Nathalie Lemel
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Nathalie Lemel (August 24, 1826 - ??, 1921), was a militant anarchist and feminist who participated on the barricades at the Commune de Paris of 1871. She was deported to Nouvelle Calédonie with Louise Michel.
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[edit] The Bookbinder
Nathalie Lemel was born in Brest (in the department of Finistère), in Brittany, where her parents, the Duvals, owned a café. She was schooled until the age of twelve and then became a bookbinder. In 1845, she married Jérôme Lemel, another bookbinder. They had three children together. In 1849, the couple moved to Quimper where they opened a bookshop. Their business lasted until 1861, when the couple declared bankruptcy. They were forced to leave Brittany and go to Paris in order to find work.
[edit] The Militant
She worked as a bookbinder and retailer in Paris, and then became a socialist activist. In 1864, the International Workers Association (IWA, aka First International) was created in London in the midst of the agitated social climate in Europe. In August 1864, the bookbinders all went on strike in the middle of a very large conflict, where one of the best known militants was Eugène Varlin. In 1865, Nathalie Lemel joined the First International. When a new strike was called, she was a member of the strike committee and was elected union delegate, which was a rare position for a woman to hold in those days. She distinguished herself by her determination and organisation: she fought notably for the equality of salaries between men and women. According to a police report,
| “ | She was noticed because of her intense excitement and her political activism; in the workshops, she read bad newspapers aloud; she assiduously frequented the [union] clubs. | ” |
This was in addition to her strong opposition to the Second Empire. In 1868, she left her home and family (mainly because of her husband's alcoholism), which did not help her reputation in the eyes of conservatives and the police. This increased freedom intensified her political activism: with Varlin and the other bookbinders, she participated in the creation of "The Housewife" ("La Ménagère"), a co-op, and "The Pot" ("La Marmite"), an open restaurant (that would account for four establishments in all for 8000 workers). She was employed there to prepare meals.
[edit] Fighting for the Commune
The insurrection began on 18 March 1871. After that date, Lemel was very active in the women's clubs where she often made speeches. These speeches helped to create, with Elisabeth Dmitrieff (a relation of Karl Marx), the Union des femmes (Union of Women), on 11 April, of which she became member of the central committee.
On 26 March, following the elections, a revolutionary council was put in place, which counted people such as Jules Vallès, Charles Delescluzes, Raoul Rigault, Gustave Flourens, and Eugène Varlin. The city of Paris was going to be governed by the Commune until the Bloody Week (Semaine sanglante) when, on 21 May, Versailles troops entered the city; this week ended on the 28th, with the final battle at the Père Lachaise cemetery. During this period, Nathalie Lemel was on the side of the barricades next to la place Blanche (on rue Pigalle). On top of her fighting against the police, she also cared for the wounded.
After the defeat of the Commune, the War Council condemned her to deportation and exile in the Nouvelle-Calédonie penal colony. She embarked on board the Virginie, on the same convoy as Henri Rochefort and Louise Michel. Nathalie Lemel and Louise Michel were strongly opposed to separating the women at the deportation site. Nevertheless, they arrived five days after the men, on 14 December 1873, on the peninsula Ducos, where they ended up sharing the same cell; it is possible that she had a certain influence on her cellmate. She had to wait for the amnesty in 1880, enacted by President Felix Faure, before returning to Paris. She was later employed by the newspaper L’Intransigeant and continued her fight for women's rights.
She died in 1921 in the hospice of Ivry-sur-Seine, in Val-de-Marne.
[edit] Commemorations
In Paris, on 27 March 2006, on the International Women's Day, it was decided by decision of the council of arrondissements to name the 3rd arrondissement Nathalie Lemel as an homage to her. This square is on the border of the rue de la Corderie, where the head office of the First Internationale was located. On the same day, the 3rd arrondissement's council also named places after Elisabeth Dmitrieff and Renée Vivien.
[edit] References
This article was translated from the French Wikipedia article of the same name 22 May 2006.
