Alphonse Adolphe Merrheim (7 May 1871 – 23 October 1923) was a French copper smith and trade union leader.

Early years

Alphonse Adolphe Merrheim was born on 7 May 1871 in La Madeleine, Nord, a suburb of Lille. He became a coppersmith, and adopted

revolutionary syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence i ...

views. He arrived in Paris in 1904, and soon after met

Pierre Monatte Pierre Monatte (15 January 188127 June 1960) was a French trade unionist, a founder of the ''Confédération générale du travail'' (CGT, Generation Confederation of Labour) at the beginning of the 20th century, and founder of its journal '' La ...

at the office of ''Pages Libres''. The two men would work together to launch '' La Vie Ouvrière (The Worker's Life)''. Bourchet was secretary of the copper workers' union, and when it merged with the metalworker's union, he became head of the combined union. Bourchet resigned abruptly, and Merrheim was persuaded to take on the leadership. He became secretary of the ''Fédération des Métaux'' (Federation of metalworkers) in 1905. Merrheim was immediately thrown into dealing with strikes at

Cluses Cluses (; frp, Clluses) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France. Citizens are known as ''Clusiens''. The commune is situated in the Arve Valley, on the river which bears the same ...

Hennebont Hennebont (; ) is a commune in the Morbihan department in the region of Brittany in north-western France. Geography Hennebont is situated about ten miles from the mouth of the River Blavet, which divides it into two parts: the ''Ville Close'' ...

and

Meurthe-et-Moselle Meurthe-et-Moselle () is a department in the Grand Est region of France, named after the rivers Meurthe and Moselle. It had a population of 733,760 in 2019.Charter of Amiens. The Charter, passed almost unanimously at the GCT congress in

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

in October 1906, asserted a separation between unions and political parties. Members of unions could freely participate in the political parties as they chose, but the unions should unite in direct economic action against employees. As a revolutionary syndicalist, Merrheim said that the unions could break laws that stifled them. He was one of the first to foresee the coming of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

(July 1914 – November 1918). In 1908 Merrheim attended a Congress in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

where he compared the present situation to that of 1870, when the result of the Franco-Prussian War was to destroy the first Workers' International.

World War I

In 1914 Merrheim belonged to the internationalist core of ''La Vie ouvrière (The Worker's Life)'' led by Pierre Monatte and Alfred Rosmer. In 1914 he was acting secretary of the

Confédération générale du travail The General Confederation of Labour (french: Confédération Générale du Travail, CGT) is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions. It is ...

(CGT, General Confederation of Labor). With the outbreak of war there was a panic when Paris was threatened. In September the confederate bureau followed the government to

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

. Merrheim became the leader of a small group of anti-war unionists in Paris, at first based at the ''Vie Ouvrière'' offices at 96, quai Jemmapes. They were in agreement with the Russian socialist parties, who were also against the war. They were in contact with Martov, who brought

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...

to meet the group at the end of 1914. On 15 August 1915 a pacifist resolution was presented at the CGT's national congress at the initiative of Merrheim and Albert Bourderon, signed by several militants of the federation of teacher's unions including Louis Bouët,

Fernand Loriot Fernand Loriot (10 October 1870 – 12 October 1932) was a French teacher who was active in forming the teachers' union. He took a pacifist stance during World War I. He was one of the founders of the French Communist Party. Early years Loriot was ...

, Louis Lafosse, Marie Guillot, Marie Mayoux, Marthe Bigot and Hélène Brion. The resolution said "this war is not our war" and laid responsibility on the leaders of the belligerent states. The resolution denounced the ''

union sacrée The Sacred Union (french: Union Sacrée, ) was a political truce in France in which the left-wing agreed, during World War I, not to oppose the government or call any strikes. Made in the name of patriotism, it stood in opposition to the pledge mad ...

