Gangs of New York

During the Popular Front of the mid 1930s, the longstanding political identities of French metalworkers were significantly transformed. For decades metalworker political identities had featured anti-patriotism and the rejection of cross-class alliances. But the tenor of the mass mobilizations and electoral behavior of metalworkers during the Popular Front reflected the emergence of a new political identity that combined class and national identities and support for cross-class political alliances. Through a study of metalworkers in the industrial city of Lyon this article argues that this new political identity emerged out of the intersection of industrial social relations and political opportunity structure.