Émile Pouget (; 12 October 1860 – 21 July 1931) was a French journalist, anarchist pamphleteer and trade unionist, known for his pivotal role in the development of revolutionary syndicalism in France. His newspaper Le Père Peinard stood out from previous anarchist publications with its inventive use of vernacular and urban slang. Notably, Pouget introduced the term "sabotage" as a tactical approach, a concept later adopted by the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) at its Toulouse Congress in 1897. Pouget's combination of anarchist political theory and revolutionary syndicalist tactics has led several authors to identify him as an early anarcho-syndicalist.
Having been introduced to radical politics through his stepfather's involvement in political journalism, Pouget emerged as a prominent figure in the anarchist movement. In 1883, Pouget and Louise Michel were jailed after they led a protest at Les Invalides, where the emblematic anarchist black flag is said to have been flown for the first time. The enactment of the Lois scélérates, which sought to suppress anarchist activities, forced Pouget into exile in London from 1894 to 1895. There, he was exposed to international anarchist militants like Errico Malatesta, as well as the British trade unionist movement, which inspired his contributions to revolutionary syndicalism. Returning to France, Pouget resumed his political activities, starting the newspaper La Sociale in 1895 and collaborating closely with Fernand Pelloutier to promote revolutionary syndicalist ideas within the French labor movement. By 1902, he had become an integral part of the revolutionary faction within CGT leadership, and was arrested with other leaders of the CGT in 1908 following violent strikes in Draveil and Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. After his release, Pouget began to distance himself from activism, a trend that accelerated following the collapse of his final newspaper, La Révolution, in 1909. He lived quietly outside Paris until his death in 1931.
Early life Émile Pouget was born on 12 October 1860 in Pont-de-Salars in the department of Aveyron. His father, a notary, died at an early age in 1863. Shortly after his father's death, Pouget's mother remarried. He grew up in a middle-class household with Republican and left-wing tendencies. Pouget's stepfather Philippe Vergely lost his position as a petty official because of his political writings in a small-scale journal that he had established titled L'Aveyron Republicain (The Aveyron Republican). Vergely took the young Pouget to attend the trial of several members of the Narbonne Commune in nearby Rodez, which played a pivotal role in sparking Pouget's interest in politics.
Studying high school in Rodez, Pouget developed a passion for journalism. In 1875, he launched his first newspaper, Le Lycéen républicain (The Republican High Schooler). That same year, his stepfather died and Pouget was forced to move to Paris in search of work. In 1877, he began working at Le Bon Marché, a department store in the city. While employed there, he started following political gatherings and attended meetings of progressive groups in his free time. In 1879, Pouget was a founder of the first shop assistants' union in Paris, through which he published his earliest antimilitarist texts.
Anarchist movement From 1882 onwards, Pouget entered a relationship with Stéphanie Boisteux. She supported him in the following years, including during his exile years.
During the 1880s, before anarchists began to enter the organized labor movement in large numbers, they typically agitated among the unemployed. In March 1883, the chamber of the carpenters' union summoned the unemployed to protest at Les Invalides. This protest split into two groups, with around 500 protesters, led by Pouget and former Communard Louise Michel, proceeding to march toward the Boulevard Saint-Germain. It was at this protest that the emblematic anarchist black flag was flown for the first time. The protesters pillaged three bakeries before being confronted by police at Place Maubert. Michel and Pouget were arrested and sentenced to six and eight years in prison respectively. Pouget's case was complicated by the fact that revolutionary antimilitarist leaflets advocating mutiny were found in his room. Public opinion towards the trial was somewhat negative, leading to both activists' early release. Pouget was granted amnesty after serving only three years of his sentence, thanks to pressure from Henri Rochefort.
After his release from prison, Pouget edited the anarchist bimonthly Ça ira from 27 May 1888 to 13 January 1889, in collaboration with former Communard Constant Martin. He became a regular at meetings of the Cercle Anarchiste International, which gathered in Paris' 15th arrondissement to discuss tactics including the general strike and a potential alliance with the Bourse du Travail labor councils. On 24 February 1889, he established his iconic newspaper, Le Père Peinard. Reminiscent of Rochefort's La Lanterne (The Lantern), the paper was published in small pamphlet form. It was written in working-class French slang and was inspired in tone by Jacques Hébert's Le Père Duchesne, popular during the Reign of Terror. In a September 1889 edition of Le Père Peinard, Pouget praised the London dock strike, marking the first step in his evolution into syndicalism. However, at this time, he criticized the British workers' formal association into labor unions and especially the unions' parliamentary orientation and reformism.
