Talbot Poissy: rebellion of the damned
Socialist Organiser1984 1984-01-12Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 9 →
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CSL: a fascist 'union 00.005 HOW can a fascist 'union' gain such strength in France's big car factories?
France does have more rightwing activists accustomed to practise their politics on the streets than other European countries. "Many foremen are Algeria veterans (i.e. from France's bloody colonial war in explains a lot, said one Pht activist at Poissy.
The far right has also grown recently, with the National Front (similar to the organisa tion of the same name in Britain) getting sizeable scores in elections. But that is not all there is to it.
France's continued strong direct influence and intervention in its former African colonies is another factor. The car companies have the assistance, in particular, of the Moroccan government and its agencies in France in securing a pliant workAnd France's trade union laws also play a role. These laws were introduced in 1945, by a government dominated by the Communist Party and the Socialist Party.
Many trade unionists regard them as favourable to the unions - and in some ways they are.
Union recognition, negotiating rights, and facilities for 'delegates' (roughly equivalent to shop stewards) are all guaranteed by law. All the unions have to do is to establish branches in a workplace, with a tiny minimum of members, and they have a right to elect delegates.
All the workers, union and non-union, vote for the delegates, but only the unions can nominate candidates.
So the unions have a strong legal position. But they have a very small membership (because there is not much incentive for the union officials to recruit above the necessary minimum). Strikes usually involve only a • minority of workers.
An outfit like the CSL, once established, is in a strong position to maintain itself through the delegate elections, by keeping the mass of the workers terrorised and cowed. And the system also helps the mainstream union leaders to beat down the Left.
If the union bureaucrats can defeat militant leftists in the narrow arena of the union branch, they can stop them being nominated for delegate, and thus stop them being elected however popular they are with their fellow-workers.
No apparent benefits can compensate for the loss of the independence of the trade unions from the state.
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