The syndicats first formed after the Waldeck Rousseau law of 1884 legalised French unions.
The corporatism espoused by this group, and its allies in the Front paysan found an echo in the Peasant Corporation of the Vichy regime.
[4] The French communist party also attempted to mirror some of these techniques to organise small farmers with less success, but this did culminate in setting up a front group, the Confédération générale des paysans travailleurs which was affiliated to the Red Peasant International.
Later the left set up MODEF, the Mouvement de défense des exploitants familiaux.
The Syndicat agricole africain (SAA, in English the African Agricultural Union) was an syndicat agricole based in the Côte d'Ivoire that focused on African farmers in the country that quickly evolved into the political movement that led the country to independence.