Abstract
This scene is banal, but then I think it is meant to be. The brief respite experienced by the worker — his name is Eugène Picard — is a commonplace. The respite, the moment of reverie, the flight from the realm of unfreedom: these are all staples of the literature addressed to working life. This is not to say that the novelist quoted, Tristan Remy, lacks imagination, for the repetition of the tropes is part of the point. Rémy’s novel, dealing with a strike wave in 1936, tries to hold close to the rhythms of the shop floor. And on the shop floor locution, gesture and execution are all subject to repetition.
Sometimes, in the midst of work, he paused … For a few seconds elation made him unaware of his surroundings. Then he went back about his business as if nothing had happened. ‘You’re dreaming mate’, Alexis said to him. ‘Yes’, he answered happily, ‘I’m dreaming. I’m thinking of the time when we’ll be free men.’1
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Notes
Tristan Rémy, La Grande Lutte, Collection ‘Ciment’, Editions sociales internationales, Paris 1937, p. 37
For the different interpretations see Gerd Rainer Horn, European Socialists Respond to Fascism: Ideology, Activism and Contingency in the 1930s, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 1996, p. 114.
This point should not be overstated, for the right won six seats as the result of indiscipline. The Radicals, in particular, sometimes found it difficult to support Communists. For a full analysis of this situation see Berstein, Histoire du Parti Radical: Crise du Radicalisme 1926–1939, Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, Paris, 1982, p. 421 ff.
See Bernard Pudal, Prendre parti: Pour une sociologie historique du PCF, Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, Paris 1989, p. 141 ff.
For this point see Pascal Ory, La Belle Illusion: Culture et politique sous le signe du Front populaire, 1934–1938, Plon, Paris 1994, p. 530.
See Jacques Danos and Marcel Gibelin, June 36: Class Struggle and the Popular Front in France, Trans. Peter Fysh and Christine Bourry, Bookmarks, London and Chicago 1986, pp. 50–1.
For an assessment of the tactic see Danos and Gibelin, 1986, p. 130 ff. and Salomon Schwarz, Les Occupations d’usine en France de mai et juin 1936, E.J. Brill, Leiden 1937.
Julian Jackson, The Popular Front in France: Defending Democracy, 1934–38, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1988, p. 86.
My assessment of the coverage of the strikes is based on a detailed survey of the major daily papers as defined in David Wingeate Pike, La Presse française à la veille de la second guerre mondiale, Editions Richelieu, Paris 1973, p. 6.
The two accounts were not necessarily in conflict. Michelle Perrot has argued that the French strikes of the late nineteenth century involved festivities as reassertions of social communication which were a precondition for struggles involving pay and conditions: see Michelle Perrot, Les Ouvriers en grève, France, 1871–1890, Vol. 2, Mouton, Paris 1974, p. 547 ff.
Danos and Gibelin, 1986, p. 55. The importance of the Renault strike has led to considerable debate over its genesis. The strike began in the workshop of a Communist, Marceau Vigny: see Jean-Paul Depretto and Sylvie V. Schweitzer, Le Communisme à I’usine: Vie ouvrière et mouvement ouvrier chez Renault, 1920–1939, EDIRES, Roubaix 1984, pp. 182–3.
Gérard Noiriel, Workers in French Society in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Trans. Helen McPhail, Berg, New York, Oxford and Munich 1990, p. 156
For a series of reflections on this see Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, Trans. Steven Randall, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London 1984.
Steve Edwards, ‘The Machine’s Dialogue’, Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1990, pp. 63–76
On the currency and circulation of photographs see John Tagg, The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories, Macmillan Education, Basingstoke and London 1988.
On the trajectories of the Radical press see Peter Larmour, The French Radical Party in the 1930s, Stanford University Press, Stanford 1964, p. 55 ff.
Raud was imposed on the paper by its owner, Pierre Guimier, who also happened to be owner and editor of the conservative Le Journal. Raud was considered by many as Guimier’s instrument. On this point see Pierre Biquard, ‘Rapport sur la situation actuelle de la presse’. Vigilance, No. 61, 10 January 1938, pp. 11–13. On Raud’s opportunism see Madeleine Jacob, Quarante ans de journalisme, Julliard, Paris 1970, p. 335.
This designation had been introduced on 20 February 1936, when Regards was enlarged from 16 to 24 pages. On this transition see Claude Estier, La Gauche Hebdomadaire, 1914–1962, Colin, Paris 1962, p. 78.
See Charles Rearick, The French in Love and War: Popular Culture in the Era of the World Wars, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 1997, p. 57
For a discussion of Voilà and its relationship with the entertainment industry, see Adrian Rifkin, Street Noises: Parisian Pleasures, 1900–1940, Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York 1993, p. 62 ff.
The text of the Agreements is reprinted in Georges Lefranc, Histoire du Front populaire, 1934–1938, Payot, Paris 1965, pp. 454–5.
Adrian Rossiter, ‘Popular Front economic policy and the Matignon Negotiations’, Historical Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3, 1987, pp. 663–83
Rossiter, 1987, pp. 677–9. Of course, at this point Blum was under a great deal of pressure. A flight of capital had begun during the election campaign and was still continuing and the Matignon agreements were in part an attempt to restore confidence. On this point see Julian Jackson, The Politics of Depression in France: 1932–1936, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1985, p. 200 ff.
Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1, Trans. Ben Fowkes, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1990, p. 280.
On the character of Marianne, see Géraldi Leroy and Anne Roche, Les Ecrivains et le Front populaire, Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, Paris 1986, p. 90 ff.
See André Varagnac, ‘Les grévistes ont su organiser leurs loisirs’, Le Populaire, 22 June 1936, p. 6; ‘Projet de questionnaire sur le folklore des grèves’. Revue de Folklore Français et Folklore Colonial, Vol. 7, 1936, p. 129; modified text reprinted in Arnold van Gennep, Manuel de folklore français contemporain, Vol. 3, Picard, Paris 1937, p. 54.
Jean Fréville, Pain de brique, Flammarion, Paris 1937.
Tristan Rémy, Porte de Clignancourt, Rieder, Paris 1928, p. 106.
Louis Aragon, ‘Faubourg Saint-Antoine par Tristan Rémy’, Commune, No. 33, May 1936, pp. 1120–2; S[imone] Claude and Henri Cartier[-Bresson], ‘Faubourg Saint-Antoine avec Tristan Rémy’, Regards, No. 120, 30 April 1936, p. 10. On these works see Simon Dell, ‘On the Metaphor and Practice of Photography: Socialist Réalism, the Popular Front in France and the Dynamics of Cultural Unity’, History of Photography, Vol. 25, No. 1, Spring 2001, pp. 52–60.
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© 2007 Simon Dell
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Dell, S. (2007). ‘Free Men’: The Image Contested. In: The Image of the Popular Front. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230286955_4
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