Labor’s Fighting Heritage: The 180th Anniversary of the Lyonnais Silk Weavers Revolt and 80th Anniversary of the US General Textile Strike

By by Keith Mann The young Karl Marx admired and drew inspiration from their tenacious struggle.1 French belle époque poet and cabaret entertainer Aristide Bruant (subject of a well-known poster by Toulouse Lautrec) immortalized them in his “C’est nous les canuts”, a song which has long been a staple of working class and left wing political gatherings in France.2 These were the weavers of the industrial city of Lyon, known in French as canuts (“can-oos”) in their masculine version, and canuttes…

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