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Popular Front (France)
Encyclopedia
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing
movements, including the French Communist Party
(PCF), the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period
. It won the May 1936 legislative elections, leading to the formation of a government first headed by SFIO leader Léon Blum
and exclusively composed of Radical-Socialist and SFIO ministers.
Léon Blum's government lasted from June 1936 to June 1937. He was then replaced by Camille Chautemps
, a Radical, but came back as President of the Council in March 1938, before being succeeded by Édouard Daladier
, another Radical, the next month. The Popular Front dissolved itself in autumn 1938, confronted by internal dissensions related to the Spanish Civil War
(1936–1939), opposition of the right-wing and the persistent effects of the Great Depression
.
The Popular Front won the May 1936 legislative elections three months after the victory of the Frente Popular
in Spain. Headed by Léon Blum, it engaged in various social reforms. The workers' movement welcomed this electoral victory by launching a general strike
in May-June 1936, resulting in the negotiation of the Matignon agreements
, one of the cornerstone of social rights
in France. The socialist movement's euphoria was apparent in SFIO member Marceau Pivert
's "Tout est possible!" (Everything is possible). However, as the economy continued to stall during the Great Depression, Blum was forced to stop his reforms and devalue the franc. With the French Senate controlled by conservatives, Blum, and thus the whole Popular Front, fell out of power in June 1937.
The Popular Front was supported, without participation (soutien sans participation) by the French Communist Party, which did not provide any of its ministers, just as the SFIO had supported the Cartel des gauches
(Coalition of the Left) in 1924 and 1932 without entering the government. Furthermore, it was the first time that the cabinet included female ministers (Suzanne Lacore
, SFIO; Irène Joliot-Curie
, independent; and Cécile Brunschvicg
, also independent), although women would acquire the right to vote only in 1944.
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The idea of a "Popular Front" came from two directions: first, the left-wing view, following the February 6, 1934 riots, that the far-right had tried to organize a coup d'état against the Republic
. Second, the Comintern
's decision, before the increased popularity of fascist and authoritarian regimes in Europe, to abandon the "social-fascist" position of the early 1930s and replace it with the "Popular Front
" position, which advocated an alliance with the social democrat
s against the Right. Thus, both the consequences of the 1934 riots, which had removed the second Cartel des gauches
from power, and the new Comintern policies had seen anti-fascism
as the main imperative of the day.
Henceforth, Maurice Thorez
, secretary general of the PCF, was the first to call for the formation of a "Popular Front", first in the party press organ L'Humanité
in 1934, and subsequently in the Chamber of Deputies. The Radicals were at the time the largest party in the Chamber, governing throughout most of the Third Republic. Following the fall of the second Cartel des gauches, which united Radicals with the SFIO (the PCF maintaining a "support without participation" position), the Radical-Socialist Party had turned toward an alliance with the right, in particular with the Democratic Republican Alliance
(ARD).
There are various reasons for the formation of the Popular Front and its subsequent electoral victory; they include the economic crisis caused by the Great Depression
, which affected France
starting in 1931, financial scandals and the instability of the Chamber elected in 1932 which had weakened the ruling parties, the rise of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany
, the growth of violent far-right leagues in France and in general of fascist-related parties and organisations (Marcel Bucard
's Mouvement Franciste
, which was subsidised by Italian leader Benito Mussolini
, Neo-Socialism, etc.)
For the first time, the Socialists won more seats than the Radicals, and the Socialist leader Léon Blum
became the first Socialist Prime Minister of France
as well as the first Jew to hold that office. The first Popular Front cabinet
consisted of 20 Socialists, 13 Radicals and two Socialist Republicans (there were no Communist Ministers) and, for the first time, included three women (women were not able to vote in France at that time).
Beside the three main left-wing parties, Radical-Socialists, SFIO and PCF, the Popular Front was supported by the Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH, Human Rights League, formed during the Dreyfus Affair
), the Movement Against War and Fascism, the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes
(Committee of Antifascist Intellectuals Watchdogs, created in 1934), and small parties such as Paul Ramadier
's Union socialiste républicaine (USR, right-wing of the SFIO), the Party of Proletarian Unity
(PUP, created in 1930 and opposed both to social democracy
and to the Third International), the Parti radical-socialiste Camille Pelletan (created in May 1934 by members of the left-wing of the Radical Party), etc. The PUP, Camille Pelletan
's Radical-Socialist Party, the leftist Catholic Jeune République ("Young Republic") and others joined together to form the parliamentary group of the Independent Left
(Gauche indépendante) which supported Léon Blum's government.
, the Popular Front introduced new labor laws
. It:
The government sought to carry out its reforms as rapidly as possible. On 11 June, the Chamber of Deputies voted for the forty-hour workweek, the restoration of civil servant's salaries, and two week's paid holidays, by a majority of 528 to 7. The Senate voted in favour of these laws within a week.
The Bank of France was democratised by enabling all shareholders to attend meetings and set up a new council with more representation from government. By mid-August, parliament had voted for the creation of a national Office du blé (Grain Board or Wheat Office) to stabilise prices and curb speculation, the nationalisation of the arms industries, loans to small and medium-sized industries, the raising of the compulsory school-leaving age to 14, measures against illicit price rises, and a major public works programme. The legislative achievements of the Popular Front government were such that before parliament went into recess, it had passed 133 laws within the space of 73 days.
