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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries militant and class-conscious European and American workers have generally supported democratic and socialist movements and parties. Workers attracted by antidemocratic and reactionary organizations and regimes have usually come from the dregs of their class, from Marx's famous Lumpenproletariat (true, the leadership has often included disappointed ex-Marxists). At times, however, this generalization must be qualified. Today, for example, the trade unions that favor Peron in Argentina include the kind of activist worker usually to be found in Social Democratic and Marxist movements. During the final decade of the Second Empire a somewhat similar attitude towards an anti-democratic regime emerged among some French workers. In the 1860's a significant minority of workers, often better educated than the average and with a long record of service to the working class, urged support of the Second Empire and often became devoted followers of Napoleon III. This article examines the motives and the activities of such Bonapartist inclined workers.
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