FRENCH TRADE UNIONS FORBIDDEN POLITICS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17112, 6 April 1921, Page 10

FRENCH TRADE UNIONS FORBIDDEN POLITICS.

,; * One reason for the absence of labour agitation in France at a time when the unemployment and the acceptance of lower wages in some quarters might be expected to arouse the unions to action is the successful Government move in suppressing the General Confederation of Labour. In the early part of 1920 the Federation lent its aid in engineering the strikes of raihvaymen -and others when it endeavoured to force the. hands of the. Government on political questions, and , its power -was greatly increased by the absorption of that had always held aloof from what nvaß generally recognised as a revolutionary body. Even the postmen, who had been authorised to form a übion for purely professional purposes, joined Che Federation in defiance of the Government. The Federation went so far in the way of political and revolutionary propaganda that the Government, which had been fighting it for more than 20 years, decided to test the legality of the union by bringing it before the Courts. Judgment was recently given against the General Confederation of Labour on the ground that it no longer devotes itself solely to professional interests, but has become more and more a political body, and that consequently it has lost all legaj standing.