ABSTRACT
The French economy underwent four major recessions in the interwar years. These downturns – 1920–21, 1926–27, 1931–32 and 1934–36 – each had their own distinctive features but all led to sharp rises in unemployment. The police continued to survey the attitudes of the unemployed as they queued at the departmental labour exchange atavenue Rapp and benefits office at rue de Rivoli–rue de Figuier. Movements of the unemployed appeared in France on four occasions in the period of the two world wars. The Central Committee of the Unemployed (CCdC) sought to embed its unemployed committees in working-class communities through mobilizing the local population against the eviction of unemployed tenants. Right across France during the early part of 1927, there were reports of the meetings, delegations to mayors' offices or Prefectures, the creation of CdCs and even demonstrations. The legacy of the 1927 campaign was largely negative from the point of view of future unemployed protest.
