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General Confederation of
Labour
 |
| General Confederation
of Labour |
| Confédération
générale du travail |
| Founded |
September, 1895 |
| Members |
710,000 |
| Country |
France |
| Affiliation |
ETUC |
| Key people |
Bernard
Thibault |
| Office location |
Montreuil,
France |
| Website |
www.cgt.fr |
|
A CGT banner during a 2005 demonstration in Paris
The General Confederation of Labour (French: Confédération Générale du Travail
or CGT) is a national trade union
center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.
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 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 (CFDT) [1].
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 (PCF), to
a more moderate stance, and concentrating its attention, in
particular since the 1995
general strikes, to trade-unionism in private sectors [2].
Most recently in the news for briefly delaying Stage 3 of the Tour
de France on July 7, 2008.
1895 to
1947
1895:
Creation
It was founded in 1895 from the
merge 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 Emile Pouget 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 ,who call the troops to
open fire to the strikers.
World
War I: Dissension
Furthermore, under the leadership of Léon Jouhaux,
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 they prefer struggle with the
German proletarians than the French employers. They welcomed news
of the 1917 October Revolution with hope.
In 1919, Pierre
Monatte created the Revolutionary
Syndicalist Committees (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. One
outcome of this division was the expulsion of the
"revolutionaries". Following the 1920 Tours Congress 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 (SFIC), the CGT also split.
Radicals created the Confédération
générale du travail unitaire (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 won the 1936 legislative
election.
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.
It became increasingly influenced by the 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 founded Workers' Force (Force ouvrière or
FO) with U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
support.
The FO criticized the communist influence as being incompatible
with the Charte d'Amiens, and they were generally Trotskyist, socialist, 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.
1947
to 1990s : The domination of the French Communist
Party
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 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 with Prime
minister Georges Pompidou, it was assimilated
as a betrayal of the revolution.
In the 1970s, it supported the "Union of Left" (alliance between
the French Communist Party (PCF), Socialist Party (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 in 1982, followed by the
resignation of the communist ministers (Charles Fiterman, Marcel
Rigout and Jack
Ralite) two years later, after the substitution of Laurent Fabius as
Prime minister to Pierre Mauroy, 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 [2].
His successor, Louis Vianet, did the same, going as far as
resigning from the political bureau of the party [2].
Thus, during the 1990s, under the leadership of Louis Viannet
and Bernard
Thibault, the CGT cut its organic links with the French
Communist Party and succeeded in remaining one of the two major
French union confederations.
From the
1995 general strike to today general strike
It was the leading trade-union in the 1995
general strike against Alain Juppé's plan of Welfare State reforms
(in particular concerning pensions).
The CGT also protested against Union for a Popular
Movement (UMP) minister François Fillon'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's support of the Treaty
establishing a Constitution for Europe (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
(EU) institutions.
In autumn 2005, the Marseillese section of the CGT, representing
the more radical faction opposed to Bernard Thibault's more
centrist views, demonstrated against the privatization of the SNCM ship company. The CGT then
supported the student movement during the 2006
protests against the Contrat
première embauche (CPE, First Employment Contract).
The CGT left the Communist-oriented World Federation of Trade
Unions at its 1995 congress and became a member of the European Trade Union
Confederation in 1999. It is
also a member of the International Trade
Union Confederation (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. 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, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo 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 after the
Second World War.[3]
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 November 11-November
12, 1955, the majority of delegates voted for separation from the
French CGT. A conference was held in Saint-Louis on January 14-January
15, 1956 which formed the Confédération
générale des travailleurs africains (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.[4]
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).[5]
CGT formed a branch in Madagascar in 1936.[6]
Famous
members
See also
References
- ^
Numbers given by Michel Dreyfus, author of Histoire de la
C.G.T., Ed. Complexes, 1999, interviewed in Pascal Riché, En prônant la négociation, la
CGT "peut faire bouger le syndicalisme", Rue 89, 21 November 2007 (French)
- ^ a
b
c
Pascal Riché,
En prônant la négociation, la
CGT "peut faire bouger le syndicalisme", Rue 89, 21 November 2007 (French)
- ^
Fall, Mar. L'Etat et la Question Syndicale au Sénégal. Paris: Éditions L'Harmattan, 1989.
p. 24, 27
- ^
Fall, Mar. L'Etat et la Question Syndicale au Sénégal. Paris: Éditions L'Harmattan, 1989.
p. 31-32
- ^
Fall, Mar. L'Etat et la Question Syndicale au Sénégal. Paris: Éditions L'Harmattan, 1989.
p. 44
- ^
Busky, Donald F.. Communism in history and theory. Asia,
Africa, and the Americas. Westport: Praeger, 2002. p.
128
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