As well as attacking the Communists as an internal enemy, the RPF also offered a positive alternative to Marxist class struggle by developing a distinctive social doctrine. This was encapsulated in the idea of an ‘association’ between employers and workers, capital and labour. This idea was entirely de Gaulle’s. He had first raised it at the meeting in February 1947 where he unveiled his intentions to his immediate followers. A few weeks later, he expressed frustration that whenever he mentioned ‘association’ he encountered only a ‘lack of curiosity, complete ignorance, indifference, if not
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