‘Hunger strike’, ‘grève de la faim’, ‘huelga de hambre’, ‘sciopero della fame’, ‘hungerstreik’, ‘greve da fome’. This expression emerged in many European countries in the 19th century, just at the time when labour strikes were thriving. But the practice of fasting in protest already had a long history.

Fasting and protest in history

In principle, hunger strikes are different from fasts. The latter are generally of short duration and do not imply pressure on an adversary – or even the existence of an adversary other than oneself. Fasting is often associated with the idea of non-violence and the values of asceticism and self-control promoted in most religions (Lent in Christianity, Ramadan in Islam, Kippur in Judaism, along with many Buddhist and Hindu fasts). Yet there are certain similarities between these two practices. Historically, not all protest fasts have been of limited duration and, above all, the processes that have led to the hunger strikes that we know today were marked by references to religious fasts. We must try to understand what registers and mechanisms these two practices both mobilise.

The very ancient practice of ‘private’ fasting provides real prestige, as we can see in the glorification of saints who constrained themselves to extreme fasts. Associated with purification and self-control, these actions demonstrated the exemplary moral character of those who performed them. The Christian structure of European societies thus valued control over one's body and authorised the action of fasting. However, with the exception of the endura of the Cathars (a not very practical abandonment of food, with the goal of reconciling real life and perfection), it did not encourage its more sacrificial variants.

The use of fasting as a gesture of protest remained very marginal until the 19th century. Georges Duby evoked a few ‘typically feminine’ cases, such as those of young girls in the Middle Ages who threatened to let themselves die of hunger rather than be forced to marry against their will. However, he argues that these practices remained within the private sphere. The use of this method in penitential environments was also documented from the Middle Ages onwards, particularly in the Tower of London.