Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Merrheim, Jouhaux, and Collaboration

  • Chapter
Alphonse Merrheim

Part of the book series: Studies in Social History ((SISH,volume 8))

  • 22 Accesses

Abstract

While Alphonse Merrheim led the peace forces, he also battled publically with Léon Jouhaux, his good friend and secretary-general of the CGT, because the latter, along with other syndicalist leaders, had joined a government of national defense. The confederation also had suspended its congresses during the war. To Merrheim these actions constituted a striking violation of two cardinal principles of revolutionary syndicalism: political neutrality and antimilitarism. They were all the more reprehensible for their end: the defense of the middle-class state. Merrheim also attacked Jouhaux’s identification with Allied war attitudes: that Germany was primarily responsible for the war, that only an Allied victory could ensure a just peace, and that a workers’ congress should meet only after the Allied nations had defeated the Central Powers. Merrheim published articles and brochures against Jouhaux, attacked him at union meetings, in committees, and, in general, hounded him to abandon his collaboration. His hostility toward his secretary-general seemed almost irrevocable.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. APP, B/A 1605 note of Septeber 10, 1915 (‘Notes rétrospectives sur les divisions intérieures du Comité Confédéral’).

    Google Scholar 

  2. FOM, PV, September 14, 1914.

    Google Scholar 

  3. FOM, PV, September 14, 1914.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Letter of Merrheim to Monatte Paris October 17, 1914, in Colette Chambelland and Jean Maitron eds. Syndicalisme révolutionaire et communisme (Paris, 1968), p. 38.

    Google Scholar 

  5. This information is contained in a letter Merrheim wrote to Monatte explaining the events of September 1914 Letter of Merrheim to Monatte Paris September 29, 1914, in ibid., pp. 35–38

    Google Scholar 

  6. FOM, PV, December 2, 1914.

    Google Scholar 

  7. This episode is covered very well in the documenss in Chambelland and Maitron eds. Syndicalisme révolutionnaire et communisme, pp. 45–85.

    Google Scholar 

  8. See also Alfred Rosmer, Le Mouvement ouvrier pendant la guerre. De l’Union Sacrée à Zimmerwald, (Paris, 1936), vol.I, pp. 172–180;

    Google Scholar 

  9. Edouard Dolléans, Histoire du mouvement ouvrier (Paris, 1939; reprint ed., Paris, 1957), vol.II, pp. 226–227.

    Google Scholar 

  10. See the letter from the Federation of Metalworkers to the CGT’s Confederal Committee, dated December 16, 1914; found in AN, F7, 13574. See also Ibid., note of March 1, 1915, M/9674, where some of this information is summarized.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Letter of Merrheim, written with the approval of the Executive Committee of the Federation of Metalworkers, to Jouhaux; found in Ibid., note of December 16, 1914.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Ibid., note of Paris, February 8, 1915, M/9635.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Merrheim’s motion to this meeting is reprinted in Chambelland and Maitron, eds., Syndicalisme révolutionnaire et communisme, pp. 87–88.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Other reports of this meeting are in AN, F7, 13574, note of Paris, February 8, 1915, M/9635; Ibid., note of Paris, February 23, 1915, M/9665. See also FOM, PV, February 10, 1915, where Merrheim reported on the meeting of February 7, to his federation and AN, F7, 13574, note of Paris, March 1, 1915, M/9674, which reports on a meeting of the CGT’s Confederal Committee where a debate took place on why Jouhaux accepted the invitation to go to London.

    Google Scholar 

  15. AN, F7, 13574, note of Paris, February 8, 1915, M/9635.

    Google Scholar 

  16. See Rosmer’s letter to Monatte, dated February 9, 1915, in Chambelland and Maitron, eds., Syndicalisme révolutionnaire et communisme, pp. 104–107.

