A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #366 - Culture - Read: Mathilde Ramadier and Élodie Durand, "La Belle de Mai: Factory of Revolutions" (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Anyone familiar with Marseille has heard of the Belle de Mai district, a 
working-class neighborhood in the city center; or perhaps of La Friche 
de la Belle de Mai, a large artistic and cultural space. Before becoming 
an art space, these buildings were actually a tobacco factory where a 
major workers' struggle took place. This graphic novel, written by 
Mathilde Ramadier and illustrated by Élodie Durand, tells the story of 
the Marseille Tobacco Factory and all the women who worked there.
This story takes place in 1886. The factory workers are all women, most 
of them Italian immigrants. They are supervised by men, workshop 
foremen, who are paid three times as much as they are. The graphic novel 
tells us about the racism of the other female workers, the mistral wind 
that chills them and makes them sick, the humiliations and inappropriate 
behavior of the foremen, and the double shift they face when they go home.

But these daily humiliations are the breeding ground for anger. The 
Marseille Commune (1871) is still fresh in everyone's minds, a strike is 
brewing, and demands spread from workshop to workshop: an end to the 
searches, heated premises, better working conditions, schooling for the 
children, and so on. Of course, the strike will break out, and the 
graphic novel immerses us in its turmoil, its hopes, its hardships, but 
above all, in the sisterhood of the cigar makers.

The factory is state property, the strike is making waves, and the 
possibility of a blockade and occupation of the factory is even being 
discussed in the Chamber of Deputies! The tobacco monopoly is crucial 
for the state; it generates significant revenue that finances the 
national debt. The power of this strike shook the country's powerful 
figures, but also the male union leaders who didn't support them because 
they were women. On their own, they self-organized and rose up against 
everyone. All of this gave birth to the Revolutionary Feminist Mutual 
Organization, a union by and for working women that would fight for 
equal pay and the defense of women workers.

A graphic novel to give as a Christmas gift so that we remember that 
women can "screw everyone over: the State, society, men, and even our 
own class."

Myriam (UCL Marseille)

Mathilde Ramadier and Élodie Durand, La Belle de Mai: Fabrique de 
révolutions (The Belle of May: Factory of Revolutions), Futuropolis, 
2024, 144 pages, EUR22.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Mathilde-Ramadier-et-Elodie-Durand-La-Belle-de-Mai-Fabrique-de-revolutions
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