Carmaux-Bons Enfants bombing

Carmaux-Bons Enfants bombing
Representation of the Carmaux-Bons Enfants bombing in Le Petit Journal (19 November 1892)
Location	Paris
Date	8 november 1892
Attack type	bombing
Weapon	tilt-sensitive bomb
Deaths	5
Injured	0
Perpetrator	Émile Henry (anarchist)
No. of participants	?
Motive	Anarchism
Convicted	1
Verdict	Guilty

On 8 November 1892, Émile Henry carried out an anarchist bomb attack in Paris. The attack was carried out in response to the army being sent against the striking workers of the Compagnie minière de Carmaux. Henry sent a parcel bomb to the company's headquarters in Paris, located on Rue de l'Opéra. The company forwarded the parcel to the police, who took possession of it and brought it to the police station on Rue des Bons Enfants. The bomb exploded while the police were handling it, killing four police officers and a Carmaux company's worker.

It was the most lethal French anarchist attack in the 1892-1894 period and preceded other attacks, like the Terminus bombing.

History

Context

In 1892, following the brutal firing of Jean-Baptiste Calvignac, a socialist and trade unionist working at the Carmaux mine, after his election as mayor of Carmaux, a large-scale strike erupted within the mine and its associated glassworks. What began as a small local movement quickly spread and gained national attention, including from prominent socialists, like Jean Jaurès. This prompted the government to send in the army to force the workers to return to work. Although the social movement was not over and would, in fact, continue after Henry's death, he saw the moment when President Émile Loubet brought in the army as proof that peaceful methods would not work. He then decided to take action and carry out an attack targeting the headquarters of the Compagnie minière de Carmaux in Paris. For him, this was an act of propaganda by the deed.

Events

After coordinating with other anarchists, Henry sent a parcel bomb to the company's headquarters at 11 Rue de l'Opéra, which arrived on the morning of the 8 November 1892. The parcel contained a tilt-sensitive bomb, a type never before used except by Russian nihilists, making it particularly lethal. The building's concierge took possession of it and handed it over to the police. The bomb exploded at the police station on Rue des Bons-Enfants at 11:37 a.m., killing four police officers and a company worker.

The attack was the most lethal of the 1892-1894 anarchist attacks in France.

After

After the attack, Henry fled to the United Kingdom and then to Belgium before returning to France. There, he adopted an illegalist lifestyle and carried out other attacks, like the Terminus bombing, before being arrested by the police, sentenced to death, and eventually guillotined.

Legacy

Anarchist circles

Most anarchists supported the attack, but some expressed doubts about the initial target, which was not a police station but a company made up of civilian workers. Reflecting on this a few years later, Jean Grave remarked:

The bomb [...] had been smarter than its makers. Had it exploded on Avenue de l'Opéra, [...] it could have turned public opinion against the anarchists. Whereas at the police station, it didn’t matter at all.