    Google Scholar 

  17. See Rosmer’s letter to Monatte, dated February 12, 1915, in Ibid., pp. 107–109.

    Google Scholar 

  18. FOM, PV, February 10, 1915.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Quoted by Merle Fainsod, International Socialism and the World War (Cambridge, [Mass.], 1935; reprint ed., Garden City, 1968), p. 54.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Letter of Rosmer to Monatte, February 24, 1915, in Chambelland and Maitron, eds., Syndicalisme révolutionnaire et communisme pp. 112–116.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Rosmer, Le Mouvement ouvrier pendant la guerre, vol.I, p. 214.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Letter of Merrheim to Monatte, Paris, February 23, 1915, in Chambelland and Maitron, eds. Syndicalisme révolutionnaire et communisme pp. 95–99,

    Google Scholar 

  23. Rosmer, Le Mouvement ouvrier pendant la guerre, vol.I, pp. 198–199, and Alphonse Merrheim’s report to the Federation of Teachers in Procès-verbaux des séances du Conseil Fédéral de la Fédération des Instituteurs, typed, IFHS, p. 47.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Quoted by Annie Kriegel, Aux Origines du communisme français, 1914–1920. Contribution à l’histoire du mouvement ouvrier français, (Paris The Hague, 1964) vol. I p. 104.

    Google Scholar 

  25. The May 30 meeting is covered in AN, F7, 13574, note of May 31, 1915 M/9812. See also a short note about the meeting in Ibid., 13574, note of June 2, 1915, M/9813.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Ibid., note of June 2, 1915, M/9813. Even with this concession Merrheim continued his relentless attacks on Jouhaux. At an important meeting of the Confederal Committee on June 26, 1915, Merrheim read a blistering attack against Jouhaux’s collaboration a speech which left the latter very defensive and ‘very pale’. For this information see AN, F7, 13574 note of June 28, 1915, M/9858; and ‘Pour la Fédération du Bâtiment, in UM, no. 62, May-December 1915, pp. 21–22. At the June 26 meeting Jouhaux asked the committee to authorize him to cease his collaboration if it thought it inappropriate. The committee however gave the secretary-general a vote of confidence.

    Google Scholar 

  27. See Merrheim’s letter of Paris, July 30, 1915, to Monatte, in Chambelland and Maitron, eds. Syndicalisme révolutionnaire et communisme pp. 140–143.

    Google Scholar 

  28. FOM PV August 14 1915.

    Google Scholar 

  29. ‘Conférence confédérale du 15 août 1915’ in UM, no. 62 May-December, 1915, pp. 16–17. For a brief account see AN, 13574, note of August 16, 1915, M/9913.

    Google Scholar 

  30. For Jouhaux’s position see APP, B/A 1605, note of July 15 1915 (‘Note sur l’attitude de la CGT et des organisations du département de la Seine depuis le ler avril 1915’ 30 pp.).

    Google Scholar 

  31. ‘Conférence confédérale du 15 août 1915’, in UM no. 62 May-December, 1915, p. 17.

    Google Scholar 

  32. AN, F7, 13574, note of September 6, 1915, M/9938.

    Google Scholar 

  33. See Robert Brécy Le Mouvement syndical en France (Paris The Hague 1963) p. 92.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Fainsod International Socilaism and the World War, p. 129.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Brécy Le Mouvement syndical en France, p. 94, and AN, F7, 13272, note of Paris May 1, 1916, M/10372.

    Google Scholar 

  36. AN, F7, 13575, note of Paris March 6, 1916, M/10255; for a copy of the brochure see Ibid., note of Paris’ March 27, 1916 M/10292

    Google Scholar 

  37. Quoted by Jean Charles ‘Le Temps des scissions’ in Histoire du réformisme en France depuis 1920, ed. by Daniel Blume et al., vol. I (Paris 1976), p. 12.

    Google Scholar 

  38. AN, F7, 13575, note of Paris, March 13, 1916; ibid., note of Paris, March 13, 1916, M/1026, and FOM, PV, April 1, 1916.

