CONFéDéRATION DéMOCRATIQUE DU TRAVAIL (CDT)

moroccan trade union confederation usually referred to as the cdt.

Affiliated with the Union Socialiste des Forces Populaires (USFP), the Confédération Démocratique du Travail (CDT) was organized in 1978 in opposition to the largest labor confederation, the Union Marocaine du Travail, whose leadership it accused of corruption and stagnation. Its membership in the mid-1990s was about 300,000, making it the smallest of the three trade unions (the third is the Istiqlal-affiliated Union Générale des Travailleurs Marocains [UGTM]). Following widespread riots and student unrest in 1981, the CDT was accused of helping to foment the troubles; all offices were closed, and many of its activists were imprisoned. It was allowed to reopen in April 1987.

During the early 1990s, the CDT and the other labor federations pressed the authorities for improved wages and working conditions. With the UGTM, the CDT led a one-day general strike in late December 1990 that resulted in a number of fatalities. The CDT's secretary-general, Noubir Amaoui, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, in the spring of 1992, for "libel and insult" in his criticism of the government published in a Spanish newspaper. He was released in July 1993. The CDT received four seats in the 1993 indirect elections for parliament, an increase of one from the 1984 elections.

see also union gÉnÉrale des travailleurs marocains (ugtm); union marocaine du travail (umt); union socialiste des forces populaires (usfp).

Bibliography

Nelson, Harold D., ed. Morocco: A Country Study, 5th edition. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1986.

Bruce Maddy-Weitzman