Confédérés, Assurances sociales et Sécurité sociale : retour sur une histoire mythifiée

It’s too often forgotten that the creation of the French Social security, at the time of the Liberation, is part of a process that began half a century earlier, marked by two acts : « Worker’s and peasant’s pensions » and « Social insurance ». To the reformist movement of trade-unionism, the Social insurance marks the passage from a culture of conviction to a culture of responsibility and reflect a change in practices. The Social insurance, which covers retirement and sickness, affects initially nearly ten million people, fifteen million at the time of the Liberation. It’s managed by a network of departmental funds and « free funds » or « affinity funds », managed by the mutualists, the employers, the CFTC, the « confederated » CGT ; the « unified » CGT does not manage any funds. This article shows how the « confederated » CGT abandons its incantatory speech and gets involved in Social insurance.