Syndicalism in France

by Lewis L. Lorwin

The compagnonnages originated under the guild-system and can be traced back as far as the fifteenth century. Their development was probably connected with the custom of traveling which became prevalent among the journeymen of France about that time.[14] A journeyman (called compagnon in French) would usually spend some time in visiting the principal cities of France (make his tour de France) to perfect himself in his trade. A traveling compagnon would be in need of assistance in many cases and the compagnonnages owed their development to the necessity of meeting this want.

The compagnonnages consisted of bachelor journeymen only. If a member married or established himself as master, he left the compagnonnage. Besides, admission to the compagnonnage was dependent on tests of moral character and of technical skill. Thus, the compagnonnages always embraced but a small part of the workingmen—the élite from the technical point of view. To attain the required technical standard, members had to pass some time as aspirants before they could become compagnons.

The organization of the compagnonnages was very simple. All the compagnons of the same trade lived together in one house, usually in an inn, kept by the so-called mère (mother) or père (father) of the trade. The compagnons were generally the only boarders in the house. If not numerous enough to occupy the entire house, they had one hall for their exclusive occupation. Here they held their meetings, initiated new members, and kept their records and treasury. Here, also, compagnons arriving from other towns made themselves “recognized” by special signs and symbols.

All the compagnons of France were divided among three “orders” called devoirs. The devoirs had strange names indicating the legends with which the origins of these organizations were connected. The devoir, “Sons of Master Jack” (Enfants de Maitre Jacques) was founded, according to the story, by one of the master-builders of King Solomon's Temple. The “Sons of Solomon” (Enfants de Solomon) were sure that their order was founded by King Solomon himself. The “Sons of Master Soubise” regarded another builder of Solomon's Temple as the founder of their devoir. Each devoir consisted of a number of trades, and sometimes one and the same trade was divided between two devoirs.

Ceremonies and rites constituted an inseparable part of the compagnonnages. The initiation of a new member, the “recognition” of a newly arrived compagnon, the meeting of two traveling compagnons on the road, etc., were occasions for strange and complicated ceremonies which had to be accurately performed. These ceremonies were due in a large measure to the secrecy in which the compagnonnages developed under the ancient régime, persecuted as they were by the royal authorities, by the church, and by the master-craftsmen.

Within the compagnonnages the feeling of corporate exclusiveness and the idea of hierarchical distinctions were strong. Emblems of distinction, such as ribbons, canes, etc., were worn on solemn occasions, and the way in which they were worn, or their number, or color, indicated the place of the compagnonnage within the whole corporate body. Many riots and bloody encounters were occasioned between devoir and devoir and between different compagnonnages within each devoir by disputes over “ribbons” and other emblems appropriate to each. For instance, the joiners were friends of the carpenters and of the stonecutters, but were enemies of the smiths whom the other two trades accepted. The smiths rejected the harness-makers. The blacksmiths accepted the wheelwrights on condition that the latter wear their colors in a low buttonhole; the wheelwrights promised but did not keep their promise; they wore their colors as high as the blacksmiths; hence hatred and quarrels. The carpenters wore their colors in their hats; the winnowers wanted to wear them in the same way; that was enough to make them sworn enemies.[15] Besides, the compagnonnages did not strive to embrace all members of the same trade or all trades. On the contrary, they were averse to initiating a new trade and it sometimes took decades before a new trade was fully admitted into the organization.

While these features harked back to the past, the economic functions of the compagnonnages anticipated and really were a primitive form of the later syndicat. The compagnonnages offered effective protection to the compagnons in hard stresses of life as well as in their difficulties with their masters. “The ‘devoir’ of the compagnons” (read the statutes of one of these societies) “is a fraternal alliance which unites us all by the sacred ties of friendship, the foundations of which are: virtue, frankness, honesty, love of labor, courage, assistance and fidelity.”[16] These abstract terms translated themselves in life into concrete deeds of mutual aid and of assistance which were immensely valuable to the traveling compagnons. A traveling compagnon, on arriving at a city or town, would only have to make himself “recognized” and his fellow-compagnons would take care of him. He would be given lodging and food. Employment would be found for him. If sick or in distress, he would receive aid. If he wished to leave the town to continue his tour de France, he would be assisted and would be accompanied some distance on the road.

With their simple organization, the compagnons were able to exert a strong economic influence. They served as bureaus of employment. One compagnon, elected rouleur, was charged with the duty of finding employment for compagnons and “aspirants”. He kept a list of those in need of work and placed them in the order of their inscription. Usually the masters themselves addressed the rouleurs for workingmen, when in need of any.

This fact gave the compagnonnages a control over the supply of labor. They could withhold labor from a master who did not comply with their demands. They could direct their members into other towns of the Tour if necessary, as everywhere the compagnons would find friends and protection. They could, therefore, organize strikes and boycott a master or workshop for long periods of time. In fact, by these methods the compagnonnages struggled for higher wages and better conditions of employment as far back as the sixteenth century. During the Great Revolution the compagnonnages existed in twenty-seven trades and directed the strike-movement described above. They attained the height of their development during the first quarter of the nineteenth century when they were the only effective workingmen's organizations exerting an influence in the economic struggles of the time.

The compagnonnages persisted in several trades during the larger part of the nineteenth century. After 1830, however, their influence declined. The new industrial conditions reduced the significance of the personal skill of the workingmen, shifted the boundaries of the ancient trades, and entirely transformed most of them. The rapid development of the modern means of communication made the tour de France in its old form an anachronism. The spread of democratic and secular ideas brought the medieval usages and ideas of the compagnonnages into disrepute and ridicule. Several attempts to reform the compagnonnages and to bring them into harmony with the new conditions of life were made by members of the organization, but with no results.[17]