A report from the barricades erected as police attempt to smash the mass textile strike in Roubaix, France in the summer of 1931.

‘The Barricades in Roubaix’ by A. Bénier from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 11 No. 33. June 25, 1931.  

On Friday the 12th June two demonstrations were to have taken place simultaneously in Roubaix; a demonstration organised by the revolutionary Textile Workers Union, and a second one organised by the reformist union. Under the pretext that collisions between the two demonstrations were likely, but in reality to prevent the expected fraternisation between the revolutionary and reformist workers, the Police Prefect of Roubaix prohibited both demonstrations, whereupon the reformist C.G.T. bowed to the police ukase and called off its demonstration. However, several thousands of textile workers were unwilling to give up their demonstration and the met as usual in the square before the railway station. A large force of mounted police immediately attacked the workers and dispersed them. The strikers then issued the word to collect at three distinct points. One of these meeting points was the Rue Longues-Haies.

Instinctively most of the workers went to this street because it is the proletarian centre of their own. In a short space of time about 3,000 strikers had collected in the Rue Longues-Haies, in the Ruy Lannoy and the surrounding streets. Police on horseback and on foot received orders to clear the workers off the streets of this proletarian quarter, and their attempts to do so lasted two hours, from five o’clock to seven o’clock. During the police attacks the workers retired into the courtyards of the houses, and when the police withdrew, they came out again onto the streets armed with missiles of all sorts. A hail of stones, bricks and bottles descended onto the heads of the police. From the windows of the working class. houses the police were bombarded with lumps of coal and other missiles. In a very short space of time the helmets of the police were very dented and the faces of their wearers bruised and bloody. Every time the police retired after an attack the streets again grew black with people and communists delivered short speeches. A number of strikers were captured by the police, beaten up with rifle butts and loaded into the police lorries.

At about 7 o’clock the neighbourhood grew quieter. The police retired, and the secretary of the revolutionary Textile Workers Union, Comrade Leclerq, addressed the masses, condemning the police brutalities and the attitude of the socialist mayor Lebas who had kept himself well out of the way in the Town Hall during the disturbances.

At about 9 o’clock when it was beginning to get dark a rumour spread that one of the arrested strikers had died as a result of the terrible heating received from the police rifle. butts. The result was that the workers again streamed onto the streets protesting angrily against the police brutalities. A patrol of mounted police appeared and a collision immediately occurred. Police reinforcements arrived and began to knock down everyone who came in their way. However, masses of workers armed with stones etc., drove them out of the Rue Longues-Hales and caused them to retire carrying a seriously wounded police lieutenant.

The workers then began to make preparations for defending their own quarters and preventing the police from penetrating into them. At 11 o’clock the workers raided a nearby building job and confiscated sacks of cement and other likely articles. They tore up the paving and erected a barricade across the Rue Longues-Hales where this street joins the Rue Lannoy. This work was carried out with great expertness in a very short space of time. Behind the barricade they dug a broad trench, and about 30 metres before it they erected barbed-wire hindrances. The street lamps were destroyed and extinguished. A red flag was planted on the barricade and a reconnoitering service organised. In the street behind the barricade the masses sang the “Internationale” and other revolutionary songs.

The police did not dare to attack the barricade. for its taking would have required military measures. They remained concentrated in the Rue Gambetta, and from the barricade they could be seen trotting their horses backward and forward. At one o’clock a conference of police officers took place to decide whether to storm the barricade or not. It was clear that firearms and the bayonet would have been necessary and that desperate resistance would have been met with, In the end the police decided not to attack. The workers of the Rue Longues-Haies remained the masters of the street. Only in the morning when the streets were empty did police arrive and tear down the barricade.

On Saturday the police kept out of the way altogether, apparently feeling that they had made themselves ridiculous the day before. The workers from Roubaix and the neighbouring districts streamed in thousands to the Rue Longues-Haies to see the “fortress of the people” as the workers had termed their barricade. The victory over the police raised the spirits of the workers tremendously and an improvised song in praise of the “Rue Longues-Haies Barricade” was soon in everyone’s mouth.

In the evening a patrol of mounted police entered the Rue Longues-Haies again, but several hundred workers immediately attacked it and forced it to retire. A little later however large forces of police on horseback and on foot converged on the Rue Longues-Hales. The workers were threatened with drawn revolvers and knocked about with rifle-butts. Many workers were arrested, including the district secretary of the Young Communist League. Comrade Decaux.

The police attack speedily met with desperate resistance, and a storm of missiles rained down on the police from the roofs and the windows of the houses. Unable to defend themselves the police hurriedly retired amidst the cheers of the workers. The masses utilised the breathing space given to them by the police retirement and quickly erected a second. barricade in the same place. The old material and a number of motor-cars requisitioned from a nearby garage formed the barricade. The motorcars were then set alight. The police were kept at a distance by stones. When the fire brigade arrived to extinguish the flames they were not attacked in any way, the strikers recognising in them fellow-workers. However, the police took advantage of this fact to advance under cover of the fire brigade and reach the barricade. The police took the barricade and behind it in the street a fierce hand to hand fight developed. The police remained the victors, but they did, not dare to follow the workers into the courtyards.

On Sunday the Police Prefect took severer measures. At 8 o’clock p.m. the workers quarter was swamped with armed police and workers who appeared in the streets were driven around like rabbits. The tenants of the houses. overlooking the streets were ordered to keep their windows closed and a warning was issued that the police would immediately shoot at anyone showing himself on the roofs.

The workers of Roubaix of all political groupings and all nationalities fought splendidly against the police terror. Their magnificent fighting example has caused tremendous enthusiasm throughout the country. The determination to resist the strike-breaking machinations of the reformist trade union leaders, and the feeling of solidarity amongst the strikers have grown immensely.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1931/v11n33-jun-25-1931-inprecor.pdf