France

France 1968 - reading guide

Libcom.org's reading guide on the events in May 1968 which saw students occupying the universities, intense fighting in the streets and a general wildcat strike of ten million workers across France.

Lyon, France: Strike at Domino's Pizza

News of the struggle against Domino's Pizza Friday in the 8th district to protest working conditions and low wages. Here is the translated text from the site, edited for this post.

Antifa - Chasseurs de skins

Documentary about the rise of neo-nazi skinhead culture in 1980s Paris and how they were countered by a militant, multicultural underground movement. Contains interviews with participants recounting the subcultures and the street fights which made up their lives at the time.

Anti-Jewish trends in French revolutionary syndicalism

Edmund Silberner on antisemitism among some key figures of the syndicalist movement in France.

Self-employment, or the illusion of freedom

An account of 'freelancing' and the attitude this has promoted within the author's co-workers.

Revolutionary unions and French labor: The rebels behind the cause; or, Why did revolutionary syndicalism fail?

Speakers from the C.G.T. at the Meru strike (1909)

Rejecting the conclusions reached by author Peter Stearns that French revolutionary syndicalism never gained worker support and American economists John R. Commons and Selig Perlman that conservative unionism was the only unionism workers would accept, the author provides statistical evidence disproving both. Rather, the author suggests that the failure of the CGT to create cross-class alliances contributed to its isolation and eventually, the decline of revolutionary syndicalism. We do not agree with some of the article, but reproduce for useful information.

Review: "Socialisme ou Barbarie." Un engagement politique et intellectuel dans la France de I'après-guerre

Marcel van der Linden reviews Philippe Gottraux's book on French libertarian socialist group, Socialisme ou Barbarie.

"Workers of the world, embrace!" Daniel Guerin, the labour movement and homosexuality

David Berry's biographical account of Guerin's discovery of the working class and of the links between this and his homosexuality; and a discussion of his attempts to generalise from these experiences and to theorise the question in order to inform his political choices.

French government targeting travellers

It would appear that the faux Socialist government in France are continuing with the forced eviction policy that the previous right-wing Sarkozy regime initiated.

The occupation of the factories: Paris 1936, Flint 1937

Striking workers, Paris, 1936.

Interesting article comparing two waves of factory occupations that took place little more than six months apart and fundamentally changed boss-worker relations in their countries.