Marie Mayoux
| Marie Mayoux | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Marie Gouranchat 24 April 1878 Charente, France |
| Died | 16 June 1969 (aged 91) |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Teacher |
| Known for | Activism |
Marie Mayoux (24 April 1878 – 16 June 1969) was a French teacher, revolutionary syndicalist, pacifist and libertarian. She and her husband François Mayoux were imprisoned during World War I (1914–18) for her pacifist activities.
Marie Gouranchat was born in Charente on 24 April 1878. Marie and her partner François Mayoux became school teachers in Charente, then in the Bouches-du-Rhône. They joined the Fédération nationale des Syndicats d'institutrices et instituteurs publics, the national federation of teacher's unions. In 1915 Marie and François Mayoux joined the socialist Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière (SFIO).
At the start of World War I (1914–18) many teachers were mobilized and others supported the war effort, but later a strong pacifist movement developed among them. Marie and François Mayoux were hardline pacifists, opposed to the Union sacrée. Marie Mayoux called a pacifist meeting at the teachers' union office in June 1915. She wrote a "Manifesto of the teachers union", dated 1 July 1915 and signed by the section of the Charente, the union of the Bouches-du-Rhône and activists of eleven departments. This was one of the first collective statements of opposition to the war by the teacher's federation. On 15 August 1915 a pacifist resolution was presented at the CGT's national congress at the initiative of Alphonse Merrheim and Albert Bourderon, signed by several militants of the federation of teacher's unions including Bouet, Fernand Loriot, Louis Lafosse, Marie Guillot, Marie Mayoux, Marthe Bigot and Hélène Brion. The resolution said "this war is not our war" and laid responsibility on the leaders of the belligerent states. The resolution denounced the union sacrée and called for the restoration of liberty.
A new international socialist conference at Kienthal was arranged by the Swiss for the end of April 1916. Merrheim, Bourderon and Marie Mayoux of the teacher's federation were expected to represent France, but they were refused the passports they needed to travel. Marie and François Mayoux were listed on carnet B as activists.. On 25 May 1917 they published a pacifist brochure Les instituteurs syndicalistes et la guerre (Syndicalist Teachers and the War). For this they were fined heavily and sentenced to two years in prison.
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