After years of discretion, the awakening. On the night of Thursday January 18 to Friday January 19, an explosion shook the building of the regional directorate for the environment, planning and housing (Dreal) in Carcassonne, in Aude. Two “CAV” tags were found on the fence of the enclosure, initials of the Wine Action Committee. “While no state agent was injured, significant material damage was to be deplored,” explained the prefect of Aude in a press release. An investigation was opened for “damage by dangerous means to property belonging to another by an organized gang”, the prosecutor’s office reported to AFP.
This is not the first violent operation in the region. The Regional Wine Action Committee (Crav) and its local branches (CAV) have carried out multiple striking actions in recent decades in the departments of Aude, Hérault and Pyrénées-Orientales. Elsewhere in Occitania, farmers continue to block roads, protesting against standards considered excessive, rising costs, and a lack of consideration. The anger of winegrowers was particularly highlighted by the president of the Aude Winegrowers’ Union, Frédéric Rouanet, on January 15: “Without rapid measures, the anger will be untenable in the vineyard.”
“Exasperation rumbles”
The next day, on the night of Tuesday January 16 to Wednesday January 17, tags “Be careful of the price otherwise boom”, were found on the walls of a business in Valros, a town in the south of Hérault, this time bearing the logo “FNSEA” (National Federation of Farmers’ Unions) – which has disassociated itself. “I head an official union, and I therefore do not condone this type of act,” Frédéric Rouanet explained to L’Express today. “We are a mass and negotiating movement, but I have been warning about the “We risk being overtaken. We don’t listen enough to the winegrowers, and the profession is in a serious psychological state.”
Exasperation has been brewing among Aude wine growers for several months. Already, at the beginning of October 2023, the Aude CAV had tried to set fire to a bottling company in Sallèles-d’Aude, in the north-east of the department. Its members had until now been relatively discreet, their last publicity dating back to June 2017, five years ago. At the time, seven hooded men entered the premises of a wine merchant in Teyran, in Hérault, before pouring out 200,000 liters of wine, leaving the usual tags on the spot: “Viticultural Action Committee”. Cost of the damage: 300,000 euros.
A radical group that emerged in the 1960s
The origins of the movement are much older. They date back to the beginning of the 20th century, when winegrowers’ unions were created in Languedoc. At the time, the region was going through a serious wine crisis. The demonstrations, repressed by Georges Clemenceau, then President of the Council and Minister of the Interior, multiplied in the region and in Roussillon. “They were able to bring together up to 1 million people,” underlines Jean-Marc Touzard, research director at INRAE in Montpellier and author of several articles on the wine transition in Languedoc. The world of wine unions was structured and, a little over fifty years later, in the 1960s, the Regional Wine Action Committee emerged. “The problems are somewhat similar to those of today,” explains Jean-Philippe Martin, associate professor and doctor in history, author ofHistory of the new peasant left. Among them, we can cite a drop in wine consumption, particularly ‘gros rouge’ or table wine, and overproduction aggravated by competition, first from Algerian wine, then Italian and Spanish, in the following decades, with the extension of the single European market.”
Crav has always been extremely linked to the trade union world. As explained by researcher and professor at the IEP of Bordeaux Antoine Roger in an article on the subjectthe action committee was born during a meeting of the General Confederation of Winegrowers of the Midi (CGVM), a historic union in the sector, in 1961. Citing one of its “first organizers”, he noted that Crav stood out, ” alongside the union structure, [de] non-statutory body, more or less informal, whose vocation is to carry out direct actions: the ‘armed arm’ of trade unionism, in a way”. They have an official objective: “to carry out actions on the ground to support demands”. “We must understand that, since the 1960s, Languedoc winegrowers have waged their struggles on three levels,” explains Jean-Marc Touzard, of Inrae. First, the most classic, where the region’s wine managers, the notables, negotiate with the State. This is routine management. At the same time, you find the organization of events.” In Languedoc at the time, a land structured by viticulture, where almost every family had an acre of vines, they were particularly important. “Finally, you have the action violent, very visible, carried out in parallel with the other two. In the 1960s and 1970s, this complementarity was assumed,” continues the researcher.