Other measures carried out by the Popular Front government improved the pay, pensions, allowances and tax obligations of public-sector workers and ex-servicemen. The 1920 Sales Tax, opposed by the Left as it was a tax on consumers, was abolished and replaced by a production tax, which was considered to be a tax on the producer instead of the consumer. The government also made some administrative changes to the civil service, such as a new director-general for the Paris police and a new governor for the Bank of France. In spite of the economic problems faced by the Popular Front government, it succeeded in improving the lives of most workers in France.
Léon Blum also dissolved the far-right fascist leagues, and the Popular Front was actively fought by right-wing and far-right movements, which often used antisemitic slurs against Blum and other ministers. The Cagoule
far-right group even staged bombings to disrupt the government.
Although Léon Blum (as well as the PCF) wanted to intervene to help the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War
(1936–39), the Radicals were opposed to it, and threatened to quit the government if he helped them. Thus, a policy of non-intervention
was adopted.
, based on a new philosophy which did not consider the author as an "owner" (propriétaire), but as an "intellectual worker" (travailleur intellectuel). Jean Zay voluntarilly located himself in the continuation of Alfred de Vigny
, Augustin-Charles Renouard and Proudhon, who had opposed themselves to Lamartine during the 19th century, and defended the "spiritual interest of the collectivity". Article 21 of his draft divided the 50 years post-mortem protection period into two different phases, one of 10 years and the other of 40 years which established a sort of legal licence suppressing the right of exclusivity granted to a specific editor. Zay's draft project was particularly opposed by the editor Bernard Grasset, who defended the right of the editor as a "creator of value", while many writers, including Jules Romains
and the president of the Société des Gens de Lettres, Jean Vignaud, supported Zay's draft. The draft did not succeed, however, in being voted before the end of the legislature in 1939.
, the working class could enjoy for the first time two weeks holiday a year. This signaled the beginning of tourism in France
. Although beach resorts had long existed, they had been restricted to the upper class. Tens of thousands of families who had never seen the sea before now played in the waves, and Leo Langrange arranged around 500,000 discounted rail trips and hotel accommodation on a massive scale. But the Popular Front's policy concerning leisure
s (otium
in Latin) was limited to the enactment of two weeks holiday. If on the one hand, this measure was thought as a response to the workers' alienation, on the other hand, the Popular Front gave Léo Lagrange
(SFIO) responsibility for organisation of the use this leisure time, and of all aspects concerning sports. Thus, Lagrange was named Under-Secretary for Sports and the organisation of Leisure, a newly created post and a forerunner of the current position of Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports
. Léo Lagrange's position was placed under the authority of the Minister of Public Health Henri Sellier.
Sports was an important question in 1936, as Fascist
ideology had used it in order to make it a substitute of war and a propaganda
tool for spreading militarist ideas in society. Furthermore, youth organisations such as the Hitler Youth
or Benito Mussolini
's Balilla
and Avanguardisti, created in 1926 for boys and girls, prepared to entrance in the SS and in the fasci organisations. In Italy, Mussolini had assigned Renato Ricci
, deputy-secretary of Education, the task of "reorganizing the youth from a moral and physical point of view", for which he sought inspiration from Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting
.
The fascist conception and use of sport as a means to an end contrasted with the SFIO's official stance towards it "until the Popular Front". Before, it considered it as a "bourgeois" and "reactionary" activity, something which could be understood due to the social restrictions which weighted on the individual possibilities to take part in such actions: as economist Thorstein Veblen
had put it in his Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), one first had to be a member of that "leisure class" to be able to take part in such activities. However, confronted with an increasing possibility of war with Nazi Germany, and affected by the scientific racist theories of the time, which had a currency which went beyond the fascist parties, the SFIO began to change its ideas concerning sports during the Popular Front. As shown by the hierarchy of the ministers, which placed the sub-secretary of sport under the authority of the Minister of Public Health, sport was considered above all as a public health
issue. From this principle of relating sport to the "degeneration
of the race" and other scientific racist theories, only one step had to be taken. It was done by Georges Barthélémy, deputy of the SFIO, who declared that sports contributed to the "improvement of relations between capital and labour, henceforth to the elimination of the concept of class struggle
", and that they were a "mean to prevent the moral and physical degeneration of the race." Such corporatist conceptions had led to the neo-socialist movement, whose members were excluded from the SFIO on 5 November 1933, a few months after Hitler's accession to power. But scientific racist positions were upheld inside the SFIO and the Radical-Socialist Party, who supported colonialism
and found in this discourse a perfect ideological alibi to justify colonial rule. After all, Georges Vacher de Lapouge
(1854–1936) a leading theorist of scientific racism, had been a SFIO member, although he was strongly opposed to the "Teachers' Republic" (République des instituteurs) and its meritocratic
ideal of individual advancement and fulfillment through education, a Republican ideal founded on the philosophy of the Enlightenment
.
Although the SFIO had opposed sports as a "bourgeois" activity of the "leisure class", it changed attitude during the Popular Front first of all because its social reforms permitted to the workers' to participate in such leisure activities, and also because of the increasing risks of a confrontation with Nazi Germany, in particular after the March 1936 remilitarization of the Rhineland
, in contradiction with the 1925 Locarno Treaties
which had been reaffirmed in 1935 by France, Great Britain and Italy allied in the Stresa Front
. This new sign of German's revisionism
towards the conditions of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles
thus led parts of the SFIO in supporting a conception of sport used as a training field for future conscription
and, eventually, war.
