WHAT'S WRONG WITH FRENCH LABOR
Michel, Alain
What's Wrong With French Labor? By ALAIN MICHEL FRENCH TRADE UNIONISM has but one point of resemblance to that of the United States. Both of them are pluralistic. In every other respect they...
...The tradition of a living earned from the soil makes the people conservative...
...Organized during the Resistance against the Germans, the young people in at least 15 Christian unions joined in activities with locals of the CGT...
...And it must be confessed that the Communists in the CGT get all the better of the propaganda with regard to what goes on in the various countries of Europe Leon Jouhaux President of the FO, manages to conceal the persecutions of non-Communist trade unionists in the satellite countries, while the most is made of treatment accorded to communists in Greece and Spain...
...In order of size and influence they line up as follows: Confederation Generale du Travail...
...The Miners Federation of the Northern Region numbered 200.000 members in 1947: at the end of this year it counted only 75,000, of whom only half were paying dues...
...Building costs and the farmer is forever building are...
...The National Federation of Labor is tied in with the anarcho-syndicalist movement...
...This outfit, started in 1947 to gather in secessionists from the original federation, lias not completely succeeded in accomplishing its purpose...
...The workers slow up work systematically" Farmers, who are America's hardest workers, have no patience with this...
...Absolutely controlled by the Communist party, the CGT's membership has been steadily decreasing since 1947...
...It came into being in October 1949, and is led by former members of the CGT who were ejected toward the end of 1944 on account of their collaboration with Petain...
...A peculiar thing has resulted from certain actions of the youth movement within the Christian unions...
...French trade unionism, dominated by polities, thus generally adapts itself to the criteria which govern French capitalism...
...If he again seals it for the government price, he must build new cribs...
...Not much of it has been moved, and the farmer is at his wit's end to know what to do with the forthcoming crop...
...Collection and administrative work is voluntary...
...Even under the best of circumstances, they invest but a negligible part of their profits in their businesses...
...is the state...
...At the convention which set up this organization the claim was made that it included 250,000 members...
...and this, in turn, accounts largely for its poverty and reduced productivity...
...preaches the doctrine of the cooperation of capital and labor...
...The farmer complains of labor...
...In the U.S.A...
...If he sells it on the market, he will get 96 cents, insufficient to cover costs...
...At present it is making efforts to join with the Autonomous Unions...
...The Force Ouvriere struggles against certain difficulties inherent in its position The strike (all sent out by the FO on November 25 was supported by the CGT and the union of the two organizations in this effort led to confusion— especially in the provinces...
...Theirs is the wider human vision and greater cooperative tendency of plains people They like government price supports for crops which out here means corn At present there is a corn quandary...
...They are convinced that hunger, misery, and lack of opportunity breed war...
...After bringing together some 25,000 members it suffered reverses and lost three-fourths of its strength...
...The Federation of Autonomous Union*, so-called, has many of the characteristics of the Fourth International...
...We are cautious, and we are against war...
...In the region of Paris where, according to government figures, it had 1,400,000 two years ago...
...The Confederation dei Cadres is a kind of technicians' guild...
...The leaders of the Force Ouvriere, some of them socialists and the rest friendly to socialism, lav claim to a membership of 1,500,000, This figure is seriously influted...
...Last of all come the professional unions These occupy an ambiguous territory between the trade unions and the industrial and business organiza tions...
...THE TROTSKYITES and anarchists also have union organizations...
...To be perfectly fair to both parties, it is necessary to add that French employers think in the same terms...
...It seeks engineers and technical craftsmen, and is farthest to the right...
...In France, as elsewhere in Western Europe, this purpose is merely accessory...
...The actual membership is probably about half thai size, and 40 or 50 percent of these are government workers among whom this organization is especially popular...
...ISOLATIONISM IS DEAD...
...In 1947 the Federation claimed 500,000...
...This great movement -Christian Rural Overseas Program (little known in Eastern cities) is strongest in Midwestern agricultural states...
...In October 1949, dues payment were made to the national office lor fewer than 1T>5,000 members of local organizations...
...But M. Vallon one of deGaulle's assistants, managed to dissuade the leaders who had the movement in hand...
...Iowans are not against government "interference" per sc...
...Its anti-communist dynamism, the quality of its membership, and its vigorous set against the communist CGT...
...CGT Fores Ouvriere...
...The French worker, Marxist <>i Christian, docs not set as Ins object the just division of the income of an enterprise...
...It will probably profit from the tactical feebleness and mistakes of the Force Ouvriere and of the Christian unions...
