Confédération générale du travail

The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center

National trade union center

A national trade union center is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a single country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. When there is more than one national center, it is often because of ideological differences—in some...

, the first of the five major French confederation

Confederation

A confederation in modern political terms is a permanent union of political units for common action in relation to other units. Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense, foreign...

s of trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

s.

It is the largest in terms of votes (32.1% at the 2002 professional election, 34.0% in the 2008 election), and second largest in terms of membership numbers.

Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 (it had more than double when François Mitterrand

François Mitterrand

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

was elected President in 1981), before increasing today to between 700,000 and 720,000 members, a bit less than the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail

Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail

-External links:*...

(CFDT).

According to the historian M. Dreyfus, the direction of the CGT is slowly evolving, since the 1990s, during which it cut all organic links with the French Communist Party

French Communist Party

The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...

(PCF), to a more moderate stance, and concentrating its attention, in particular since the 1995 general strikes, to trade-unionism in private sectors.
Most recently in the news for briefly delaying Stage 3 of the Tour de France on July 7, 2008.

1895: Creation

It was founded in 1895 from the merger of the Fédération des bourses du travail (Federation of Labour Councils) and the Fédération nationale des syndicats (National Federation of Trade Unions).

1895-1914: Anarcho-syndicalism

Up until 1919 the CGT was dominated by anarcho-syndicalists tendencies, having as vice-secretary Émile Pouget

Émile Pouget

Émile Pouget was a French anarcho-communist, who adopted tactics close to those of anarcho-syndicalism...

and leading the union in 1906 to 1909. The CGT was violently opposed to both the authorities and to employers. Moreover, it refused to become affiliated to a political party.

In 1906, the Charte d'Amiens proclaimed the independence of this trade unions.

In 1909, members of the direction and hundreds of CGTists were assassinated by the French government led by Georges Clémenceau

Georges Clemenceau

Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman, physician and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. For nearly the final year of World War I he led France, and was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles at the...

,who call the troops to open fire to the strikers.

World War I: Dissension

Furthermore, under the leadership of Léon Jouhaux

Léon Jouhaux

Léon Jouhaux was a French trade union leader who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951.Jouhaux's father worked in a match factory in Aubervilliers. His secondary schooling ended when his father's earnings were stopped by a strike. He gained employment at the factory at age sixteen and immediately...

, the confederation joined the "sacred union" during World War I, which provoked the CGT's first internal division.
While Jouhaux tried to associate the CGT with the authorities, his opponents criticized the pervading air of nationalism and the preference for struggle with the German proletarians rather than the French employers.
They welcomed news of the 1917 October Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

with hope.

In 1919, Pierre Monatte

Pierre Monatte

Pierre Monatte was a French trade unionist who worked in the printing industry . He was the responsible of the Confédération générale du travail at the beginning of the 20th century, and founded its journal La Vie ouvrière on 5 October 1909...

created the Revolutionary Syndicalist Committees

Revolutionary Syndicalist Committees

The Revolutionary Syndicalist Committees were a trade-unionist organization created in 1919 by Pierre Monatte inside the Confédération générale du travail trade-union...

(Comités syndicalistes révolutionnaires) current inside the CGT, which opposed the trade-union's collaboration with the government during the war, carried out in the name of the Union sacrée national bloc.

The hope of October 1917

Following the Revolution in Russia, the French labour movement became increasingly divided between "revolutionaries" who supported the Bolsheviks and strong action at home and "reformists" who favoured moderation and re-affiliation to the pre-war Second International

Socialist International

The Socialist International is a worldwide organization of democratic socialist, social democratic and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...

.
One outcome of this division was the expulsion of the "revolutionaries".
Following the 1920 Tours Congress

Tours Congress

The Tours Congress was the 18th National Congress of the French Section of the Workers' International, or SFIO, which took place in Tours on 25—30 December 1920...

during which the majority of French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) members voted to accept Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's 21 Conditions, leading to the creation of the French Section of the Communist International

French Communist Party

(SFIC), the CGT also split.

