Introduction

Formal organization of French business dates back to at least the middle of the nineteenth century. But most historians – and many businessmen – argue that the birth of the modern business movement in France occurred in 1936 after France had been swept by the wave of strikes that followed the electoral victory of the Popular Front government. In a bid to end the strikes, the main business associations signed the ‘Matignon accords’ with the unions under the aegis of the government. After these agreements had been signed the employers' movement was itself swept by changes. Historians have made a great deal of these changes and suggested that their reverberations were still being felt for many years after 1936, especially under the Vichy regime. This chapter will examine firstly relations between business and the Popular Front and secondly the reforms in the business movement that came after the summer of 1936. The interpretation suggested will be, in historiographical terms, reactionary. It will be argued that the same group remained in control of the employers' movement throughout the period, and that the activity of the movement can be explained in terms of the strategy of this group. Negotiation with the government was a short-term strategy designed to parry the threat of strikes and disorders in the summer of 1936. This was succeeded by a medium-term strategy designed to overthrow the settlement that had been imposed by these negotiations. This strategy hinged around a reform of the employers' associations and a search for new social allies. However, the reforms and new alliances were both frail and impermanent. They could be abandoned when they had served their purpose.