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Henri Louis Tolain (18 June 1828,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
– 4 May 1897, Paris), was a leading member of the
French trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
and
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
movement and a founding member of the
First International
The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist groups and trad ...
and follower of
Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Soci ...
.
Life
He was the son of Antoine Tolain, dancing master and Jeanne Louise Adelaide Pouplan. Henry Tolain apprenticed to a sculptor in bronze. A profession he practised for most of his working life, first in a workshop and in later years, at his own home.
He followed closely the teaching of the Republican
Jules Andrieu
Jules is the French form of the Latin "Julius" (e.g. Jules César, the French name for Julius Caesar). It is the given name of:
People with the name
*Jules Aarons (1921–2008), American space physicist and photographer
*Jules Abadie (1876–195 ...
and read Proudhon studiously. After the Act of March 1852 of the new
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France.
Historians in the 1930 ...
of
Louis Napoleon
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
, he participated in the revival of mutual societies. His dream is that of an economy of production cooperatives operating with funding by credit unions. In the 1860s, through the more liberal turn of Louis Napoleon's regime, the labour movement is reborn. In October 1861, he proposed the election of representatives of the main trades in all the large cities. He was appointed Assistant Secretary of the commission on the rue du Temple. The committee elected the representatives for Paris. He enters the legislative elections of May 1863 but withdraws. He then stood in the by-election for the Seine in March 1864. On 18 June 1865 he published an article in ''La Tribune Ouvrière'' (The Workers Tribune) in which he demonstrated his opposition to cabarets and the writers of novels (a new cultural phenomenon at the time).
The Manifesto of the Sixty
In 1864, with the help of Republican journalist
Henri Lefort, Henri Tolain wrote a text that was signed by sixty workers. It was published in ''L'Opinion Nationale''. This manifesto is a program of social demands to support candidates standing in a byelection that year. This text calls for a genuine democracy, political, economic and social. He protested against the exclusion of workers from political life. He also expressed the desire that the place of the world of work in society is finally recognized. His call for strikes to be legalized was partially met by the Ollivier act of May 25, 1864, but only under strict limitations of not causing violence, and not infringing the 'freedom to work'.
The Manifesto of the Sixty raises seven immediate demands:
* Repeal of Section 1781 of the French Civil Code which states that employers have the final say in matters of the pay of their workers.
* Abolish the (anti-)Combinations Act
* Create trade associations (chambres syndicales)
* Enlarge the competencies of friendly and mutual assurance societies
* Regulate the employment of women
* Reform apprenticeships
* Make primary and trade/professional education free
Although moderate in tone, the significance of the manifesto in defending interests specific to workers was recognised both by
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and later historians as a milestone in the French workers movement. It was in reaction to this text that
Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Soci ...
composed one of his last texts, ''De la capacité politique des classes ouvrières'' (The Political Capacity of the Working Class), published posthumously in 1865.
International Workingmen's Association
In 1862, during the Universal Exhibition of London, Henri Tolain was part of a delegation of French trade unionists whose attendance had been subsidised by
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
[Marie Fleming, "The Anarchist Way to Socialism", 1979, p??] for the purposes of studying British products, inventions and industrial processes. There they met with their British counterparts through the efforts of
George Odger
George Odger (1813–4 March 1877) was a pioneer British trade unionist and radical politician. He is best remembered as the head of the London Trades Council during the period of formation of the Trades Union Congress and as the first President ...
. In 1863, as a follow up Henry Tolain and other French unionists participated in a monster meeting on Poland. These meetings lay the groundwork that led up to the IWA's 1864 founding meeting in St. Martin's Hall. He initially became the most influential person in the Paris section of the IWA which opened an office in January 1865, at rue Gravilliers. He was one of three secretaries of the Paris section responsible for relations with the General Council in London until 1867. His influence on the movement was at its peak when he wrote the "Memorandum for the French delegates" at the Geneva congress of the International. But under the pressure of the wave strikes of 1867, he was unable to restrict the "Gravilliers" to the role of a mutual study circle. In December 1867, Henry Tolain was arrested and interrogated. In March 1868 he was sentenced to a fine of 100 francs. Tolain continues to defend mutualism and private property during the 1868 Brussels congress where the Belgian socialist
César de Paepe
César De Paepe (12 July 1841 in Ostend, Belgium – 1890 in Cannes, France) was a Belgian medical doctor, socialist activist and a prominent proponent of syndicalism whose work strongly influenced the Industrial Workers of the World and the syndi ...
led the
collectivist majority to defeat the Proudhonians over the land question.
The "Treason" of Henri Tolain
Tolain's influence gradually declined. Indeed, he couldn't find a Parisian section to delegate to the 1869 IWA Congress in Basel. He had to get a mandate from the bakers of Marseille. He is criticizes for his closeness to the Royal Palace and for having abandoned "the smock and chisel," because since 1867 he worked on the books for the tinsmith Chavagnat.
After the French defeat at the
Battle of Sedan
The Battle of Sedan was fought during the Franco-Prussian War from 1 to 2 September 1870. Resulting in the capture of Emperor Napoleon III and over a hundred thousand troops, it effectively decided the war in favour of Prussia and its allies, ...
, he was elected deputy mayor of the
11th arrondissement of Paris in November 1870 during the
Siege of Paris. Standing on an IWA ticket for the
French legislative elections of February 1871, he was elected deputy for the Seine.
However, once elected as deputy, Tolain disavowed the
Commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
, proclaimed after the uprising of 18 March 1871. On 12 April he was expelled for "having deserted his cause in the most cowardly and shameful manner" by the Federal Council of the Parisian sections of the International. He was later elected thereafter Senator for the Seine.
From 1876 he was a campaigner for the Waldeck-Rousseau law which legalised trade unions, which would not be passed until 1884. He became an influential figure in the Republican "opportunism" role for which he received much criticism from the Socialists.
References
External links
Full text of the Manifesto of the Sixty (French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tolain, Henri
1828 births
1897 deaths
French socialists
Members of the International Workingmen's Association
Mutualists
Senators of Seine (department)