Jouhaux, Léon

(1879-1954)

   labor leader, Nobel laureate

   Born in Paris, Léon Jouhaux left school at age 12 to work in a government match factory. He soon became active in the labor movement and, in 1909, became secretary-general of the confédération générale du travail (CGT). He worked on the labor union journal La Bataille syndicaliste and, at the beginning of World War I, rallied to the Union sacrée, moderating his radical views and later taking a position against the Russian Revolution (1917). After the war, Jouhaux espoused the cause of state socialism and was instrumental in forming the International Labor Organization (Fédération syndicale mondiale). Before the beginning of World War II, he brought the CGT into the center-left coalition government of the Popular Front. The CGT was abandoned, however, when the Germans occupied France in 1940. Jouhaux was put under house arrest by the vichy regime and was later deported to Germany (1943). After the war, he became secretary-general of the reestablished CGT and also served as vice president of the Fédération syndicale mondiale (1945-48) and as president of the Economic Council. In 1948, he left the CGT and became one of the founders of the reorganized confédération générale du travail-force ouvrière (CGT-FO), for which he served also as president. In 1951, Jouhaux was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.