Unity is strength!
SU
JUPpE
POUR NOGG
RETIRE TOM CADER
EMPOS
CGT militant Jose Perez explains how, rather than follow instructions from trade union bureaucrats, railway workers in Rouen created their own strike organising committee. By opening its meetings to epresentatives of other sectors, they created
France's most dynamic example of worker self-organisation.
known individuals. But at that first meeting we decided that the committee would be an elected one, with five or six representatives mandated by the general assembly of each sector, plus the regular representatives of each union.
And so it was, from day three of the strike onwards! Each morning the unitary organising committee in each sector, together with the shop stewards, organised the general assembly. At the beginning of the afternoon, the central committee planned that afternoon's interprofessional unitary meeting. After that meeting, the committee worked out the details of each of the initiatives that had been approved.
The afternoon meetings were held in the "ditch" - a 100,000 m2 yard where we normally park trains waiting for repairs. The atmosphere was incredible. Of course, these weren't general assemblies in the strict sense - it's difficult to discuss things here the same way as in the base committees. These big assemblies were more like rallies. But they did José Perez was interviewed by Dominique Mezzi. This article first appeared in Rouge on 14 December 1995.
January 1996 7
• International Viewpoint: How did yoy create the "organising committee"?
Jose Perez: First, we put forward an appeal at a general assembly of SNCF workers. The text proposed the withdrawal of the Juppé plan as the basic axis around which to build for a general strike. Once the general assembly had approved the text, we worked on it in a commission that had representatives of all the trade unions present among the workers. We were unanimous in our conviction that we had to spread the movement across all categories of railway workers. So we visited the SNCF repair workshops at Quatre Mares (with 800 workers, one of the region's largest workplaces).
When we explained the SNCF Contact-Plan, the workers got very excited. All this at 5 o'clock in the morning! Some of the Quatre Mares workers came to strengthen the central picket lines. At that day's general assembly, there ware new tensions. For the first time, we had about 700 participants. The emotion, and combativity were incredible. There were cheers as we voted to strike. Groups of workers left the meeting to hold demonstrations in all the region's SNCF depots. Those who marched past the post office sorting centre walked right in and invited the postal workers to join us.
That afternoon, we found ourselves in an all-plant general assembly, with all the unions represented. The atmosphere was crazy. People were drumming, trumpeting, whistling. Nothing had been organised, except speeches by representatives of the CGT. CFDT and FO [trade union federations]. We tried to "regularise" the situation by creating a strike organising committee (though we had to be very careful not to use the taboo words "organising committee").
The initial members of the committee were the shop stewards from all the unions, and a few better-