In this complex situation, Léo Lagrange held fast to an ethical conception of sports which rejected both fascist militarism and indoctrination, scientific racist theories as well as professionalisation of sports, which he opposed as an elitist conception which ignored the main, popular aspect of sport, which should aim, according to him, for the fulfilment of the personality of the individual. Thus, Lagrange stated that "It cannot be a question in a democratic country of militarizing the distractions and the pleasures of the masses and of transforming the joy skillfully distributed into a means of not thinking." Léo Lagrange further declared in 1936 that:
Langrange also explained that:
. This choice had obvious political and ideological consequences, due to the highly political nature of sport under the fascist regimes as well as the "aestheticization of politics" (Walter Benjamin
) that it involved, the funds raised and donated for the organisation of such an event, the advertisement provided to Nazi Germany by hosting such an international event, etc. In protest against this event, the Spanish Popular Front
, elected in February 1936, decided to organize anyway the Games in Barcelona, under the name People's Olympiad
, which were scheduled to be held from July 19 to July 26, 1936, thus ending six days before the OG in Berlin. Léon Blum's government at first decided to take part in it, on insistence from the PCF.
Léo Lagrange played a major role in the co-organisation of the People's Olympiad. The trials for these Olympiads proceeded on July 4, 1936 in the Pershing stadium in Paris, which has been built in June 1919. Léo Lagrange chaired these days in person, along with the Minister of Transport, Radical-Socialist Pierre Cot
, André Malraux
, who later fought in the International Brigades
, and other figures of the Popular Front. Through their club, the FSGT, or individually, 1.200 French athletes were registered with these anti-fascist Olympiads.
But Blum finally decided not to vote for the funds to pay the athletes' expenses. A PCF deputy declared: "Going to Berlin, is making oneself complice of the torturers...." Nevertheless, on July 9, when the whole of the French right-wing voted "for" the participation of France to the OG of Berlin, the left-wing (PCF included) abstained itself — from the notable exception of the particular Pierre Mendès France, who would become Prime minister under the Fourth Republic
and negotiate the peace agreements
with the Viet-minh in Indochina
in 1954.
Nevertheless, several French sportsmen decided to boycott
the Berlin OG anyway, and go to Barcelona where the People's Olympiads were scheduled to begin on 19 July 1936. Each stop in the train stations were the occasion of popular joy demonstrations, people singing The Internationale
... However, on the eve of the opening ceremony, General Franco
's military pronunciamento, declared from Spanish Morocco
, started the Spanish Civil War
(1936–1939).
and Auto Union
racers of the time, which were backed by the Nazi government as part of its sports policy. Hired by Delahaye
, René Dreyfus
beat Jean-Pierre Wimille
, who ran for Bugatti
. Wimille would later take part in the Resistance
. The following year, Dreyfus succeeded in overwhelming the legendary Rudolf Caracciola
and his 480 hp Silver Arrow
at the Pau Grand Prix, becoming a national hero.
, which was supposed to grant French citizenship to a minority of Algerian Muslims. Opposed both by colons and by Messali Hadj
's pro-independence party, the project was never submitted to the National Assembly's vote and ultimately abandoned.
History of the Left in France
The Left in France at the beginning of the 20th century was represented by two main political parties, the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party and the French Section of the Workers' International , created in 1905 as a merger of various Marxist parties...
movements, including 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...
(PCF), the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
. It won the May 1936 legislative elections, leading to the formation of a government first headed by SFIO leader 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:...
and exclusively composed of Radical-Socialist and SFIO ministers.
Léon Blum's government lasted from June 1936 to June 1937. He was then replaced by Camille Chautemps
Camille Chautemps
Camille Chautemps was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic, three times President of the Council .-Career:Described as "intellectually bereft", Chautemps nevertheless entered politics and became Mayor of Tours in 1912, and a Radical deputy in 1919...
, a Radical, but came back as President of the Council in March 1938, before being succeeded by Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier was a French Radical politician and the Prime Minister of France at the start of the Second World War.-Career:Daladier was born in Carpentras, Vaucluse. Later, he would become known to many as "the bull of Vaucluse" because of his thick neck and large shoulders and determined...
, another Radical, the next month. The Popular Front dissolved itself in autumn 1938, confronted by internal dissensions related to the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(1936–1939), opposition of the right-wing and the persistent effects of the Great Depression
Great Depression in France
The Great Depression affected France from about 1931 through the remainder of the decade. The depression had drastic effects on the local economy, which can partly explain the 6 February 1934 crisis and even more the formation of the Popular Front, led by SFIO socialist leader Léon Blum, who won...
.
The Popular Front won the May 1936 legislative elections three months after the victory of the Frente Popular
Popular Front (Spain)
The Popular Front in Spain's Second Republic was an electoral coalition and pact signed in January 1936 by various left-wing political organisations, instigated by Manuel Azaña for the purpose of contesting that year's election....
in Spain. Headed by Léon Blum, it engaged in various social reforms. The workers' movement welcomed this electoral victory by launching a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
in May-June 1936, resulting in the negotiation of the Matignon agreements
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...
, one of the cornerstone of social rights
Social rights
Economic, social and cultural rights are socio-economic human rights, such as the right to education, right to housing, right to adequate standard of living and the right to health. Economic, social and cultural rights are recognised and protected in international and regional human rights...
in France. The socialist movement's euphoria was apparent in SFIO member Marceau Pivert
Marceau Pivert
Marceau Pivert was a French schoolteacher, trade unionist, Socialist militant and journalist. He was an alumnus of the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud.-In the Socialist Party:...
