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Early Trade Unionism. From the Federation of Copperworkers to the Federation of Metalworkers, 1893–1904

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Alphonse Merrheim

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

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Abstract

On May 7, 1871, Adolphine Lefrançois gave birth to a son, whom she and her husband, Adolphe Merrheim, named Alphonse Adolphe Merrheim. At the time Adolphine was twenty four years old and worked as a housekeeper; Adolphe was twenty five and a coppersmith.1

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Notes

  1. Acte de naissance d’Alphonse Merrheim, Ville de La Madeleine (Nord), France, no. 77, May 8, 1871.

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  2. Pierre Brizon, ‘Merrheim’ in La Vague no. 2, January 12, 1918 p. 1. The portrait of Merrheim in this work is very intimate and the source of Brizon’s information could only have been Merrheim.1

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  3. No information exists concerning Merrheim’s school years except for a few references he made as an adult. He noted in 1912, for instance, that his school teacher taught republican value, but he wrote this at a time when he was defending himself against charges by employers that workers were antipatriotic. While never denying this accusation, he pointed out that capitalists were more concerned with internationll finance than with nationaiism; see Alphonse Merrheim, in VP, no. 590, January 14–21, 1912, p. 2. He also wrote that he had received a religious education but that he had left school because he did not want to study ‘chez les frères’. There was certainly no trace of religious practice in his adult life, however. See Brizon, ‘Merrheim’.

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  4. Pierre Brizon, ‘Merrheim’ in La Vague no. 2, January 12, 1918 p. 1

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  5. Alphonse Merrheim, in VP, no. 598, March 10–17, 1912, pp. 2–3.

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  6. Claude Willard, Les Guesdistes. Le Mouvement socialiste en France, (1893–1905) (Paris, 1965), pp.214–215.

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  7. Ibid., p. 91.

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  8. Ibid., pp. 385–386.

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  9. Cited by Georges Lefranc, Histoire du mouvement syndical sous la Troisibme République (Paris, 1967), p. 41.

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  10. Jacques Julliard, ‘Théorie syndicaliste révolutionaire et pratique gréviste’, in Le Mouvement Social, no. 65 October-December 1968, pp. 55–69.

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  11. Willard, Les Guesdistes, p. 235.

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  12. Alphonse Merrheim, in VP, no. 310, September 16–23, 1906, p. 2.

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  13. Alphonse Merrheim, CGT, XVe Congrès national corporatif (Amiens, 1906) pp. 152–155.

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  14. Merrheim, in VP, no. 598, March 10–17, 1912, pp. 2–3.

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  15. Alphonse Merrheim, in VP, no. 602, April 7–14, 1912, pp. 2–3.

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  16. Merrheim, in VP, no. 598, March 10–17, 1912, pp. 2–3

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  17. There is some confusion concerning the actual year in which Merrheim founded this union. Edouard Dolléans wrote that Merrheim had organized a coppersmiths’ union in Roubaix in 1891; Alphonse Merrheim (Paris, 1939), p. 1. Actually Merrheim’s first attempt to organize a union in 1891 was a failure because of opposition from the POF. In his own recoleections of these years Merrheim wrote in 1912, ‘I had established at that time — 1893 — the union of Chaudronneers sur cuivre de Roubaix-Tourconng, of which I remained secretary until I entered the Federation of Metalworkers’. See Merrheim. in VP. no. 598, March 10–17, 1912, pp. 2–3. Victor Daline, who has worked extensively with the private correspondance of Merrheim cites a quotation found outside of the Merrheim Archives but not identified, in which Merrheim writes, ‘I have reestablished [the union] in 1892, and I was its secretary until 24 June 1904, the date of my becoming secretary of the federation of metallurgy [sic], today the federation of metalworkers [sic]’.

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  18. See Daline, ‘Alphonse Merrheim et sa ‘correspondance confidentielle’’ (Moscow, 1965; French edition in Hommes et idées, pp. 232–342, translated by Robert Rodov, Moscow, 1983), p. 236. In a written portrait of Merrheim, undoubtedly done with the latter’s cooperation, Brizon, ‘Merrheim’, confirms the 1893 date, and I am inclined to accept this year as correct.

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  19. Alphonse Merrheim, in Le Cuivre, no. 50, October 1898, p. 2.

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  20. Merrheim, in Le Cuivre, no. 50, October 1898, p. 2.

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  21. For information on Bourchet, see Jean Maitron, ed., Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrierfrançais, pt. 3, vol. XI (Paris, 1973), p. 18.

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  22. Office du Travail, Les Associations professionnelles ouvrières (Paris, 1902), vol. III, pp. 163–164.

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  23. Le Cuivre, no. 3, December 1898, p. 2.

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  24. Ibid., no. 4, January 1895, p. 2. This issue of Le Cuivre also contains a report of the congress of the federation held in 1895.

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  25. Alphonse Merrheim, in Le Cuivre , no. 49, September 1898, p. 1.

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  26. Alphonse Merrheim, in Le Cuivrer, no. 77, January 1901, p. 2.

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  27. FNOM ‘Compte rendu du 2e Congrès national de la Métallurgie (Paris, November 23–27, 1892)’, in Bulletin Officiel de la Fédération Nationale des Ouvriers Métallurgistes de France no. 19, 1892, p. 5.

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  28. See, for example, FNOM, Rapport sur le Congrès national de la Métallurgie (Paris, 1899), p. 3, where it was reported that the Federation changed its structure to accommodate autonomous sections within its framework.

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  29. ‘Procès-verbal de la réunion de la Commission Interfédérale (May 17, 1900)’, in Le Cuivre no. 70, June 1900, p. 1.

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  30. ‘Comité d’Entente des Fédérations du Cuivre, des Mécaniciens, et des Mouleurs, in ibid., p. 1.

