‘Crisis’ in the French Labour Movement? A Grassroots’ Perspective

Abstract

To the outside observer the French labour movement has undergone a puzzling transformation in recent years. From May 1968 to May 1981 French workers and their unions appear to have changed their very character, leading many observers to speak of a ‘crisis’ in the labour movement. Consider: in May 1968, following the lead of radicalised students who were denouncing everything from campus curfews to the capitalist system, over half of all workers went out on strike. In many cases they seized factories, set up strike committees and put forth demands for workers’ control of production (autogestion). Initially caught off guard by the spontaneous strikes the two largest trade union confederations, the Communist-affiliated Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) and the formerly Catholic Confédération Française démocratique du Travail (CFDT), soon joined the strikes and sought to gain control over the scope and direction of the workers’ protests.