France 1864

Synopsis

On 25 May 1864 the French Corps Legislatif passed the Coalitions Law, effectively granting French workers the right to strike. The law revised earlier legislation that had classified the formation of workers' coalitions, or labor unions, as a criminal offense. For most of the early nineteenth century, French governments had regarded strikes, and indeed most forms of labor organization, as a serious transgression against the rights of industry. However, during the Second Empire, the government embarked upon a program of liberal reform, which made it look more kindly upon the requests of workers to be granted the right to strike. The 1864 change in the law was part of an attempt on the part of Napoleon III to woo the laboring classes and secure the Second Empire on a broad base of popular support. The law was not successful in this sense, as it failed...