'' and called for the restoration of liberty. Merrheim was a delegate to the conference at Zimmerwald in Switzerland, held from 5–8 September 1915. It was organized by the Italian socialist party, which was opposed to the war. Merrheim and Bourderon, both secretaries of federations within the CGT, represented the French pacifists. On arriving in Berne, Merrheim and Bourderon met with

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

. Merrheim and Lenin talked for eight hours but could not come to agreement. Lenin wanted to create the Third International at once, and told Merrheim when he returned to France he must call for a strike against the war. Merrheim said he had not come to create a Third International, and did not even know if he would be able to say what had been discussed in Zimmerwald. He just wanted to make an appeal to the proletariat of all countries to unite in action against the war. The conference published an appeal, mostly drawn up by Trotsky and the Swiss socialist Robert Grimm, that called for reestablishment of peace between the peoples, calling on the workers of Europe to fight for peace without annexations or indemnities. They should fight for liberty, for the fraternity of peoples, for socialism. The French censors ensured that the press did not report the conference, but the news filtered out. Bourderon and Merrheim arranged for 10,000 copies of a pamphlet to be published by the Federation of metalworkers, and another pamphlet with 4,500 copies was issued by Alfred Rossmer. The authorities banned the pamphlets, but they were distributed clandestinely. In 1916 the CAI took the name ''Comité pour la reprise des relations internationales'' (CRRI, Committee for the resumption of international relations), with Merrheim and Bourderon as secretaries. A new international socialist conference at

Kienthal Reichenbach im Kandertal is a village and municipality in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Until 1957 it was known as Reichenbach bei Frutigen. Besides the village of Reichenbach, the muni ...

was arranged by the Swiss for the end of April 1916. Merrheim, Bourderon and Marie Mayoux of the teacher's federation were expected to represent France, but they were refused the passports they needed to travel. Three delegates from the socialist party (SFIO, ''

Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière The French Section of the Workers' International (french: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was foun ...

'') led by Alexandre Blanc were able to attend, since they were deputies and had parliamentary immunity. In July and August the CRRI leaders met with Trotsky but disagreed with his attacks on the pacifist but centrist followers of

Jean Longuet Jean-Laurent-Frederick Longuet (5 October 1876 – 11 September 1938) was a French socialist politician and journalist. He was Karl Marx's grandson. Early years Jean, often called 'Johnny' as a boy by his family, was born in London on October 5 ...

in the SFIO. Trotsky was expelled from France in October 1916 and found his way to the United States via France. The CRRI issued a brochure calling for peace on 9 October 1916, repeating the conclusions of the Zimmerwald conference. In February 1917 the Committee for the Resumption of International Relations split, with Pierre Brizon, Jean Raffin-Dugens and Albert Bourderon joining the SFIO minority led by

, while the socialists

Charles Rappoport Charles Rappoport (14 June 1865 – 17 November 1941) was a Russian and French militant communist politician, journalist and writer. A Jewish intellectual, and a multilingual scholar, he's been referred to as "a grand man of French radicalism". ...

Louise Saumoneau Louise Saumoneau (17 December 1875 – 23 February 1950) was a French feminist who later renounced feminism as being irrelevant to the class struggle. She became a union leader and a prominent socialist. During World War I she was active in the int ...

and

François Mayoux François Mayoux (24 June 1882 – 21 July 1967) was a French teacher who became in turn a socialist, communist and revolutionary syndicalist. He and his wife Marie Mayoux were imprisoned during World War I (1914–18) for publishing a pacifist pa ...

took control of the committee. Merrheim withdrew to concentrate on union work. When the Russian Revolution began in the spring of 1917 Merrheim declared that it was setting an example for all the peoples of the nations at war.

Post war

In 1918 Merrheim became a supporter of

Léon Jouhaux Léon Jouhaux (1 July 1879 – 28 April 1954) was a French trade union leader who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951. Biography Jouhaux was born in Pantin, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. Jouhaux's father worked in a match factory in Aubervillie ...

against the revolutionaries. He ended up on the right wing of the CGT. Merrheim died on 23 October 1925, aged 52. Pierre Monatte wrote a memoir in ''La Révolution Prolétarienne'' of November 1925. The two men had fallen out after the war, but Monatte said of his earlier years "The Merrheim who was large, who dominated us all, who remains in the history of our movement, was first the one who was a model of a militant syndicalist from 1904 to 1918, and last and above all the one who went to Zimmerwald. His last years cannot make us forget all that he was for fifteen years."

References

Citations Sources * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Merrheim, Alphonse Adolphe 1871 births 1923 deaths French coppersmiths French pacifists French socialists French syndicalists Members of the General Confederation of Labour (France)