# Conditional Universalism: Immigration and Nationalist Trade Unionism in 1980s Corsica

Guillaume Genoud

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Guillaume Genoud. Conditional Universalism: Immigration and Nationalist Trade Unionism in 1980s Corsica. Labour History Review, 2025, 90 (3), pp.291-316. 10.3828/lhr.2025.12. hal-05470269

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# Conditional Universalism: Immigration and Nationalist Trade Unionism in 1980s Corsica

## Introduction

We had a labour dispute near Furiani. The boss was very paternalistic, very Corsican, you know. And within the company, there were two unions – but the workers were all Moroccans, all North Africans. There wasnt a single Frenchman... not a single Frenchman or Corsican. Half of them were with the CGT, and the other half with the STC. We blockaded the company, and the boss came to see me – speaking in Corsican, but I'll tell it to you in French – and he said: 'Hey, I dont understand. You're a Corsican workers' union, and you're organizing Arabs? Leave them to the CGT!' He just didnt get it. He really didnt understand, but he meant it sincerely.<fnref n="1" />

Jean-Paul Calendini

Founded on 1 May 1984, the *Sindicatu di i travagliadori corsi* (Corsican Workers' Union, STC) emerged as the trade union embodiment of the minority-nationalist demands that had resurfaced in Corsica in the late 1960s. The island, which had proclaimed itself an independent republic in 1755 before being conquered by France in 1769, retained a pronounced sense of identity. From 1958 onwards—particularly after Algeria's independence in 1962—the island experienced an influx of *pieds-noirs* (repatriated settlers), which coincided with the rapid expansion of agriculture on the Eastern Plain. These combined demographic and economic shifts unsettled established social relations and gave momentum to a regionalist current critical of agricultural policies thought to favour the newcomers. Land prices rose beyond the reach of many locals, while a burgeoning tourist trade was widely blamed for driving them higher still. In the early 1970s, a post-1968 generation, inspired by anti-imperialist struggles and decolonial movements across the globe,

<footnote n="1">1 Interview with Jean-Paul Calendini (Bastia, 7 June 2023).</footnote>
translated this conjuncture into identity-based mobilisation centred on the Corsican language, history, and culture, seeking formal recognition of the national rights of the Corsican people.<fnref n="2" />

During the 1970s, activists close to the *Parti Socialist Unifié* (Unified Socialist Party, PSU) within the Corsican branch of the *Confédération française démocratique du Travail* (Democratic Confederation of Labour, CFDT) tried to integrate these minority-nationalist demands into mainstream union practices.<fnref n="3" /> However, their efforts were constrained by the CFDT's broader national agenda. At that time, the more radical elements of the Corsican nationalist movement, consolidated within the clandestine *Front de libération nationale de la Corse* (National Front for the Liberation of Corsica, FLNC) after 1976, focused primarily on armed struggle. As a result, trade union work played, at best, only a supporting role, subordinate to the underground campaign, which remained dominant.<fnref n="4" />

A significant shift occurred at the end of the 1970s. In response to ongoing state repression, the FLNC reoriented its strategy, formally outlined in the 1979 *Livre Blanc*, which soon gained wide acceptance within the nationalist movement.<fnref n="5" /> The new approach moved away from a purely militaristic strategy and emphasized grassroots mobilisation. The FLNC called for the creation of

<footnote n="2">2 Thierry Dominici, ‘Entre anticolonialisme et émancipation sociale, le nationalisme corse de 1966 à 1986’, in Tudi Kernalegenn, Jonathan Belliveau and Jean-Olivier Roy (eds), *La Vague Nationale des Années 1968: Une Comparaison Internationale* (Ottawa, 2020), 77-94. ; Deborah PACI, « ‘Je suis corse, un homme de village’: Towards a Study of Contemporary Corsican Nationalism (1959–98) », *History*, 108-383 (2023).</footnote>

<footnote n="3">3 Within the French Left, the PSU was one of the pioneers of the ‘regional question’. From 1966 onwards, the PSU advocated democratic regionalism — decentralisation and elected regional assemblies — as a means of redressing territorial imbalances. In the early 1970s, it radicalized this stance by denouncing ‘internal colonialism’ and recognizing the right of ‘national minorities’ to self-determination. See Jean-Claude Gillet, *Le Combat Nationalitaire de la Fédération Corse du Parti Socialiste Unifié: 1960-1990* (Ajaccio, 2013); Tudi Kernalegenn, Francois Prigent, Gilles Richard and Jacqueline Sainclivier (eds.), *Le PSU vu d’en bas : Réseaux sociaux, mouvement politique, laboratoire d’idées (années 1950-années 1980)* (Rennes, 2019).</footnote>

<footnote n="4">4 Archives confédérales de la CFDT (CFDT Archives), Paris, CH/8/733, *A Libertà o a Morte* (1977).</footnote>

<footnote n="5">5 Pierre Poggioli, *FLNC, Années 70* (Ajaccio, 2006), 169-170.</footnote>
community and labour organisations across all sectors of society to gradually undermine the
authority of the French state.<fnref n="6" />

Until the early 1980s, the CFDT remained the leading union partner for Corsican nationalists.
However, in 1982, when the CFDT supported the Socialist government's plans for the island and
publicly condemned FLNC violence, the relationship began to break down. The following year, the
CFDT endorsed the French government's decision to dissolve the FLNC and withdrew support for
the nationalists in the face of French state repression. These developments led nationalists to leave
the CFDT and build their own trade union organisation, culminating in the founding of the STC on
1 May 1984.<fnref n="7" />

The new union quickly gained momentum. Between June 1984 and December 1986, its
membership grew from 150 to 1,500, and the number of workplace sections rose from 27 to 80.
Because the STC lacked the legal recognition granted to established unions, it had to—and
eventually did—win the right to participate in professional elections.<fnref n="8" />

Despite its unique trajectory and current status as the largest union in Corsica, the STC has long
been overlooked in academic studies of Corsican nationalism, which have primarily focused on
political parties and armed groups. This neglect reflects a broader trend. Scholars such as Jon Las
Heras and Beltrán Roca have noted similar gaps in research on Basque and Galician nationalist
unions.<fnref n="9" /> Their observations can arguably be extended to other unions emerging from minority-

<footnote n="6">6 Front de Libération Nationale de la Corse, *Le Livre Blanc Per a CORSICA NAZIONE*, https://www.corsicainfurmazione.org/84198/corse-le-livre-blanc-flnc-unita-naziunale-org/2015/ (consulted 23 April 2025).</footnote>

<footnote n="7">7 Archives du Syndicat des Travailleurs Corses (STC Archives), Ajaccio and Bastia, Uncatalogued collection, 'Primu Congressu', June 1985, 5-6.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">8 Pierre Poggioli, *Le Syndicat des Travailleurs Corses*, STC (Ajaccio, 2008).</footnote>

<footnote n="9">9 Jon Las Heras and Beltrán Roca, 'New practices in industrial relations: radical unionism in the European periphery', in Carlos J. Fernández Rodríguez and Miguel Martínez-Lucio (eds), *Work and Employment Relations in Southern Europe* (Cheltenham, 2023), 151.</footnote>
nationalist movements during the broader ‘national wave of the 1968s’.<fnref n="10" /> Most existing accounts of these organisations rely on partisan or personal narratives, leaving key questions about the internal dynamics, ideological positions, and contradictions of nationalist trade unionism unexplored. Similar blind spots appear in research on racialisation and immigration in Corsica, where union perspectives are rarely examined.<fnref n="11" /> This neglect reinforces the idea that nationalist trade unionism is merely an offshoot of political activism and, thus, unworthy of deeper analysis.

