Workers joined the Dreyfusard cause only via perceived class interests

Evidence

At last Clemenceau convinced Jaurès that an infringement of the rights of one man was an infringement of the rights of all. But in this he was successful only because the wrongdoers happened to be the inveterate enemies of the people ever since the Revolution, namely, the aristocracy and the clergy. It was against the rich and the clergy, not for the republic, not for justice and freedom that the workers finally took to the streets. True, both the speeches of Jaurès and the articles of Clemenceau are redolent of the old revolutionary passion for human rights. True, also, that this passion was strong enough to rally the people to the struggle, but first they had to be convinced that not only justice and the honor of the republic were at stake but also their own class “interests.” — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 323

Categorization

• XREF: Shows class interest rather than universal-rights principle mobilizing mass action — a mechanism the Islamophobia field’s later readings about false consciousness and populist mobilization will presume.