Abstract
In the movement of ardent devotion aroused by their spiritual retreat, employers discover how miserable the moral and human situation of their workers is. They are infused by Léon Harmel's inspiration. They launch good works to moralise and christianise the mills, and in 1884, they create the Catholic Union of Nord Employes which eventually fostered the Our Lady of the Mill Confraternity, mixed unions and numerous initiatives stamped with the denominational mark. When the Rerum Novarum encyclical letter is published, they welcome what runs along their own lines but refuse the idea of independent unions and of State regulation in matters of wages and work organisation. Supported by the Jesuits of Our Lady of Hautmont and by Father Fichaux, they unite against the anticlericalism of the public authorities, against a socialist ideology which stirs up the uprooted and destitute working masses. They think they are fulfilling the promises of a reconciled society. Other Christians, priests and laymen, understand the ambiguities of this position and join the Christian Democracy : some Jesuits drift away and found the Popular Action. The cloth- weaving cities of the Nord were deeply marked by this moment of history.
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