Memory, influence and leadership : resilience and resistance of workers in Le Havre, 1936-1944
Existing work on French factory workers during the German occupation has so far revealed striking variations between how workers behaved, depending on their town or region and even on their workplace. The same themes appear - hardship, wages, trade unions, protest - and yet they are configured completely differently depending on geography, local history and local populations. This thesis looks at the specific example of Le Havre where, in contrast to most other areas, the workers voiced their discontent from the very start of the Occupation. However, their discontent was not transformed into organised resistance in 1943 and 1944 to the same extent as elsewhere in France. This thesis therefore identifies three themes - memory, influence and leadership - in order to explain why the Le Havre workers behaved as they did. In particular, it is the focus on leadership - or lack of it - which provides its significant contribution to the understanding of French labour history during this period. Using archival sources, it traces the history of port and factory workers in Le Havre from the factory occupations that accompanied the Popular Front election victory in 1936, through to the end of the German occupation. The
Shtasel, Rebecca
DC361 20th century ; HD8031 Labour in politics. Political activity of the working class
Memory, influence and leadership : resilience and resistance of workers in Le Havre, 1936-1944. Existing work on French factory workers during the German occupation has so far revealed striking variations between how workers behaved, depending on their town or region and even on their workplace. The same themes appear - hardship, wages, trade unions, protest - and yet they are configured completely differently depending on geography, local history and local populations. This thesis looks at the specific example of Le Havre where, in contrast to most other areas, the workers voiced their discontent from the very start of the Occupation. However, their discontent was not transformed into organised resistance in 1943 and 1944 to the same extent as elsewhere in France. This thesis therefore identifies three themes - memory, influence and leadership - in order to explain why the Le Havre workers behaved as they did. In particular, it is the focus on leadership - or lack of it - which provides its significant contribution to the understanding of French labour history during this period. Using archival sources, it traces the history of port and factory workers in Le Havre from the factory occupations that accompanied the Popular Front election victory in 1936, through to the end of the German occupation. The
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