...We have, for example,* the Mechanics Union, the Engineers and Traction Employes, the National Society of Railways, the National Union of Ticket Sellers, the National Education Federation (including about Kit),000 teachers), and the National Union of Journalists...
...Last year's bumper crop was sealed in the farmr's cribs by the government at $1.:)7 per bushel...
...He feared that the new federation would undermine the work of Gaullist trade unionists work ing in the Confederation of Independent Workers, the Force Ouvriere and the Christian unions...
...it now retains less than 400.000...
...It's that labor doesn't put forth its best effort...
...Their voluntary contributions to ease the sufferings of foreign peoples are sensational...
...Isolationist' Iowa and Overseas Relief By DOROTHY THOMPSON FORT DODGE, IOWA IF ONE CAN JUDGE from the opinion of this prosperous small Iowun city, the Middle Western temper is liberal conservative...
...Today this old organization is said to number some 2,000,000 members- which many maintain is an overoptimistic figure—of whom one-fourth are non-Communist...
...Our State Department is too much in the pocket of the British Foreign Office...
...he claims, out rageous...
...Nevertheless, this organization is destined to grow...
...That is 12,000 bushels, worth at market price, more than $10,000...
...Communist...
...The membership of this outfit, naturally, remains miniscule, less than 20,000...
...The true figure is nearer 100.000...
...but Iowans claim they never were isolationists...
...THE TRADE UNION GROUP which will Seem most strange to Americans is the Federation of Christian Unions This organization is a projection of the Popular Republican Movement, the party of Georges Bidault, present head of the government Concern for the standing of the party has led to an exaggeration of its membership, which is advertised at 950 000, but is probably half that...
...Confederation TravaUleurt Independent The CTI, newest of the trade union groups, is independent in name, Gaullist in fact...
...These make purchasing power for farmers...
...give it many advantages...
...Iowans are more enthusiastic about the Marshall Plan than the Atlantic Pact...
...So, it would seem, the farmer-labor tieup that elected President Truman, is not altogether solid...
...There is still an immense distrust of the British...
...Politically, its members belong with the Gaullists and Radicals...
...The greatest thing they are doing in this connection is through CROP...
...This year we have had the threat of even an '-ighth labor federation...
...And they think the Republican Party (to winch most of them still belong) is too much in the hands of 'Eastern tycoons...
...But they do not have the rugged individualism of hill people...
...Last year, 1,500,000 farm families participated, sending more than $0,500,000 worth of produce to Europe and Asia...
...People in the RPF want to found a national organization which would follow the leadership of deGaulie...
...Started three years ago by a combination of practically all the denominations of Christian churches, this project concentrates in rural communities, woia ing through the churches, the country agents, and the Farm Bureau, and col lecting from farmers part of their crop to be went abroad...
...The central reason for the existence of most European unions is the annihilation of the employers and replacement of the capitalist system The American worker remains a defender of the system of "free enterprise...
...Among these fractionalized organiza tions there goes on a bitter struggle Demugogic appeals, oratorial and writ ten, spill out over the country in floods The precarious situation of the officials leads them to beat the air in a vain attempt to maintain themselves...
...SIX FEDERATIONS compete for the membership of the working class...
...A trade union movement thus divided and confused is obviously poorly fitted to defend the interests of the working class...
...the sole objective of trade union activity is to better the life of the worker...
...In every other respect they are different in doctrine, purpose and means of financial support...
...He understands perfectly that Ins labor, supplemented by judicious investments, permits the enrichment ol Ins employer, but he makes only onedemand, the improvement of his own standard of living...
...His aim is to reduce the income of Ins employer even if that employe...
...Iowa this year expects to send 450 railroad carloads and Webstei County, in which Fort Dodge Is situ ated, eight...
...Dorothy Thompson is the noted columnist and author...
...By cutting down the employer's income, he expects to increase Ins own...
...Alain Michel ii a wall-known Franch labor journaliit...
...Its moment of greatest success came at the time of its organization in 1946...
...This is the major reason for the luck of replacement in French industry...
...Loss of membership in the building trades is typical of the Chronic hemmorage which afflicts the once-powerful CGT...
...Distribution abroad is through church bodies, according to need, and even goes behind the Iron Curtain...
...Men in this group are naturally easy to bring over to the side of deGaulie, The CTI, like the Gaulist Rnssemblenient du Peuple Francais...
...It numbers some 100,01)0, of whom about half are traveling salesmen and other commercial em ployees...
...What membership it has is recruited from among metal workers and government employees...
...It's not the high wage...
...It forsees a triumphant trade union movement originating in the final "revolutionary general strike...
...Next in order conies the Force Ouvriere, which is undei socialist influence...
Vol. 33 • February 1950 • No. 8
