Feminist, antimilitarist, trade unionist and libertarian, the seamstress Thérèse
Taugourdeau (1883-1979) was one of the small hands in the fight against the warin 1912-1913. Her brief career is characteristic of an era, while being singularbecause working-class speakers were - and remain - rare. ---- photo: shopkeepers'strike. 1910 ---- They are only a handful of speakers among dozens of speakers,on May 25, 1913, on the hill of Pré-Saint-Gervais. We are in one of those hugepacifist gatherings that preceded the Great War, and 150,000 people came tolisten to the speeches of the Socialist Party (PS) and the CGT. ---- And it takesa lot to be heard, at a time when the sound system is non-existent. Those whotake the floor are mainly socialist teachers, and the lawyer Maria Verona. But ona platform a little apart, that of the Anarchist Communist Federation (FCA),there is a seamstress from Anjou in her thirties: Thérèse Taugourdeau.Daughter of a driver-mechanic and a seamstress, Thérèse Taugourdeau settled inParis around 1910 with her husband Lucien, who had been one of the managers ofthe Angers labor exchange. Both were active in the Groupe des Originaires del'Anjou, affiliated with the FCA, and Thérèse joined the Fédération de l'Habillement.Strike of the midinettes. 1910With a revolutionary syndicalist orientation, this federation is one of thosewhich, within the CGT, thinks the most about the specific demands to be developedin order to unionize women. In 1911, the federation led the strike of the"midinettes" of the Esders house, which revealed a generation of activists -including Thérèse Taugourdeau.She took up writing for the first time in 1912. In the corporate newspaperL'Ouvrier dyer degreaser, she published an article, "Women raise your head", inwhich she affirmed: "It is above all towards women that the efforts must go tradeunionism" to "realize this beautiful motto: equal pay for equal work".In Le Libertaire, she published "Feminine Education" - a classic plea for thepoliticization of women - then, more subversively, "Féminisons les hommes" whichcalled on activists to become pro-feminists in order to stop being incoherent.Political, trade union and associative activityIn September 1912, at the time of the antimilitarist repression law, known asBerry-Millerand, Thérèse Taugourdeau co-founded and became secretary of anecumenical group with an interminable name: the Women's Committee against theBerry-Millerand law, the military prisons and all the social inequities. Thecommittee is led by a group of anarchist seamstresses, but there are alsosocialist militants like Maria Vérone and Madeleine Pelletier.Pre Saint Gervais. Demonstration against the three-year law (May 25, 1913)For more than a year, the "Women's Committee" became a constant actor in thefight against militarism and war. He published several leaflets - one of themearned Taugourdeau being placed in police custody - and sent representatives toall the meetings of the period - and quite often, it was she who stuck to it.In a completely original way, in November 1913, the Women's Committee alsoorganized courses in diction and theater to train speakers and actresses capableof performing "theme plays" at militant celebrations.Thérèse Taugourdeau disappeared from the archives as of August 1914, without itbeing known whether she maintained her anti-war position, or whether she resignedherself to national defence. It seems that she joined the PS in the interwar period.Far from being an icon like Louise Michel, she will have been a "simpleactivist", one of those who are too often forgotten, but who took concrete actionto articulate autonomous action by women and revolutionary workers' action.Guillaume (UCL Montreuil)See: "An orator anarchist, Thérèse Taugourdeau, dictionary of anarchists" onDailymotionhttps://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Portrait-de-militante-Therese-Taugourdeau-une-midinette-a-la-tribune_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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