    Google Scholar 

  39. AN, F7, 13569, note of Paris, November 28, 1916.

    Google Scholar 

  40. APP, B/A 1558, note of December 22, 1916.

    Google Scholar 

  41. ‘Conférence des Fédérations Corporative, des Unions de Syndicats, des Bourses du Travail’, in La Bataille, no. 418 (December 24) -no. 420 (December 26, 1916).

    Google Scholar 

  42. La Bataille, no. 420, December 26, 1916, p. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  43. The text of the resolution is in AN, F7, 13372, ‘Au Sein de la classe ouvrière’, p. 29, and in CGT, La CGT et le mouvement syndical (Paris, 1925), p. 152.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Kriegel, Aux Origines du ccmmunisme français, vol. I, p. 194; Jean Maxe, De Zimmerwald au bolshevisme. Le Triomphe du marxisme pangermaniste (Paris, 1920), note no. 2, p. 121.

    Google Scholar 

  45. CGT, Conférence extraordinaire [de] Clermont-Ferrand (Clermont-Ferrand, 1917). See p. 155 for the resolution this conference passed.

    Google Scholar 

  46. An important source of this information are the Merrheim letters. A microfilm of the entire collection, referred to in this book as ‘Merrheim Letters’, is in the Institut de Recherche Marxiste (IRM) [formally the Institut Maurice Thorez], Paris. For an important study based upon the Merrheim letters, see Victor Daline, ‘Alphonse Merrheim et sa ‘correspondance confidentielle’’ (Moscow, 1965; French edition, in Hommes et idées, pp. 232–342, translated by Robert Rodov, Moscow, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  47. FOM, PV, April 3, 1915.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Ibid., July 24, 1915.

    Google Scholar 

  49. A rich source for information on the situation in the Loire Valley is AN, F7, 12994. For some of the political demands being made during the strikes see notes of Saint-Etienne January 26, 1918, no. L.646; Saint-Julien-Molin-Molette, January 26, 1918; Firming, January 27, 1918; Saint-Etienn,, January 30, 1918, no. 1815; and Roanne, March 8, 1918. For an excellent general description of these events, see Kriegel, Aux Origines du communisme français vol. I pp. 209–213 and also G. Raffaelli and M. Raffaelli Introduction bibliographique et méthodologique à l’histoire du département de la Loire, 1914–1918.

    Google Scholar 

  50. G. Raffaelli and M. Raffaelli Le Mouvement ouvrier contre la guerre, Universtty of Paris X (Nanterre), mémoire de maitrise 1969, 367 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  51. APP, B/A 1357, note of September 24, 1917 (no. 77); and note of September 27 1917 (nos. 86, 91, and 93), and dossier no. 2, note of Paris November 14 1917. Kriegel also notes that Albert Thomas picked a syndicalist delegation including Merrheim and Jouhaux to examine the general situation in war plants that was leading to industrill unrest’ see Kriege, Aux Origines du communisme français, vol. I, p. 159.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Merrheim’s testimony is in the journal Syndicats no 135 May 10 1935 p. 2 and is presented by René de Marmande; an even fuller account because it also includes Jouhaux’s testimony to the same group, is in CGT La Leçon des faits. La Délégation confédéral devant les parlementaires de gauche (Paris 1918) pp. 4–19.

    Google Scholar 

  53. FOM PV June 11 1918.

    Google Scholar 

  54. ‘A l’Union des mécaniciens de la Seine’ in UM, no. 62 May- Decembe, 1915 p. 15.

    Google Scholar 

  55. AN, F7, 13574, note of Bordeaux, October 9, 1914 (to which is attached the note of Paris, October 6, M/35).

    Google Scholar 

  56. Ibid., note of Paris February 4 1915 M/9621.

    Google Scholar 

  57. AN F7 13272 note of April 1916.

    Google Scholar 

  58. AN, F7, 13574, note of Paris, February 4, 1915, M/9621.

    Google Scholar 

  59. ‘A l’Union des m6caniciens de la Seine’ in UM, no 62 May-December 1915 p. 14.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Letter from Merrheim to the Comité d’Action Paris September 15 1914 in the Merrheim Letters IRM no. 140.

