1-05-1891 The Fusillade de Fourmies took place during the first French celebration of International Workers' Day when troops fired on peaceful strikers, killing 9 including Marie Blondeau and wounding 35. [more]

5-05-1525 Bloody meeting at the Wittringerhof between peasants and the army of the Duke of Lorraine marching towards Dieuze. Jean de Braubach, captain of Sarreguemines is taken prisoner, and the peasants manage to join the Alsatian insurgent peasants in Herbitzheim. [more]

8-05-1862 Seven typographical workers, including Debock, are imprisoned and brought before the 6th Correctional Chamber for having struck against the presence of women workers at the Dupont printing works. [more]

9-05-2001 Ban on night work by women in industry lifted. [more]

11-05-1917 Women workers launch 33 strikes in Paris in the clothing-leather-textile sector between May 11 and 28 for wage improvements and the 'English work week'. [more]

11-05-1936 A protest strike against the dismissals at Bréguet broke out in Le Havre; the 600 workers occupy the factory and obtain satisfaction [more]

13-05-1968 Workers join students in a million-strong march through Paris. [more]

13-05-1968 10 million workers began a general strike. [more]

13-05-1918 10,000 Renault Billancourt workers sit idly at work, starting the movement of Parisian steelworkers which will last until the 18th calling for the end of the war. [more]

14-05-1968 Workers at the Sud Aviation plant near Nantes begin a sit-down strike, becoming some of the first workers to join student protests. [more]

14-05-1918 War factories in the Saint-Denis region are struck. Workers call for an end to the war. [more]

14-05-1917 In the middle of the war, the "midinettes" of the garment industry began a 14 day strike and won a work week of 5 and a half days, an improvement in wages and the draft of what will become a collective agreement. [more]

15-05-1918 The workers of the Seine war factories strike until the 18th. Their demand: the end of the war. [more]

15-05-1895 In Champagnac-les-Mines, created in 1894, the miners' union launched a 3 months-long strike for the 8-hour day and a better sharing of profits. [more]

16-05-1968 The French general strike gathers pace as around fifty factories are occupied by their workers. [more]

17-05-1968 Thousands of students in Paris marched for a second day in a row from the Sorbonne University to the Renault plant occupied by its workers to support them. [more]

18-05-1931 Start of a general strike in the textile industry after the announcement of a drop in wages. 112,000 strikers in Roubaix and 43,000 in Tourcoing. The CGTU does not call for a return to work until July 29. [more]

18-05-1979 In Longwy in Lorraine, clashes with the police took place to protest against the jamming of the pirate radio organized by the CGT, "Lorraine heart of steel". [more]

20-05-1525 4,000 insurgent peasants die at the Battle of Scherwiller [more]

21-05-1968 Workers and students formed a joint Workers-Students Action Committee to support an ongoing strike and occupation at Paris's Citroen auto plant. [more]

21-05-1871 Versailles troops retake Paris at the end of "Bloody Week" on the 28th. Thousands of dead, tens of thousands of arrests. Many activists, hunted down by the police, seek refuge in the provinces or abroad. [more]

22-05-1968 Footballers in Paris occupied the French Football Association headquarters declaring "Football to the Footballers." They issued a statement demanding the immediate dismissal of football "profiteers" and for football without profits. [more]

22-05-1846 Demonstration by garment workers in Elbeuf to demand the destruction of a the machines that are replacing them. [more]

24-05-1917 Striking bank workers demonstrate on the Parisian Les Grands Boulevards towards the National Assembly where they are dispersed by the police. [more]

25-05-1968 Negotiations start between the government, employers and unions, leading later to agreements signed at the Ministry of Social Affairs. [more]

25-05-1917 1000 bank strikers (almost all women) gather in front of Crédit Lyonnais. The police dispersed them. Later 2000 picket in front of the Comptoir d'Escompte then walk towards Banque Rothschild, Bourse du Travail and the Grands Boulevards, singing. [more]

25-05-1864 Napoleon III legalizes coalitions of workers and ends the criminalisation of strikes. [more]

26-05-1941 Beginning of the strike by miners in the Nord / Pas-de-Calais region, one of the first acts of collective resistance to the Nazi occupation. [more]

27-05-1941 Nord Pas de Calais. The strike escalates. The sentencing of miners to deportation on 28 May inflamed the region: 100,000 miners, or 80% of the workforce, defied German military authority and struck. [more]

27-05-1968 Signature of the Grenelle Agreements providing for 25% increase in minimum wage, a 10% general increase and a reduction of working time. These concessions do not satisfy the workers' and the strike continues. [more]

28-05-1936 32,000 workers occupied the Renault plant in Paris. 100,000 more workers soon occupied every major engineering factory around the city. A strike wave swept the country, involving 2 million workers in 12,000 strikes and occupations. [more]

29-05-1917 Shoe and cardboard box workers strike and demonstrate in Paris. Pacifist slogans are sung and the red flag appears. [more]

30-05-1917 At 07:00 a thousand women at the Salmson factory in Issy strike and then demonstrate in front of other factories. At 15:30 3,500 strikers are at the Porte de Versailles and cross Paris demanding the end of the war. [more]

30-05-1968 Deadlocked, the social crisis of May 68 leads to a political crisis, De Gaulle announces the dissolution of the National Assembly. [more]

31-05-1899 In Creusot, birth of the S.O.M.", the Union of Metallurgical Workers and Allied Workers. 6000 members join the same day. [more]