Lyon Workers’ (Canut) Uprisings in France

In November 1831, the first armed uprising by workers in French history broke out in Lyon, the center of France's silk industry. At that time, there were more than 30,000 weavers in Lyon (les canuts), who were subjected to cruel exploitation and oppression by factory owners and contractors, and were on the brink of death all year round. The workers worked 15 to 18 hours a day, and the wages they earned could barely buy a pound of bread, let alone support their families. In January 1831, after strong protests from more than 6,000 workers, the manufacturers agreed to raise wages, but later refused to do so, which aroused the anger of the workers. On November 21, Lyon workers took to the streets to hold a strike demonstration. During the parade, they were attacked by the army and police, and the workers immediately took up arms to fight back. The workers raised the political demand that “Lyon should have magistrates of her choice”. They chanted the slogan “Live Working or Die Fighting”. After three days of bloody fighting, the insurgent workers captured the city hall, arrested the governor, and became the master of Lyon. However, the insurgents failed to consolidate their victory because they were not led by a proletarian political party and guided by revolutionary theories. 10 days later, the uprising was suppressed by the reactionary government.

On April 9, 1834, Lyon workers launched an armed uprising again to rescue the arrested workers’ leaders and to oppose the reactionary law issued by the government to prohibit workers’ assembly and association. The insurgent workers erected barricades and waged street battles against the enemy state forces which continued for six days. At the same time, workers in Paris, Marseille, and other cities held strikes and demonstrations to support the uprising of the Lyon workers. In this uprising, the workers raised the slogan “Overthrow the rule of the rich and fight for the establishment of a democratic republic” in the declaration against the reactionary rule of the July Monarchy, which had a clear political tint.

The two uprisings of the Lyon workers were defeated. However, it showed that the working class has awakened and the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie has become the principal contradiction of French society. These two uprisings promoted the development of the French workers’ movement, set a glorious example for the independent political movement of the proletariat, and marked that the French proletariat has entered the arena of world history as an independent political actor.