A fruitful way to close this gap is to explore the STC's thinking on immigration. Because union reactions to immigration are already well studied, such a lens prevents us from treating the STC as an isolated curiosity and invites comparison with parallel cases elsewhere. This inquiry, therefore, asks: How did the STC frame the arrival of non-Corsican workers and, by extension, the broader reality of immigration? Judith Roosblad and Rinus Penninx's tripartite framework, developed in their comparative study of European trade unions' responses to immigration from 1960 to 1993, offers a valuable analytical tool.<fnref n="12" /> Widely endorsed in subsequent research, this model outlines three key dilemmas faced by unions:

> *The first relates to immigration itself: should trade unions cooperate with employers and authorities in the employment of foreign workers or should they resist? The second dilemma emerges as soon as foreign workers appear: should trade unions include them fully in their ranks or exclude them as a special category? If trade unions, in principle follow a line of inclusion, they are*

<footnote n="10">10 Tudi Kernalegenn, ‘Le réveil des revendications régionalistes et nationalitaires au tournant des années 1968’, *Fédéralisme – Régionalisme*, 13-1 (2013).</footnote>

<footnote n="11">11 Marie Peretti-Ndiaye, *Le Racisme en Corse* (Ajaccio, 2014); Liza Terrazzoni, *Les Autres en Corse* (Ajaccio, 2019).</footnote>

<footnote n="12">12 Stefania Marino, Rinus Penninx and Judith Roosblad, ‘Trade unions, immigration and immigrants in Europe revisited’, *Comparative Migration Studies*, 3 (2015); Stefania Marino, Judith Roosblad and Rinus Penninx (eds), *Trade Unions and Migrant Workers* (Cheltenham, 2017); Rinus Penninx and Judith Roosblad (eds), *Trade Unions, Immigration, and Immigrants in Europe, 1960–1993* (New York, 2000).</footnote>
confronted with a third dilemma: should they advocate and implement special measures for these immigrants or should they insist on general, equal treatment for all workers ?<fnref n="13" />

These dilemmas are used below as guiding tools to examine the STC's discourse and actions regarding immigrant labour. The analysis focuses on the 1980s, a decade chosen deliberately, as the nationalist movement's internal divisions after 1990 introduced new dynamics that lie beyond the scope of this study.<fnref n="14" />

This investigation draws on various sources: internal union documents, regional press archives, surveillance reports from the Renseignements généraux in Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud, as well as oral histories. By cross-referencing these materials, the study traces how the STC shaped, adjusted, and sometimes redefined its stance on immigration in response to shifting trends in Corsican nationalist mobilisation.

# 1. Workers or Settlers ? The STCs Framing of Immigration

## 1.1 Settler Colonialism and the Call for the ‘Corsicanisation of Jobs

Under the name of ‘settler colonialism’, immigration played a significant role in the STC's early discourse. At a press conference in late April 1984 marking the union's founding, its leaders praised ‘the legitimate resistance of Corsican workers against settler colonialism’.¹⁵The term reappeared at the STC's first congress in June 1985, where it was the subject of a dedicated motion. Citing demographic data from INSEE, the union claimed that non-Corsicans held at least two-thirds of the jobs on the island. According to the motion's authors, young Corsicans were being forced to seek

<footnote n="13">13 Penninx and Roosblad, *Trade Unions*, 186.</footnote>

<footnote n="14">14 Ornella Graziani, “‘Tamanta strada”, de la contestation politique à la gouvernance de l’institution’, PhD thesis, Université de Corte, 2024.</footnote>

<footnote n="15">15 The following quotes are from: STC Archives, ‘Primu Congressu’, 1985. 9.</footnote>
work elsewhere while being replaced at home by outsiders—a process they referred to as ‘settler colonialism by substitution’.

The motion strongly condemned immigration, using vivid and forceful language. Immigration was described as ‘an unstoppable flood’ and Corsicans who failed to oppose it were accused of ‘disinheriting their children,’ thereby ‘dooming their language, culture, and families to extinction’. The STC warned that unchecked immigration would ultimately lead to ‘the replacement of the Corsican community with nothing more than the hollow imitation of a society’.

The STC presented a concrete proposal to address this perceived threat: the ‘Corsicanisation of jobs’. Specifically, the union called for jobs in both the public and private sectors on the island to be reserved for native Corsicans. This policy aimed not only to curb immigration but also to encourage the return of Corsican workers from mainland France, thereby helping to offset local labour shortages, partly caused by inadequate vocational training systems.

However, the idea of ‘Corsicanisation of jobs’ did not originate with the STC in 1985. It had already emerged within the island's broader trade union movement. For example, at its 1979 congress, the CFDT of Corse-du-Sud adopted the slogan, stating that although it was no ‘miracle cure’ to the erosion of Corsican identity and society, it was nonetheless ‘a necessity’.<fnref n="16" />

The CFDT's understanding of the ‘Corsicanisation of jobs’ differed markedly from that of the STC, as it did not inherently oppose immigration. Instead, the CFDT focused on improving vocational training opportunities within Corsica and reforming eligibility criteria for civil service roles to widen Corsicans' access to employment gradually. Notably, the CFDT avoided making clear ethnic distinctions, acknowledging the existence of a historically distinct Corsican people marked by unique language and culture but emphasizing that class identity remained the key factor. From

<footnote n="16">16 The following quotes are from: CFDT Archives, CH/8/219, ‘Premier congrès de l’UD CFDT de Corse-du-Sud. Résolution générale’, 1979). 4.</footnote>
this perspective, ‘anyone resisting the French state's economic and social policies in Corsica’ could
be considered a legitimate member of the Corsican community.

Although the CFDT used the phrase ‘Corsicanisation of jobs’, it intended to protect local
employment rather than promote exclusionary or ethnically-based policies. At an inter-union rally
in Ajaccio in January 1980—organized to protest state repression of Corsican nationalists—a CFDT
representative clearly stated that ‘Corsicanisation of jobs’ did not mean excluding non-Corsican
workers. He instead described the union's stance on the relationship between immigration and local
employment, declaring:

For the CFDT, this slogan means that instead of the mobility of men sought by Giscard<fnref n="17" /> and the French employers, we prefer the struggle [...] to impose a balanced and diversified type of development that allows young islanders to be employed if they so wish, in their geographical area of origin. It should also be pointed out that many civil servants and employees of mainland or foreign origin work in Corsica because they themselves are victims of a mobility imposed on them by the capitalist system, the administrative rules inherited from centralist conceptions and the mechanisms of supply and demand.<fnref n="18" />

Beginning in 1982, the Cuncolta di l'Associi Naziunalisti (Coalition of Nationalist Associations, CAN) – formed by nationalist groups and a forerunner to the STC—adopted the same language of ‘Corsicanisation of jobs’ as the CFDT but with a distinctly ethnic emphasis. One notable example came early that year when the nationalist workers' association at the Ajaccio hospital sent a letter to

<footnote n="17">17 In January 1980, France was still under a right-wing government, and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was President of the French Republic.</footnote>

<footnote n="18">18 CFDT Archives, CH/8/1649, 'Texte intervention CFDT', 4 January 1980, 4.</footnote>
its director explicitly calling for the ‘corsification’ of employment and demanding that ‘access to
vocational training be reserved exclusively for Corsicans’.<fnref n="19" />

## 1.2 Demographic Anxiety and Catastrophist Narratives in Corsican Nationalism

The STC's strong opposition to immigration in 1985 can be seen as the culmination of a long-standing concern within Corsican nationalist thought—what some have identified as a core anxiety: the fear of the ‘disappearance of the Corsican people’.<fnref n="20" /> This anxiety was explicitly outlined in the *Autonomia* booklet, in which the *Azione per a rinascita di a Corsica* (Action for the Renaissance of Corsica, ARC), the most prominent Corsican nationalist organisation of the early 1970s, presented a projection indicating that Corsicans would soon become a minority in their own land.
The document stated:

> If we consider that there are currently 114,000 Corsicans for 100,000 non-Corsicans in a population of 214,000 inhabitants, and if we admit, in the most favourable hypothesis, that there are only 80,000 non-Corsicans in the 106,000 new inhabitants planned (therefore 26,000 Corsicans, which is highly improbable if the situation does not change radically), the Corsican people will be in a minority at home in 1985: 140,000 Corsicans, with an enormous proportion of inactive people, against 180,000 foreigners with an enormous proportion of active people... The historic land is already alienated, the Corsican economy is already entirely in foreign hands. As demographic minorisation leads to the definitive abandonment of cultural values, THERE WILL NO LONGER BE A CORSICAN PEOPLE.<fnref n="21" />