's "Tout est possible!" (Everything is possible). However, as the economy continued to stall during the Great Depression, Blum was forced to stop his reforms and devalue the franc. With the French Senate controlled by conservatives, Blum, and thus the whole Popular Front, fell out of power in June 1937.
The Popular Front was supported, without participation (soutien sans participation) by the French Communist Party, which did not provide any of its ministers, just as the SFIO had supported the Cartel des gauches
Cartel des Gauches
The Cartel des gauches was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers' International after World War I , which lasted until the end of the Popular Front . The Cartel des gauches twice won general elections, in 1924 and...
(Coalition of the Left) in 1924 and 1932 without entering the government. Furthermore, it was the first time that the cabinet included female ministers (Suzanne Lacore
Suzanne Lacore
Suzanne Lacore was a French politician representing the SFIO Party.In early life she was a teacher and then head teacher of a primary school in the Dordogne. She became a militant socialist in 1906 and was the only woman in her area to be a member of a political party...
, SFIO; Irène Joliot-Curie
Irène Joliot-Curie
Irène Joliot-Curie was a French scientist, the daughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of artificial radioactivity. This made the Curies...
, independent; and Cécile Brunschvicg
Cécile Brunschvicg
Cécile Brunschvicg , born Cécile Kahn , was a French feminist politician....
, also independent), although women would acquire the right to vote only in 1944.
The origins of the Popular Front
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...
. Second, the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
's decision, before the increased popularity of fascist and authoritarian regimes in Europe, to abandon the "social-fascist" position of the early 1930s and replace it with the "Popular Front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
" position, which advocated an alliance with the social democrat
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
s against the Right. Thus, both the consequences of the 1934 riots, which had removed the second Cartel des gauches
Cartel des Gauches
The Cartel des gauches was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers' International after World War I , which lasted until the end of the Popular Front . The Cartel des gauches twice won general elections, in 1924 and...
from power, and the new Comintern policies had seen anti-fascism
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
as the main imperative of the day.
Henceforth, 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....
, secretary general of the PCF, was the first to call for the formation of a "Popular Front", first in the party press organ L'Humanité
L'Humanité
L'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...
in 1934, and subsequently in the Chamber of Deputies. The Radicals were at the time the largest party in the Chamber, governing throughout most of the Third Republic. Following the fall of the second Cartel des gauches, which united Radicals with the SFIO (the PCF maintaining a "support without participation" position), the Radical-Socialist Party had turned toward an alliance with the right, in particular with the Democratic Republican Alliance
Democratic Republican Alliance
The Democratic Republican Alliance was a French political party created in 1901 by followers of Léon Gambetta, such as Raymond Poincaré who would be president of the Council in the 1920s...
(ARD).
There are various reasons for the formation of the Popular Front and its subsequent electoral victory; they include the economic crisis caused by the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, which affected France
Great Depression in France
The Great Depression affected France from about 1931 through the remainder of the decade. The depression had drastic effects on the local economy, which can partly explain the 6 February 1934 crisis and even more the formation of the Popular Front, led by SFIO socialist leader Léon Blum, who won...
starting in 1931, financial scandals and the instability of the Chamber elected in 1932 which had weakened the ruling parties, the rise of Adolf Hitler in 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...
, the growth of violent far-right leagues in France and in general of fascist-related parties and organisations (Marcel Bucard
Marcel Bucard
Marcel Bucard was a French Fascist politician.Early career=...
's Mouvement Franciste
Mouvement Franciste
The Mouvement Franciste was a French Fascist and Antisemitic league created by Marcel Bucard in September 1933; it edited the newspaper Le Francisme. Mouvement Franciste reached of membership of 10,000, and was financed by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini...
, which was subsidised by Italian leader Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
, Neo-Socialism, etc.)
May 1936 elections and the formation of the Blum government
The Popular Front won the general election of 3 May 1936, with 386 seats out of 608.For the first time, the Socialists won more seats than the Radicals, and the Socialist leader 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:...
became the first Socialist Prime Minister of France
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
as well as the first Jew to hold that office. The first Popular Front cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
consisted of 20 Socialists, 13 Radicals and two Socialist Republicans (there were no Communist Ministers) and, for the first time, included three women (women were not able to vote in France at that time).
Beside the three main left-wing parties, Radical-Socialists, SFIO and PCF, the Popular Front was supported by the Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH, Human Rights League, formed during the Dreyfus Affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
), the Movement Against War and Fascism, the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes
Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes
The Watchfulness Committee of Antifascist Intellectuals was a French political organization created in March 1934, in the wake of the February 6, 1934 riots organized by far right leagues, which had led to the fall of the second Cartel des gauches government...
(Committee of Antifascist Intellectuals Watchdogs, created in 1934), and small parties such as Paul Ramadier
Paul Ramadier
Paul Ramadier was a prominent French politician of the Third and Fourth Republics. Mayor of Decazeville starting in 1919, he served as the first Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic in 1947. On 10 July 1940, he voted against the granting of the full powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain, who...
's Union socialiste républicaine (USR, right-wing of the SFIO), the Party of Proletarian Unity
Party of Proletarian Unity
The Party of Proletarian Unity was a French socialist political party.-History:It was formed on December 21, 1930 by leftists expelled from the French Communist Party , together with some who had previously belonged to the left-wing of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière...
