The Plough and the Cross: Peasant Unions in South-Western France by M C CLEARY
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/ The Plough and the Cross: Peasant Unions in South-Western France By M C CLEARY URAL society in late nineteenth- and union in a rural dEpartement of south- early twentieth-century France was western France, the Aveyron, and to seek faced with the consequences of a to outline the importance of the Catholic fundamental shift in the demographic and Church in the development of that move- economic balance of the nation. The ment. dominant rural and agricultural civilization was giving way to one based on the factory I and the town. Between 1882 and I93I the If the roots of co-operation and mutual aid proportion of the population earning its in French agriculture stretch back well into living from agriculture fell from 48 to 30 per the past, the legal institution of the agricul- cent.' Paris, accommodating some 2 per cent tural union dates from only I884, when the of the French populace in I85I, had by the Chamber of Deputies approved the passage end of the century increased this proportion of a law permitting the formation of unions to IO per cent.-" The implications of such a for the defence of industrial, commercial decline were to prove particularly disquiet- and agricultural interests) National pat- ing for those who saw in the 'eternal order of ronage of agricultural unions was quickly the fields' the key to the social, moral and taken up both by Republicans, anxious to political stability of the nation. win over the supposedly conservative Recent studies of peasant protest in peasantry to the Third Republic, and by nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe notables of the right for whom the agricul- have emphasized the important role of social tural union was to unite landowner, groups external to the peasantry in the peasant and labourer in order to stem the development of protest movements.3 Faced tide of socialism flowing from the towns, with the declining importance of rural and preserve la paix sociale in the country- society in the rapidly industrializing nation, side. By the end of the nineteenth century it has been argued that it was largely those some 5oo,ooo peasants were enrolled in social groups whose power base lay in the such unions, a membership which, just countryside- the rural bourgeoisie, the prior to the Great War increased to over notables, and the Church -- who were the I,OOO,OOO. 5 driving forces behind movements aimed at The activity of these unions was wide- redressing the balance between town and ranging. According to one theorist, they country. In France, the agricultural union or were to be the 'co-ordinating body for all syndicat, legalized at the end of the nineteenth those institutions of nmtual aid which are century, was created with such objectives in vital to the economic and social well being mind. It is the intention of this paper to of the village community', a veritable examine the early history of the agricultural school of moral and social education to 'M Faure, Les Paysans dans la SociEt? Franfaise, Paris, 1956, p 4 o. :G. Dupeux, French Society 1789-197o, 1976, p 4. ~On the syndicat see: M Augd-Laribd, Syndicats el Coope~ratives JP Barral, 'Los mouvcments agrariens de I'('re industrielle', Revue agricoles, Paris, 1926; P Barral, Les Agrariens Franfais de MEline ~1 Historiqm', 3, 1964, Pp 299-33o; 'Les Mouvements Paysans dans Ic Pisani, Paris, 1968; G Wright, Rural Revolution in France, Stanford, monde contcmporain; Cahiers lnternationaux d'Histob'e HconoMque 1964. et Sociale, Geneva, 1973. SFaure, op cit, p 52. I2 7 128 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW help the peasant face up to the problems of but also many Catholic intellectuals his milieu. The provision of fertilizers and (for example de Mun, le Play, de la Tour seeds, the pooling of resources to buy du Pin) and notables. The merging of these machinery, the diffusion of technical diverse interests, the spiritual, intellectual knowledge, and the creation of mutual and political, was to prove particularly insurance and credit groups were among fertile in the expansion of peasant union- the practical benefits of membership. 6 ism. The attitude of the Catholic Church in France to these unions would seem to be of particular interest. The Catholic Church II was an especially powerful force in many 'Can there be', asked one traveller at the parts of the French countryside, and in a beginning of the nineteenth century, 'a society increasingly demoralized by the wilder and rougher country than this rural exodus, its role was to become in- Aveyron? '1a The d~partement is a large one, creasingly important. 