    Google Scholar 

  62. AN F7 13574 note of Paris April 6 1915 M/18724

    Google Scholar 

  63. Letter from Merrheim to the military governor of Paris Paris October 23 1914 in the Merrheim Letters IRM no 146

    Google Scholar 

  64. Letter of Merrheim to Monsieur P Douner chef de Cabinet du Governeur Militaire de la Place de Paris November 12 1914 in the Merrheim Letters IRM no. 150

    Google Scholar 

  65. See ‘A l’Union des Mécanciens de la Seine’ in UM no. 62 May-December 1915 p 14 and ‘l’Action Fédérale’, in UM no 62 May-December 1915 p 3

    Google Scholar 

  66. Letter from Merrheim to Thomas dated Paris October 29 1914 in the Guesde Archives no 45716 Internationaal lnstituut voor Sociale Geschiedens, Amsterdam; this letter is not included in Horst Lademacher’s Die Zimmerwalder Bewegung Portokcolle und Korrespondenz, 2 vols. (The Hague Paris 1967)

    Google Scholar 

  67. For a few highlights of their cooperation, see the following: AN, F7, 13574, note of Paris, July 3, 1915, M/9865, and note of February 13, 1917; APP, B/A, note of January 5, 1917, and note of September 14, 1915; also see the letter of Eugens Kernst to Merrheim, dated Saint Mans, September 14, 1914, and the letter of Merrheim to Albert Thomas, dated October 27, 1914, both in the Merrheim Letters, IRM.

    Google Scholar 

  68. See the many letters on this case in the Merrheim Letters, IRM, from December 1914 to February 1915. See also Thierry Flamman, L’Ecole émancipée. Une Contre-culture de la Belle Epoque (Treignac, 1982), pp. 241–242, and p. 383.

    Google Scholar 

  69. Letter from Franco Caiti to Merrheim, dated Romilly, November 23, 1914, in the Merrheim Letters, IRM.

    Google Scholar 

  70. Hyacinthe Dubreuil, J’ai fini ma journée (Paris, 1971), pp. 185–189.

    Google Scholar 

  71. FOM, PV, June 5 1915; and PV, June 19, 1915.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Dubreul, J’ai fini ma journée, p. 185.

    Google Scholar 

  73. Kriegel, Aux Origines du communisme français, vol.I, p.228; AN, F7, 13575, note of Paris November 26 1917 P/11838.

    Google Scholar 

  74. Henry Maunoury, Police de guerre, 1914–1919 (Paris, 1937), p. 99.

    Google Scholar 

  75. APP, B/A 1558 note of Paris, December 14, 1917, and Kriegel, Aux Origines du communisme français, vol. I note no. 1, p. 228.

    Google Scholar 

  76. Kriegel, Aux Origines du communisme français, vol. I, pp. 228.

    Google Scholar 

  77. FOM, PV, February 2, 1918.

    Google Scholar 

  78. AN, F7, 13575, note of Paris, March 27, 1916, M/10.29..

    Google Scholar 

  79. Ibid., note of Paris, March 28, 1916. This is the second source of information on this matter, shorter than the immediately preceding note; the quote in this note, however, does not appear in the other account.

    Google Scholar 

  80. Ibid., ‘Le Comité d’Action Internationale’, October 6, 1916, to December 22, 1916; and APP B/A 1558 note of Paris December 5 1916.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Nicholas Papayanis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1985 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Papayanis, N. (1985). Merrheim, Jouhaux, and Collaboration. In: Alphonse Merrheim. Studies in Social History, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5155-6_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5155-6_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8781-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-5155-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation