Through Laurette Duranel
Published on 14 Apr 21 at 21:34
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Lyon news invites you this Wednesday, April 14, 2021 to go back 187 years. In avril 1834, Lyon is plunged into a “bloody week” after the second revolt of the canuts (who did not like being called that) was severely repressed. Thehistorian Mathilde Larrère, specialist of the 19e century and revolutionary movements, takes us there.
The first “revolt of the canuts”
But before talking about this part of Lyon’s history, let’s first go back to the first and most famous revolt, that of November 1831.
At the time, “the economic situation was not good” for the families of weavers settled on the heights of Croix-Rousse (which was then a town separate from Lyon). They are not satisfied with the price imposed by the fabric merchants on which they depend.
“A crisis begins […], the Croix-Rousse takes up arms and goes down towards the center of Lyon with the black flag of the Canuts “on which we can read:” To live while working or to die while fighting. “They then seize the Town hall and other working-class circles joined them: “this is the first time that corporations have joined forces in a workers’ revolt”, insists historian Mathilde Larrère.
To put an end to it, the prefect lets believe that he agrees with the tariff that the weavers demand but it is to better subdue them in reality. The army arrives there and retakes the city. “It’s a real massacre”, underlines Mathilde Larrère.
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After this first episode, “the bourgeoisie is frightened. The canuts are an absolute anguish at the time, ”explains the historian. This is why the central power decides to guard against possible new assaults by building a fort to separate Croix-Rousse from the city of Lyon, Fort Saint-Jean.
“It is not a question of foreign policy. At that moment, the workers are the danger. It is a strong means of maintaining internal order, ”Mathilde Larrère analyzes.
A bloody revolt
In 1834, the second revolt bursts. While the government plans to control associations of less than 20 people, the weavers fear that the mutuals they created in 1831 and to which they are very attached, are also targeted by this law.
The second revolt is created on a basic misunderstanding
But to this misunderstanding are added other tensions, always with the fabric merchants, but also political tensions since the Republicans approach the weavers and deepen the opposition with the liberal monarchy of July.
7) What is interesting is that this second revolt of the Lyonnais canuts marks the alliance of the nascent workers’ movement with the Republicans. (It’s not nothing!)
(a little library below) pic.twitter.com/m7tOTL9WS4
– Mathilde Larrere (@LarrereMathilde) April 14, 2021
The forts built following the first revolt were in full swing and fighting raged between the army and the canuts for six days between the Rhône and the Saône. “The repression is once again terrible”, there are around 600 dead. This is what we will call the “Bloody Week”.
The insurrection of Lyon opens the way to Paris where it is also severely put down.
At the end of the day, thousands of people were taken prisoner and tried in a grand trial in Paris in April 1835. “The accused of April” were severely punished, but the legacy of the workers’ struggle continued. Even today, some people hum the Chant des canuts written by Aristide Briand in 1894, like Mathilde Larrère, who knows her from cover to cover.
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