Union générale des syndicats algériens

Last updated
UGSA
Native nameUnion générale des syndicats algériens
FoundedJune 1954
Date dissolved1957
Affiliation World Federation of Trade Unions
Country Algeria

The Union générale des syndicats algériens ('General Union of Algerian Trade Unions', abbreviated UGSA) was a communist trade union in Algeria from 1954 to 1957.

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.

Algeria country in North Africa

Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. The capital and most populous city is Algiers, located in the far north of the country on the Mediterranean coast. With an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), Algeria is the tenth-largest country in the world, the world's largest Arab country, and the largest in Africa. Algeria is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia, to the east by Libya, to the west by Morocco, to the southwest by the Western Saharan territory, Mauritania, and Mali, to the southeast by Niger, and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. The country is a semi-presidential republic consisting of 48 provinces and 1,541 communes (counties). It has the highest human development index of all non-island African countries.

Contents

Background

UGSA emerged from the Algerian branch of the French CGT. As of 1953, nationalist sectors inside the Algerian CGT had sought to convert the political line of the organization towards Algerian nationalism. They failed to win over the Algerian CGT, but these sectors founded an independent nationalist trade union centre in 1956 ( l'Union générale des travailleurs algériens , UGTA). The Algerian CGT reconstituted itself into the UGSA at a congress held June 24–27, 1954, whilst remaining an affiliate organization of the French CGT. At the congress there had been 236 Algerian delegates and 125 Europeans. [1] [2]

France Republic with mainland in Europe and numerous oversea territories

France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

General Confederation of Labour (France) French labor federation

The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.

An independent labour centre

On July 1, 1956, UGSA severed its links to the metropolitan CGT and became an independent trade union centre. CGT retained an organized presence of its own in Algeria even after the split. Also, some of the UGSA constituent unions retained their affiliations to the metropolitan CGT (particularly those operating in the public sector). Overall, the break with CGT resulted in a collective migration of French workers out of UGSA (some joined other, more moderate, trade unions, some left trade union activism altogether). The independent UGSA became a member of the World Federation of Trade Unions. [1]

World Federation of Trade Unions international organization

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) was established in 1945 to replace the International Federation of Trade Unions. Its mission was to bring together trade unions across the world in a single international organization, much like the United Nations. After a number of Western trade unions left it in 1949, as a result of disputes over support for the Marshall Plan, to form the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the WFTU was made up primarily of unions affiliated with or sympathetic to communist parties. In the context of the Cold War, the WFTU was often portrayed as a Soviet front organization. A number of those unions, including those from Yugoslavia and China, left later when their governments had ideological differences with the Soviet Union.

Repression

In the fall of 1956 the French authorities withdrew the registration of UGSA. The French government would later explain its decision by stating that UGSA was the labour wing of a political party which "was in armed rebellion against the laws of the French Republic". Several issues of the UGSA organ Travailleur Algérien ('Algerian Worker') were confiscated by the authorities, and the publication was eventually banned. [3]

Disbanding

UGSA rejected the early overtures for a merger into UGTA, as UGSA considered itself to have a wider influence than UGTA. [1] At the time, there was a fierce competition between UGTA and UGSA over hegemony in the Algerian labour movement. [4] Towards the end of 1957, the Algerian communists reconsidered their anti-UGTA stance. After UGTA had participated in the Leipzig congress of the WFTU, the Algerian Communist Party issued a call for trade unionist unity, urging UGSA to dissolve itself and appealed for its members to join UGTA. UGSA complied with this call, and disbanded itself. [1] [5]

Leipzig Place in Saxony, Germany

Leipzig is the most populous city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. With a population of 581,980 inhabitants as of 2017, it is Germany's tenth most populous city. Leipzig is located about 160 kilometres (99 mi) southwest of Berlin at the confluence of the White Elster, Pleiße and Parthe rivers at the southern end of the North German Plain.

Algerian Communist Party

The Algerian Communist Party was a communist party in Algeria. The PCA emerged in 1920 as an extension the French Communist Party (PCF) and eventually became a separate entity in 1936, despite this it was recognized by the Comintern in 1935. Its first congress was in Algiers in July 1936, where it was the PCA´s headquarter.

Related Research Articles

The General Confederation of Labor - Workers' Force, is one of the five major union confederations in France. In terms of following, it is the third behind the CGT and the CFDT.

French Democratic Confederation of Labour

The French Democratic Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, one of the five major French confederations of trade unions, led since 2012 by Laurent Berger. It is the largest French trade union confederation by number of members (875,000) but comes only second after the Confédération générale du travail (CGT) in voting results for representative bodies.

Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques

The Solidaires or Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD) is a French group of trade unions.