Radicals created the Confédération générale du travail unitaire
Confédération générale du travail unitaire
Confédération générale du travail unitaire was a trade union confederation in France. CGTU emerged out of split in the Confédération générale du travail, which had been torn by confrontations between socialists and communists. CGTU was founded at a congress in Saint-Étienne in June 1922, and was...

(CGTU), where communists initially cohabited with anarchists, revolutionary trade unionists.

The reunited and the World War II

In 1934, left-wing parties united to counteract the far-right "ligues".

Two years later, the Popular Front

Popular Front (France)

The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...

won the 1936 legislative election

French legislative election, 1936

French legislative elections to elect the 16th legislature of the French Third Republic were held on 26 April and 3 May 1936. This was the last legislature of the Third Republic and the last election before the Second World War. The number of candidates set a record, with 4,807 people vying for 618...

.

At the same time, the CGT and the CGTU were reunited. Benoît Frachon negotiated for the CGT the 1936 Matignon Agreements in June with the employers and the government.

Nevertheless, the Communists were expelled as a result of the German-Soviet pact in 1939, then the CGT was dissolved by the Vichy government but it transformed itself into an organization in the Resistance

French Resistance

The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...

.

It became increasingly influenced by the French Communist Party

French Communist Party

1945 to 1947 : Division

After the ejection of the communists from the government and the 1947 general strike a further split took place, this time involving the departure of the reformist right, followed in 1948, when Léon Jouhaux

Léon Jouhaux

founded Workers' Force

Force Ouvrière

The General Confederation of Labor - Workers' Force is one of the five major union federations in France. In terms of following, it is the third behind the CGT and the CFDT....

(Force ouvrière or FO) with U.S. Central Intelligence Agency

Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

support .

The FO criticized the communist influence as being incompatible with the Charte d'Amiens; and they were generally socialist, some trotskyist, some anarchist.

In order to preserve its unity, the Federation for National Education (Fédération de l'Education nationale or FEN) left the CGT but did not join FO.

The communist Benoît Frachon became leader of the CGT.

Alliance and Union of Left

Although the CGT was dominant in French trade unionism, it was isolated until 1966.
At this moment, it chose to coordinate its actions with the French Democratic Confederation of Labour

Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail

-External links:*...

(Confédération française démocratique du travail or CFDT).

During May 1968 in France, the CGT was criticized by the far-left because its leader Georges Séguy had signed the Grenelle agreements

Grenelle agreements

The Grenelle Agreements or Grenelle Reports were negotiated 25 and 26 May, during the crisis of May 1968 in France by the representative of the Pompidou government, the trade unions, and the Organisation patronale...

with Prime minister Georges Pompidou

Georges Pompidou

Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968, holding the longest tenure in this position, and later President of the French Republic from 1969 until his death in 1974.-Biography:...

, it was assimilated as a betrayal of the revolution.

In the 1970s, it supported the "Union of Left" (alliance between the French Communist Party

French Communist Party

(PCF), Socialist Party

Socialist Party (France)

The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...

(PS) and Parti Radical de Gauche (PRG).

But after the defeat of the 1978 legislative election, the alliance with the CFDT (who were more linked with the Socialist Party and turned right after the abandon of the "autogestion" and classes struggle) was broken.

The 1980s

The election of Henri Krasucki

Henri Krasucki

Henri Krasucki was a French trade-unionist, former secretary general of the Confédération générale du travail from 1982 to 1992.-Early life :...

in 1982, followed by the resignation of the communist ministers (Charles Fiterman

Charles Fiterman

Charles Fiterman is a French politician. He served as Minister of Transport from 1981 to 1984, under former President François Mitterand. He is a member of the French Communist Party.-References:...

, Marcel Rigout

Marcel Rigout

Marcel Rigout is a French politician. He served as Minister of Vocational Training from 1981 to 1984, under former President François Mitterand. From an early age, he was a member of the French Communist Party.-References:...

and Jack Ralite

Jack Ralite

Jack Ralite is a French politician. He was elected in 1973 to the Seine-Saint-Denis constituency for the French Communist Party. In 1981 he became Minister for Health and subsequently Minister for Employment . In 1984 he became Mayor of Aubervilliers, a post he retained until 2003.- References :...