<footnote n="19">19 STC Archives, ‘Lettre de l’Associu Nazionalistu Uspitalieru au directeur du centre hospitalier’ (10 Feb. 1982).</footnote>

<footnote n="20">20 Pierre Dottelonde, *Aux Origines du Nationalisme Corse Contemporain* (Ajaccio, 2023), 130-131.</footnote>

<footnote n="21">21 *Azione per a Rinascita di a Corsica, Autonomia: Pour Que Vive le Peuple Corse* (Bastia, 1974), 131.</footnote>
This vision of an existential threat was later echoed by the founders of the FLNC, many of whom
came from the ARC.<fnref n="22" /> Their early statements intensified this demographic fear. In 1976, following
its first armed actions, the FLNC issued a communiqué extending this sense of historical
victimhood into the present, connecting it directly to immigration policy:

*More than two centuries ago, the French state invaded and annexed our country by force... In recent years, it has been attempting its latest and most deadly operation: to completely wipe out our people and replace them with a foreign population [...] Faced with such a death threat, we cannot stand idly by.<fnref n="23" />*

This catastrophist narrative gained traction beyond radical nationalist circles<fnref n="24" />. A 1977 CFDT report, compiled by observers sent from Paris on a fact-finding mission, recorded that Corsican CFDT activists believed immigration was being used as a tool for demographic erasure.:‘This widespread unease is amplified by [...] the number of immigrants working in Corsica (many CFDT militants are convinced the government is planning the elimination of the Corsican people).’<fnref n="25" />

By the late 1970s, this discourse of demographic threat had grown more radical, with
immigration increasingly framed as a form of ‘settler colonialism.’ This reframing justified direct
action, exemplified by the FLNC’s 1980 bombing campaign targeting homes owned by non-

<footnote n="22">22 Vanina, *Corse: La Liberté, Pas la Mort* (Peyrehorade, 1983), 75.</footnote>

<footnote n="23">23 Christophe Roux, ‘Culture et politique dans la revendication régionale contemporaine: illustrations corses et interprétations ’, *Lengas*, 95 (2024).</footnote>

<footnote n="24">24 At the time, this kind of discourse was not unique to Corsica; it was also evident in the rhetoric of minority-nationalist movements in the French Caribbean. In 1975, Aimé Césaire, for instance, characterized the arrival of white civil servants in the overseas departments and the departure of young people to metropolitan France as ‘genocide by substitution’. See Claire Palmiste, ‘Génocide par substitution: usages et cadre théorique’, in Frédéric Angleviel (ed.), *Les Outre-mers français: actualités et études* (Paris, 2012).</footnote>

<footnote n="25">25 CFDT Archives, CH/8/733, ‘Délégation en Corse’, 13 June 1977.</footnote>
Corsicans. In a press statement that January, a spokesperson made the group's stance unmistakably
clear:

The FLNC has no alternative but to stop the invasion by any means necessary, even if we have to
risk being misunderstood at first. [...] Today, every Frenchman who settles here is clearly
participating in the slow death of our people. They are the moral guarantors of colonialism, and
therefore party to the genocide in Corsica.<fnref n="26" />

These attacks, often preceded by threatening letters, primarily affected public sector workers, particularly teachers. In response, unions like the *Confédération générale du Travail* (General Confederation of Labour, CGT) and the *Fédération de l'Éducation nationale* (Federation of National Éducation)—long critical of Corsican nationalism—rallied to defend those targeted.<fnref n="27" />

Although opposition to immigration was a hallmark of nationalist discourse, nationalists often distinguished between migrants from mainland France and those from North Africa. This distinction became especially prominent in the early 1980s when violent acts targeted North African workers and xenophobic graffiti like ‘*Arabi Fora!*’ (Arabs out !) began to appear. While nationalist groups were initially ambiguous, they eventually rejected such slogans, emphasizing their focus on French immigration instead.<fnref n="28" /> At a press conference held in July 1982, the *Cuncolta di Cumitati Nazionalisti* (Coalition of Nationalist Committees, CCN), the political wing of the FLNC, made the following statement: ‘The immigrant workers are not responsible for the island’s colonial situation ; they are uprooted, overexploited and living in deplorable conditions. The Corsican national movement, faithful to its ideals of justice and human dignity, will not mistake its enemies.’<fnref n="29" />

<footnote n="26">26 Vanina, *Corse*, 86.</footnote>

<footnote n="27">27 Marianne Lefèvre, *Géopolitique de la Corse* (Paris, 2007), 35-36.</footnote>

<footnote n="28">28 Vanina, *Corse*, 112.</footnote>

<footnote n="29">29 Cunsulta di i Cumitati Naziunalisti, ‘Le génocide par substitution’, *U Ribombu*, 29-30 (1982), 6.</footnote>
Still, this declaration did not amount to a complete exoneration of non-French immigrants. A later article in the nationalist paper *Ribombu* clarified that North African workers also played a role —albeit a secondary one—in the colonisation of Corsica. The article stressed that regulating immigration remained the long-term political objective of the nationalists and that the French state's current labour importation policies were the primary source of demographic and cultural pressure.<fnref n="30" />

Unlike French settlers, North African migrants were often portrayed as having little effective political power and, by implication, as posing no cultural threat. An exchange at a CCN public meeting in Ajaccio in November 1982 illustrates this view. A member of the audience criticized the nationalists for denouncing only French residents in Corsica while overlooking North Africans; according to *Ribombu*, a CCN activist replied:

> *When there is a Maghrebi administration in Corsica; a Maghrebi school system; Maghrebi newspapers and a Maghrebi television service imposing its culture upon us; and a Maghrebi police force and army—then, and only then, will it fall to all of us to reaffirm, on Corsican soil, the historical rights of a single community: the Corsican people.*<fnref n="31" />

This layered view of immigration—drawing sharp lines between internal and external sources—is not unique to Corsican nationalism. Similar patterns of demographic concern and cultural defence appear in other minority-nationalist movements, including those in Scotland, South Tyrol, and Wales.<fnref n="32" />

<footnote n="30">30 Cumitatu Naziunalistu di a Balagna, ‘Les vrais racistes’, *U Ribombu*, 33 (1982), 3.</footnote>

<footnote n="31">31 Ghjuvan G. Franchi, ‘L’Arabu di Pidiolu’, *U Ribombu*, 33 (1982), 3.</footnote>

<footnote n="32">32 Asifa M. Hussain and William L. Miller, *Multicultural Nationalism: Islamophobia, Anglophobia, and devolution* (Oxford, 2006), 83; Verena Wisthaler, ‘Immigration and collective identity in Minority Nations: A longitudinal comparison of Stateless Nationalist and Regionalist Parties in the Basque Country, Corsica, South Tyrol, Scotland and Wales’, PhD thesis, University of Leicester, 2016, 116–129.</footnote>
## 1.3 Recasting Exclusion as Equal Opportunity: The STCs Discursive Shift

At its founding congress in June 1985, the Syndicat des Travailleurs Corses (STC) adopted a motion outlining a programme that echoed the ethnic framing of the job market previously promoted by the CAN, from which the union explicitly claimed descent. By promoting the ‘Corsicanisation’ of employment, the STC aligned itself with the broader anti-immigration stance of the nationalist movement it was part of—translating a political goal of ethnocultural homogeneity into a socioeconomic demand over access to employment.

