The CDS was largely associated with construction workers' and metalworkers' unions in the Loire department, where anti-war trade unionists frequently organised pacifist strikes in order to improve working conditions and pressure the French government to end the war.
Members of the CDS led the establishment of the first communist party in France, while the metalworkers' unions went on to form the United General Confederation of Labour (CGTU), a revolutionary splinter of the reformist-led CGT.
In the 1910s, revolutionary syndicalism began to experience a marked decline in France; as living conditions improved and wages increased, strike actions became less confrontational and more open to negotiations.
[3] In response to this new development in the industrial economy, the leadership of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) moved the union away from revolutionary politics and towards reformism.
[7] On 4 August 1914, the CGT joined the Sacred Union, pledging not to call any strike actions during the war and to accept the conscription of its members.
"[17] By 1917, the Sacred Union was beginning to fracture, as working conditions deteriorated, the cost of living rose and the mass death caused in the war provoked widespread disillusionment.
[18] The CDS, as part of its campaign against the worsening living and working conditions in France, began openly supporting strike actions by French workers.
[20] As pacifist workers were increasingly arrested, trade unions led by the CDS closed ranks and defended themselves against the political repression.
The following month, in an attempt to reach a consensus between the two factions, a conference of the CGT voted to support both Woodrow Wilson's peace proposal and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
[13] The CDS expressed a staunch support for the Bolsheviks, including their dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly and ratification of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.