..................... SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND NATIONAL POLITICS University of Michigan May 1979 ..................... CRSO Working Paper No. 197 Copies available through: Center for Research on Social Organization University of Michigan 330 Packard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 SOCIAL. MOVEMENTS ANI) NA'I'LONAI. POI.LT I CS L.nnguedoc: 1682 ln~agineyourself strolli~rgin sunny Narbonne, France, during o summer al~~~ostthree centuries ago. On the first of August. 1682, according to the report wllich the Intendant of 1.anguedoc sent to Paris: . tt~erewas a little movement in Nnrbonl~eon the occasion of the collecrlon of tlre cosse tax, wlrich I~adbeen ordered by an act of the royal council. Many women gatl~eredwiLh the conlmon people, and threw stones LIL Lhe tax collectors, but SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND NATIONAL POLITICS ~l~eCo~isuls and the lending citizens hurried over and put a stop to the disorder . (A.N. [Arcl~ivesNationnles, Paris] 7 C 296; see also Archives Coas~unales. Narbonne, HU 29, folio 144). Now a cosse was a local grain measure wl~icl~held sometlrlng like five ltters. More important, it held one-fortietl~of a scticr of grain; to collect one Charles Tilly cosse per setier, whicl~was the ail11 of those tax col.l.cctortl, wus to tax University of Michigan grain at 2.5 percent. The royal domaill lrad long held the legal right to May 1979 collect the cosse on all grain sold by outsiders at Narbonne, but tlre six- teenth-ce~~turywars of rellgion had i~icerruptedtl~c collccclon of the cox. In 1682, tl~eroyal. council (guided by Colbert in its incessant senrcl~Foc . revenue to pay for royal wars and regal display) trod ai~tl~orizedthe qoyal Tlris Is an exte~isivclyrevised version of "Studying Social Movements/Studying Collective Action", a paper presented property agent to begin anew the collcctio~~of the -e. The agent to the Conference on Organizing Women (Stockl~olm, February 1978) and circulated as CRSO Working Paper 168. ordered the construction of toll bootl~sat the city's gates, and directed his clerks to collect the tax on all grain brought in by non-residents. The city's Consuls did what they dared to opl~osetl~e cosse -- irnd, especially, its collection at tl~cgates rotl~rrthan at the market -- on tl~e ground that it would discourage trade and raise t11e price of food 111 tl~e -2- clty. But their daring did not go very far. Wl~ilethe Consuls filed time by Ll~eirrlgl~Lful titles instead of substituting the closest twentletll- ineffcctuol protests, the city's women gatl~eredand stoned the tax col- century equivalent. Yet the terminology of the tin~ebrings along its own lectors. Their "little movernen~" failed to haJt Ll~ecollecLlon of Ll~e an~biguities,variations and overtones, and makes it the more difELc111t to tax. Yet after years of conflict and negotiation, in 1691 the Intendant undertake the sort of co~npori.snnwe m.Lght want to try between the figl~tlng finally arranged the convers~onof the cosve into a general cash payment women of Narbc~nne in 1692 a!ld the fighting women of, say. 1,os Angelcs in from the Estates to the royal property agent (A.N. C' 298, 299, 300). the twentieth century. For all their disapproval OF protest in the streets, the a~rtl~oriLles Since the aucl~oritiesof Narbonne thcn~selvesuscd Cl~eword alolrvcnlcnt. recognized that the reinstated tax was i~~convenlent,and perhaps unjust. would it be Iegitlo~ateto apply the venerable 1.abel "social ~novement"? Let us neglect tl~ccomplexities of seve~~teet~tl~-centuryfinances, That would probab1.y cause more confuslon than Insigl~t. So~~~el~owa social. and focus on that "little movement" of Narbonne's women. It resembled moveloent sl~ouldbe more durable t han tl~atfleet1 ng encounter between Nar- nuny otl~erlocal French conflicts of the seventeentl~century 111 that it bonne's wolnen and the tax coI.1e~tors;it sl~ouldpursue I~roaderai.ms tl~an involved direct oction iigainst the royal attempt to levy new taxes. It the blocking of a particular toll. If, on tl~cother I~and,we were convinced rcsen~bledmarly other troubles following the mid-century Fronde (hut dif- that the little affz~irof 1682 was only onc incldent in a long serl.cs, tl~at fered from many before and during the Fronde) in that the iluthoritles, the wolnen of Narbonne were aware of their com~non interests and distinct despite tlleic opposition to the royal measure, i~~~~nedlatelystepped in to identlty, and that they were self-consciously seeking a set of cl~a~~gescon- repress the popular resistai~ce. It rcsen~bledmany other struggles of the siderably li~ryerChun tlre suspensloo oE one tax or another, then we IIIL~II~ tin~cIn wl~ichwomen played an especially promillent role in that the imme- comfortably begin to think in terms of a social aovelne~~c. diate issues concerned food, marketing and the cost of 'living. In these The Cam.isards regards, the August confrontation in Narbonne stands for thousands of 111 the Languedoc of tl~atti~ne there was at least one set of people other seventeentll-century conflicts. (See Bercd 1974, Pillorget 1975 who can~ec1.osc to cl~osedemanding standards. They werr not tl~cwomen of and Porcl~nev1963 for numerous cxas~ples.) Narbonne, but the Protestants -- women, men and chlldren alike -- of the What sl~ouldwe call it? 