Zéphyrin Camélinat

Zéphyrin Camélinat (variously spelled Zéphirin, Zéphyrenne; 5 March 1840 in Mailly-la-Ville, Yonne – 14 September 1932 in Paris) was a French politician, writer, communard, socialist and communist.

Zéphyrin Rémy Camélinat was born into a poor peasant family and became a metal worker by trade.

[1] The members of the workers' group summarized their demands in a manifesto on 12 March 1886:[1] Our intervention will deal with questions already clarified by conscientious studies for which the solution is unanimously recognized by the interested parties as urgent.

We will demand: national and international labor legislation; repeal of the law against the International Workingmen's Association; recognition of the right of the child to full development of his mind and body by regulation of work; social guarantee against unemployment, sickness, accidents and old age; reorganization, on a more equitable basis, of industrial tribunals; independence guaranteed to miners' delegates and the improvement of the seamen's lot; removal of the monopolies which have delivered a large part of the national domain to private enterprises; organization of credit at work and all necessary modifications to the social interest in public works, industry, agriculture, ...[1] Camélinat defended compensation for work accidents, social assistance for the disabled, limiting child labor, separation of church and state and free justice.

During the First World War, Camélinat moved increasingly to the left of the Socialist Party and came to oppose its pro-war stance.