Social Tensions Intensify

Labor unrest reached new heights. The 1910 railway strike paralyzed France, forcing the government to conscript strikers as soldiers to run trains. This militarization of labor disputes presaged wartime controls. The CGT's revolutionary syndicalism seemed increasingly plausible as strikes multiplied and violence escalated.

The wine-growers' revolt of 1911 in Champagne showed rural France's volatility. Growers protested against merchants adulterating champagne with cheaper wines, threatening the region's reputation and livelihood. The government deployed 40,000 troops to restore order. The image of soldiers occupying French villages to protect commercial interests revealed internal divisions that external war would temporarily suppress.

Women's suffrage campaigns intensified, inspired by British militants. The French Union for Women's Suffrage organized larger demonstrations, though avoiding British-style violence. The feminist newspaper La Suffragiste declared: "We demand our rights now, before asking women to sacrifice sons for a nation that denies them citizenship." The argument proved prescient but unsuccessful—French women wouldn't vote until 1945.

Immigration increased social tensions. Italian workers faced violence in southern France. Jewish refugees from Russian pogroms encountered growing anti-Semitism. The Action Française and other right-wing groups blamed foreigners for everything from crime to cultural decay. The nationalism that would feed war fever first manifested as internal xenophobia.