Fusillade de Fourmies

Fusillade de Fourmies

Cover of the Petit Parisien on 17 May 1891
Date	1 May 1891
Location	Fourmies, Nord, France
Participants	French citizens

The Fusillade de Fourmies is an event which happened on 1 May 1891 in Fourmies, in the French Nord department. This day, the troop fired on a peaceful demonstration of workers claiming "C'est les huit heures qu'il nous faut !" (it's the eight-hour day we need), killing nine people and injuring 35 others.^[1]

Context[]

Fourmies was a small town of 2000 people at the beginning of the 19th century, but it had an important industrial growth because of the textile industry.^[2] In 1891, it had 37 silk and wool mills, and 15 000 people, in majority factory workers.^{[citation needed]}

In the factories, workers worked for 12 hours a day, and six days a week. Their salaries were particularly low.^[3]

Starting in 1885, the textile industry in the Nord began to experience difficulties.^[3] These difficulties had direct repercussions on workers, with unemployment and salary reductions when food and lodging expenses were rising.^[4]

History[]

Call to strike[]

The right to strike was allowed in France since The Ollivier law on 25 May 1864,^[5] but the Trade unions were allowed only since the Waldeck-Rousseau law on 21 March 1884.^[6]

Bibliography[]

• André Pierrard, Jean-Louis Chappat, La Fusillade de Fourmies : Premier mai 1891, Maxima, Paris, 1991 ISBN 2-84003-000-4^[7]
• Madeleine Rebérioux, Fourmies et les Premier mai, Fourmies Colloquium 1891/1991 (1991), Éditions de l'Atelier, 1994, ISBN 2-7082-3077-8
• Odette Hardy-Hémery, L'envers d'une fusillade : Fourmies, 1er mai 1891, L'Harmattan, coll. « Collection Chemins de la mémoire », 2000 ISBN 2738442226
• Justinien Raymond, Hippolyte Culine, Dictionnaire biographique, mouvement ouvrier, mouvement social, « Le Maitron », 2010.^[8]

References[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fourmies shooting.