A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #364 - Trade Unionism - One Hundred and Thirty Years of the CGT: The Beginnings of a Class Struggle Confederation (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In September 1895, trade unions met for a congress in Limoges. The 
delegates decided to go beyond their National Federation of Trade Unions 
(FNS) to create a large confederation: the CGT. Since the legalization 
of trade unions in 1884, unions have been structured in two ways. The 
FNS grouped unions by profession. The labor exchanges, for their part, 
brought together the various unions in the cities and federated into a 
national federation of labor exchanges. These federations, competing at 
the time, failed to bring together all the unions. The FNS, for example, 
represented only a third of the country's union members.

At the Limoges congress, the debates focused mainly on the principle of 
the general strike as a revolutionary means. A large proportion of trade 
unionists saw the universal strike as the expression of the final 
confrontation between the working class and the capitalists. This 
strategy was favored by revolutionary syndicalists, anarchists, and 
"Allemanist" socialists. The "Guedists," then in charge of the FNS, 
advocated the seizure of state power. The "Blanquists" advocated 
revolutionary insurrection[1]. The principle of the general strike was 
finally adopted by the 1895 congress before being clarified by the 
Amiens congress in 1906.

Beyond the strategic debates, the Limoges congress above all marked a 
desire to unify French trade unionism in order to organize the working 
class more effectively and broadly. This unification was completed in 
1902 with the integration of the federation of labor exchanges into the 
CGT. Each union was therefore a member of both a federation and a local 
labor exchange. The creation of labor exchanges in small towns increased 
under the impetus of the CGT. This dual affiliation, professional and 
territorial, remains very widely in force in France today.

The creation of the CGT therefore represented a significant upheaval of 
pre-existing structures in order to unify trade unionism and our class. 
The comrades of the time did not hesitate to overcome their antagonisms 
and organizational habits to come together. Faced with this, the state 
and employers were concerned about the CGT's growing power, and 
successive governments fought it fiercely, increasing the number of 
arrests of confederate leaders. This repression did not prevent the CGT 
from approaching a million members on the eve of the First World War and 
from continuing its growth, establishing itself as the central 
organization of the labor movement in France. Only union divisions 
succeeded in weakening it between 1922 and 1936.

For the 130th anniversary of the CGT, we encourage trade unionists to 
draw inspiration from the founding unions of 1895 and not to remain 
paralyzed by habits and partisan quarrels. The creation of a unified 
confederation was a determining factor in its development; the 
unification of militant unionism is now an absolute necessity to regain 
mass unionism.

Emile (UCL Grenoble)

Validate

[1]Respectively, supporters of Jean Allemane, Jules Guesdes, and Auguste 
Blanqui. You can browse their biographies on Maitron.fr.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Cent-trente-ans-de-la-CGT-Les-debuts-d-une-confederation-de-lutte-de-classe
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