Carmaux-Bons Enfants bombing

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.^[1] What began as a small local movement quickly spread and gained national attention, including from prominent socialists, like Jean Jaurès.^[1] This prompted the government to send in the army to force the workers to return to work.^[1][2][3] Although the social movement was not over and would, in fact, continue after Henry's death,^[4] he saw the moment when President Émile Loubet brought in the army as proof that peaceful methods would not work.^[5] He then decided to take action and carry out an attack targeting the headquarters of the Compagnie minière de Carmaux in Paris.^[5] For him, this was an act of propaganda by the deed.^[5]

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.^[2][6] The parcel contained a tilt-sensitive bomb, a type never before used except by Russian nihilists, making it particularly lethal.^[5] The building's concierge took possession of it and handed it over to the police.^[2] 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.^[2]

The attack was the most lethal of the 1892-1894 anarchist attacks in France.^[5]

After the attack, Henry fled to the United Kingdom and then to Belgium before returning to France.^[5] 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.^[5]

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.^[5] Reflecting on this a few years later, Jean Grave remarked:^[5]

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.