Does It Pay to Advertise?

It was called an "advertising strike." It was supposed to advertise French organized labor, whose power had seriously declined in the past year, chiefly because most Frenchmen were disgusted by Communist-provoked strikes. Union-membership had dropped off 30% in two years.

To show that it still had some muscle left, the Socialist Force Ouvrere, France's second largest labor federation, called a one-day general strike, set it for a Friday. The Communist-run federation of labor (CGT) gleefully announced that it was going to strike, too, trumpeted that France would never forget its black Friday. As it turned out, strikebound Friday was at worst only a dull grey. According to the Ministry of Interior, the strike" was 100% effective in the northern and eastern coal mines, in the ports, in some metal industries. But a majority of France's union members openly defied the strike call.

In Paris, thousands of workers went to their jobs on bicycles, in private cars, in big blue sightseeing buses mobilized by the government. One energetic bank clerk arrived on roller skates. Across France, food shops, department stores, restaurants were open, mail was delivered. One of the Socialists' own cabinet ministers called the strike a "fiasco." But the Communists had different ideas on what was good advertising: they triumphantly labeled the strike a succes eclatant.

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