Contenu du sommaire : Les frontières de la formation syndicale

Labor Union Centers: between political education and professional training (1895-1914)In spite of its social historical importance, the fin-de-siècle labor union center, in particular its educational services, remain poorly known. Through an analysis of labor union congresses, the labor press, as well as the practical experiences of several French labor union centers in Center-West France, this article shows how the daily practice of activists at these centers gradually led members of the CGT to modify their visions of labor education. While the ideological pre-conceptions of the main CGT leaders remained firm, their pragmatism and the difficulties they experienced led them to compromise their principles concerning labor autonomy, and to soften their mistrust towards people's universities. The growing numbers of school teachers in the CGT during the 1910s also contributed to this change. These teachers familiarized the workers with the transformative potential of the Republican school, leading them to believe that it could be changed from within, and helping them to imagine a university education for the workers.

Between popular education and union propaganda: the lectures broadcast by the CGT during the Popular Front. This article deals with an innovative adult education program during the Popular Front. While the lectures broadcast by the Centre Confédéral d'Education Ouvrière (CGT's working-class education center) are often cited, they are rarely studied. Created in 1933 as a way to democratize knowledge, the CCEO had the opportunity in 1937 to gain access to the mass media and to enlarge its audience. This article illuminates how during three years it broadcast “La voix de la CGT”, the trade-union confederation gained a better sense of the special demands posed by a broadcast program. During this period, it tried to both fulfill its educational mission and struggle against the temptations of propaganda.

From activist education curriculum to life-long activist training : the evolution in the CGT, 1950-2000This article retraces the evolution of the educational system of the CGT by focusing on its similarities with and differences from other forms of education: partisan political education (specifically in the Communist Party), public education, and professional training. The findings are based on documents from the archives of the Centre confédéral d'éducation ouvrière of the CGT, which have never been analysed, as well as on interviews with former members of this Center who know a great deal about the content and methods of CGT education. The article reveals the relative autonomy of those persons in charge of education, and analyses their practices as well as their syndical, intellectual and social trajectories. It proposes a way to periodize the evolution of CGT education: from a “syndicalization of education” beginning in 1947 to “life-long syndical training” in more recent years.

From the creation of free thinkers to the administration of the faithful: developing the training curriculum at Force Ouvrière (1948-1971)The article explores the practical meaning of the shift from “worker education” to “union training” within the French Trade Union CGT-Force Ouvrière. It deals first with the failure of an educational approach based on a cooperative, de-centralized structure. Second, it describes external pressures to establish a more centralized, selective training plan. Here we emphasize the link between changes in form and content: the substitution of Centre de Formation de Militants Syndicalistes for Centre d'Éducation Ouvrière created an “union-directed administrative plan”, which separated education from politics, and syndical training from strategic thinking. While the syndicalization of training is closely linked to incentives from public authorities, it also depends on shifts in personnel within the organization. During the period under study, we see the development of an administrative staff for educational activities. We also see an evolution in the profiles of educators: at first they were intellectuals from the teaching world, then intellectuals from the business world, and finally activists with no specific links to intellectuals.

From professional “excellence” to the “performance” of militant action. Modes of training and expertise in the CFE-CGC. In 1959, the Confédération générale des cadres (CGC) created a syndical training center. Valorizing “quality” and expertise, this mode of training had a double dimension which accounted for both the practical and the professional. Priority was not given to the cultivation of militancy. The conflict between syndical and vocational training was constant in this union organization, which struggled over time to produce several different models of the cadre: as a “responsible” and “humanistic” executive, as an “expert” business executive, and as a manager.

Modes of training at the CFDT: from “collective advancement” to securing individuals' trajectories, 1950-2000The CFDT has always given great importance to labour education in order to strengthen union identity and cohesion and develop union efficiency. These two goals have evolved following the evolution of the CFDT's repertoire of action. Since 1950, the will to use training in order to fuel and reinforce « organisational culture » has been frequently reinforced by the periodical arrival of new generations of activists. At the same time, the rising level of the activists' formal education, the high rate of generational change and the professionalization of union practices have shifted labour education toward expertise and technical knowledge, reducing the aim of “collective emancipation” and union democracy. Today, the development of competency management courses to rationalize activists' trajectories, which may count towards a qualification accreditation for work experience, is seen as the consecration of a depoliticised, institutional and individualistic vision of union commitment, which may be reconverted into other working spheres.

Fetishized training and the political stakes of a centralized structure. The case of the Federal Training Center of the FEN (1976-1982)At the beginning of the 1970s, FEN was the most powerful union organization of state education and public service. At the same time, it had to deal with the growing influence of internal minority groups who threatened the power of the majority responsible for direction. In 1976, this direction established a training initiative whose purpose was to reinforce central power and to preserve the future of the majority by creating a network of departmental sections. The organization of courses, their supervision by a team of training leaders who adhered to majority principles, the selection of curriculum and pedagogy which both favored the collective activity of trainees — all these aimed to shape a new type of militant motivated by a federal spirit and independent from the national union system. This plan quickly crystallized the opposition of both the most important unions of the majority tendency, notably the SNI, which guarded its independence, as well as of the unions directed by the minority group “Unité et Action”, which feared the majority's control over their sections. An object of ever more violent and widespread attacks, the plan would be profoundly revised at the beginning of the 1980s.

At the school of dissent: training courses as a resource for the CFDT's internal opposition
From the late seventies to the year 2003, an internal opposition existed at the heart of the CFDT's ranks. While somewhat amorphous at first, it grew into an official, organized network in 1996 when it created both an association and a journal named Tous ensemble. Regrouping factions critical towards the direction of the organization, this opposition positioned itself, first and foremost, on a programmatic level promoting the CFDT's specific heritage and history, and defending the legitimacy of various directions already chosen. In this context, union training courses were an important issue for the internal opposition, yet they never were a strategic priority. Indeed, even though the main oppositional structures were aware of the political ends that the reorganization of the training system by the confederation could serve, they chose different approaches, investing various levels of resources, adopting disparate measures and benefitting from unequal levels of autonomy. Beyond this inequality of resources and situations, a common conception of training and its benefits appears: one which endows activists with the tools to understand the global social and economical issues at stake, including a political stance regarding trade unionism.