In 1932, the French Communist Party established a specific organization, the Main-d’Œuvre Immigrée (M.O.I.), an offshoot of the CGTUnitaire union affiliated with the PCF.
The M.O.I. took over from the Main-d’œuvre étrangère (M.O.E.), which had been created in the 1920s.
The workforce in France was decimated during World War I, and large waves of immigration helped meet the labor needs.
At the M.O.I., foreigners are grouped by nationality into language groups. Alongside the Spaniards, Italians, Armenians, Poles, and others, there is a very large group composed of Jews of various nationalities from Eastern Europe, united by a common language: Yiddish.
The M.O.I. respects the distinct identities of its members, who are also active in the French Communist Party’s workplace and neighborhood cells. This facilitates their integration into French society.
Many M.O.I. activists joined the International Brigades in Spain and later played an important role in the Resistance during the Nazi Occupation of France.
Reference:
Cukier, Simon; Decèze, Dominique; Diamant, David; Grojnowski, Michel, 1987, Revolutionary Jews, Messidor/Éditions sociales