(PUP, created in 1930 and opposed both to social democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
and to the Third International), the Parti radical-socialiste Camille Pelletan (created in May 1934 by members of the left-wing of the Radical Party), etc. The PUP, Camille Pelletan
Camille Pelletan
Charles Camille Pelletan was a French politician and journalist, Minister of Marine in Emile Combes' Bloc des gauches cabinet from 1902 to 1905...
's Radical-Socialist Party, the leftist Catholic Jeune République ("Young Republic") and others joined together to form the parliamentary group of the Independent Left
Independent Left
The Independent Left was a French parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies of France during the French Third Republic between 1932 and 1940...
(Gauche indépendante) which supported Léon Blum's government.
The Popular Front in government
Through the 1936 Matignon AccordsMatignon 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...
, the Popular Front introduced new labor laws
Labour and employment law
Labour law is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which address the legal rights of, and restrictions on, working people and their organizations. As such, it mediates many aspects of the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees...
. It:
- created the right to strike
- created collective bargainingCollective bargainingCollective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
- enacted the law mandating 12 days (2 weeks) each year of paid Annual leaveAnnual leaveAnnual leave is paid time off work granted by employers to employees to be used for whatever the employee wishes. Depending on the employer's policies, differing number of days may be offered, and the employee may be required to give a certain amount of advance notice, may have to coordinate with...
s for workers - enacted the law limiting the workweek to 40 hours (outside of overtime)
- raised wages (15% for the lowest-paid workers, declining to 7% for the relatively well-paid)
- stipulated that employers would recognise shop stewards.
- ensured that there would be no retaliation against strikers.
The government sought to carry out its reforms as rapidly as possible. On 11 June, the Chamber of Deputies voted for the forty-hour workweek, the restoration of civil servant's salaries, and two week's paid holidays, by a majority of 528 to 7. The Senate voted in favour of these laws within a week.
The Bank of France was democratised by enabling all shareholders to attend meetings and set up a new council with more representation from government. By mid-August, parliament had voted for the creation of a national Office du blé (Grain Board or Wheat Office) to stabilise prices and curb speculation, the nationalisation of the arms industries, loans to small and medium-sized industries, the raising of the compulsory school-leaving age to 14, measures against illicit price rises, and a major public works programme. The legislative achievements of the Popular Front government were such that before parliament went into recess, it had passed 133 laws within the space of 73 days.
Other measures carried out by the Popular Front government improved the pay, pensions, allowances and tax obligations of public-sector workers and ex-servicemen. The 1920 Sales Tax, opposed by the Left as it was a tax on consumers, was abolished and replaced by a production tax, which was considered to be a tax on the producer instead of the consumer. The government also made some administrative changes to the civil service, such as a new director-general for the Paris police and a new governor for the Bank of France. In spite of the economic problems faced by the Popular Front government, it succeeded in improving the lives of most workers in France.
Léon Blum also dissolved the far-right fascist leagues, and the Popular Front was actively fought by right-wing and far-right movements, which often used antisemitic slurs against Blum and other ministers. The Cagoule
Cagoule
A cagoule, cagoul, kagoule or kagool is the British English term for a lightweight , weatherproof raincoat or anorak with a hood, which often comes in knee-length....
far-right group even staged bombings to disrupt the government.
Although Léon Blum (as well as the PCF) wanted to intervene to help the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(1936–39), the Radicals were opposed to it, and threatened to quit the government if he helped them. Thus, a policy of non-intervention
Non-Intervention Committee
During the Spanish Civil War, several countries followed a principle of non-intervention, which would result in the signing of the Non-Intervention Agreement in August 1936 and the setting up of the Non-Intervention Committee, which first met in September...
was adopted.
The Popular Front and cultural policies
The Minister of National Education and of the Beaux-Arts, Jean Zay, proposed as soon as August 1936 a draft law concerning intellectual property rightFrench copyright law
The droit d'auteur developed in the 18th century at the same time as copyright developed in the United Kingdom. Based on the "right of the author" instead of on "copyright", its philosophy and terminology are different from those used in copyright law in common law jurisdictions...
, based on a new philosophy which did not consider the author as an "owner" (propriétaire), but as an "intellectual worker" (travailleur intellectuel). Jean Zay voluntarilly located himself in the continuation of Alfred de Vigny
Alfred de Vigny
Alfred Victor de Vigny was a French poet, playwright, and novelist.-Life:Alfred de Vigny was born in Loches into an aristocratic family...
, Augustin-Charles Renouard and Proudhon, who had opposed themselves to Lamartine during the 19th century, and defended the "spiritual interest of the collectivity". Article 21 of his draft divided the 50 years post-mortem protection period into two different phases, one of 10 years and the other of 40 years which established a sort of legal licence suppressing the right of exclusivity granted to a specific editor. Zay's draft project was particularly opposed by the editor Bernard Grasset, who defended the right of the editor as a "creator of value", while many writers, including Jules Romains
Jules Romains
Jules Romains, born Louis Henri Jean Farigoule , was a French poet and writer and the founder of the Unanimism literary movement...
and the president of the Société des Gens de Lettres, Jean Vignaud, supported Zay's draft. The draft did not succeed, however, in being voted before the end of the legislature in 1939.
