Confédération africaine des travailleurs croyants (French West Africa and Togo)

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The Confédération africaine des travailleurs croyants ('African Confederation of Believing Workers', abbreviated C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo) was a trade union confederation in French West Africa and Togo. C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo was founded in Ouagadougou July 8–15, 1956 by the West African branches of the French trade union centre C.F.T.C. David Soumah became the first president of C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo. [1]

A trade union, also called a labour union or labor union (US), is an association of workers in a particular trade, industry, or company created for the purpose of securing improvement in pay, benefits, working conditions or social and political status through collective bargaining and working conditions through the increased bargaining power wielded by creation of a monopoly of the workers. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with employers. The most common purpose of these associations or unions is "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment". This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies.

French West Africa colonial federation (1895–1960)

French West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Dahomey and Niger. The capital of the federation was Dakar. The federation existed from 1895 until 1960.

Togo country in Africa

Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. The sovereign state extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its capital Lomé is located. Togo covers 57,000 square kilometres, making it one of the smallest countries in Africa, with a population of approximately 7.6 million.

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When adopting the name of the new, autonomous organization the word 'Christians' (used in the C.F.T.C name) was changed into the 'Believers', seeking to accommodate Muslim workers. [2] [3] However, C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo continued to be funded by the Catholic Church and became an affiliate of the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions. [3] [4]

Catholic Church Christian church led by the Bishop of Rome

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with approximately 1.3 billion baptised Catholics worldwide as of 2017. As the world's "oldest continuously functioning international institution", it has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilisation. The church is headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope. Its central administration, the Holy See, is in the Vatican City, an enclave within the city of Rome in Italy.

Organization

C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo had its headquarters in Dakar. [5] The movement had its main strongholds in Togo, Dahomey and Upper Volta. [6] C.A.T.C. was the dominant union movement in Upper Volta. [7] Joseph Ouédraogo was the leader of the C.A.T.C branch in Upper Volta. [8] Maurice Yaméogo, who later became the president of Upper Volta, had been active in C.A.T.C. [9]

Dakar Capital city in Senegal

Dakar is the capital and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 2.45 million.

Dahomey former country

The Kingdom of Dahomey was an African kingdom that existed from about 1600 until 1894, when the last king, Béhanzin, was defeated by the French, and the country was annexed into the French colonial empire. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by conquering key cities on the Atlantic coast.

French Upper Volta former colony of French West Africa

Upper Volta was a colony of French West Africa established on 1 March 1919, from territories that had been part of the colonies of Upper Senegal and Niger and the Côte d'Ivoire. The colony was dissolved on 5 September 1932, with parts being administered by the Côte d'Ivoire, French Sudan and the Colony of Niger.

Relations with U.G.T.A.N

C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo participated in the conference held in Cotonou on January 16, 1957, which founded the U.G.T.A.N trade union centre. C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo abstained from participating in the election to the provisional executive of U.G.T.A.N, claiming that they wished to confer with their member organizations on affiliation to the new pan-African organization. In the end C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo remained outside of U.G.T.A.N, as they wished to maintain their profile as a non-political union organization. [10] Whilst U.G.T.A.N became the dominant force in the Francophone West African labour movement, with around 90% of the organized unions affiliated to it, C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo organized the majority of the non-U.G.T.A.N unions. [6]

U.P.T.C

In January 1959, C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo participated in the founding of a new regional organization, Union panafricaine des travailleurs croyants (U.P.T.C), chaired by the Congolese Gilbert Pongault. [11] The C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo branches in French Soudan, Mauritania, Niger, Togo, Dahomey and Upper Volta became affiliated to U.P.T.C. [5]

Mauritania Islamic republic in Northwest Africa

Mauritania is a country in Northwest Africa. It is the eleventh largest sovereign state in Africa and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to the north and northwest, Algeria to the northeast, Mali to the east and southeast, and Senegal to the southwest.

Niger republic in Western Africa

Niger or the Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa named after the Niger River. Niger is bordered by Libya to the northeast, Chad to the east, Nigeria to the south, Benin to the southwest, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, and Algeria to the northwest. Niger covers a land area of almost 1,270,000 km2 (490,000 sq mi), making it the largest country in West Africa. Over 80% of its land area lies in the Sahara Desert. The country's predominantly Islamic population of about 21 million live mostly in clusters in the far south and west of the country. The capital city is Niamey, located in Niger's southwest corner.

