Page:Georges Sorel, Reflections On Violence (1915).djvu/248

234 In a speech on December 1, 1905, Marcel Sembat, who had been in a particularly good position to know how things happened in the time of Millerand, related several anecdotes which very much astounded the Chamber. He told them how the Government, in order to make itself disagreeable to the nationalist municipal councillors of Paris, and to reduce their influence on the Bourse du Travail, had asked the syndicates "to make applications to it that would justify" the reorganisation of that establishment. A certain amount of scandal was caused by the march past of the red flags before the official platform at the inauguration of the monument to Dalou in the Place de la Nation. We now know that this happened as the result of negotiations; the prefect of police had hesitated, but Waldeck-Rousseau had authorised these revolutionary ensigns. The fact that the Government denied having any relations with the syndicates is of no importance—a lie more or less would not trouble a politician of Waldeck-Rousseau's calibre.

The exposure of these manœuvres shows us that the ministry depended on the syndicates to frighten the Conservatives. Ever since then it has been easy to understand the attitude they have adopted in the course of several strikes: on the one hand, Waldeck-Rousseau proclaimed with great fervour the necessity of giving