted to defuse
revolt by locating their
workshops in the countryside.
This did not stop a further
uprising in 1848 in Lyon.
However, this was just one of
many throughout Europe in that
year of revolution, so it was less
remarked upon.

The Lyon revolts of the 1830s
inspired further revolts
throughout Europe over the
following decades. They also
inspired the great Russian
anarchist Mikhail Bakunin when
he wrote his The Knouto-
Germanic Empire and the Social
Revolution. As for Adolphe
Thiers, he was to head a
government that would crush the
most important workers uprising
of the 19th century, the Paris
Commune of 1871, with much
greater ferocity and bloodshed.Organise!