Ciompi Revolt

In 1378 the ciompi, underpaid wool workers in Florence, seized power for six weeks and won the first guild seats for unskilled laborers in Europe.

Overview

The Florentine wool industry depended on thousands of carders, spinners, and dyers who were excluded from the major guilds that monopolized government. Anger over wage cuts and famine conditions exploded in June 1378, when workers led by the wool comber Michele di Lando stormed the Palazzo della Signoria and forced the creation of three new guilds with seats in government. Divisions between moderate and radical factions soon weakened the new regime, and by August the old guild elite had restored control and dissolved the workers guilds. The ciompi experiment is widely cited as the first documented proletarian uprising in European history and a distant forerunner of the modern labor movement.