The Origins and Early Development of the Union Marocaine du Tralvil

Abstract

Before 1936 few Moroccans were concerned with or affected by French syndicalism. This condition was hardly modified by the promulgation of the dahir of 24 December 1936, under the impetus of the Front Populaire in the metropole, which accorded syndical liberties to the European populace of Morocco, nor was it changed by the dahir of 24 June 1938. These laws did not deter the French Congrès Général du Travail (CGT) from recruiting Moroccans, especially in the mining areas where it enjoyed considerable success. By the end of 1937 more than a thousand Moroccan miners had been enrolled at the Khouribga phosphate mines; but a series of rather violent strikes led to the repressive dahir of 1938. Disturbed by the entry of Moroccans into unions, the French administration presented to the sultan, Mohammed Ben Youssef, a dahir forbidding his subjects to form unions and established penalties applicable to Europeans permitting Moroccans to join their labor organizations. The sultan was only too ready to sign, seeing in union membership a grave threat to the authority of the Makhzen. Fortunately for the Moroccan labor movement, the formal interdiction of the 1938 dahir was never seriously applied.