Georges Seguy

Born Mar. 16, 1927, in Toulouse. Prominent figure in the French labor movement.

The son of a railroad worker, Seguy is an electrician by profession. He was active in the Resistance Movement during the occupation of France by fascist German troops from 1940 to 1944. In 1944 he was sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he spent 15 months. He became a member of the French Communist Party in 1942. In 1949 he became secretary of the Federation of Railroad Workers of the General Confederation of Labor, and from 1961 to 1965 he was the federation’s general secretary. He became a member of the Central Committee of the French Communist Party in 1954 and of the Politburo in 1956. In 1965 he was elected secretary of the General Confederation of Labor, becoming general secretary in 1967. In 1970 he became a member of the Bureau of the World Federation of Trade Unions,