Chris Millington, Swansea Universityc.d.millington@swansea.ac.uk @DrChris82

The project investigates…Violence in the street Violence during strikesPolice violenceViolence during meetings

Structure of the paper1) the historiography 2) my approach3) violence at meetings

HistoriographySerge Berstein (1985) ‘L'affrontement simulé des années 1930’, Vingtième Siècle, 5 (1985): 39-54.‘Consensus politique et violences civiles dans la France du 20 siècle’, Vingtième Siècle, 69 (2001), 51-60.See also Georges Vidal, Eric Nadaud, Andres Wirsching

Britain – 1932-6France – 1934-8 Germany – 1928-33

Italy – 1918-26

My approach…Physical v verbal violence?Symbolic threat; contextual factors‘Cultures of Violence’, John Carter Wood, ‘Conceptualizing cultures of violence and cultural change’, in S. Carroll (ed.), Cultures of Violence, 79-96.

Private and public meetings Regulated by law of 30 June 1881 A ‘laboratory’ of citizenship (Paula

Cossart)

But… ‘semi-institutionalised free-for-alls’

(Jankowski) ‘ritualised conflict’ (Passmore) ‘violence part of the political process’

(Douglas)

From L’Humanité 5 May 1935

The presiding committeeThe stateThe police

‘The session began at 2100, came to an end at 2300 without any notable incident: some quite violent altercations, some punches were exchanged between listeners of different opinion and that was all.’AN F7/13132, my italics

Unspoken rulesShared understandings of meeting

hall etiquettePerformance and style depended on

understandings of manly behaviourEmotion led to violence