Madame Sorgue

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Madame Sorgue
Born
Antoinette Cauvin

1864
DiedFebruary 8, 1924[1]
Political partySocialist Revolutionary Party
Movementanarcho-syndicalism

Antoinette Cauvin, known as Madame Sorgue (1864–1924), was a French anarcho-syndicalist orator and journalist. She was associated with many strikes in Europe[1] and travelled widely in France, Portugal, Italy, Wales, England (Hull[2]), Scotland, speaking in Leith to the Dockers during their strike in 1913.[3]

a black and white photo of a group of people, including a woman in a light dress, looking off to her sde, hair pulled up.
A group after the Courrières mine disaster, including Sorgue in the bottom right.

Biography[edit]

Sorgue was born in 1864 to the Fourierist doctor and philosopher Joseph-Pierre Durand de Gros.

Sorgue was known as the 'most dangerous woman in Europe' due to her role in spreading the ideas and methods of French syndicalism throughout Britain. In relation to the feminism of the time, Sorgue sided with the anti-parliamentarians and anarchists on the issue of women's suffrage and was a strong critic of marriage and the family. She was an orator and journalist, writing for the Journal des Débats.

She was a member of Blanquist Parti Socialiste Revolutionnaire (PSR) of Édouard Vaillant and represented the group in 1889 and 1900 at the general socialist congresses of Paris.

In 1905, she showed solidarity with textile workers in Limoges. She also met with famous Anarcho-Syndicalist, Tom Mann.[4]

In 1914, during the First World War, she was one of a few anarchists to support the war.

She died of a heart attack in London on 8 February 1924 in Bonnington Hotel, Southampton Row.[5][1][6][7]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "MADAME SORGUE DEAD. - DESCRIBED BY ITALIAN AS MOST DANGEROUS WOMAN (Reuter's Message.) London, February 8. - Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 - 1954) - 9 Feb 1924". Trove. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  2. ^ Heath, Alison (2015-10-06). The Life of George Ranken Askwith, 1861–1942. Routledge. ISBN 9781317320050.
  3. ^ Kenefick, William (2007-07-15). Red Scotland!: The Rise and Fall of the Radical Left, c. 1872 to 1932: The Rise and Fall of the Radical Left, c. 1872 to 1932. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748630820.
  4. ^ Mann, Tom; Coates, Ken (2008-01-01). Tom Mann's Memoirs. Spokesman Books. ISBN 9780851247588.
  5. ^ "Cauvin,( nee Durand de Gros) Antoinette aka Madame Sorgue 1864-1924". libcom.org. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  6. ^ Bantman, Constance (2013-04-05). The French Anarchists in London, 1880-1914: Exile and Transnationalism in the First Globalisation. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781781386583.
  7. ^ Zealand, National Library of New. "Papers Past | MADAME SORGUE. (Marlborough Express, 1911-12-22)". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. Retrieved 2016-12-20.