Léon Jouhaux
Léon Jouhaux
The syndicalist who led the CGT for 31 years, signed the Matignon Agreements and won the Nobel Peace Prize
'The labour movement has never won a greater victory', radio address just after the conclusion of the Matignon Agreements, June 1936
A match-factory worker who became secretary-general of the CGT at thirty in 1909 and led it until 1940, the public face of French trade unionism. Starting as a revolutionary syndicalist, he moved to reformism when he accepted the union sacrée in 1914, helped draft the labour clauses of the Versailles Treaty and co-found the International Labour Organization. He led the reunified CGT into the Matignon Agreements in 1936, was interned under Vichy and deported to Germany, and after the war became founding president of Force Ouvrière, the 1948 breakaway from the communist-led CGT, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951.
Career timeline
- 1895–1906Match-factory worker at Aubervilliers; sacked for striking against the white phosphorus that blinded his father
- 1909–1940Secretary-general of the CGT
- 1914.08Abandons the antiwar general strike for the union sacrée; speaks at Jaurès's funeral
- 1919–1921Helps draft the Versailles labour clauses and found the ILO; the CGT's revolutionary wing splits off as the CGTU
- 1936.03–06Leads the reunified CGT into the Matignon Agreements; membership soars from one to four million
- 1940–1945CGT dissolved by Vichy; house arrest, then deported to Germany in 1943
- 1947–1948Breaks with the communist-led CGT; founding president of Force Ouvrière
- 1947–1954President of the French Economic Council; Nobel Peace Prize, 1951
- 1954.04Dies in Paris