The Popular Front, sports, leisure and the 1936 Olympic Games
With the 1936 Matignon AccordsMatignon 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...
, the working class could enjoy for the first time two weeks holiday a year. This signaled the beginning of tourism in France
Tourism in France
France attracted 78.95 million foreign tourists in 2010, making it the most popular tourist destination in the world. France offers mountain ranges, coastlines such as in Brittany or along the Mediterranean Sea, cities with a rich cultural heritage, châteaux like Versailles, and vineyards...
. Although beach resorts had long existed, they had been restricted to the upper class. Tens of thousands of families who had never seen the sea before now played in the waves, and Leo Langrange arranged around 500,000 discounted rail trips and hotel accommodation on a massive scale. But the Popular Front's policy concerning leisure
Leisure
Leisure, or free time, is time spent away from business, work, and domestic chores. It is also the periods of time before or after necessary activities such as eating, sleeping and, where it is compulsory, education....
s (otium
Otium
Otium, a Latin abstract term, has a variety of meanings, including leisure time in which a person can enjoy eating, playing, resting, contemplation and academic endeavors. It sometimes, but not always, relates to a time in a person's retirement after previous service to the public or private...
in Latin) was limited to the enactment of two weeks holiday. If on the one hand, this measure was thought as a response to the workers' alienation, on the other hand, the Popular Front gave Léo Lagrange
Léo Lagrange
Léo Lagrange was a French Under-Secretary of State for Sports and for the Organisation of Leisure during the Popular Front...
(SFIO) responsibility for organisation of the use this leisure time, and of all aspects concerning sports. Thus, Lagrange was named Under-Secretary for Sports and the organisation of Leisure, a newly created post and a forerunner of the current position of Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports
Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports (France)
The Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports is, in the Government of France, the cabinet member in charge of national and public sport associations, youth affairs, public sports centers and national stadia...
. Léo Lagrange's position was placed under the authority of the Minister of Public Health Henri Sellier.
Sports was an important question in 1936, as Fascist
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
ideology had used it in order to make it a substitute of war and a propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
tool for spreading militarist ideas in society. Furthermore, youth organisations such as the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
or Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's Balilla
Opera Nazionale Balilla
thumb|240px|A young balilla in [[Piazza Venezia]].Opera Nazionale Balilla was an Italian Fascist youth organization functioning, as an addition to school education, between 1926 and 1937 .It was named after Balilla, the moniker of Giovan Battista Perasso,...
and Avanguardisti, created in 1926 for boys and girls, prepared to entrance in the SS and in the fasci organisations. In Italy, Mussolini had assigned Renato Ricci
Renato Ricci
Renato Ricci was an Italian fascist politician active during the government of Benito Mussolini.Ricci first came to prominence as a legionary of Gabriele d'Annunzio from 1919 to 1920...
, deputy-secretary of Education, the task of "reorganizing the youth from a moral and physical point of view", for which he sought inspiration from Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
.
The fascist conception and use of sport as a means to an end contrasted with the SFIO's official stance towards it "until the Popular Front". Before, it considered it as a "bourgeois" and "reactionary" activity, something which could be understood due to the social restrictions which weighted on the individual possibilities to take part in such actions: as economist Thorstein Veblen
Thorstein Veblen
Thorstein Bunde Veblen, born Torsten Bunde Veblen was an American economist and sociologist, and a leader of the so-called institutional economics movement...
had put it in his Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), one first had to be a member of that "leisure class" to be able to take part in such activities. However, confronted with an increasing possibility of war with Nazi Germany, and affected by the scientific racist theories of the time, which had a currency which went beyond the fascist parties, the SFIO began to change its ideas concerning sports during the Popular Front. As shown by the hierarchy of the ministers, which placed the sub-secretary of sport under the authority of the Minister of Public Health, sport was considered above all as a public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
issue. From this principle of relating sport to the "degeneration
Degeneration
The idea of degeneration had significant influence on science, art and politics from the 1850s to the 1950s. The social theory developed consequently from Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution...
of the race" and other scientific racist theories, only one step had to be taken. It was done by Georges Barthélémy, deputy of the SFIO, who declared that sports contributed to the "improvement of relations between capital and labour, henceforth to the elimination of the concept of class struggle
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
", and that they were a "mean to prevent the moral and physical degeneration of the race." Such corporatist conceptions had led to the neo-socialist movement, whose members were excluded from the SFIO on 5 November 1933, a few months after Hitler's accession to power. But scientific racist positions were upheld inside the SFIO and the Radical-Socialist Party, who supported colonialism
French colonial empire
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
and found in this discourse a perfect ideological alibi to justify colonial rule. After all, Georges Vacher de Lapouge
Georges Vacher de Lapouge
Georges Vacher de Lapouge was a French anthropologist and a theoretician of eugenics and racialism.- Biography :...
(1854–1936) a leading theorist of scientific racism, had been a SFIO member, although he was strongly opposed to the "Teachers' Republic" (République des instituteurs) and its meritocratic
Meritocracy
Meritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...
ideal of individual advancement and fulfillment through education, a Republican ideal founded on the philosophy of the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
.
Although the SFIO had opposed sports as a "bourgeois" activity of the "leisure class", it changed attitude during the Popular Front first of all because its social reforms permitted to the workers' to participate in such leisure activities, and also because of the increasing risks of a confrontation with Nazi Germany, in particular after the March 1936 remilitarization of the Rhineland
Remilitarization of the Rhineland
The Remilitarization of the Rhineland by the German Army took place on 7 March 1936 when German military forces entered the Rhineland. This was significant because it violated the terms of the Locarno Treaties and was the first time since the end of World War I that German troops had been in this...
