French trade union leaders joined neoliberal circles to fight communist influence

Evidence

The second peculiarity of the CIRL was that leaders of the labor union Confédération Génerale du Travail (CGT) (René Belin, Robert Lacoste, Christian Pineau, Louis Vallon) also participated in the discussion of neoliberal ideas. Apparently, this rapprochement between neoliberals and trade unionists, which a member of the CGT found “odd,” took place only in France. Although their attendance did not mean that these trade unionists had necessarily adopted a liberal point of view or that they had formally joined the CIRL, they still took part in the CIRL’s workshops. These reformists doubted the future of economic planning and tried to counter the growing influence of the communists in their trade unions. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 282

Categorization

• XREF: Contradicts the common picture of neoliberalism as purely an employer/business project closed to labor. — connects to: French neoliberalism split into administrative and radical faces that mutually supported each other — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 301; Religious and political heterogeneity prevented French neoliberals from building a unified network — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 294; Neoliberals favored friendly unions but strictly limited their power over investment decisions — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 965 (+2 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing whether these CGT figures’ ‘anti-planning reformism’ later shaped French socialism’s turn away from dirigisme.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 282

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal union critique reframed labor organization as monopoly power backed by coercion. #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 971
• French neoliberalism split into administrative and radical faces that mutually supported each other #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 301
• Neoliberalism reframed democracy and unions as enemies of market truth. #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 123
• Religious and political heterogeneity prevented French neoliberals from building a unified network #complicates (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 294
• Neoliberals favored friendly unions but strictly limited their power over investment decisions #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 965