Syndicalist Defense Committee (1922)

The Syndicalist Defense Committee (French: Comité de Défense Syndicaliste; CDS), also known as the Committee for the Defense of Revolutionary Syndicalism (French: Comité de Défense Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire; CDSR), was a French anarcho-syndicalist trade union centre of the United General Confederation of Labour (CGTU). The CDS was formed to oppose the influence of the French Communist Party (PCF), which quickly took over the leadership of the CGTU and brought it into the Red International of Labour Unions (RILU). Despite its conflict with the CGTU leadership, the CDS remained within the organisation, as it sought to preserve working class unity. While still within the CGTU, the CDS participated in the founding of the International Workers' Association (IWA), in which it called for a conciliatory stance towards the RILU. After the murder of two libertarian activists by a PCF member, the CDS broke away from the CGTU. In 1924, the CDS formed the short-lived Federative Union of Autonomous Trade Unions; and in 1926, they established the Revolutionary Syndicalist General Confederation of Labour (CGT-SR).