The General Union of Algerian Workers is the main Algerian trade union, established February 24, 1956 with the objective of mobilising Algerian labour against French rule. It was banned shortly afterwards, in May, but continued to operate clandestinely, playing a notable role in the eight-day strike of 1957 and establishing a samizdat newspaper, L'Ouvrier algérien. It became effectively subordinated to the ruling party, the Front de Libération nationale (FLN), during the subsequent years of independence under a single-party socialist government, while welcoming the nationalisation policy the government pursued.