La grève des casquettiers parisiens en 1911-1912 : luttes sociales, action individuelle et construction d'une identité collective

Abstract

The Union of cap-makers fills a specific place in the history of the labour movement and syndicate, first due to its early birth, as soon as 1896, and its exceptional claiming action, and due on the other hand to its typical socio-cultural setting-up since it was a professional structure solely constituted of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. 1911-1912, which are the years looked into, witnessed the biggest social tensions of the period preceding the first World War ; at that time, the leader of the syndicate is a Bolshevik exile, A. Lozovski, an experienced man. The cap-makers syndicate stands as a model of structure and struggle for all the Jewish labour movements. This is an outstanding period in the memory of the Jewish labour movements, and the structure model initiated by Lozovski persisted in spite of the ups and downs of the particularly unsteady universe of an immigrated population.