As its twelfth congress approaches, a look back at the founding and development
of an original trade union organization: the Corsican Workers' Union. ---- Thehistorical process that led to the creation of the Corsican Workers' Union (STC)began in the early 1970s. It was at this time that a team of young tradeunionists, with both self-management and regionalist sensitivities , takescontrol of the Departmental Union CFDT (UD-CFDT) of Corsica. Very early on, theseactivists took a stand in favor of the demands of the Corsican national movement.In their conception, "the demand for autonomy of the Corsican people [constitutesa] powerful lever of the class struggle".As the Corsican struggle became more radical from 1976 after the founding of theCorsican National Liberation Front (FLNC), a conflict broke out around thenational question between the management of the UD-CFDT of Corsica and severalconfederal officials. The latter strive, with difficulty, to limit the placeoccupied by the demands for autonomy in the activity of the trade union teams.In 1980, after four years of armed struggle, the FLNC publicly announced a changein its strategy. The nationalist organization now wishes to complete its militaryactivity by "the establishment of counter-power structures at all levels ofeconomic, political, social and cultural life ". Following this call, thenationalists began to organize directly in their workplaces. This dynamic willlead, on May 1, 1984, to the founding of the STC.Isolation and strong adversityThis organizational effort, where we find several activists from the CFDT, isalso an opportunity for a significant number of them, from the radical left, toget involved in the national movement. . Thus, the first secretary general of theSTC is a former militant Trotskyist, ex-member of the Internationalist CommunistOrganization. At his side, there are also people from the Anarchist Federation orthe Revolutionary Communist League, the ancestor of the NPA.For the newly formed STC, the task ahead is considerable. The most powerful unionon the island was then the CGT, with several thousand members. Largely alignedwith the positions of the PCF, it is very hostile to the STC, which it accuses ofdividing the working class. In addition, the economic fabric of Corsica isessentially made up of VSEs-SMEs which, already at the time, were difficultterrain, largely ignored by the trade unions.However, two years after its creation, the STC manages to set up nearly 80 unionsections, of which a little more than three quarters are in the private sector.In comparison, the CGT, which retains first place, claimed 120 sections at thesame time, of which only 30% were in the private sector.The struggle for the development of their organization by the activists of theSTC is particularly tough. Opposite them stand bosses for whom union activity isoften both unprecedented and scandalous, public administrations hostile to theCorsican movement, and sometimes even other union structures. Indeed, the latter,whether FO, CFDT or CGT, often seek to prevent the development of the STC, inparticular by having its lists invalidated during several company elections.These obstructions did not prevent the nationalist union from winning numerousvictories at the ballot box, and in particular during the labor court electionsof 1987, where, starting from scratch, it obtained 17% of the vote.Despite these successes, the STC remains isolated from the rest of the islandlabor movement. This isolation was particularly felt during the great socialconflict of 1989, during which a vast civil service strike, widely supported bythe population, paralyzed Corsica for nearly three months. For much of thismovement, the STC stands aside from the mobilization. Admittedly, it is stillrelatively little established in the public sector, which is at the forefront ofthis conflict, but it is above all in disagreement with the watchwords carried bythe mobilized unions.The latter are indeed demanding the establishment of an "insularity bonus " whichmust compensate for the particularly high cost of living in Corsica compared tothe mainland. The STC affirms that the worries of the island proletariat are aconsequence of the colonial situation of the island, and therefore asks for aglobal solution to the Corsican problem, rather than a colonial bonus, as itcalls it at the time. . This position of the STC leadership does not prevent partof its base from joining the movement all the same.Nevertheless, it is only when the French government will propose as a way out ofthe conflict the holding of a series of round tables aimed at discussing thevarious problems of Corsica that the STC will throw all its forces into thebattle in order to break through the fight a way up these negotiations.Progressive political independenceThe positions adopted by the STC during this 1989 conflict are largely linked toits membership of the Unita Nazionalista coalition. The latter brings together,under the direction of the FLNC, all the checks and balances put in place overthe years by the Corsican independence movement. Thus, when the 1989 strikebegan, the FLNC was in truce with the French state. For a good part of theCorsican independence movement, this military truce seems to have to translateinto a social truce, and this all the more so since it is against the State thatthe strikers of 1989 stand up.It was during its 1991 congress, thanks to the quarrels that tore the FLNC apart,that the STC freed itself from the tutelage of clandestine military structures.He then asserts: "The only political leadership that we accept is that of theCorsican workers. »In the years that followed, the STC would be one of the few nationalistorganizations to preserve its unity as a veritable civil war broke out betweenthe various components of the Corsican movement. The maintenance of this massstructure, in which activists from all nationalist sensitivities coexist, will beone of the elements that will prevent this movement from being reduced to shredsby its internal conflicts.Guillaume (UCL Paris Northeast)https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Histoire-du-syndicalisme-Les-premieres-annees-du-Syndicat-des-travailleurs_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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