, in contradiction with the 1925 Locarno Treaties
Locarno Treaties
The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated at Locarno, Switzerland, on 5 October – 16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on 3 December, in which the First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of central and Eastern Europe sought to secure the post-war...
which had been reaffirmed in 1935 by France, Great Britain and Italy allied in the Stresa Front
Stresa Front
The Stresa Front was an agreement made in Stresa, a town on the banks of Lake Maggiore in Italy, between French foreign minister Pierre Laval, British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, and Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini on April 14, 1935...
. This new sign of German's revisionism
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
towards the conditions of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
thus led parts of the SFIO in supporting a conception of sport used as a training field for future conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
and, eventually, war.
In this complex situation, Léo Lagrange held fast to an ethical conception of sports which rejected both fascist militarism and indoctrination, scientific racist theories as well as professionalisation of sports, which he opposed as an elitist conception which ignored the main, popular aspect of sport, which should aim, according to him, for the fulfilment of the personality of the individual. Thus, Lagrange stated that "It cannot be a question in a democratic country of militarizing the distractions and the pleasures of the masses and of transforming the joy skillfully distributed into a means of not thinking." Léo Lagrange further declared in 1936 that:
"Our simple and human goal, is to allow to the masses of French youth to find in the practice of sport, joy and health and to build an organization of the leisure activities so that the workers can find relaxation and a reward to their hard labour."
Langrange also explained that:
"We want to make our youth healthy and happy. Hitler has been very clever at that sort of thing, and there is no reason why a democratic government should not do the same."
The 1936 Olympic Games
Furthermore, the International Olympic Committe decided, between Berlin and Barcelona, to choose Berlin for the 1936 Olympic Games1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
. This choice had obvious political and ideological consequences, due to the highly political nature of sport under the fascist regimes as well as the "aestheticization of politics" (Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
) that it involved, the funds raised and donated for the organisation of such an event, the advertisement provided to Nazi Germany by hosting such an international event, etc. In protest against this event, the Spanish Popular Front
Popular Front (Spain)
The Popular Front in Spain's Second Republic was an electoral coalition and pact signed in January 1936 by various left-wing political organisations, instigated by Manuel Azaña for the purpose of contesting that year's election....
, elected in February 1936, decided to organize anyway the Games in Barcelona, under the name People's Olympiad
People's Olympiad
The People's Olympiad was a planned international multi-sport event that was intended to take place in Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia within the Spanish Republic...
, which were scheduled to be held from July 19 to July 26, 1936, thus ending six days before the OG in Berlin. Léon Blum's government at first decided to take part in it, on insistence from the PCF.
Léo Lagrange played a major role in the co-organisation of the People's Olympiad. The trials for these Olympiads proceeded on July 4, 1936 in the Pershing stadium in Paris, which has been built in June 1919. Léo Lagrange chaired these days in person, along with the Minister of Transport, Radical-Socialist Pierre Cot
Pierre Cot
.Pierre Cot , French politician, was a leading figure in the Popular Front government of the 1930s...
, André Malraux
André Malraux
André Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...
, who later fought in the International Brigades
International Brigades
The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....
, and other figures of the Popular Front. Through their club, the FSGT, or individually, 1.200 French athletes were registered with these anti-fascist Olympiads.
But Blum finally decided not to vote for the funds to pay the athletes' expenses. A PCF deputy declared: "Going to Berlin, is making oneself complice of the torturers...." Nevertheless, on July 9, when the whole of the French right-wing voted "for" the participation of France to the OG of Berlin, the left-wing (PCF included) abstained itself — from the notable exception of the particular Pierre Mendès France, who would become Prime minister under the Fourth Republic
French Fourth Republic
The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems...
and negotiate the peace agreements
Geneva Conference (1954)
The Geneva Conference was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to unify Korea and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina...
with the Viet-minh in Indochina
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
in 1954.
Nevertheless, several French sportsmen decided to boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
the Berlin OG anyway, and go to Barcelona where the People's Olympiads were scheduled to begin on 19 July 1936. Each stop in the train stations were the occasion of popular joy demonstrations, people singing The Internationale
The Internationale
The Internationale is a famous socialist, communist, social-democratic and anarchist anthem.The Internationale became the anthem of international socialism, and gained particular fame under the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1944, when it was that communist state's de facto central anthem...
... However, on the eve of the opening ceremony, General Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
's military pronunciamento, declared from Spanish Morocco
Spanish Morocco
The Spanish protectorate of Morocco was the area of Morocco under colonial rule by the Spanish Empire, established by the Treaty of Fez in 1912 and ending in 1956, when both France and Spain recognized Moroccan independence.-Territorial borders:...
, started the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(1936–1939).
1937 Million Franc Race
The Popular Front organized in 1937 the Million Franc Race, to induce automobile manufacturers to develop race cars capable of competing with the German Mercedes-BenzMercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
and Auto Union
Auto Union
Auto Union was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony, during the Great Depression. The company has evolved into present day Audi, as a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group....
racers of the time, which were backed by the Nazi government as part of its sports policy. Hired by Delahaye
Delahaye
Delahaye automobile manufacturing company was started by Emile Delahaye in 1894, in Tours, France. His first cars were belt-driven, with single- or twin-cylinder engines. In 1900, Delahaye left the company.-History:...