'I'l~c local autl~orll:ies called it not only a n~ountains. For about four decades, beginning in tl~e1670s. the samc corre- petit mouvcaent, but also an emotion yopulaire and a ddsordre. All tllese spondence of the Intendant wl~lcl~reported the Narbonne affair was packed terms belonged to the period's standard vocabulary; they designated a wittr discussions of the "fauatics". Uurlnl: the 1670s. the Intendant fol- localized collective action by ordinary people wl~lcl~the autlrorlties con- lowed royal policy by squeezing out of public offlce those Protestot~tvwho sidered necessary and proper to end by force. But what should call it? refused to abjure tl~eirfaitl~. The measures ugainst tl~i"l(.P.K." (Kel.lglon Tl~atis a conceptual question. Using the terminology of the tinle is one Pr6tendue R6formee -- So-Called Kefonned He1igion)broadencdaod intensified possible answer to the question; perhaps we shou1.d settle for dmot.ion or during tl~eearly 1680s. ddsordre, much as we usually insist on calll.ng the royal officers of the Tl~eProtestants prepared to defend themselves. "Tl~e Il~tguenotsof tl~rn~Ll~at L I~aven'tbeen able to Elnd yet" (A.N. c7 297, Octol,ee 1686). the Vivarals." reported the LutendanL in August 1683, Vain I~opc. Tl~e"~ssemblles lo Lhe desert" mulLiplled, Protest;~ntmilltnry forces sprang up in the backlands, and the royal troops found Ll~emselves . continue not only to preach in forbidden places, but al.so beginning d guerrilla operaLion wllicl~las~ed 1nLereitLenLly for 25 years. to prepare for war. It is true that they have no cl~lefs,not even halfway-qualified gentry, in tl~eirparty; we took care of and, especially, glrls -- were prcacl~lllgin Ll~eViv;~rals. By Lhe end of tl~utby selzlng a11 the leaders that appeared, or that we the century, poor men and woeen posseesed IJ~ccstntlc trances and Ll~egif~ suspected, right at the start. All tl~esame, they have man- 'of prophecy were conm~unlcatlngdivine 1nsLructio11s to the people of the aged to set up a sort of n~ilitarybase. 'rl~eyhave organized Cevennes. There io the Cevennes the ProtestanL rebels took on the nclnle con~paolesunder speclfic conunanders. They l~avecapt~rred some of Camlsards. In 1703, the salnc 'Inte~idantwlko Itad I~oped,seventeen years castles. They are digglng in, they have anm~unltionand arms. earlier, to break Protesca~rtrcsistancc through spectacular but limited In a word, wl~lppedup by ministers who preach nothing but pimisl~n~entresorted to ordering the entire Protestant count ryslde of tl~c sedition and rebellion, they give every appearance of plannlng 1)iocese of Mende evacuated, and dozens of villages burned to tl~eground. to resist the king's troops . (A.N. c7 296) 'I'lre strategy of scorched earth did not begin in the twentieth century. The n~osL serlous was yet to come. In 1685, with the revocatio~~of thc Even wit11 that ferocious treatment, LL took anolher year to check Ll~emajor Edlct oE Nantes, began the o~ajordrive Lo convert, or at leas^ to sup- Caulisard rebellion, another six years to snlasl~the last Can~lsardn~llitnry press, the many ProtestanLs of the C(ivennes, the Vivarais, and otl~er Eorce, another ten or twenty years to fragmcnt and tame the reglon.'~Prot- regions of Languedoc. Prom that time on, relations between the province's estants to the point that they no longer posed a serlous cl~allengeto royal royal offlcials and its ProLestants swung between open war and troublcd authority. As late as 1710, a royal patrol fell upon "an assen~l~lyin the peace. parlsl~of Saumane, of five armed men and twcnty women", killlng two wen 1111111edlatelyafter the revocation, a new InLendant of Languedoc, and four women 111 the process (A.N. c7 314, July 171.0). Nlcolas de Lnn~oignonde Hasville, declared 111s hope of mastering the enemy Wl~o were tl~esezealots? The question is a nettle, difficult to l~ynleans of severe and ostentatious repression; an cdrly effort wds his grasp witt~outbeing s~ung;the answer varics according to our cholce of hanging seven and decapltacing one of Lhe lllegal asse~~~blyof "new converts Lime point, region and (most importantly) criterion of membcrsl~lp.