The French Workers Movement

First published in 1984. This volume brings together many of the foremost French and North American specialists on the French working class movement. Although they differ substantially in their theoretical and ideological orientation, they share a left perspective. Their original essays provide a coherent and comprehensive analysis of the history of the movement, focusing on the constraints and opportunities created by the economic crisis of the 1970s and the political change ushered in by the Socialist Party’s victory in 1981.

Monograph based on a thesis dealing with the history of the labour movement in France - discusses socialism and collectivism of skilled workers, treats the formation of the first French socialist political party (parti ouvrier), discusses the emergence of trade unions, and includes a literature survey. Annotated bibliography pp. 201 to 210, and references.

This book is based on careful historical analysis and personal observation. Dr. Lorwin has broken his material down under three main headings: first, an abbreviated history of the origins and development of French unionism through 1944; second, a close examination of the critical years 1944-53, which saw the reunification in the Confédération Générale du Travail of the Communists purged in 1940, and the subsequent bolt of the anti-Communists to form the Confédération Générale du Travail-Force Ouvrière; and, third, an analysis of the international life of French unions, their bargaining techniques, their structure, and their goals. While the discussion in the first two parts of the book is significant, the major contribution to knowledge is in the third section. An extremely valuable analysis for those who are concerned with the nature of French unionism, students of political behavior, and particularly to those who are engaged in discriminating between institutional myths and institutional realities.

Historical account of the labour movement in France during the period form 1910 to 1928 - covers the development of trade unions, organisational and administrative aspects of the general confederation of labour (cgt), leadership, social policy, strike action, election behaviour, employees attitudes to the war effort, etc. Bibliography pp. 161 to 167.

During May 1968, students and workers in France united in the biggest strike and the largest mass movement in French history. Protesting capitalism, American imperialism, and Gaullism, 9 million people from all walks of life, from shipbuilders to department store clerks, stopped working. The nation was paralyzed—no sector of the workplace was untouched. Yet, just thirty years later, the mainstream image of May '68 in France has become that of a mellow youth revolt, a cultural transformation stripped of its violence and profound sociopolitical implications. Kristin Ross shows how the current official memory of May '68 came to serve a political agenda antithetical to the movement's aspirations. She examines the roles played by sociologists, repentant ex-student leaders, and the mainstream media in giving what was a political event a predominantly cultural and ethical meaning. Recovering the political language of May '68 through the tracts, pamphlets, and documentary film footage of the era, Ross reveals how the original movement, concerned above all with the question of equality, gained a new and counterfeit history, one that erased police violence and the deaths of participants, removed workers from the picture, and eliminated all traces of anti-Americanism, anti-imperialism, and the influences of Algeria and Vietnam. May '68 and Its Afterlives is especially timely given the rise of a new mass political movement opposing global capitalism, from labor strikes and anti-McDonald's protests in France to the demonstrations against the World Trade Organization in Seattle.