Strikes and Social Unrest

Despite the "Sacred Union," class conflict persisted and intensified. The 1917 strikes marked home front's greatest crisis. Beginning with Parisian seamstresses in January, unrest spread to munitions workers, then transport and services. By June, 100,000 workers struck simultaneously in Paris region alone.

Workers' grievances were multiple: inflation outpacing wages, exhausting hours, dangerous conditions, war profiteering by employers. Women workers, paid half male wages while performing identical work, proved especially militant. The Renault strike of May 1917 saw women leading demonstrations, facing police cavalry with remarkable courage.

Government response mixed repression with concession. Strike leaders faced arrest, conscription into punishment battalions. Yet authorities recognized legitimate grievances. Wages increased, though never matching inflation. The eight-hour day, demanded since 1906, was promised postwar. Women received equal pay pledges, rarely fulfilled.

Rural unrest took different forms. Requisitions at fixed prices while inflation soared created bitter resentment. Farmers hid produce, sold through black markets, resisted conscription of remaining sons. The Midi viticultural regions, traditionally radical, saw demonstrations against war continuation. Authorities, fearing rural revolt, moderated requisition policies.

The Russian Revolution's impact was profound. French workers followed Petrograd events eagerly. Revolutionary rhetoric appeared in strikes. "Soviets" formed briefly in some factories before suppression. The government, terrified of revolutionary contagion, increased surveillance of leftist organizations. The schism between patriotic socialists supporting war effort and internationalists seeking revolution widened irreparably.