) two years later, after the substitution of Laurent Fabius

Laurent Fabius

Laurent Fabius is a French Socialist politician. He served as Prime Minister from 17 July 1984 to 20 March 1986. He was 37 years old when he was appointed and is, so far, the youngest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic.-Early life:...

as Prime minister to Pierre Mauroy

Pierre Mauroy

Pierre Mauroy is a French Socialist politician and former Prime Minister under François Mitterrand . Mauroy also served as Mayor of Lille from 1973 to 2001. Mauroy is currently emeritus mayor of Lille.-Biography:...

, led to an initial radicalisation of the confederation.

However, at the end of his term (1982–1992), Krasucki began to distance himself from the PCF.

His successor, Louis Vianet, did the same, going as far as resigning from the political bureau of the party.

Thus, during the 1990s, under the leadership of Louis Viannet and Bernard Thibault

Bernard Thibault

Bernard Thibault, born in 1959, is the current secretary of the Confédération Générale du Travail , a French workers' union. He represents the moderate wing of the CGT, as opposed to the more radical wing noted in Marseilles' trade union....

, the CGT cut its organic links with the French Communist Party. It has succeeded in remaining one of the two major French union confederations, while the Communist Party has declined severely.

From the 1995 general strike to today

It was the leading trade-union in the 1995 general strike

1995 strikes in France

The 1995 strikes in France were a series of general strikes in France, mostly in the public sector in late 1995. The strikes received great popular support despite paralyzing the country's transportation infrastructure...

against Alain Juppé

Alain Juppé

Alain Marie Juppé is a French politician currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He also served as Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac and the Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs from 2010 to 2011...

's plan of Welfare State reforms (in particular concerning pensions).

The CGT also protested against Union for a Popular Movement

Union for a Popular Movement

The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...

(UMP) minister François Fillon

François Fillon

François Charles Armand Fillon is the Prime Minister of France. He was appointed to that office by President Nicolas Sarkozy on 17 May 2007. He served initially until 13 November 2010 when he resigned from being prime minister before a planned cabinet reshuffle.On 14 November 2010, Sarkozy...

's project of pensions reforms in 2003.

In February 2005, the National Confederate Committee (CCN), the "Parliament" of the trade-union, rejected national secretary Bernard Thibault

Bernard Thibault

's support of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe

Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe

The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , , was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European Union...

(TCE).

Therefore, the CGT actively supported the "NO" during the 2005 referendum on the TCE, criticizing its neo-liberal orientation and weaknesses concerning the few democratic measures about the working of the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

(EU) institutions.

In autumn 2005, the Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

se section of the CGT, representing the more radical faction opposed to Bernard Thibault's more centrist views, demonstrated against the privatization of the SNCM

SNCM

SNCM is a French ferry company operating in the Mediterranean.Its ferries sail from Marseille, Toulon, Nice on mainland France, Calvi, Bastia, Ajaccio, Ile Rousse, Propriano, and Porto Vecchio on Corsica, Porto Torres on Sardinia, Algiers, Oran, Skikda and Bejaia in Algeria as well as Tunis in...

ship company.
The CGT then supported the student movement during the 2006 protests against

2006 labour protests in France

The 2006 youth protests in France occurred throughout France during February, March, and April 2006 as a result of opposition to a measure set to deregulate labour...

the Contrat première embauche (CPE, First Employment Contract).

The CGT left the Communist-oriented World Federation of Trade Unions

World Federation of Trade Unions

The World Federation of Trade Unions was established in 1945 to replace the International Federation of Trade Unions. Its mission was to bring together trade unions across the world in a single international organization, much like the United Nations...

at its 1995 congress and became a member of the European Trade Union Confederation

European Trade Union Confederation

The European Trade Union Confederation is a trade union organization which was established in 1973 to represent workers and their national affiliates at the European level....

in 1999. It is also a member of the International Trade Union Confederation

International Trade Union Confederation

The International Trade Union Confederation is the world's largest trade union federation. It was formed on November 1, 2006 out of the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the World Confederation of Labour...

