Montana labor news., 1944-06-08
HOW FRENCH UNIONS
WORK UNDERGROUND
BY ALBERT GUIGUI

AS a representative of the c. G. T.
am naturally reluctant to speak of
our increasing strength and influence.
1 will call attention to two facts OF an
absolutely conclusive haracter. The first
of these fats is a desperate appeal by
one of the most notorious traitors,
Georges Dumoulin, ex-Secretary of h
Regional Union of the Nord, to the men
of Vichy and the Germans to take drastic
measures against us. The c.. G. T."
he states, lis a power; it has its publ
cations, its framework, it gives orders on
the wireless from London. If we are
not careful, tomorrow it will thrust itself
upon the whole country The second
proof of the vitality of the C. G.. T. was
given by M. Adrien Tixier. minister Of
labor in the French Committee of Ma
tional Federation, during the last meet
ing of the governing body of the Inter
national Labor office, held in London
From December Is to 20. In France"
stated M. Adrien Tixier, who for many
years was the assistant director of the
lUItIIdLlDIdl AdDOA OAAANE az 1IiACfAf
"the C. G. T. is reconstructed, its execu-
tive committee is reformed and it di-
rects trades union action throughout
the whole country. I know all the
members of this committee, which has
n representative in London and three
in Algiers."
Thus the C. C. T. which Vichy meant
to dissolve be decree and the Nazis to
destroy simultaneously by corruption and
terror, occupies in its capacity as a
great working class organization a chosen
place in the France which is fighting
and in the France which is being re-
born. 1t is represented in the Council
of Resistance, which directs in France
the fight against our enemies; in the
Consultative Assembly in Algiers; and
in the co-ordinating organizations func-
tioning in London. After the war we
will reveal the tasks which faced the
C. G. r They have been Of a very
varied character; organization, opposi-
ton to the relieve" and to deportation
to Germany, sabotage of production for
the enemy, sabotage of material defense
of the workers living conditions, political
struggle, thorough study of social and
political problems, the publication of
clandestin newspapers, and propaganda.
But they had a point Of conveyance;
they each had as a final goal the crush
ing of Nazism and its accomplices. The
path leading from the dissolution of the
C. G. T. in 1910 to victory ofer the
enemy, which is approaching, is not only
long, it is also painful. 1t is strewn with
the sacrifices of active members.
Numerous are those who have died under
the shots of the Nazi firing squads, or
from the t~ortures of the gestapo and the
Vichy police. Thousands of our COM
rades are suffering and dying in prison
and concentration camps. thousands of
others continue u action in Germany
itself amongst the deported workers. our
general secretary, Leon Jouhaux, who
would never yield an inch to the enemy,
is shut up in a German fortress, and
all the members of u executive COM
mittee live in Franc in hiding, hunted
by the gestapo and Laval's police.
The same spirit of resistance breathes
throughout the whole of France. Some
times it leads to brave deeds prelude to
decisive action. Thus, in the month of
September last, the demand Of the occu-
plying authorities made to the miners of
THE Nord and Pas-de-C Calais districts
that they should work on Sundays called
forth a violent retort IN the part of u
"gueules noires' (miners). The first
Sunday an infinitesimal number of men
went to the pits in answer to the Ger
mar order. Furious, the Germans re-
peated their order, this time accom-
panied by definite threats. The workers
tore down the posters which brought
the order and threats to their notice.