General Union of Algerian Workers

The General Union of Algerian Workers is the main Algerian trade union, established February 24, 1956 with the objective of mobilizing Algerian labour against French colonial and capitalist interests. It was banned shortly afterwards, in May 1956.

A company or "yellow" union is a worker organization which is dominated or influenced by an employer, and is therefore not an independent trade union. Company unions are contrary to international labour law. They were outlawed in the United States by the 1935 National Labor Relations Act §8(a)(2), due to their use as agents for interference with independent unions. Company unions persist in many countries, particularly with authoritarian governments.

Bourse du Travail

The Bourse du Travail, a French form of the labour council, were working class organizations that encouraged mutual aid, education, and self-organization amongst their members in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Prior to Algerian independence in 1962, trade unions in Algeria were structured within regional organizations of French trade unions. After independence the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA) became the sole trade union center. The UGTA was linked with the Front de Libération nationale; however, in 1989, with constitutional changes and new laws the UGTA was distanced from the FLN and no longer retained the position of sole trade union center. Despite this, the UGTA continues to be, in practice, the only center - with few trade unions outside its affiliation.

The Charter of Amiens was adopted at the 9th Congress of the Confédération générale du travail (CGT) French trade-union, which took place in Amiens in October 1906. Its main proposal was the separation between the union movement and the political parties. The CGT was then dominated by anarcho-syndicalists who preferred the constitution of an alternate system through the elaboration of workers' union rather than moderate reforms through the electoral path. The motion for the Charter was drafted by Victor Griffuelhes, general secretary of the CGT, and Émile Pouget. The Charter was adopted by 830 participants, 8 having voted "no" and 1 abstained, and marked the victory of the current of revolutionary syndicalism in the CGT of the time.

Pierre Monatte French trade unionist

Pierre Monatte was a French trade unionist, a founder of the Confédération générale du travail at the beginning of the 20th century, and founder of its journal La Vie Ouvrière on 5 October 1909. Monatte has been considered one of the great figures of revolutionary syndicalism.

Confédération générale du travail unitaire French labor federation

The Confédération générale du travail unitaire, or CGTU was a trade union confederation in France that at first included anarcho-syndicalists and soon became aligned with the French Communist Party. It was founded in 1922 as a confederation of radical unions that had left the socialist-dominated General Confederation of Labour (CGT), and in 1936 merged back into the CGT.

Confédération générale du travail de Guadeloupe

Confédération générale du travail de Guadeloupe is a trade union centre in Guadeloupe. CGTG was founded in 1962, as the Guadeloupean federation of the French Confédération générale du travail became an independent centre. CGTG is particularly strong amongst banana plantation workers and in the Basse-Terre area.

Confédération générale du travail du Burkina is a revolutionary national trade union centre in Burkina Faso. Bassolma BAZIE the general secretary of CGT-B.

René Belin French politician

René Belin was a French trade unionist and politician. In the 1930s he became one of the leaders of the French General Confederation of Labour.

The Confédération générale des travailleurs africains was a trade union centre in French West Africa, in existence from 1956 to 1957.

The General Union of Negro African Workers, more widely known by its French name Union générale des travailleurs d'Afrique noire, was a pan-African trade union organization. Ahmed Sékou Touré was the main leader of the organization. In its heyday, around 90% of the trade unions in Francophone West Africa were affiliated to UGTAN.

Confédération africaine des travailleurs croyants-Republique Centrafricain was a national trade union centre in the Central African Republic. The organization emerged from the Ubangi-Shari branch of the French trade union centre CFTC, which became the Ubangi-Shari affiliate of the Confédération africaine des travailleurs croyants in 1957. CATC was affiliated to the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions.

Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores de Angola was a Catholic Angolan trade union organization in exile. CGTA was founded in 1962. CGTA advocated in favour of 'trade union pluralism', and was independent of political parties.

World Federation of Teachers Unions

The World Federation of Teachers Unions known by its French initials FISE is an international trade union of educators affiliated with the World Federation of Trade Unions.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Meynaud, Jean, and Anisse Salah-Bey. Trade Unionism in Africa: A Study of Its Growth and Orientation . London: Methuen, 1967. pp. 69–71
  2. ↑ Le 1er Novembre 1954 n'a pas jailli du néant. Son levain : des décennies de luttes sous toutes les formes. Faits et mouvements sociaux 1950–1954
  3. ↑ Committee on Freedom of Association Report - France (Case No. 156) Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Malley, Robert. The Call from Algeria: Third Worldism, Revolution, and the Turn to Islam . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. p. 129
  5. ↑ Lichtblau, George E. The Communist Labor Offensive in Former Colonial Countries , in Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Apr., 1962), pp. 376–401
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.