CAL Comités d'action lycéens (secondary school action committees)
CFDT Confédération française démocratique du travail (trade union federation)
CFTC Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens (Catholic trade union federation)
CGC Confédération générale des cadres (executives' and managers' union)
CGPME Confédération nationale des petites et moyennes entreprises (small and mid-sized employers'
association)
CGT Confédération générale du travail (PCF-oriented trade union federation)
CLER Comité de liaison des étudiants révolutionnaires (Trotskyist student organization)
CNPF Conseil national du patronat français (major employers' organization)
CNJA Centre national des jeunes agriculteurs, (Farmers union born from a Christian union in 1957,
often close to the PSU)
CRS Compagnies républicaine de sécurité (national riot police)
EDF-GDF Électricité de France, Gaz de France (nationalised gas and electricity companies)
FEN Fédération de l'éducation nationale (teachers' union)
FER Fédération des étudiants révolutionnaires (Trotskyist student organization)
FGDS Fédération de la gauche démocrate et socialiste (left-centre political party)
FNEF Fédération nationale des étudiants de France (rightist student union)
FNSEA Fédération nationale des syndicats d'exploitants agricoles (right-wing farmers' union)
FO Force ouvrière (“moderate” trade union federation) Founded in 1948 as a split from the CGT, organised by representatives of the USA and composed of a strange mixture of right-wing socialists, “pure” trade unionists, Trotskyists and anarcho-syndicalists.
JCR Jeunesses communistes révolutionnaires (Trotskyist/Guevarist organisation) Created in
1966 by people coming from the PCF student and youth organisations, and Trotskyists
belonging to the Fourth International (Mandel tendency). Dissolved by the government in June
68. Later transformed into the Ligue Communiste (LC).
OC Jeunesse ouvrière chrétienne (Catholic youth organization)
LCR Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (Trotskyist party, still in existence) Founded in 1973 after the dissolution of the LC (see above) after the mass demonstration against the far right group
Ordre Nouveau in Paris where demonstrators violently and successfully confronted the police.
Affiliated to the Fourth International (Mandel tendency). They always supported the official left
in the elections.
LO Lutte Ouvrière (Trotskyist party, still in existence) In 1940 a Romanian Trotskyist living in France refused to join the Fourth International French group because it was "petty bourgeois" in relation to Bolshevik organisational methods. He (Barta, a.k.a. David Korner) was the founder of UC (Union Communiste). This little group lead a struggle in Renault Billancourt in April-May 1947 against Stalinist domination of the union. The group then created a rank and file union, but disintegrated in 1950. Some of its members founded VO (Voix Ouvrière-Workers voice) in 1956, which became LO after June 1968.
MAU Mouvement d'action universitaire (militant student group)
MNEF Mutuelle nationale des étudiants de France (student mutual aid organization)
ORTF Office de radio et télévision française (state monopoly of radio and television)
PCF Parti communiste français (French Communist Party)
PDM Progrès et démocratie moderne (centrist party)
PSU Parti socialiste unifié (left political party) Founded in April 1960 by the merger of two opposing groups, one from the PCF the other from the SFIO. Well rooted in some factories, it tried to play a role in ’68 as a link between the movement, and the leftist organisations, and the official left.
PTT Postes, Télégraphes, Téléphones (state post and communications monopoly)
RATP Régie autonome des transports parisiens (Paris public transportation network)
RTL Radio, Télévision Luxembourg (Luxembourg radio and television. Private broadcaster)
SFlO Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (Socialist political party)
SNCF Société nationale des chemins de fer (nationalised rail network)
SNESup Syndicat national de l'enseignement supérieur (leftist university teachers' union)
UEC Union des étudiants communistes (Communist Party student organisation)
UNEF Union national des étudiants de France (leftist student union)
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