page_title: Revolt of the Languedoc winegrowers
section_title: Argeliers Committee
hierarchical_section_title: Revolt of the Languedoc winegrowers / The events of 1907 / Argeliers Committee
caption_attribution_description: English: Comity of Argeliers Français&#160;: Comité d'Argeliers
context_page_description: The Revolt of the Languedoc winegrowers was a mass movement in 1907 in Languedoc and the Pyrénées-Orientales of France that was repressed by the government of Georges Clemenceau.
  It was caused by a serious crisis in winemaking at the start of the 20th century.
  The movement was also called the "paupers revolt" of the Midi.
  It was marked by the fraternization of the 17th line infantry regiment with the demonstrators in Béziers.
context_section_description: On 11 March 1907 the signal for the revolt was given by a group of Minervois vine growers in the village of Argeliers. 
  They were led by Marcelin Albert and Elie Bernard, who founded the Comité de defense viticole (Committee of Viticulture Defense), known as the Comité d'Argeliers (Argeliers Committee). 
  They organized a march to Narbonne of 87 vine growers for an interview with a parliamentary commission. 
  After their testimony the committee made a tour of the city, for the first time singing La Vigneronne, which from that day became the anthem of the revolt of the paupers.
  The Committee was composed of President Marcelin Albert, Vice-President Édouard Bourges and Secretaries Cathala, Richard and Bernard.
  Elie Bernard was later named Secretary General of the General Confederation of Midi Winegrowers. 
  The Argeliers committee, which included all the producers, prepared the response to the crisis.
  On 14 March 1907 Albert Sarraut, a native of Bordeaux, senator of Aude and under-secretary of state for the Interior, was ridiculed by Clemenceau for trying to plead the case of his electorate. Clemenceau, President of the Council and Minister of the Interior, told Sarraut, "I know the South, it will all end with a banquet".
  In this region, where the Socialists had a strong presence, no well-known elected representative joined the Committee at the beginning.
  This allowed Marcellin Albert to present only corporatist claims.
  The one and only fight he considered worthwhile was for natural wines. 
  He refused to engage in the debate on the divergent interests of the workers and the owners, did not question the presence of royalists who openly wanted to claim the movement, and did not appreciate that on the pretext that the Occitan language is the mother tongue of the Midi wine growers, the regionalists want to make the fight into a separatist movement.
  On 24 March the first meeting organized by the Committee of Argeliers was held in front of 300 people  in Sallèles-d'Aude. 
  Marcelin Albert stood out for his gifts as an orator and his charisma. 
  For the winegrowers present he became the apostle, the king of the paupers, the redeemer. 
  It was agreed to hold a meeting every Sunday in a different city.
caption: Some of the Argeliers Committee: Marcelin Albert, Elie Cathala, Louis Blanc and the doctor Senty
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2011:05:27 23:11:02", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7637", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "485", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "640"}