(ITUC) created in 2006.

Professional Elections

The CGT won 34% of the vote in the employee's college during the 2008 professional elections, making it the largest trade union in terms of votes in those elections. This positive result marked the first professional election in which the CGT's vote share had not declined: it had declined constantly from 36.35% in 1987 to 32.13% in 2002.

In Africa

In 1937 CGT began organizing workers in French West Africa

French West Africa

French West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan , French Guinea , Côte d'Ivoire , Upper Volta , Dahomey and Niger...

. The union's functioning was interrupted by its banning by the Vichy regime, but in 1943-1948 a process of reconstruction took place. The main centers of activity were Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

, Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...

, Togo

Togo

Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...

and the French Soudan. CGT had an upper hand in the Muslim regions in comparison to its main rival CFTC, who depended on the presence of Catholic communities for its recruitment. CGT emerged as the major trade union force amongst the 100 000 strong organized labour force in Senegal and Mauritania

Mauritania

Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

after the Second World War.

Within the CGT branches in the region, there was however a growing wish for independence. A leader of CGT in French West Africa, Bassirou Guèye, promoted this idea. At a meeting of the Territorial Union of Trade Unions in Senegal and Mauritania, held in Dakar

Dakar

Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...

November 11-November 12, 1955, the majority of delegates voted for separation from the French CGT. A conference was held in Saint-Louis

Saint-Louis, Senegal

Saint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, and 320 km north of Senegal's capital city Dakar, it has a population officially estimated at 176,000 in 2005. Saint-Louis...

on January 14-January 15, 1956 which formed the Confédération générale des travailleurs africains

Confédération générale des travailleurs africains

The Confédération générale des travailleurs africains was a trade union centre in French West Africa, founded in 1956....

(CGTA), separating the parts of the West African CGT organizations from the French CGT. At the conference 50 out of 67 delegates had voted for separation.

In Togo, CGT had 45,100 members in 1948 (65% of organized labour). By 1952 the number had decreased to 34,000 (46% of organized labour).

CGT formed a branch in Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

in 1936.

Famous members

Benoît Frachon
Léon Jouhaux
Léon Jouhaux
Léon Jouhaux was a French trade union leader who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951.Jouhaux's father worked in a match factory in Aubervilliers. His secondary schooling ended when his father's earnings were stopped by a strike. He gained employment at the factory at age sixteen and immediately...
Henri Krasucki
Henri Krasucki
Henri Krasucki was a French trade-unionist, former secretary general of the Confédération générale du travail from 1982 to 1992.-Early life :...
Missak Manouchian
Missak Manouchian
Missak Manouchian was a French poet of Armenian birth, a militant communist in the MOI , and military commissioner of the FTP-MOI in the Paris region...
Marcel Paul
Marcel Paul
Marcel Paul was a French trade unionist and communist politician. He was also a Nazi concentration camp survivor and later served as a member of the French parliament.- Biography :...
Fernand Pelloutier
Fernand Pelloutier
Fernand Pelloutier was a French anarchist .He was the leader of the Bourses du Travail, a major French trade union, from 1895 until his death in 1901. He was succeeded by Yvetot...
Pierre Monatte
Pierre Monatte
Pierre Monatte was a French trade unionist who worked in the printing industry . He was the responsible of the Confédération générale du travail at the beginning of the 20th century, and founded its journal La Vie ouvrière on 5 October 1909...

(leader at the beginning of the century)

External links

Official site of the CGT
The beginnings of the CGT, 1895-1921 An account and analysis of the anarchist origins of the CGT, and the later rise of the Communist Party within in it.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

1895: Creation

1895-1914: Anarcho-syndicalism

World War I: Dissension

The hope of October 1917

The reunited and the World War II

1945 to 1947 : Division

Alliance and Union of Left

The 1980s

From the 1995 general strike to today

Professional Elections

In Africa

Famous members

See also

External links