Following the promulgation of the Lois scélérates, a set of press laws outlawing the advocacy of any crime, in December 1893, the anarchist movement started a series of political assassinations. This in turn led to a series of arrests of prominent anarchists, and on 21 February 1894 Pouget went into exile to avoid the Trial of the Thirty. Pouget and his partner Marie travelled to Algiers and then London, where they stayed in Giovanni Defendi's delicatessen and from which he continued to publish Le Pére Peinard.
Pouget's period of exile in London led to a cross-pollination of ideas between anarchist militants from several countries around Europe. During this time, he avoided the anarchist circle Club Autonomie, composed mainly of French immigrants in London, but maintained contact with Louise Michel, Augustin Hamon and Fernand Pelloutier. Crucially, Pouget's tactical approach became heavily influenced by an international group of militants including Errico Malatesta and Olivia Rossetti Agresti, all of whom were contributors to the anarchist newspaper The Torch of Anarchy.
In August 1894, Pouget was charged in absentia during the Trial of the Thirty, but was ultimately acquitted. During his exile, he planned to start a newspaper called Le Droit à l'Aisance (The Right to Comfort) with the help of Malatesta, but in the end relaunched Le Père Peinard in September 1894 from London. The London-based newspaper ran for six months and printed a total of eight issues. In October 1894, the newspaper argued in favor of anarchists participating within the trade union movement, as a space in which to make contact with the wider working class outside of anarchist affinity groups and subcultures.
Pouget had been in contact with Malatesta since 1893, but was influenced by him even more profoundly during his time in London; at some point they even shared dwellings at Defendi's delicatessen. Pouget's period in London led to his adoption of syndicalist tactics which would, together with Pelloutier's similar trajectory, prove instrumental in the eventual rise to dominance of revolutionary syndicalism in the French labor movement. His combination of anarchist political theory and revolutionary syndicalist tactics has led several authors to identify Pouget as an early anarcho-syndicalist.
Syndicalism and the CGT After returning to France in 1895, Pouget resumed his political activities. On 11 May 1895, he started the newspaper La Sociale, through which he started promoting a more strategic and concrete form of anarchism which would work to influence the labor union movement from within. During the publishing of La Sociale, Pouget collaborated closely with Fernand Pelloutier and Bernard Lazare, advocating for revolutionary syndicalist ideas within the French labor movement and seeking to unite anarchists with antiparliamentarian socialists across Europe.
In July 1896, Pouget attended the fourth congress of the Second International in London. At this congress, the antiparliamentarian delegates, the majority of whom were anarchists, were expelled from the international. This marked the culmination of the process which started with the exclusion of the anarchists at the Zürich Congress three years prior. The antiparliamentarians set up a debate in margin to the London Congress where, concurring with Malatesta's views, Pouget criticized the Marxists' economic determinism and argued against forcibly collectivizing agricultural land, as well as the notion of waiting in anticipation for the ostensibly inevitable proletarianization of the peasant class.
In La Sociale, Pouget first argued for the tactic of "sabottage", as it was initially spelled. This tactic was inspired by the concept of "ca'canny", meaning slowdown, which he came into contact with in the British trade union movement. This was the first mention of the term "sabotage" in this context. The newspaper continued until October 1896, when Pouget started publishing a renewed Le Père Peinard in which his views became increasingly internationalist and militant. He passionately argued for sabotage as a tactic of the labor movement, leading to its adoption by the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) at its Toulouse Congress in September 1897. His views on sabotage, as well as a nod to its origins in the British movement, were outlined in greater detail in his 1898 pamphlet "Le Sabotage". For Pouget, sabotage would entail "poor work for poor pay", as well as physical damage against machines and property, but not persons.
During the mid-1890s, the Dreyfus affair, stemming from accusations of espionage against the French Jewish Captain Alfred Dreyfus, intensified into a major political and judicial scandal. French society became deeply polarized, with supporters of Dreyfus known as Dreyfusards and opponents labeled anti-Dreyfusards, reflecting underlying tensions of antisemitism. Pouget was initially reluctant to support the Dreyfusard cause, proclaiming his lack of interest in defending a capitalist and even going so far as to employ antisemitic stereotypes. However, during 1898 his views began to shift. He used the instability to organize a campaign in favor of anarchists condemned to forced labour, and in October co-signed a manifesto of a Revolutionary Coalition Committee which brought together various libertarian factions in opposition to anti-Dreyfusard nationalism. In February 1899, Pouget became a contributor to Sébastien Faure's Dreyfusard Journal du peuple (The People's Journal), where he argued for a revolutionary defense of Dreyfus against the reactionary forces of the army and Catholic Church, and against relying on the impartiality of the legal system.
In 1900, Le Père Peinard was discontinued and Pouget became the editor of the CGT's daily newspaper La Voix du peuple (Voice of the People), its title a reference to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. The first issue was published on 1 December 1900.