 He headed the organisation in the insurance sector of the Confédération générale du travail (CGT), and he was also active in the Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France (MJCF).Not having been called up in 1939 due to ill health, he moved to Toulouse in the unoccupied zone.In early 1942, he was approached by leaders of a left-wing resistance organisation, and he went on to play a leading role in setting up an embryonic paramilitary section.