Republic of Upper Volta former country

The Republic of Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, was a landlocked West African country established on December 11, 1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Before attaining autonomy it had been French Upper Volta and part of the French Union. On August 5, 1960, it attained full independence from France.

Legacy

The Ivorian branch of C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo had separated from the regional organization, and became the Centre national des travailleurs croyants de Côte d'Ivoire . [12] The former regional branch of C.A.T.C-A.O.F-Togo in Dahomey was dissolved on November 17, 1962 as the Dahomeyan government had opted for a one-party system. [13] C.A.T.C-Togo later assumed the name Confédération togolaise des travailleurs croyants . [14] The Upper Volta C.A.T.C would later become the Confédération nationale des travailleurs du Burkina . [8]

Confédération dahoméenne des travailleurs croyants was a national trade union centre in the Republic of Dahomey. CDTC emerged from the Dahomeyan branch of Confédération africaine des travailleurs croyants, which had been formed by the West African branches of the French trade union centre CFTC.

A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of state in which one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties are either outlawed or allowed to take only a limited and controlled participation in elections. Sometimes the term de facto one-party state is used to describe a dominant-party system that, unlike the one-party state, allows democratic multiparty elections, but the existing practices or balance of political power effectively prevent the opposition from winning the elections.

National Confederation of Workers of Burkina

The National Confederation of Workers of Burkina (CNTB) is a trade union centre in Burkina Faso. It is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation. CNTB emerged from the Confédération africaine des travailleurs croyants.

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References

  1. ↑ Meynaud, Jean, and Anisse Salah Bey. Trade Unionism in Africa . Lond: Methuen, 1967. pp. 59-60, 166
  2. ↑ Wallerstein, Immanuel Maurice. Africa: The Politics of Independence and Unity . Lincoln, Neb. [u.a]: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2005. p. 182
  3. 1 2 Kabeya Muase, Charles. Syndicalisme et démocratie en Afrique noire: l'expérience du Burkina Faso, 1936-1988 . Abidjan: Inadès édition, 1988. p. 44
  4. ↑ Schmidt, Elizabeth. Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946-1958 . Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007. p. 117
  5. 1 2 Meynaud, Jean, and Anisse Salah Bey. Trade Unionism in Africa . Lond: Methuen, 1967. p. 164
  6. 1 2 Kabeya Muase, Charles. Syndicalisme et démocratie en Afrique noire: l'expérience du Burkina Faso, 1936-1988 . Abidjan: Inadès édition, 1988. p. 9
  7. ↑ Kabeya Muase, Charles. Syndicalisme et démocratie en Afrique noire: l'expérience du Burkina Faso, 1936-1988 . Abidjan: Inadès édition, 1988. p. 228
  8. 1 2 Kabeya Muase, Charles. Syndicalisme et démocratie en Afrique noire: l'expérience du Burkina Faso, 1936-1988 . Abidjan: Inadès édition, 1988. p. 55
  9. ↑ Kabeya Muase, Charles. Syndicalisme et démocratie en Afrique noire: l'expérience du Burkina Faso, 1936-1988 . Abidjan: Inadès édition, 1988. p. 71
  10. ↑ Meynaud, Jean, and Anisse Salah Bey. Trade Unionism in Africa . Lond: Methuen, 1967. p. 60-61
  11. ↑ Kabeya Muase, Charles. Syndicalisme et démocratie en Afrique noire: l'expérience du Burkina Faso, 1936-1988 . Abidjan: Inadès édition, 1988. p. 50
  12. ↑ Contamin, Bernard, and Harris Memel-Fotê. Le modèle ivoirien en questions: crises, ajustements, recompositions . Paris: Editions Karthala, 1997. p. 560-561
  13. ↑ Meynaud, Jean, and Anisse Salah Bey. Trade Unionism in Africa . Lond: Methuen, 1967. p. 168
  14. ↑ United States. Labor Digests on Countries in Africa . Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1966. p. 119
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