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FORGING POLITICAL IDENTITY

Silk and Metal Workers in Lyon, France 1900-1939

Keith Mann

276 pages, 8 ills, 4 tables bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-84545-645-0 Hb $95.00/£55.00 Published (April 2010)
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“With this book Keith Mann carries forward a vital tradition of North American labor history inspired by the work of Charles and Louise Tilly. Constructed around the dialectics of skill, technological change, and the organization of the labor process in Lyon’s two key industries, while grounded in the distinctiveness of a particular spatial community shaped dynamically through time, it casts the politics of the Popular Front era in a strikingly original light.” · Geoff Eley, University of Michigan

“This is an important book of exceptionally-high academic quality. With great skill, Mann documents and analyzes the influence of technology and work organization on the character of labor militancy. This book notably advances our understanding of these issues.” · Michael Hanagan, Vassar College

“Keith Mann has written an important book that should be read not only by historians and social scientists but by all interested in movements for social change.” · Gerald Friedman, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Escaping the traditional focus on Paris, the author examines the divergent political identities of two occupational groups in Lyon, metal and silk workers, who, despite having lived and worked in the same city, developed different patterns of political practices and bore distinct political identities. This book also examines in detail the way that gender relations influenced industrial change, skill, and political identity. Combining empirical data collected in French archives with social science theory and methods, this study argues that political identities were shaped by the intersection of the prevailing political climate with the social relations surrounding work in specific industrial settings.

Keith Mann is Associate Professor of Sociology at Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He specializes in 19th- and 20th-century French social and labor history. His work has appeared in the International Review of Social History, International Labor and Working Class History, Labor History, and Le mouvement social.

Series: Volume 16, International Studies in Social History

List of Tables Acknowledgements Abbreviations Chapter I: Introduction: French Labor History and Political Identity The Cultural Turn, Postmodernism, and the Linguistic Turn A gendered labor history Materialism Politics and Labor History Social and Political Identity Political Identity Formation Industrial Social Relations Political Opportunity Structure Design of Study Chapter II: Industrial Social Relations in France’s Second Industrial Revolution Protoindutrialization Protoindustrialization and Class Structure Industrial Change and Labor Labor Markets Skill Collective Resistance Conclusion Chapter III: The French Labor Movement and Worker Political Identity Trade Unions Political Parties World War I Founding of the French Communist Party Chapter IV: Political Opportunity Structure from 1875 to 1921 The Republic in Lyon The Radicals The Alliance in Lyon World War I Conclusion Chapter V: Silk Workers in Lyon, 1900-1921: Structure of the Silk Industry World War I and Industrial Change Apprenticeship Industrial Change and Skill Rise of Capitalist Labor Market Industrial Change and Worker Collective Action The 1903 Strike Textile Workers and Politics Conclusion CHAPTER VI: Metalworkers in Lyon, 1900-1921 Structure of the Industry Gender and Metalworking War and Industrial Development Industrial Change and Skill Industrial Change, Metal Worker Resistance, and Solidarity Apprenticeship Metal Workers and Politics Conclusion Chapter VII: Political Opportunity Structure 1921-1935 Two Currents The Communist Party in Lyon The SFIO in Lyon The CGTU and the CGTSR The CGT Programs in Action: Lyon 1919-1935 May Day Demonstrations Conclusion Chapter VIII Silk Workers 1921-1935 Structure of the Silk Industry Structure of the Silk Industry Industrial Change and Deskilling Rise of Capitalist Labor Market Industrial Change and Worker Protest Industrial Change and Worker Solidarity Silk Workers and Politics Conclusion Chapter IX: Metal Workers in Lyon, 1921-1935 Structure of Metallurgy Industry Employers' Organizations Industrial Change and Skill Worker Resistance Industrial Change and Metal Worker Militancy and Solidarity Metal Workers and Labor Strategy Conclusion Chapter X: The French Popular Front and Political Identity Origin of the Popular Front The PCF and the Nation Alliances and Elections The 1936 Elections The Imagery of Class and Nation Industrial Conflict Gender Inequality and Collective Bargaining Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography Index

FORGING POLITICAL IDENTITY

Silk and Metal Workers in Lyon, France 1900-1939

Keith Mann

Contents