FRANCE: The Last Eight

The headquarters of the C.G.T. (Confederation Generale du Travail) is a yellowish limestone building on the Rue La Fayette in Paris. On the fifth floor of that building last week Benoit Frachon, the C.G.T.'s Communist co-secretary-general, sweated out a painful ordeal.

Frachon's effort to hamstring France by strikes and violence had failed. The fact was evident last fortnight (TIME,Dec. 15), but, early last week, Frachon's strike committee was still forlornly calling for "all measures to reinforce resistance and action." Although most of them were Communists, 19 officials of the railroad union told Frachon that they were abandoning the strike, no matter...