However, this position began to evolve in the second half of the 1980s. While the union continued to oppose the hiring of foreign workers in Corsica, it also started to soften its message. At a 1986 immigration conference hosted by Tunisian diaspora groups in Bobigny, an STC spokesperson stated:

> *The immigration problem is one to which we pay a great deal of attention. [...] We can't be racist in our approach, but we can't accept the development [in Corsica] of populations with no real possibility of integration while, at the same time, a whole generation of young Corsicans is being forced to leave the country.<fnref n="33" />*

Gradually, the slogan ‘Corsicanisation of jobs’ was redefined. The union clarified that it did not mean removing non-Corsicans from their jobs, signalling a move away from earlier ethnically exclusive ideas. In a 1988 interview with Le Monde libertaire, STC general secretary Bernard Trojani explained:

<footnote n="33">³³ ‘Le STC présent à un colloque sur l’immigration à Bobigny’, *U Ribombu*, 161 (1986), 6.</footnote>
The ‘Corsicanisation’ of jobs is [...] not about taking a non-Corsican who is working and saying, ‘You’re out,’ and replacing them with a Corsican. [...] It’s not a matter of origin but of equal opportunity. There is discrimination [against Corsicans], and it needs to end. From that point on, ‘Corsicanisation’ of jobs means equal opportunities for all, the development of vocational training, and ending the frustration young people feel.<fnref n="34" />

Remarkably, this rhetorical shift gradually aligned the union's message with that of its long-standing rival, the CFDT. In a France marked by the rise of the *Front National* (National Front, FN) at the ballot box, a proliferation of racist attacks, and—consequently—an increasingly energized anti-racist activism, the STC was prompted to frame its position as a challenge to discrimination against Corsicans rather than as an attempt to exclude non-Corsican workers, thereby recasting the pursuit of ‘equal opportunity’ as its central aim.<fnref n="35" />

Concomitantly, the STC sought to establish itself as a credible interlocutor in debates concerning the island's economic development—a strategy that required a further softening of its earlier exclusivist rhetoric. Its leaders now affirmed that Corsica needed skilled workers, regardless of origin, to drive growth and that, while upholding the principle of Corsicanisation, Corsicans should only be given preference when candidates were equally qualified. Echoing this rationale in an interview with the anarchist journal Noir et Rouge, Bernard Trojani stated: ‘The ‘Corsicanisation’ of jobs is not a form of national preference, because we believe that when it comes to a technical

<footnote n="34">34 Archives de Corse (AC), Fonds de l'UD CGT de Haute-Corse, 22/J/6, 'Interview du secrétaire général du STC', 1988.</footnote>

<footnote n="35">35 For discussions of electoral gains by the far right, rising racist crime, and the growing strength of anti-racist activism in 1980s France, see Abdellali Hajjat, *La Marche pour l'égalité et contre le racisme* (Paris, 2013); Ludivine Bantigny, *La France à l'heure du monde : de 1981 à nos jours* (Paris, 2013), 224-229; Emile Chabal, *A Divided Republic: Nation, State and Citizenship in Contemporary France* (Cambridge, 2015), 187-192; Rachida Brahim, *La race tue deux fois: une histoire des crimes racistes en France : 1970-2000* (Paris, 2020), 179-198.</footnote>
position, Corsica needs a skilled non-Corsican more than an unskilled Corsican – provided that the former also trains others.’<fnref n="36" />

Another of Trojani's justifications arose from demographic data. He warned that an ageing Corsican population and falling birth rates would soon make sole dependence on the current domestic workforce unsustainable. He, therefore, conceded:

> *With its present numbers, Corsica cannot hope to develop economically. The Corsican people must demonstrate that it can welcome and integrate newcomers, but it must first be given the resources to do so. If one refuses these means and imposes outside labour upon it, the Corsican people may eventually respond violently.*<fnref n="37" />

These ideological and rhetorical shifts echoed broader political realignments. In June 1987, the FLNC in Corsica ended its attacks on non-Corsican teachers, easing tensions over the presence of outside workers on the island.<fnref n="38" /> Meanwhile, the rise of the FN on the mainland obliged Corsican nationalists to distance their demand for local employment from the far right's 'national preference' doctrine.<fnref n="39" />

## 2. Inclusion on Corsican Terms: Nationalism, Pragmatism, and the Limits of Solidarity

### 2.1 Territorial versus Ethnic Trade Unionism

At first glance, the STC's opposition to immigration and support for discriminatory practices toward non-Corsican workers might suggest it would exclude such individuals from joining. Nevertheless,

<footnote n="36">36 Vanina et Consort, 'Le syndicat des travailleurs corses. Un syndicat (of Corse!) pour une libération nationale et sociale', *Noir et Rouge*, 8 (1988), 30.</footnote>

<footnote n="37">37 Vanina et Consort, 'Le syndicat des travailleurs corses', 30.</footnote>

<footnote n="38">38 Pierre Poggioli, *Derrière les cagoules: le FLNC de 1981 à 1990* (Ajaccio, 2004), 160.</footnote>

<footnote n="39">39 Valérie IGOUNET, *Le Front national de 1972 à nos jours : le parti, les hommes, les idées*, (Paris, 2014), 226.</footnote>
a closer look at the union's first two years reveals a more complex picture. Indeed, the STC's founding charter declared:

> *The STC is a not-for-profit organisation working on Corsica's economic, social, and cultural problems. It brings together workers who consider democracy to be the foundation of social life and who act, in light of this principle, for the cultural, political and economic emancipation, promotion and social development of the Corsican Community.<fnref n="40" />*

This language implies openness to all workers who share the union's values. However, Article 6 complicates this apparent inclusiveness:

> *The STC, created in the spirit of the Trade Union Organisations of the Ethnic Communities of Europe, is independent of any movement, party or denomination. It is open to all Corsican workers wishing to combat the cultural, social, and economic alienation of Corsica. It collaborates with workers from all ethnic communities who are working in the same direction.*

This article suggests a more exclusive approach, reserving membership for ethnic Corsicans while relegating others to a supporting role. However, Title 3 of the statutes, defining membership criteria, does not mention ethnicity, reinforcing this ambiguity.

Such tension between ethnic and territorial boundaries of union membership was not unique to Corsica. In Italy, the SAVT allowed all workers 'from the Aosta Valley' to join without ethnic conditions. In contrast, the *Autonomer Südtiroler Gewerkschaftsbund* (South Tyrolean Federation of Trade Unions) in South Tyrol explicitly restricted membership to ethnic Germans, the region's

<footnote n="40">40 The following quotes are from: AC, Fonds de la direction régionale des Renseignements généraux, 1454/W/134, 'A/s du Syndicat des travailleurs corses (STC)', 5 June 1984, 5.</footnote>
predominant group.<fnref n="41" /> Similarly, in the Basque Country, *Eusko Langileen Alkartasuna* (Solidarity of Basque Workers) was founded in 1911 on xenophobic nationalist principles, requiring proof of Basque ancestry for membership.<fnref n="42" /> However, in 1974, the *Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak* (Nationalist Workers' Committees) union—aligned with the Abertzale left—rejected ethnic criteria entirely, opting instead for territorial inclusion of all workers living and working in the Basque Country.<fnref n="43" />

This recurring tension between territorial inclusivity and ethnic exclusivity emerges as a fundamental dilemma for trade unions operating within minority-nationalist contexts. For the STC, this tension was evident from the outset. It permeated its early development, as its nationalist commitment aligned ideologically with an aggressive resistance against perceived 'settler colonialism' and the assertion of Corsican ethnic survival. Yet French labour legislation and mainstream trade union culture prohibited explicit ethnic discrimination and instead privileged territorial openness. The island's CGT, for example, championed the slogan 'Live, work and decide in Corsica' while condemning nationalist calls for 'Corsicanisation of jobs' as racist.<fnref n="44" /> Thus, for ethnicity to become an acceptable category within the trade union milieu in Corsica, it had to be gradually subsumed under territorial claims.

