Steve Cushion, "The 1941 Miners Strike in Northern France - from a dispute over soap to armed resistance"

In Northern France in 1941, while under German military occupation, 100,000 miners went on strike from the 27th May to the 9th June. This strike not only cost the German war machine half a million tonnes of coal, but also had long-term consequences for the development of the Resistance in the area. Starting from a dispute with their employers over working conditions, the reality of living under Nazi occupation soon gave the struggle a political dimension, convincing the miners that their social aspirations were inextricably linked to the outcome of the war, thereby preparing the ground for what was to arguably become the most active underground resistance movement in wartime France.

As far as the Communist Party was concerned, there was a difference of emphasis between Paris and the Pas-de-Calais. Guided by the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the Paris leadership thought that they had to organise within the context of a German victory. Taking a position of neutrality between Germany and Britain, the official publications ignored the German occupation and concentrated their attacks on the Vichy government and French capitalism. Many Communists in the North were convinced, however, that the war would end in revolution, as had happened in Russia after the war of 1914, and that revolution would spring from the ashes of the defeat of German Fascism

The miners of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais had gained considerable improvements in working conditions and wage rates through a series of bitter struggles in the twenties and thirties, above all during the strikes and occupations associated with the early days of the Popular Front in 1936. The employers were quick to take advantage of the German invasion and the resulting ban on strikes to reclaim most of these gains.

The official trade unions were dominated by SFIO members who were committed to collaboration and were firm supporters of the Vichy government. Realising that nothing could be obtained through these structures, the Communists started to set up unofficial clandestine bodies, Comités d'unité syndicale et d'action (CUSA).

Between August and October 1940, a series of half day strikes broke out, very often demanding increases in soap, clothing and food rations. The German military authorities, whose sole interest at this stage was in maintaining production, frequently acted as conciliators between the miners and their employers. Their patience was soon exhausted, however, and when, on the 9th August, a strike took place at the Dahomy pit to defend a militant who had just been dismissed by the company, the Germans had him arrested. The miners responded in one pit after another by arriving half an hour late for. As soon as they were threatened with punishments, the scene of the action would move to another location, the turbulence only ending when lorry loads of German soldiers arrived at any pit taking action and arresting numbers of miners at random.

Demonstrations against food shortages were organised throughout the Nord-Pas-de-Calais between January and May 1941 and these ended in riots in Lens and Avion where the crowd tried to lynch the mayor.

The employers had progressively been introducing new working practices, one pit at a time, throughout the early part of the year. Le Dahomey, was probably the most militant pit in the basin and the company left it until last to introduce its new working pattern. Meetings were organised below ground and a strike stared on the morning of the 27th May. Flying pickets went to neighbouring pits, successfully spreading the strike and a list of grievances was presented to the employer. The CUSA decided to call for a general strike in the mining basin.

German reaction was swift, with a number of arrests being made, although they missed all the leaders. The German military commander had two posters displayed, one calling for an immediate return to work and another announcing that 11 miners and two miner's wives, all Communists, had been condemned to terms of hard-labour. As a result of these threats, the strike became solid throughout the region. On 2nd June, there were 100,000 miners on strike.

The French Police were instructed to break the picket lines, but there were not enough of them and large numbers of German soldiers and military police were drafted in to the region and a state of siege was imposed.

Women increasingly took over picket duty and the hounding of blacklegs. A demonstration of 2000 women was organised outside the company offices in Billy-Montigny and, despite being attacked by German feldgendarmes, they managed to avoid any arrests by linking arms. Following this and similar demonstrations at Lievin on the 31st and Hénin on the 2nd June, women were strictly forbidden to leave their homes in the half-hour before work starts.

The level of repression was increased considerably after the 31st May, the police and German soldiers starting a policy of arrests after dawn raids, organised virtually at random to cause the maximum apprehension amongst the strikers, with immediate drumhead courts martial handing down heavy penalties. Despite real hardship and hunger, the strike lasted for the rest of the week, but by Sunday the 8th, enough cracks had started to appear for the CUSA to decide to call for a return to work on Monday the 9th.

Fearful of a repetition, the Germans announced an immediate supplementary distribution of food, clothing and soap to mineworkers and the Vichy government decreed a general wage increase for the mines.

Nevertheless, there was a price to be paid and the employers gave the police the names of those they considered to be ringleaders. As a result, 450 arrests were made, of whom 270 were deported to concentration camps in Germany and 130 never returned. Nine Communists were taken as hostages and later shot.

The strike was to provide the French Resistance with its most solid base and the repression, which forced a large number of miners into hiding, produced ideal conditions for their recruitment to the armed struggle. The traditional solidarity of the close knit mining communities and the anti-German and anti-employer sentiments generated by the strike enabled these urban guerrillas an unparalleled freedom of movement and support networks. In 1942 and 1943 over half the armed attacks and sabotage in France happened in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais.