Marx Dormoy
Encyclopedia
Marx Dormoy was a French
socialist
politician, noted for his opposition to the far right
.
, he was elected mayor of his native town in 1926, and representative of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière
(SFIO, the Socialist Party
of today) to the French National Assembly
in 1931 for the Allier
département.
's government, cabinet secretary to Léon Blum
, he played a part in negotiating the Matignon Accords
. From 1936 to 1938 he was Minister of the Interior
(replacing Roger Salengro
), and fought the rise of violent far right groups such as the Cagoule
, using his prerogatives to depose Jacques Doriot
, mayor of Saint-Denis
- arguing that the Saint-Denis commune had become the site of anti-republican
agitation; he was also an opponent of illegal immigration
of Eastern Europe
an political refugees to France.
On 16 March 1937, Dormoy provoked a crisis inside the Popular Front, after the French Police opened fire on a crowd protesting against a Croix-de-Feu
rally in Clichy
, after the event had degenerated into disorder. Dormoy was subsequently attacked by Trotskyist
groups and by Maurice Thorez
, the leader of the French Communist Party
, who held him responsible for the bloody incident for having authorised the Croix-de-Feu to march in the city. Dormoy was backed by Blum, and the crisis was over after a motion of confidence was passed in the Parliament of France
on 23 March.
In 1938, as an SFIO senator for Allier, he spoke out against the Munich Agreement
with Nazi Germany
.
who refused to grant full powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain
. Pétain's Vichy France
regime had him suspended from his office as mayor on 20 September 1940, and arrested five days after. He was imprisoned in Pellevoisin
, then in Vals-les-Bains
, before being placed under house arrest
in Montélimar
.
He died when a bomb
placed by Cagoule
terrorists
exploded in his house; at the end of World War II
in 1945, Marx Dormoy was given a solemn funeral in Montluçon. He is commemorated by having a Métro
station and boulevard named after him in the 18th arrondisement
of Paris
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
politician, noted for his opposition to the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
.
Early career
Born in MontluçonMontluçon
Montluçon is a commune in central France. It is the largest commune in the Allier department, although the department's préfecture is located in the smaller town of Moulins. Its inhabitants are known as Montluçonnais...
, he was elected mayor of his native town in 1926, and representative of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière
Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière
The French Section of the Workers' International , founded in 1905, was a French socialist political party, designed as the local section of the Second International...
(SFIO, the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
of today) to the French National Assembly
French National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....
in 1931 for the Allier
Allier
Allier is a department in central France named after the river Allier.- History :Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Auvergne and Bourbonnais.In 1940, the government of Marshal...
département.
Popular Front
A member of the Popular FrontPopular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
's government, cabinet secretary to Léon Blum
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
, he played a part in negotiating the Matignon Accords
Matignon Accords (1936)
The Matignon Agreements were signed on June 7, 1936, at one o'clock in the morning, between the CGPF employers trade union confederation, the CGT trade union and the French state...
. From 1936 to 1938 he was Minister of the Interior
Minister of the Interior (France)
The Minister of the Interior in France is one of the most important governmental cabinet positions, responsible for the following:* The general interior security of the country, with respect to criminal acts or natural catastrophes...
(replacing Roger Salengro
Roger Salengro
Roger Henri Charles Salengro was a French politician. He achieved fame as Minister of the Interior during the Popular Front government in 1936...
), and fought the rise of violent far right groups such as the Cagoule
La Cagoule
La Cagoule , officially called Comité secret d'action révolutionnaire , was a violent French fascist-leaning and anti-communist group, active in the 1930s, and designed to attempt the overthrow of the French Third Republic...
, using his prerogatives to depose Jacques Doriot
Jacques Doriot
Jacques Doriot was a French politician prior to and during World War II. He began as a Communist but then turned Fascist.-Early life and politics:...
, mayor of Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Saint-Denis is a sous-préfecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis département, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Saint-Denis....
