Political Identity in Transition: Metalworkers in Lyon during the French Popular Front, 1935–39

Abstract

During the Popular Front of the mid 1930s, the longstanding political identities of French metalworkers were significantly transformed. For decades metalworker political identities had featured anti-patriotism and the rejection of cross-class alliances. But the tenor of the mass mobilizations and electoral behavior of metalworkers during the Popular Front reflected the emergence of a new political identity that combined class and national identities and support for cross-class political alliances. Through a study of metalworkers in the industrial city of Lyon this article argues that this new political identity emerged out of the intersection of industrial social relations and political opportunity structure.