Two deaths in 1976
In fact, the members of Crav acted openly at the time. Their actions resemble those of classic activists: blockades, then demonstrations. But after the Evian Accords in 1962 and the return of the French who had participated in the Algerian War, the movement became more radical. The CGVM activists are “joined by former conscripts, trained in Algeria in guerrilla techniques”, as Antoine Roger writes. A repertoire of increasingly violent actions is required. Crav damages public property – generally public buildings or railway tracks –, generally at night, often with explosives. Their action is of interest even beyond borders. In 2007, Jean Vialade, one of the historic leaders of Crav, thus affirmed to The Midi Independent having received a visit, thirty-four years earlier, from two Libyan emissaries. The latter would have come to offer to finance the movement in the name of the young dictator Muammar Gaddafi. “They explained to me that the French government at the time could be easily overthrown,” he told the regional daily. Vialade would not have followed up.
The peak of violence was reached on March 4, 1976, when a shooting broke out during a demonstration organized in the Aude village of Montredon. A wine grower and a CRS are killed. A period of calm followed this confrontation, until 1984, when, one night in April, a commando of a hundred men ravaged and burned a Leclerc supermarket in Carcassonne. The press of the time spoke of an “attack” possibly carried out due to the presence of “foreign wines” on its shelves. “We should not reach the same situation in Aude as in Corsica or the Basque Country,” chokes up Raymond Chesa, then mayor (RPR) of Carcassonne. Two wine growers are arrested. “The influence of the wine world is less important than before and, from this moment on, a feeling of fed up begins to express itself among the population,” notes the historian Jean-Philippe Martin. The actions of Crav become more minority and spaced out.”
Socialist divorce
The silence lasted until 1998, when, for several years, new actions were carried out in the region. Between 1998 and 2010, Antoine Roger counted 39 “days of action”. Winegrowers are attacking transport infrastructure, public radars, and even certain traders, accused of importing foreign wines to the detriment of those from the region. The divorce is apparently complete between the official unions and Crav, which carries out clandestine actions. “Until the 1980s, a significant portion of winegrowers voted for the Socialist Party,” observes Jean-Philippe Martin. “The majority of union executives were socialists, and many remained so. But, from 1984, the bulk of the profession stands out.” The breaking point became evident in 2013, when, on the night of Tuesday July 16 to Wednesday July 17, the premises of the Aude PS federation were damaged by an explosion. Three “CAV” inscriptions are written on the walls, as well as a “Le Foll” tag, named after the Minister of Agriculture under François Hollande.
Until the explosion in Carcassonne, on the night of Thursday to Friday, the local CAVs had only carried out irregular actions, much less spectacular than in the past. “There are much fewer winegrowers than before,” observes Jean-Marc Touzard. “The winegrowers’ events of the last century, which could bring together several tens of thousands of people, no longer exist.” Last Saturday, November 25, there were barely a few thousand – 4,000, according to the prefecture, 6,000, according to the union – to parade through the streets of Narbonne at the initiative of the department’s winegrowers. Winegrowers are mechanically rarer to come and feed the ranks of Crav and its local emanations. Especially since the profession is now more fragmented than before. “Unlike Languedoc at the time, whose production was concentrated around table wine, today’s Languedoc is also made up of ‘high-end’ wine farms, believes Jean-Marc Touzard. Winegrowers do not necessarily view violent actions favorably, because they believe that they harm the image of the region’s wines, particularly abroad.”
But the anger remains no less present. “Don’t ask me what Crav plans to do: there is no spokesperson, and I don’t know who is leading its actions,” assures Frédéric Rouanet, of the Aude winegrowers’ union. But we are experiencing a crisis like I have never experienced before. Difficult times push people to strong actions.” To avoid conflagration, the union leader has his sights set on a date: Friday February 2, the day when Marc Fesneau, Minister of Agriculture, will travel to Hérault to meet wine growers.
.