- arguing that the Saint-Denis commune had become the site of anti-republican
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
agitation; he was also an opponent of illegal immigration
Illegal immigration
Illegal immigration is the migration into a nation in violation of the immigration laws of that jurisdiction. Illegal immigration raises many political, economical and social issues and has become a source of major controversy in developed countries and the more successful developing countries.In...
of Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an political refugees to France.
On 16 March 1937, Dormoy provoked a crisis inside the Popular Front, after the French Police opened fire on a crowd protesting against a Croix-de-Feu
Croix-de-Feu
Croix-de-Feu was a French far right league of the Interwar period, led by Colonel François de la Rocque . After it was dissolved, as were all other far right leagues during the Popular Front period , de la Rocque replaced it with the Parti social français .- Beginnings :The Croix-de-Feu were...
rally in Clichy
Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine
-Administration:The canton covers a part of the commune; the other is in the northern part of Levallois-Perret-Twinnings: Heidenheim, Germany, since 1959 Sankt Pölten, Austria, since 1968 Santo Tirso, Portugal, since 1991 Rubí, Spain, since 2005 Southwark, United Kingdom, since 2005Clichy has also...
, after the event had degenerated into disorder. Dormoy was subsequently attacked by Trotskyist
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
groups and by Maurice Thorez
Maurice Thorez
thumb|A Soviet stamp depicting Maurice Thorez.Maurice Thorez was a French politician and longtime leader of the French Communist Party from 1930 until his death. He also served as vice premier of France from 1946 to 1947....
, the leader of the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
, who held him responsible for the bloody incident for having authorised the Croix-de-Feu to march in the city. Dormoy was backed by Blum, and the crisis was over after a motion of confidence was passed in the Parliament of France
Parliament of France
The French Parliament is the bicameral legislature of the French Republic, consisting of the Senate and the National Assembly . Each assembly conducts legislative sessions at a separate location in Paris: the Palais du Luxembourg for the Senate, the Palais Bourbon for the National Assembly.Each...
on 23 March.
In 1938, as an SFIO senator for Allier, he spoke out against the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
.
Imprisonment and death
Two years later, after the Fall of France, he was one of the minority of parliamentariansThe Vichy 80
The Vichy 80 were a group of elected French parliamentarians who, on 10 July 1940, voted against the constitutional change that dissolved the Third Republic and established an authoritarian regime known as Vichy France....
who refused to grant full powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
. Pétain's Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
regime had him suspended from his office as mayor on 20 September 1940, and arrested five days after. He was imprisoned in Pellevoisin
Pellevoisin
Pellevoisin is a commune in the Indre department in central France.-Marian apparitions:Pellevoisin has been a place of pilgrimage since 9 September 1877: On 14 February 1876, while she was dying on her bed of pulmonary tuberculosis, acute peritonitis and abdominal tumor, Estelle Faguette reportedly...
, then in Vals-les-Bains
Vals-les-Bains
Vals-les-Bains is a commune in the Ardèche department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...
, before being placed under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
in Montélimar
Montélimar
Montélimar is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. It is the second-largest town in the department after Valence.-History:...
.
He died when a bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
placed by Cagoule
La Cagoule
La Cagoule , officially called Comité secret d'action révolutionnaire , was a violent French fascist-leaning and anti-communist group, active in the 1930s, and designed to attempt the overthrow of the French Third Republic...
terrorists
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
exploded in his house; at the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in 1945, Marx Dormoy was given a solemn funeral in Montluçon. He is commemorated by having a Métro
Paris Métro
The Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit metro system in Paris, France. It has become a symbol of the city, noted for its density within the city limits and its uniform architecture influenced by Art Nouveau. The network's sixteen lines are mostly underground and run to 214 km ...
station and boulevard named after him in the 18th arrondisement
XVIIIe arrondissement
The 18th arrondissement , located on the Rive Droite , is one of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, France...
of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.