Beyond symbolic and legal limitations, practical constraints also compelled the STC to include non-Corsican workers in its ranks, even though its ideology opposed immigration. Judith Roosblad and Rinus Penninx have already highlighted such incentives in their research on European trade

<footnote n="41">41 Giampiero Bianchi, 'The Italian Trade Unions and the Local Challenge' in Johan Wets (ed.), *Cultural diversity in trade unions: a challenge to class identity* (Burlington, 2000), 81-83.</footnote>

<footnote n="42">42 Ludger Mees, 'Social Solidarity and National Identity in the Basque Country: The Case of the Nationalist Trade Union ELA/STV' in Patrick Pasture et Johan Verbeckmoes (eds), *Working-class internationalism and the appeal of the national identity: historical debates and current perspectives* (Oxford, 1998), 63.</footnote>

<footnote n="43">43 Daniele Conversi, *The Basques, the Catalans and Spain: Alternative Routes to Nationalist Mobilisation* (London, 1997), 203-205.</footnote>

<footnote n="44">44 AC, UD CGT Haute-Corse, 22/J/5, 'Manifestation CGT-FEN' (1984).</footnote>
unionism. They demonstrate that unions slowly grasped that excluding immigrant workers would fracture the labour movement and erode their bargaining power. This awareness only deepened once it became apparent that many migrants planned to settle permanently and had begun organizing for improved working conditions.<fnref n="45" />

Corsican nationalists also recognized this strategic need. In a 1986 article, the nationalist paper *Ribombu* stated that including immigrant workers—especially those from the Maghreb—was key to strengthening nationalist demands by building broader working-class unity:

> While the presence of immigrant workers signals a form of counter-development in Corsica, we must also recognize that they make up nearly half of the working class, placing them at the heart of social struggles. In seeking to divide workers, colonialism [...] effectively prevented any real discussion of genuine economic development.<fnref n="46" />

Furthermore, the STC actively sought to distance itself publicly from ethnic exclusivity, particularly against the backdrop of rising far-right popularity in France during the mid-1980s. In a radio interview on Alta Frequenza in November 1984, STC representative Jacky Rossi made this position clear:

> The people who come to us are Corsican workers. We don't pick and choose. We're not Le Pen's union, we don't pick and choose. Where I work, I know several French workers who voted for the STC in the last elections. These are workers who understand that the struggle of Corsican workers,

<footnote n="45">45 Penninx and Roosblad, *Trade Unions*, 8-9.</footnote>

<footnote n="46">46 ‘Colonialisme, libération nationale, immigration, racisme’, *U Ribombu*, 179 (1986), 7.</footnote>
of the Corsican people, is legitimate and who, quite simply, refuse to play into the hands of colonialism and who join the union.<fnref n="47" />

Criticism from other Corsican unions further intensified pressures towards territorial rather than ethnic framing. In May 1985, for instance, the Corsican CFDT congress explicitly denounced the STC's perceived ethnic foundations, asserting that grouping workers according to ethnicity contradicted core labour movement values.<fnref n="48" /> In response, at its first congress in June 1985, the STC embraced a territorial approach:

> The fact that many non-Corsican workers have joined the STC shows that only a union deeply committed to the future of the Corsican people can truly defend the interests and aspirations of all the workers in Corsica. Labour solidarity in Corsica is now taking a new direction by proposing a genuine union of a people in the struggle against colonialism and those who support it.<fnref n="49" />

Finally, at its 1988 congress, the STC definitively abandoned ethnic membership criteria, revising its statutes to assert inclusivity explicitly: ‘The STC fights racism and xenophobia. It aims to bring together ALL workers who identify with its objectives, whatever their ethnic origin or political, philosophical or religious views.’<fnref n="50" />

## 2.2 Why Non-Corsican Workers Join a Nationalist Union: Ideological and Pragmatic Motives

<footnote n="47">47 AC, Direction régionale des Renseignements généraux, 1454/W/133, ‘Activités du Syndicat des Travailleurs Corses (STC)’, 3 December 1984, 3.</footnote>

<footnote n="48">48 Archives de l’UD CFDT de Haute-Corse, Uncatalogued collection, ‘CFDT Corse. 2ᵉ congrès régional’, 1985, 8.</footnote>

<footnote n="49">49 STC Archives, ‘Primu Congressu’, 1985, 8.</footnote>

<footnote n="50">50 Saveria Emmanuelli, Jean-Louis Laredo and Jean-Luc Morucci, ‘Statuts du syndicat’, Avvene, 1 (1988), 2.</footnote>
The apparent contradiction within the STC—supporting discriminatory policies against non-Corsican workers while simultaneously welcoming them into its ranks—has often puzzled observers outside the movement. This confusion was notably expressed by the editorial team of *Rouge et Noir*. In a 1988 interview with Bernard Trojani, they reflected on his endorsement of including non-Corsicans in the nationalist union, remarking:

> Taking into account the overall nationalist discourse, and seen from the outside, it's difficult to understand how there can be, on the one hand, an unambiguous demand for the ‘Corsicanisation of jobs’ (and violent attacks on workers from mainland France), and, on the other, work with non-Corsicans and a proposal to open up to them...<fnref n="51" />

There are several reasons why non-Corsican workers might choose to join the STC. Some, like Marc Peyraud, were genuinely drawn to the ideals and goals of Corsican nationalism. In 1984, at 25, Peyraud was among the early STC activists in Haute-Corse and shop steward of the union's section within the Société mutualiste corse (Corsican Mutual Society, SMC). His involvement in nationalist activism began in his teens, in the late 1970s. Although born in the suburbs of Paris to a Swiss mother and a French father, he moved to Corsica at the age of four when his father was appointed director of the Chemins de fer de la Corse (Corsican Railways).<fnref n="52" /> His developing Corsican identity appears intricately linked to formative childhood experiences, as he recounted in an interview conducted in March 2024:

> *Around the age of 8 or 9, I don't remember, a friend of mine, my best childhood friend I'd say, gave me the opportunity to go to his village, to spend holidays there and often weekends. And I*

<footnote n="51">51 Vanina et Consort, 'Le syndicat des travailleurs corses', 1988.</footnote>

<footnote n="52">52 Interview with Marc Peyraud (Nanterre, 26 March 2024).</footnote>
ended up staying with an old man who only spoke Corsican. And I'd got into the habit of spending
evenings with him in the village square. And that's how I began to realize that there was, on this
island, a real country, a real language, a real culture, and so on. And that's how it all began.<fnref n="53" />

Peyraud played a key role in the STC during its early years. As head of the STC section within
the SMC from March to November 1985, he facilitated and spearheaded the major industrial
dispute initiated by the nationalist union within the company.<fnref n="54" /> In June, he was elected to the STC's
national executive committee, thus joining the organisation's leadership.<fnref n="55" />

Other non-Corsican workers joined the STC for more practical reasons. Despite not sharing its political beliefs, they were drawn to the union's perceived effectiveness. This was the case in June 1986 at the Elf-Corse site in Bastia's Lupino district. According to the Renseignements généraux of Haute-Corse, employees there joined the STC 'not for ideological reasons, but for its fighting spirit' suggesting that the STC's reputation for action outweighed political concerns.<fnref n="56" /> Such a perception was confirmed in a June 2023 interview with Jean-Paul Calendini, who served as the first General Secretary of the STC from 1984 to 1985: 'The STC accepted everyone... People from the mainland, from France, from North Africa. For them, it just made sense. They thought, "At least these people will stand up for us."'<fnref n="57" />

This pattern of affiliation appears quite plausible, given the relative absence of alternative trade
union representation within key sectors of Corsica's economy, particularly among the small and
medium-sized enterprises that dominated the private sector.<fnref n="58" /> As a result, the limited number of non-

<footnote n="53">53 Marc Peyraud (2024)</footnote>

<footnote n="54">54 AC, UD CGT de Haute-Corse, 22/J/8, 'Conférence de presse STC', 1985.</footnote>

<footnote n="55">55 STC Archives, 'Primu congressu', 22.</footnote>

<footnote n="56">56 AC, Direction régionale des Renseignements généraux, 1454/W/136, 'Mouvement de grève le 19/06/86 du personnel de la société ELF-CORSE à Bastia', 20 June 1986.</footnote>

<footnote n="57">57 Jean-Paul Calendini (2023)</footnote>

<footnote n="58">58 France 3 Corse, *Cunfronti*, 'Le syndicalisme ouvrier', 29 April 1986.</footnote>
Corsican workers in this sectors might have felt compelled to join the STC due to the lack of
credible alternatives.

