ABSTRACT
A number of unionists from the French Democratic Workers' Confederation recently became concerned by the phenomenon of increasingly intense expressions of racism in the companies where they worked, and informed their union organisation of their concern. The militants denounced racist attitudes affecting immigrant or illegal workers, obliging the unionist movement to repeat its message of fighting to defend the status and rights of these workers. For the Confederation Francaise Democratique du Travail, it is in fact a question of tracing the broad outlines of possible unionist action against racism and xenophobia. The workplace provides a forum within which it is easy to air opinions, which are formed without any link whatsoever with the realities of the work experience. An effective unionist intervention should undertake to reorient work relations around the work itself, so that they are less receptive to ideological influences originating from outside.
