24. On the Strike at a Glass-Works in Lyons
The French Republican Government[26] seem resolved to show in every possible way that they are quite as much the Government of the capitalists as any of their predecessors. Not content with siding with the Mining Company in Decazeville,[263] they now come out even stronger in Lyons. There is a strike at a glass-works there; a few knobsticks continue working, and are lodged inside the works for safety's sake. When the furniture of one of them — a German anarchist of the name of Litner — was removed to the works, the strikers followed it, hooting. No sooner was the cart with the furniture inside and the gates closed, than shots were fired from the windows upon the people outside — revolver-bullets, and buckshot flying about in every direction, and wounding about thirty people. The crowd of course dispersed. Now the police and the judicial authorities interfered. But not to arrest the capitalist and his retainers who had fired — oh no! they arrested a number of the strikers for interfering with the freedom of labour! This affair coming on at this very moment, has caused immense excitement in Paris. Decazeville has swelled the Socialist votes in Paris from 30,000 to above 100,000,[264] and the effect of this murderous affair on the La Malotier(1) Gray at Lyons will be greater still.
F. E.
Endnotes
[26] Engels' manuscript The Frankish Period was not published during his lifetime. The manuscript has two parts; the first part includes two chapters: "The Radical Transformation of the Relations of Landownership under the Merovingians and Carolingians" and "The District and Army Structure". The second part of the manuscript bears the title "Note: The Franconian Dialect". Each part is a complete whole. All headings are given in conformity with Engels' manuscript. The Frankish Period was first published in full ("The Franconian Dialect" was published earlier, see Note 47) in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XVI, Part I, Moscow, 1937, and in the language of the original in: Friedrich Engels, Zur Geschichte und Sprache der deutschen Frühzeit. Ein Sammelband. Berlin, 1952, S. 97-152. The Frankish Period (without "Note: The Franconian Dialect") was published in English for the first time in: Marx, Engels, Pre-Capitalist Socio-Economic Formations. A Collection, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1979.
[263] In late January 1886 more than 3,000 workers of Decazeville (south of France) went on strike. The reason was their cruel exploitation by the capitalists of the Aveyron Company of coal-mines and foundries; the government despatched troops to Decazeville. The strike continued till mid-June and evoked a broad response throughout the country; under its impact a small workers' group was formed in the Chamber of Deputies which came out in defence of the workers' economic demands.
[264] The reference is to the by-election to the Chamber of Deputies in Paris on May 2, 1886, when the socialist candidate Ernest Roche received 100,795 votes.