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René Belin (; 14 April 1898 – 2 January 1977) was a French trade unionist and politician. In the 1930s he became one of the leaders of the French General Confederation of Labour. He was strongly opposed to communism. In the prelude to
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
(1939–45) he favored a policy of appeasement. After the defeat of France, he was Minister of Industrial Production and
Minister of Labour Minister of labour (in British English) or labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...
in the collaborationist
Vichy Government Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...
, holding the latter office until April 1942. He oversaw the destruction of unionism. As a result, he was expelled from the CGT in 1944. After the war he tried to form an anti-communist union movement, but with limited success.


Life


Pre-war

René Belin was born on 14 April 1898 at
Bourg-en-Bresse Bourg-en-Bresse (; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Located northeast of Lyon, it is the capital of the ancient Provinces of France, province of Bresse (). I ...
, Ain. Belin was a clerk at the telephone company, then a writer at the PTT (Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones) in 1920. In 1926 he became secretary of the ''
Confédération Générale du Travail The General Confederation of Labour (, , CGT) is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions. It is the largest in terms of votes in the Labour C ...
'' (CGT: General Confederation of Labour) union of postal workers in the
Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
region. He then became secretary of the national federation of the PTT. He was dismissed in 1930 for going on strike. In 1933 he joined the national office of the CGT as permanent secretary, with
Léon Jouhaux Léon Jouhaux (1 July 1879 – 28 April 1954) was a French trade union leader who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951. Biography Jouhaux was born in Pantin, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. Jouhaux's father worked in a match factory in Aubervillie ...
. After the PTT was reunified in 1935, Belin opposed the Communist faction. He gathered like-minded activists around the journal ''Syndicats'', whose purpose he defined as resistance to communist colonization. During the
Munich Crisis The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the German annexation of part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudete ...
in September 1938 Belin endorsed
Édouard Daladier Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical Party (France), Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, who was the Prime Minister of France in 1933, 1934 and again from 1938 to 1940. he signed the Munich Agreeme ...
's policy of appeasement and revision of the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
. At the November 1938 national meeting of the CGT in Nantes Belin obtained the support of one third of the attendees for a pacifist and violently anti-communist resolution. Belin had no difficulty in getting the communists excluded from the CGT after the signature of the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...
in August 1939.
Georges Bonnet Georges-Étienne Bonnet (; 23 July 1889 – 18 June 1973) was a French politician who served as foreign minister in 1938 and 1939 and was a leading figure in the Radical Party. Early life and career Bonnet was born in Bassillac, Dordogne, t ...
, together with his allies in the "peace lobby" both within and without the government such as Anatole de Monzie, Jean Mistler,
Marcel Déat Marcel Déat (; 7 March 1894 – 5 January 1955) was a French politician. Initially a socialist and a member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), he led a breakaway group of right-wing Neosocialists out of the SFIO in 19 ...
, Paul Faure,
Paul Baudouin Paul Baudouin (; 19 December 1894 – 10 February 1964) was a French banker who became a politician and Foreign Minister of France for the last six months of 1940. He was instrumental in arranging a cessation of hostilities between France and G ...
,
Pierre Laval Pierre Jean Marie Laval (; 28 June 1883 – 15 October 1945) was a French politician. He served as Prime Minister of France three times: 1931–1932 and 1935–1936 during the Third Republic (France), Third Republic, and 1942–1944 during Vich ...
, René Belin,
Adrien Marquet Adrien Marquet (; 6 October 1884 – 3 February 1955) was a socialist mayor of Bordeaux who turned to the far right. Career Marquet was born in Bordeaux and became its socialist mayor in 1925. In 1933, he was expelled from the French Section ...
, and
Gaston Bergery The Frontist Party (), also known as the Common Front or Social Front, was a political party in France founded in 1936 by Gaston Bergery and Georges Izard. It was a founding member of the Popular Front. Gaston Bergery and the 'Common Front Agai ...
, all spent 1–3 September 1939 lobbying the Daladier government, the Senate and the Chamber against going to war with Germany.


World War II

During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
(1939–1945), after the defeat of France in June 1940 Belin said it was necessary to completely rethink unionism within the national framework. He resigned from the CGT national office soon afterwards. He was appointed Minister of Industrial Production and
Minister of Labour Minister of labour (in British English) or labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...
in Marshal
Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (; 24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), better known as Marshal Pétain (, ), was a French marshal who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of the Collaboration with Nazi Ger ...
's government on 12 July 1940. He appointed Jean Bichelonne and Henri Lafond to the two senior positions in the ministry. In November 1940 he signed a decree dissolving the trade unions. He also helped restore the economic order of France after the defeat. Under German pressure Belin handed over the Ministry of Industrial Production in February 1941, but remained the Minister of Labour. He developed the '' Charte du travail'' (Charter of Labour), a compromise between retaining some autonomy for unions and complete "corporatization" of the economy in the Fascist model. There was now just one union, with mandatory membership, no right to strike and no social insurance funds. Workers' social committees were excluded from the union, and became a strong competitor. On 18 April 1942 Belin was forced out of office. In 1944 he was thrown out of the CGT as the "principal architect of union destruction."


Later career

After the war, René Belin was involved in 1947 with the creation of the '' Confédération du Travail indépendant'' (CTI), renamed '' Confédération Générale des Syndicats Indépendants'' (CGSI) in 1949 as the original acronym was already used by ''Confédération des Travailleurs intellectuels''. The movement was joined by former members of the ''Confédération des syndicats professionnels français'', a union created by
François de La Rocque François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * François Amoudruz (1926–2020), French resistance fighter * François-Marie Arouet (better known as Voltaire; ...
in 1936. The CGSI declared that it was formed by "men of different origins who agreed to denounce the malfeasance of the communist CGT". CGSI developed mostly in the automobile industry, for instance in the
Simca Simca (; Mechanical and Automotive Body Manufacturing Company) was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat S.p.A. and directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by Italy, Italian Henri Pigozzi. Simca was affiliated with Fiat and, after Simc ...
factory of Poissy. René Belin died on 2 January 1977 at Lorrez-le-Bocage.


References


Sources

* * * * *. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Belin, Rene 1898 births 1977 deaths Politicians from Bourg-en-Bresse Democratic Socialist Party (France) politicians Government ministers of France People of Vichy France Members of the General Confederation of Labour (France) Order of the Francisque recipients French anti-communists French collaborators with Nazi Germany