MENDES- FRANCE AND THE GENERAL LABOR CONFEDERATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91T01172R000300020031-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 5, 2012
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: September 25, 1954
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/05: CIA-RDP91T01172R000300020031-4
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OCI No. 0305 CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Copy No, OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
3 4 25 September 1954
TO: Deputy Director (Intelligence)
SUBJECT: Mendes-France and the General Labor Confederation
Until last December, French governments had tended to
treat the Communist-controlled General Labor Confederation
(CGT) as a pariah. Finance Minister Faure's reception of CGT
representatives in December along with the representatives of
the non-Communist Force Ouvriere (FO) and the Christian
Workers Confederation (CFTC) was the first indication of a
reversal of this trend and was considered a remarkable de-
parture.
The one notable change in government-labor relations
under the Mendes-France regime has been the new cabinet's
show of willingness to deal with the CGT. Mendes-France's
realistic approach would, in-any case, incline him to ac-
knowledge the right of the CGT, which controls over 50% of
organized labor in France, to be regarded as a legitimate
spokesman for labor on an equal footing with other unions. In
recent weeks, CGT delegates have been received as a matter
of course by the finance and labor ministers and in the
premier's own office. At the end of July, a French friend
of an FOA official wrote him that government officials are
reported to have stated that "the CGT is behind him (Mendes-
France),"
KNIGHT W. McMAHAN
Acting Assistant Director
Current Intelligence .
Orig. WESTERN DIV
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/05: CIA-RDP91T01172R000300020031-4