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  31. UFOM, 9e Congrès national (Paris, 1900), p. 27 and p. 54.

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  32. Ibid., p. 54. For a study of the Comité des Forges see Michael J. Rust, ‘Business and Polttics in the Third Republic The Comité des Forges and the French Steel Industry 1896–1914’, Ph. D dissertation, Princeton University, 1973.

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  33. UFOM, 10e Congrès national (Saint-Etienne, 1901), pp. 15–18. For source of quotation see p. 146.

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  34. For information on the Congres du Cuivre, see the following: ‘Consell Fédéral [Procès-verbal de la] Réunion du Conseil Fédéral du 30 mai 1900’ in Le Cuivre no. 70, June 1900, p. 2; Albert Bourchet, ‘Le Congrès du Cuivre — Demande de Subvention’’ in ibid., p. 4; ‘Appel du Congrès’, in ibid., no. 71, July 1900, p. 1; ‘Conseil fédéral — Paris — Procès-verbal de l’Assemblée générale du 28 juillet 1900’, in ibid., no. 72 August 1900, p. 2; ‘Le Congrès du Cuivre: Réglementation de l’ordre du jour,’ in ibid., no. 73, September 1900, p. 2.

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  35. Edouard Dumas, ‘L’Union Fédérale des Ouvriers Métallurgistes’, in Le Mouvement Socialiste, November 1–15, 1905, no 166–167, pp. 361–363

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  36. Ibid., pp. 363–364.

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  37. ‘Conseil Fédéral, Séance du 15 décembre (1902)’, in Le Cuivre no, 101, January 1903, p. 4

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  38. ‘Paris — Chambre Syndicale Ouvrière des tourneurs-robinetiers — Procès-verbal de l’Assemblée Générale du 24 janvier 1903’, in ibid., no. 102, February 1903, p. 4; ‘Conseil Fédéra, Séance du 26 fevrier’, in ibid., no. 103, March 1903, p. 4. It was the February 26 meeting of the Federal Councll of the Federation of Copperworkers that decided to name ‘a study commission charged to work out common statuts’. See also Albert Bourchet ‘Le Projet d’union’, in ibid., no. 102, February 1903, pp. 1–2. This last article indicates that Bourchet worked actively to bring about unity between his federation and the Federation of Metalworkers. To make this easier on his membership, he emphasized that the Federation of Copperworkers would maintain its autonomy within any new organization.

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  39. Albert Bourchet, ‘Vers l’unité’, in ibid., no. 105, April 1903, p. 1.

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  40. Alphonse Merrheim, in ibid., no. 83, July 1901, pp. 3–4.

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  41. Michel Collinet, L’Ouvrier français. L’Esprit du syndicalisme (Paris, 1951), pp. 23–29.

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  42. Alphonse Merrheim, in Le Cuivre, no. 83, July 1901, pp. 3–4.

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  43. ‘Congrès du Cuivre [September 1902]’, in ibid., no. 98, October 1902, pp. 3–4.

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  44. Alphonse Merrheim, in ibid., no. 105, April 1903, p. 2; his emphasis.

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  45. Alphonse Merrheim, in OM, no. 138, June 1, 1903, p. 5.

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  46. Alphonse Merrheim, in ibid., no. 140, August 1, 1903, p. 2.

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  47. UFOM, XIe Congrès national des Ouvriers Métallurgistes(Paris, 1903); see. p. 31 for the official announcement.

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  48. Ibid., p. 27; on p. 26 of this report we read that the Syndicat des Chaudronniers sur Cuivre from Roubaix, Merrheim’s union, had joined the new federation. Merrheim took no part in the debates, however.

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  49. OM, no. 150, June 1, 1904, p. 3 and p. 4; Bourchet’s formal letter of resignation and the announcement of Merrheim’s election is in UFOM, XIIIe Congrès national des Ouvriers Métallurgistes (Paris, 1905), pp. 63–64.

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  50. Merrheim in OM, no. 150, June 1, 1904, p. 3.

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  51. Alphonse Merrheim, in ibid., no. 151, July 1, 1904, p. 1.

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  52. AN, F7, 13574, note of Paris, July 8, 1915.

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  53. This information comes from a fascinating biographccal sketch of Merrheim found in APP, B/A 1688, note of March 1907 (dossier no. 1, ‘Au sujet de la Confédération Générale du Travail’).

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  54. Pierre Monatte, ‘Alphonse Merrheim’, in La Révolution Prolétarienne, no. 11, November 1925, p. 11.

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  55. Edouard Dolléans, Histoire du mouvement ouvrier, vol. II (Paris, 1939; reprint ed., Paris, 1957), pp. 168–169.

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  56. See Justinien Raymond, ‘Un Tragique Episode du mouvement ouvrier à Cluses (Haute-Savoie) en 1904’, in Mélanges d’histoire sociale offerts à Jean Maitron (Paris, 1976), pp. 197–210.

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  57. AN, F7, 13771, ‘Le Mouvement syndical dans la Métallurgie (Historique)’, n.d.

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  58. Alphonse Merrheim, in VP, no. 208, October 9–16, 1904, p. 1, and

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  59. Alphonse Merrheim in VP, no. 198, July 31-Augutt 7, 1904, pp. 1–2.

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  60. See, for example, Merrheim’s articles in VP from August to December 1904, as well as Alphonse Merrheim in OM, no. 158, January 1, 1905, p. 1.

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  1. Nicholas Papayanis
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© 1985 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht

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Papayanis, N. (1985). Early Trade Unionism. From the Federation of Copperworkers to the Federation of Metalworkers, 1893–1904. In: Alphonse Merrheim. Studies in Social History, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5155-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5155-6_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

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  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-5155-6

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