Bloody Sunday is a name given to political clashes that occurred in

Colmar Colmar (; ; or ) is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Alsace region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it is the seat of the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin department ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

on August 22, 1926. On that day the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

and the Colmar section of the Popular Republican Union (a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

organization) had organized a joint protest meeting at the ''Salle des Catherinettes''. The theme of the meeting was to denounce measures by the French state against the signatories of the Alsatian autonomist '' Heimatbund'' manifesto.Goodfellow, Samuel.
From Communism to Nazism: The Transformation of Alsatian Communists
', in ''Journal of Contemporary History'', Vol. 27, No. 2 (Apr., 1992), pp. 231-258Fischer, Christopher J.
Alsace to the Alsatians?: Visions and Divisions of Alsatian Regionalism, 1870-1939
'. New York: Berghahn Books, 2010. p. 187 However, a large group of French nationalists had assembled at the meeting point of the rally. They included the

royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

Camelots du Roi The King's Camelots, officially the National Federation of the King's Camelots () was a far-right youth organization of the French militant royalist and integralist movement Action Française active from 1908 to 1936. It is best known for taking ...

'' and ''

Action française ''Action Française'' (, AF; ) is a French far-right monarchist and nationalist political movement. The name was also given to a journal associated with the movement, '' L'Action Française'', sold by its own youth organization, the Camelot ...

''. The French nationalists sought to blockade the Alsatian autonomists from holding their meeting. As Dr. Eugène Ricklin, a clerical autonomist and one of the main speakers of the event, and

Joseph Rossé Joseph Rossé (August 26, 1892 – October 24, 1951) was an Alsace, Alsatian politician and autonomist, notable for his engagement in the Union populaire républicaine (1919-1946), Union Populaire Républicaine and his controversial role during a ...

, reached the Colmar train station, they were attacked by the French nationalists. At the site of the meeting, violent clashes erupted again. Police, partly mounted, slowly intervened. Around 60 people were injured. Amongst the injured was Ricklin. However, the autonomist rally was conducted despite the violence.Callahan, Kevin J., and Sarah Ann Curtis.
Views from the Margins: Creating Identities in Modern France
'. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. p. 146 The Bloody Sunday rally was significant in breaking up the taboo of cooperation between communists and Catholic autonomists. It also marked the starting point of a split between a section of Alsatian communists and the French Communist Party. Bloody Sunday furthered cooperation between Alsatian communists with right-wing sectors sharing common autonomist goals, which would eventually lead to the expulsion of a sector of Alsatian communists from the French Communist Party in 1929. The expellees founded the Opposition Communist Party of Alsace-Lorraine.

References

{{reflist Politics of Alsace 1926 crimes in France Interwar France Political riots in France 1926 riots August 1926 in Europe 20th-century political riots Colmar History of Haut-Rhin History of the French Communist Party Catholicism and politics Alsace independence movement Action Française History of Catholicism in France 1926 in Christianity