The decision by non-Corsican workers to join the STC can also be interpreted as an opportunistic
attempt to socially integrate into the broader Corsican community, as suggested by a CGT
representative in April 2022:

> We saw this kind of... desire to be part of the region, or just to live peacefully. People from the mainland who settled here and, after a few years, wanted to be seen as more Corsican... It's hard to put into words, but... In many places, we've seen that it's often the mainlanders who end up as STC union representatives.<fnref n="59" />

Such motivations for integration must also be understood in the broader context of the nationalist
discourse that shaped the founding of the STC. Indeed, a document from the *Muvimentu Corsu pet l'Autodeterminazione* (Corsican Movement for Self-Determination, MCA), the political wing of the
FLNC, noted in 1985 that ‘active participation in nationalist struggles’ offered outsiders a legitimate
way to be ‘accepted as part of the Corsican people’.<fnref n="60" /> The FLNC leadership echoed this idea in a
1985 circular, identifying the STC as a key route to such integration.<fnref n="61" /> Bernard Trojani expressed
the same view in a televised interview in June 1985: ‘*Many non-Corsican workers are joining the STC. The only condition is that they support the nationalist struggle and take into account the future of the Corsican people. Joining the STC is proof of support for the struggle of the Corsican people.*’<fnref n="62" />

<footnote n="59">59 Interview with Jean-Claude Graziani (Bastia, 29 April 2022).</footnote>

<footnote n="60">60 STC Archives, 'Muvimentu Corsu pet l'Autodeterminazione. Cuncolta Generale', 1985.</footnote>

<footnote n="61">61 Poggioli, *Derrière les Cagoules*, 335.</footnote>

<footnote n="62">62 France 3 Corse, *Corsica Sera*, 'Interview de Bernard Trojani', 11 June 1985.</footnote>
This growing trend of non-Corsican workers turning to the STC for integration raised concerns among some activists, who feared that the union might stray from its original mission if it were to admit too many members who did not espouse Corsican nationalism. These fears surfaced in a cautionary note added to the revised STC statutes published in *Avvene* in November 1988: ‘*To avoid distributing union cards too loosely, it's important to remind each new member that the STC is part of the struggle for Corsica's national liberation, and that true national liberation cannot exist without social liberation.*’<fnref n="63" />

## 2.3 North African Workers and the STC's Organisational Blind Spots

The category of ‘non-Corsican workers’ frequently referenced in STC discourse and analysed in this section, is far from homogeneous. The term conceals a range of origins, referring primarily to workers from mainland France, though it occasionally includes others from across Europe. In contrast, workers from the Maghreb are rarely mentioned in the sources, and their absence from STC leadership is particularly striking. This invisibility contrasts sharply with the paths taken by some mainland French activists—such as Marc Peyraud—who rose through union ranks thanks to their open support of the nationalist cause.

The low visibility of North African workers within the STC can largely be explained by their low levels of participation in the union. This underrepresentation reflects the broader racial divisions within Corsica's labour market during the 1980s, which confined North African workers to specific sectors.<fnref n="64" /> The construction industry is a key example: in 1988, Bernard Trojani reported that around 80 % of its workforce was North African, compared to just 20 % Corsican.<fnref n="65" /> Yet the STC struggled to establish itself in this very sector. The draft of its 1988 congress report attributes this difficulty to

<footnote n="63">63 Saveria Emmanuelli, Jean-Louis Laredo and Jean-Luc Morucci, ‘Statuts du syndicat’, *Avvene*, 1 (1988), 4.</footnote>

<footnote n="64">64 Peretti-Ndiaye, *Le Racisme*, 116-117.</footnote>

<footnote n="65">65 Vanina et Consort, ‘Le syndicat des travailleurs corses’, 1988, p.30.</footnote>
the large number of immigrant workers, which complicated organisational efforts: ‘*Building and
public works: in this sector we are not living up to our claims. Apart from an embryonic presence in
Bastia, the union has not succeeded in penetrating this sector. The strong presence of an immigrant
workforce accentuates the difficulties.*’<sup>66</sup> Agriculture, another key sector for North African workers,
saw a similar pattern. The STC remained largely absent, a failure the union acknowledged in the
same draft with the stark phrase: ‘*Agriculture = nothing.*’

Empirical substantiation of these observations emerges from analysing a 1989 STC membership
register from Haute-Corse. Examination of membership distribution by union section reveals that
workers of North African origin—identified through surname analysis—were largely absent from
most sections, except for the construction and public works sector, where they constituted the
majority of union members.<sup>67</sup>

The limited presence of North African workers within the STC reflects a broader pattern of invisibility affecting immigrants in Corsica despite the island having one of the highest proportion of immigrants in France relative to its population.<fnref n="68" /> Sociologist Victor Borgogno captured this dynamic in 1984, noting:

> *Since immigrants are present, however, and are, so to speak, everywhere, there is a high risk that this diffuse territoriality will erupt at one point or another, that the group will become too visible within a loosened social fabric. Hence a kind of repression, and above all self-repression, of this territoriality in the form of a (self-)erasure of the visible traces of immigrant presence. A kind of implicit collective resistance is at work, within which more explicit forms of prohibitions can occur,*

<footnote n="66">66 The following quotes are from: Archives privées de Jean-Pierre Arrighi (JPA), Uncatalogued collection, ‘2ᵉ Congrès national du STC. Rapport d’activité’, 1988, 13.</footnote>

<footnote n="67">67 STC Archives, Cahier sans titre, 1989.</footnote>

<footnote n="68">68 Liza Terrazzoni, ‘Etrangers, Maghrébins et Corses : vers une ethnicisation des rapports sociaux ? La construction sociale, historique et politique des relations interethniques en Corse’, PhD thesis, Université Paris 10, 2010, 126.</footnote>
such as certain bars refusing to serve immigrants. It is in the form of their (self-)invisibilization that the segregation of immigrants takes place in Corsica, and that the social division of space is realized.<fnref n="69" />

However, this process of social and symbolic distancing was not exclusively applied to North Africans; indeed, it also affected French workers from the mainland, although their visibility—sometimes considered excessively pronounced by certain nationalist actors—contrasts distinctly with the invisibility experienced by North Africans. This differential visibility is clearly observable within the STC, particularly regarding positions within union leadership, a point confirmed in an interview conducted in June 2023 with Marie-Antoinette Santoni, a founding member of the STC in Haute-Corse, who stated:

> You know, we defended everybody—every worker in Corsica. It wasn't just about us Corsicans. Later on, the mainlanders—yeah, let's call them that—found their place too, even in the leadership. But the immigrant workers... well, they hardly dared to step forward. They didn't really put demands on the table. Sure, they backed us, they joined the strikes, and we defended them. Yet they never ended up... I don't think that was on us—we never tried to shut them out. It's more that they didn't feel they belonged. They saw the union as nationalist, had their own worries as immigrant workers, and maybe told themselves that running for a position within the union wasn't for them.<fnref n="70" />

The low profile maintained by Maghrebi workers within the STC is attributable not solely to symbolic impediments but also to tangible risks associated with trade union activism specific to

<footnote n="69">69 Victor Borgogno, 'Une situation migratoire: les Maghrébins en Corse', *Les Temps Modernes*, 452-454 (1984), 2148-2180</footnote>

<footnote n="70">70 The following quotes are from: Interview with Marie-Antoinette Santoni (Bastia, 8 June 2023)</footnote>
their demographic category. Without French citizenship, these workers occupied institutionally precarious positions, rendering them particularly susceptible to forms of repression and exploitation rarely encountered by their continental counterparts. Santoni further elucidates this vulnerability:

> There was a bit of fear of getting involved so as not to get into trouble with the bosses because...
> Blackmail was easy, wasn't it? They needed to be regularized, to get their families regularized...
> Often, they almost hid the fact that they were union members in the STC; it wasn't... So they had no
> desire to appear as a national secretary, as a union representative or to stand for election.

