A few weeks ago, a few journalist responded to the French strikes with the usual clichés of Gallic intransigence versus Anglo reserve. Anne Applebaum wrote: “And thus did everyone, amazingly, conform to national stereotypes. In an age of supposed globalization,...it is astonishing how absolutely British the British remain, and how thoroughly French are the French “ I would say that the only people conforming to stereotypes were the journalist covering these events.
The most glaring omission Applebaum made when summing up the two nation's characters was Britain's history of labor and civic unrest in Britain in the twentieth century. If the notion of national character is going to have any validity, then surely, we would expect to find general trends through the ages. When we go back into Britain's past we find that strikes and other forms of civil disobedience were not uncommon.
First of all, though not the first instance of labor unrest, was the General Strike of 1926. Starting with the coal miners' dispute over wages, dockers, steelworkers and rail-workers among others joined, until one and half million people were on the streets and refusing to work. The strike ended not because the collective lips of the British workers had finally stiffened, but because the union felt their aims had been reached. This was not the first time Britain had been struck by industrial dispute. Eight four years ago miners and mill workers across the country stopped work over wages. Half a million are estimated to have participated. France's general strike in 1932 attracted just under 200 000 people.
France certainly has had higher profile unrest. The general strike of 1968 is an enduring image image of the nation. However, flagstones and philosophy might be a combination of romanticism by English commentators who, unlike France, the US and Germany missed out on the revolt which colored this decade. It can also be part of the way the French chose to identify themselves. Elias Canetti argued in Crowd and Power that the revolution is a the predominant national myth of the French. In the same book, he states that the Anglo-Saxons were more revolutionary.
The British certainly didn't remain quiet since 1926. The so-called Winter of Discontent of 1978-1979 saw “Strikes [that] were so widespread that garbage piled up outside homes, cemetery operators considered mass burials at sea (the gravediggers had downed shovels)” (Alan Cowell, More than the Channel Divides Britain and France)
Cowell, like Applebaum, does make a distinction between the two nations. He mentions these events only to suggest that it it should the end of British labor militancy. From this time, enthusiasm for industrial action has dampened since then. One of the perceived reason for Thatcher's victory was that she and the Tories would stand up tot he unions. However, their victory was not unanimous. The miners and unions kept up their campaigns. Their defeat as much the result of political decisions, if not more, than popular opinion. The end of her reign was characterized by the bloody images of the poll tax riots.
Nor does Cowell's nor Applebaum's view of British reserve true at this moment. Tomorrow, one of the largest student demonstrations is said to be taking place. Around 24 000 students will converge on London to protest the government's plan to raise higher education fees. Students are known to protest, and their situation may not be comparable to that of the miners and other workers mentioned above; however, the suggestion that Britons are lying down and accepting the austerity measures is patently an over generalization.
The other problem with this characterization is that it focuses on only two countries. If we were going to define national characters we need a slightly larger sample. We wouldn't accept a comparison of two people as indicative of all their behavior. I might be taller than my wife. It doesn't make me the tallest person I know. The journalists ignored the unrest in Greece from earlier this year. Or the Spanish who back in February protested the same thing as the French are. Or are we meant to just write this off as the fiery Mediterranean spirit?
Samuel Johnson famously said “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” I would add that national stereotypes are the province of lazy journalism.
