Symbolic networks: The realignment of the French working class, 1887-1894

How can abstract symbols provide the basis for organizational cohesion? In the early 1890s, the general strike provided such a symbol for French trade unions. In rallying around this symbol, the unions broke free from competing political loyalties and brought about a fundamental realignment of the French labor movement. The article argues that organizational cohesion emerges through the interplay between powerful symbols, political discourse, and social or interorganizational networks. Using archival records and a statistical analysis of the watershed vote for the general strike, the author demonstrates how the organizing power of this symbol was embedded in local multitrade union federations known as bourses du travail and in the corporatist discourse they evoked.