7 One might antici- the fifth largest in France, and covers some pate two attitudes on the part of the 4ooo square miles. It is located on the Church hierarchy. On the one hand they south-western flanks of the Massif Central may have been opposed to any involve- approximately midway between Montpel- ment in temporal organizations, such as lier and Clermont-Ferrand. The dfparte- agricultural unions, because of their desire ment is mountainous in character. The hills to avoid overt political involvement at a of the Aubrac in the north form a high particularly delicate time for the Church. s pasture area, between 3000 and 4000 feet in On the other hand, the encyclical of Pope height. To the south and east of Rodez, the Leo XIII (Rerum Novarum 189I), had en- capital of the d~partement, is the S~gala, a couraged the development of 'social plateau country of between IOOO and 15oo Catholicism' in France. The creation of feet, while to the south of the d~partement, agricultural unions might be considered an the limestone plateaux of the Grandes important aspect of the role of the Church Causses, deeply cut by the Tarn and Jonte in the countryside. 9 Studies from Ireland, rivers, dominate the landscape. 13 Belgium and Germany would seem to lend At the end of the nineteenth century the support to the second hypothesis.'° economy of the region was overwhelm- The desire for a more 'active' and 'social' ingly agricultural; 65 per cent of the form of Catholicism, better adapted to a active population depended on agriculture particular milieu, was to prove a powerful for a living in I896.14 According to the influence in the early history of the agricul- Agricultural Census of 1892, farms under tural union, not only within the d~parte- IO hectares accounted for over 70 per cent ment of Aveyron but in many other parts of of all farms in the dfpartement, l.~ However, France as well." It was a desire that em- large farms were far from absent. In the braced not only many priests and Bishops same year, 44 per cent of the land surface was held in units of over 40 hectares, so ~Cte de P,ocquigny, Les s),ndieats agricoles et leur oeuvre, Paris, 19oo. *H Rollet, L'Aetion Soeiale des Catholiques en France, z871-19oI, Paris, 1958, pp 145-9o. ':A Montdil, DEscription de dEpartement de I'Aveiron, Rodez, I8o2. ~J-M Mayeur, La SEparation de I'Eglise et de I'Etat, Paris, 1966. '~Centre National de la l~,echerche Scientifique, L'Aubrac -- Etude 9B Hervieu and J vial, 'L'Eglise Catholique et les paysans', in M ethnolq~,ique, linguistique, agronomique, et Economique d'un ~tablisse- Gervais, C Servolin, Y Tavernier, L'Univers Politique des Pa),sans ment humain, Paris, 197x-79; A Ginisty, L'Aveyron -- le sol, les darts la France eontemporaine, Paris, z972. travaux, les hommes, P,odez, 1957; P Marres, Les Grandes Causses, *°Barrat, 1964, op cit. L Kennedy, 'The early response of the Irish Tours, 1935; A Meynier, S(ealas, LEvezou, Ch~taigneraie, Catholic clergy to the co-operative movement', Irish Historical Aurillac, 193 I. Studies, March 1978, pp 55-74. '4Ave),ron d'Aujourd'hui, Rodez, 1964, p x2. "Association Catholique de la Jeunesse Francaise, Le Probl~me de la 'SMioist?orede l'Agriculture, Statistique Agrieole de la France; rEsultats Terre, Paris, 19o8. gEm;raux de I'enquEte dEeennale de z89z, Paris, 1897. PEASANT UNIONS IN SOUTH-WESTERN FRANCE 129 N CLERMONT-- Aveyron FERRANO ~! OLYON .......:.>:.:.:.:.:£~-, ..... 8OURDEAUX ";", [:::[[":'>:':'[':'>:'. 'H/H/ADLaguiole • .'-,, :%, ,'6' 2\ 3 1 Cantal 2 Loz(~re 3 Gard 4 Hdraul • Marclllac • Bomuls 5 Tarn CAUSSES 6 Lot • Rignac ~.':':::::. Severac •~': le_ Chateau R,eupeyroux O~ <~ Naucelle• O -- 600 m 600--1200 m Over 1200 m 0 10 20 30 40 50 km I L I t ~ ] The D~partement of the Aveyron C I30 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW that land distribution, while permitting a some I5,OOO, for birth-rates in the d~parte- large proportion of the agricultural popu- ment remained high. lation to live a relatively independent A conservative social structure centred 115 existence, was nonetheless far from _!~ii equal. 16 on the family was combined with a strong Catholic tradition and a politically conser- The character of farming reflected, first i!; vative ethos. Socialist ideas were given and foremost, natural constraints. Poly- short shrift in this 'VendSe of the South'. ~3 culture generally predominated in this Except for a few Protestant communities in i( difficult region, with agricultural speciali- the south of the d~partement bordering the zation slow to develop given the diffi- Cevennes, Catholicism dominated ![ culty of transporting and marketing throughout. A diocesan survey carried out produce. Iv Only on the Grandes Causses in I892, indicated that 90 per cent of all were large, capitalistic farms in evidence, women and 73 per cent of all men made producing wheat in large quantities and their Easter devotions. The dSpartement employing a considerable labouring was a veritable pepperpot of priests and population.