Finally, although sensitive and somewhat contested by the actors themselves, an additional dimension warrants consideration: namely, the possibility that the invisibilisation of Maghrebi workers within the STC partially stemmed from explicit or implicit biases among certain activists. While nationalist officials frequently articulated public denunciations of anti-Arab racism—conceptualized as a 'trap' set by the French state—such repeated warnings arguably indicate less a unanimous repudiation of racial logics than an ongoing internal tension. Far from purely theoretical expressions, these cautionary statements seem symptomatic of the persistence of colonial-era racist representations within nationalist milieus.<fnref n="71" /> Still, shared struggles in the workplace could create spaces where these prejudices could be confronted and potentially transformed. Bernard Trojani recounted a revealing episode involving a visit by an STC delegation to a picket line held by Maghrebi workers:

<footnote n="71">71 Although the figure of the *pied-noir* settler has long served as a bogeyman in Corsican nationalist rhetoric, many early nationalist activists—including some STC officials—were themselves born in the former French colonial empire, particularly Algeria, and, as children, were compelled to return to Corsica with their families in the early 1960s. For these later repatriates, the *pieds-noirs* who had arrived on the island in the late 1950s were perceived as ‘privileged’. On this point, see Liza Terrazzoni, ‘Étrangers, Maghrébins et Corses’, pp. 291-92.</footnote>
You know, some people had to be dragged out into the field before they realized just how wrong their ideas were. One day – somewhere out on the Eastern Plain, I can't remember exactly – Marie-France [Giovannangeli]<fnref n="72" /> visited a picket line, along with three guys from Bastia, real hard-headed blokes, almost racist. They came back gobsmacked: ‘Can you believe it? They served us tea; they welcomed us like old friends – amazing!’ They had never even met Maghrebi workers before! (laughs) And I said, ‘What did you think was going to happen – that they'd greet you with a knife between their teeth? ’<fnref n="73" />

3. Redefining Nationhood through Labour Struggles

**3.1 Debating Special Mesures and Equal Treatment after the 1986 Crisis**

Despite its ideological opposition to immigration, the STC nevertheless permitted non-Corsican
workers to enter its ranks, yet consistently rejected any suggestion that such individuals warranted
differentiated treatment. This stance was particularly evident during a significant crisis that erupted
within the nationalist movement in early 1986, precipitated by the FLNC's claim of responsibility
for the assassination of two Tunisian bricklayers under the auspices of an anti-drug campaign.<fnref n="74" /> This

<footnote n="72">72 Born in Bastia in 1963, Marie-France Giovannangeli left Corsica after completing the baccalauréat to pursue her studies on the French mainland. She returned in the summer of 1984 and became involved in the nationalist movement following the arrest of her brother, a member of the FLNC. She was active in *A Riscossa* (The Rescue), an association supporting political prisoners, and in December 1984 joined the STC. Dedicating herself increasingly to trade-union activism, she entered the executive of the STC after its June 1985 congress and, at the end of that year, was formally appointed a full-time organiser. In 1991 she succeeded Bernard Trojani as General Secretary of the STC. As Deborah Paci has shown: ‘Giovannangeli was a leading figure in the nationalist trade union movement, and, as pointed out by various female militants, she was a symbol of the militant woman with decision-making powers.’ On this subject, see Deborah Paci, ‘The Women of Corsican Nationalism: Between Tradition and Modernity (1975–98)’, *History*, 110-389 (2025) 2025,128-129.</footnote>

<footnote n="73">73 Interview with Bernard Trojani (Bastia, 4 June 2023)</footnote>

<footnote n="74">74 Such a linkage between drug trafficking and immigration was not peculiar to Corsican nationalist rhetoric; it was also evident on the mainland at the time, across both the right and the left of the political spectrum. Furthermore, the Ajaccio killings occurred only a few months before the 1986 French legislative elections; it is therefore plausible that, in this context, the FLNC sought to pre-empt the FN, whose rising electoral fortunes the nationalists feared. On this</footnote>
violent initiative undertaken by the clandestine organisation engendered considerable disquiet on the island, especially within left-wing political circles and trade union organisations.<fnref n="75" />

This outrage was not the first time the FLNC had provoked sharp condemnation from Corsica's political left. Earlier bombing campaigns aimed at mainland French civil servants had already sent unions into the streets, organizing rallies and strikes that openly criticized nationalist brutality. What marked the 1986 affair as different was its intensity: for the first time, strong voices from inside the nationalist camp itself openly denounced the FLNC's methods, exposing deep internal fractures.<fnref n="76" />

Amid this heated atmosphere, the STC's national council met in May 1986 to examine a memorandum circulated by its Bastia branch under the title 'The Question of Immigrant Workers'. One month earlier, the Bastia branch of the FLNC—several of whose members concurrently held leadership positions within the STC—had disseminated a document titled 'Reaffirming our anti-racist positions'. Both papers expressed the same core idea: the Corsican people, defined in cultural and historical terms, constituted the island's sole legitimate political community.<fnref n="77" /> Any separate legal or symbolic recognition for immigrant groups would, they warned, entrench rival collectivities and sap the nationalist struggle. Although these texts were primarily intended to repudiate racism targeting Maghrebi workers, their underlying rationale constrained the STC from specifically addressing the unique challenges confronting non-Corsican labourers. As explicitly stated in the minutes of the May 1986 meeting, 'as long as the immigrant is a worker, he has the same rights.'<fnref n="78" />

Yet many militants interpreted this formal equality as a pathway to assimilation. Within nationalist circles, the STC was widely viewed as a practical instrument for integrating 'outsiders' into the Corsican nation. Joining the union, they argued, implied a tacit, and sometimes explicit, subject, see Alexandre Marchant, *L'impossible prohibition: Drogues et toxicomanie en France 1945-2017* (Paris, 2018), 251-298.

<footnote n="75">75 Lefèvre, *Géopolitique*, 48-49.</footnote>

<footnote n="76">76 Noelle Vincenzini, 'Racisme corse anti-maghrébin', *Multitudes*, 19 (2004), 87-88.</footnote>

<footnote n="77">77 Poggioli, *Derrière les Cagoules*, 391; STC Archives, 'La question des travailleurs immigrés', 1986.</footnote>

<footnote n="78">78 STC Archives, 'Compte-rendu du Conseil national du 4 mai 1986', 1986, 4.</footnote>
renunciation of one's former collective identity in favour of the island's cultural codes. A 1985 MCA
leaflet made the expectation explicit: affiliating to the STC meant undertaking a process of
‘Corsicanisation’ that conferred rights but also imposed duties in language, cultural practice, and
active participation in the struggle for national liberation.<fnref n="79" />

The inherent tension between class-based universalism and particularist or differentialist perspectives, previously identified by scholars investigating the social conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s, is thus reproduced in the STC's ideological framework.<fnref n="80" /> The union's distinctive position explicitly harnesses universalist rhetoric—asserting equality among all workers—in service of a particularist objective: the affirmation of the Corsican people as the island's sole legitimate political community. In essence, from the perspective of the STC, worker equality was premised on the ultimate necessity of workers' assimilation into the Corsican people.

