Search results for "French Resistance"

France After the Liberation: The Labour Movement, the Employers and the Political Leaders in Their Struggle with the Social Movement

2018

The French defeat in the spring of 1940 and the ensuing German occupation, as well as the establishment of the authoritarian Vichy regime, made it theoretically impossible for social movements to emerge; that is to say, to allow the development of mobilisation(s) and challenge(s) to authority within companies and/or against any aspect of government policy. However, in the summer of 1940 and a fortiori from 1941 onwards, resistance movements were born precisely because of their ability to convey the discontent of the French society and to use its momentum. In this sense, the French Resistance undoubtedly was a social movement, whose members were leading a ‘normal’ life as civilians under occ…