Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.
In response to rumours of immediate wealth, Africans left their villages and came to the cities. Conakry's population rose sharply. Though official figures were 26,000 in 1945 and 34,000 in 1951, the real figures, particularly between the planting and harvesting seasons, were considerably higher. Conakry had a large floating population, including seasonal migrants 1. By 1953 there were many who had come to Conakry but found no work. In the CGT they found an organization willing to help with their problems.
While increased economic activity brought more followers in Guinea to the CGT-RDA leaders, all the African trade unions were involved in disputes with the French government first over the adoption and later over the implementation of the Code du Travail 2. The Guinea workers took the initiative and called for a conférence intersyndicale of all West African unions to meet in Dakar in October 1952. The conference adopted resolutions calling for 'vigorous and unified action of all African trade unions, which alone can defeat the forces opposed to the implementation of the Code du Travail' 3.
Workers throughout West Africa went on strike on 3 November, partly to end the long delays in Parliament, which finally adopted the Code on 15 December.
While the Code substituted a forty hour for a forty-eight hour week, the African deputies were unable to secure adoption by Parliament of a corresponding 20 per cent. rise in the hourly minimum wage. The French Government retained the power to determine its relationship to the shorter work week, and did not increase the minimum wage by 20 per cent. Guinea leaders again took the initiative by calling for a second conférence intersyndicale, which met in Bamako in March 1953 to determine 'methods and means of action' for a favourable implementation of the Code 4. During 1953 the workers in one or another city were usually out on strike 5. CGT-AOF secretary Diallo Seydou, a loyal RDA man since 1946, saw the unprecedented wave of activities as 'the result of accumulated discontent knowingly repressed for too long' 6.
Union protest was most extensive in Guinea; workers throughout AOF sympathized and previously inactive villagers within Guinea became involved in the already legendary strike of 1953.
1. Dollfus, op. cit., p. 9, also Appendix IX.
2. For further details see Afrique Informations, 15 December 1953-1 January 1954.
3. Afrique Noire, 16 October 1957; le Prolétaire, newspaper of rhe CGT union of Dakar, October 1952.
4. L'Ouvrier, CGT newspaper in Guinea, 16 March 1953.
5. For a list of the strikes in 1953 see Afrique Informations, 15 December-1 January 1954.
6. Le Facteur, 14 January 1954, CGT postal union newspaper.
