The Union for the Defense of Tradesmen and Artisans (French: Union de défense des commerçants et artisans) was a French political movement from 1953 to 1962.
The Union for the Defense of Tradesmen and Artisans was founded in 1953 by Pierre Poujade.[1][2] It published a newspaper, Fraternité française.[3] It also had a hymn, written by André Montagard in 1955.[4]
Poujade recruited up to 800,000 members.[5] In 1956, 2.5 million French people voted for them, electing 42 new members of the National Assembly.[1] In the assembly, it changed its name to the Union et fraternité françaises.[1]
The movement initially promoted the repeal of taxes for small business owners.[3] By 1958, it had become strongly opposed to Charles de Gaulle's policy of decolonisation in French Algeria.[3]