Predictably, the STC exhibited considerable scepticism regarding the establishment of a Corsican
branch of the *Union des travailleurs immigrés tunisiens* (Union of Tunisian Immigrant Workers,
UTIT) in late March 1986.<fnref n="81" /> In an April issue of the nationalist paper *Ribombu*, several nationalist
commentators questioned the new organisation's legitimacy. At the founding rally, the UTIT
spokesperson had defended the initiative by stressing Corsica's distinctive sociopolitical context and
the imperative for organisational strategies adapted to local specificities. However, nationalists

<footnote n="79">79 STC Archives, ‘Muvimentu Corsu pet l’Autodeterminazione. Cuncolta Generale’, 1985.</footnote>

<footnote n="80">80 Vincent Gay and Anton Perdoncin, ‘Français et immigrés, même patron, même combat ? La CGT et les immigrés, une tension dans l’universel ouvrier’ in Sophie Béroud, Elyane Bressol, Michel Pigenet, Jérôme Pélisse, *La CGT* (1975-1995). *Un syndicalisme à l’épreuve des crises* (Nancy, 2019), 155-156.</footnote>

<footnote n="81">81 Established in Paris in 1974, the UTIT was the first organisation in France founded specifically by Tunisian immigrants. It articulated a dual commitment: a sense of belonging to the French working class and an autonomous identification with the Tunisian people. In this capacity, it campaigned for migrants’ rights and against racism and imperialism—most notably in relation to the Palestinian question—while opposing the regime of Habib Bourguiba. On the UTIT, see Françoise Blum, Irène Coelho Gaspar, Vincent Gay, Camille Gourdeau, Solène Lavigne Delville et Mathilde Zederman, ‘Le mouvement associatif de l’immigration (1968-1981)’, *Hommes & migrations*, 1346-1347 (2024), 257.</footnote>
judged the move a direct challenge to Corsican self-determination. Their chief grievance was that the spokesman had ignored ‘the trade union and revolutionary struggle carried forward by Corsican nationalism’, thereby sidelining the STC. They contended that by overlooking the Corsican fight, the UTIT would, however, inadvertently reinforce the dominance of mainland French unions. Furthermore, nationalists argued that genuine anti-imperialist commitment, as professed by UTIT representatives who advocated immigrant integration into host-country political and social structures, would logically necessitate recognition of Corsica's anti-colonial struggle and explicit encouragement of Tunisian workers' enrolment in the STC. Without that, the UTIT risked supporting the very imperialism it claimed to combat.<fnref n="82" />

## 3.2 Toward a ‘Community of Destiny: De-Ethnicising Corsican Nationalism after 1988

Recent scholarship has cast doubt on the tidy divide between ‘civic’ nationalism, rooted in loyalty to public institutions and shared values, and ‘ethnic’ nationalism, in which membership is fixed by lineage rather than choice.<fnref n="83" /> The Corsican case illustrates why the binary fails: there ; national belonging has long combined inherited identity with voluntary commitment expressed through active engagement in Corsican nationalist struggles. Consequently, instead of the civic-ethnic dichotomy, political scientists Harris Mylonas and Maya Tudor propose using the concept of ascriptiveness, understood as ‘the degree in which narratives of nationhood emphasize fixed, or ascriptive, forms of social identity such as race, religion, or ethnicity – identities that are socially assigned and passed through birth (hereditary) rather than chosen.’<fnref n="84" />

<footnote n="82">82 ‘Après la création d’une section en Corse de l’Union des Travailleurs Immigrés Tunisiens’, *U Ribombu*, 157 (1986), 3.</footnote>

<footnote n="83">83 Umut Özkirimli, *Contemporary Debates on Nationalism* (Houndmills, 2005), 22-28.</footnote>

<footnote n="84">84 Harris Mylonas and Maya Tudor, *Varieties of Nationalism: Communities, Narratives, Identities* (Cambridge, 2023), 42.</footnote>
Corsican nationalism, having resurged at the close of the 1960s, can be characterized by a sustained yet gradual decrease in ascriptiveness. Initially, the movement concentrated explicitly on the defence of Corsican ethnicity; however, this emphasis progressively diminished, facilitating integration into the Corsican community by individuals who voluntarily embraced Corsican identity through intermarriage or active participation in nationalist mobilisations.<fnref n="85" />

A decisive shift occurred at the FLNC's first congress in early 1988. At this assembly, delegates overwhelmingly decided to abandon explicitly ethnic definitions rooted in the notion of a historically continuous Corsican people, opting instead for a more inclusive conception termed a 'community of destiny' meaning 'a broad, evolving notion of the Corsican people.'<fnref n="86" /> Consequently, at the first press conference following the congress, the FLNC declared: 'All those, whatever their origin, who choose to share our destiny may join our national community.'<fnref n="87" />

According to its leaders, the creation of the STC had acted as a decisive step in this evolution of Corsican nationalism: by uniting workers from diverse origins to challenge the 'colonial system', the union had managed, within just a few years, to reshape the broader nationalist imagination. This is how Bernard Trojani expressed it when he appeared on local Corsican radio in October 1988:

> I believe that since its creation, the STC has demonstrated, by organizing all the workers of the island, that the definition of the Corsican People is indeed that of a community of destiny, because we consider that workers who live and work in this country, as long as they are not fighting against the Corsican People, are an integral part of it.<fnref n="88" />

<footnote n="85">85 Dottelonde, *Aux Origines*, 54-55.</footnote>

<footnote n="86">86 Pierre Poggioli, *Le Nationalisme en Question(s)* (Ajaccio, 2003), 252-253.</footnote>

<footnote n="87">87 'Corse: comment sortir de l'impasse ? Les propositions du FLNC', *Corsica Infurmazione*, 2 (1988), 26.</footnote>

<footnote n="88">88 AC, Direction régionale des Renseignements généraux, 1454/W/133, 'Magazine RCFM du 31.10.1988 consacré au congrès du STC', 1988, 4.</footnote>
Nevertheless, adopting this more inclusive concept of nationhood did not substantially alter the STC's practices concerning specific issues confronting non-Corsican workers. At most, the nationalist union modestly intensified its visibility in disputes involving North African workers, exemplified by its commentary in the November 1988 issue of its publication, *Avvene*. Reflecting retrospectively on the labour conflicts of the past year, the STC notably highlighted the struggle of employees at LMR, an underground utility contractor based in Corti, characterising the event as a striking illustration of the solidarity forged between Corsican and Maghrebi workers.<fnref n="89" />

## Conclusion

From its inception, the STC articulated a position of categorical opposition to immigration, which was framed as a fundamental threat to the demographic cohesion and cultural continuity of the Corsican population. Central to this position was the promotion of the ‘Corsicanisation of jobs’, a policy initially articulated in explicitly exclusionary terms grounded in ethnic differentiation but which was subsequently recalibrated towards an ostensibly more egalitarian framework premised on the defence of local employment and the promotion of equal opportunity.

This rhetorical and strategic evolution, while mitigating overt ethnic essentialism, did not entail a wholesale abandonment of nationalist exclusivity. Rather, it facilitated a reconfiguration of inclusion criteria in which participation in the broader nationalist struggle against what was characterized as a ‘colonial system’ became the principal legitimating criterion for union membership. Accordingly, although the leadership of the STC persistently disavowed any characterisation of the union as an ethnically delimited organisation, insisting instead upon its formal openness to all resident workers irrespective of origin, this openness was operationalized

<footnote n="89">89 ‘STC: une réalité incontournable’, *Avvene*, 0 (1988), 2.</footnote>
within a narrowly defined ideological framework that privileged alignment with Corsican nationalist objectives.

Nevertheless, the practical implementation of this inclusive rhetoric revealed significant limitations, particularly concerning migrant workers of Maghrebi origin. These individuals, predominantly situated within precarious employment sectors that exhibited low levels of unionisation, remained peripheral to the STC's mobilisation strategies and institutional structures. While the union's discursive shift towards a territorialised and ostensibly non-ethnic model of trade unionism implied a partial reconfiguration of membership boundaries, it did not extend to the recognition of differentiated statuses for immigrant groups, nor did it permit the creation of autonomous organisational structures for their representation.

Thus, through the integration of class-based universalism within a nationalist framework, the STC played a key part in a reconceptualisation of Corsican identity predicated upon the notion of a collectively embraced ‘community of destiny’. Although outwardly egalitarian, this formula carried a crucial proviso: full rights and genuine national belonging were reserved for those able—and willing—to demonstrate deep and active loyalty to the struggle for national and social liberation. In effect, the union promoted a conditional universalism that made integration both a privilege and a duty, preserving clear symbolic boundaries even as it proclaimed formal openness<fnref n="90" />.

<footnote n="90">⁹⁰ Far from being unique to the STC, this form of conditional universalism pervaded the French trade-union landscape at the time, prompting some scholars to argue that trade unionism in France was ‘imprisoned in national ideology and nationalist social practice.’ See René Gallissot, Nadir Boumaza and Ghislaine Clément, *Ces migrants qui font le prolétariat* (Paris, 1994), 243-248.</footnote>