, René Dreyfus
René Dreyfus
René Dreyfus was a French driver who raced automobiles for 14 years in the 1920s and 1930s, the Golden Era of Grand Prix motor racing.-Early life:...
beat Jean-Pierre Wimille
Jean-Pierre Wimille
Jean-Pierre Wimille was a Grand Prix motor racing driver and a member of the French Resistance during World War II.-Biography:...
, who ran for Bugatti
Bugatti
Automobiles E. Bugatti was a French car manufacturer founded in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, as a manufacturer of high-performance automobiles by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti....
. Wimille would later take part in the Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
. The following year, Dreyfus succeeded in overwhelming the legendary Rudolf Caracciola
Rudolf Caracciola
Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola , more commonly Rudolf Caracciola , was a racing driver from Remagen, Germany. He won the European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One World Championship, an unsurpassed three times...
and his 480 hp Silver Arrow
Silver Arrow
Silver Arrow may refer to:* The Silver Arrows, a number of German racing cars* The Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow, a luxury car* A former rail/air service between London and Paris , jointly operated by Silver City , British Rail and SNCF...
at the Pau Grand Prix, becoming a national hero.
Colonial policies of the Popular Front
The Popular Front initiated the 1936 Blum-Viollette proposalBlum-Viollette proposal
The Blum-Viollette proposal takes its name from Maurice Viollette, who acted as the French premier and governor-general of Algeria, which was the subject of the proposed legislation...
, which was supposed to grant French citizenship to a minority of Algerian Muslims. Opposed both by colons and by Messali Hadj
Messali Hadj
Ahmed Ben Messali Hadj was an Algerian nationalist politician dedicated to the independence of his homeland from France...
's pro-independence party, the project was never submitted to the National Assembly's vote and ultimately abandoned.
Composition of Léon Blum's government (June 1936-June 1937)
- "SFIO" refers to membership to the French Section of the Workers' International, while RAD refers to membership to the Radical-Socialist Party. The French Communist PartyFrench Communist PartyThe 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...
(PCF) restricted itself to a "support without participation" of the government (meaning it took part to the parliamentary majority but did not have any ministers). The Popular Front government coincides with its leadership by Léon Blum, from 5 June 1936 to 21 June 1937.
- Léon BlumLéon BlumAndré Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
(SFIO), President of the CouncilPrime Minister of FranceThe Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic... - Édouard DaladierÉdouard DaladierÉdouard Daladier was a French Radical politician and the Prime Minister of France at the start of the Second World War.-Career:Daladier was born in Carpentras, Vaucluse. Later, he would become known to many as "the bull of Vaucluse" because of his thick neck and large shoulders and determined...
(RAD), Vice-President of the Council and Minister of War and of National Defence - Camille ChautempsCamille ChautempsCamille Chautemps was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic, three times President of the Council .-Career:Described as "intellectually bereft", Chautemps nevertheless entered politics and became Mayor of Tours in 1912, and a Radical deputy in 1919...
(RAD) - Minister of StateMinister of StateMinister of State is a title borne by politicians or officials in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a "minister of state" is a junior minister, who is assigned to assist a specific cabinet minister... - Paul Faure (SFIO) - Minister of State
- Maurice ViolletteMaurice ViolletteMaurice Viollette was a French statesman.He was chief-of-staff for Alexandre Millerand in the Waldeck-Rousseau government in 1898, and was elected as a député for Eure-et-Loir in 1902 and as mayor of Dreux from 1908–1959.He acted as Transport and Supply Minister in 1917, Governor General of...
(USR) - Minister of State - Yvon DelbosYvon DelbosYvon Delbos was a French Radical-Socialist Party politician and minister.Delbos was born in Thonac, Dordogne, Aquitaine, entered a career as a journalist, and became a member of the Radical-Socialist Party...
(RAD), Minister of Foreign AffairsMinister of Foreign Affairs (France)Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs ), is France's foreign affairs ministry, with the headquarters located on the Quai d'Orsay in Paris close to the National Assembly of France. The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the government of France is the cabinet minister responsible for... - Roger SalengroRoger SalengroRoger Henri Charles Salengro was a French politician. He achieved fame as Minister of the Interior during the Popular Front government in 1936...
(SFIO), Minister of Interior - Vincent AuriolVincent AuriolVincent Jules Auriol was a French politician who served as the first President of the Fourth Republic from 1947 to 1954. He also served as interim President of the Provisional Government from November to December 1946, making him one of only three people who were heads of state of the French...
(SFIO), Minister of Finances - Charles SpinasseCharles SpinasseCharles Spinasse was a French politician. He served as mayor of Égletons from 1929 to 1944 and again from 1965 to 1977. He belonged to the French Section of the Workers' International . In 1938, he served as France's minister of budget....
(SFIO), Minister of National Economy - Marc Rucart (RAD), Minister of JusticeMinister of Justice (France)The Ministry of Justice is controlled by the French Minister of Justice , a top-level cabinet position in the French government. The current Minister of Justice is Michel Mercier...
- Jean-Baptiste Lebas (SFIO), Minister of Labour
- Alphonse Gasnier-Duparc - Minister of Marine
- Pierre CotPierre Cot.Pierre Cot , French politician, was a leading figure in the Popular Front government of the 1930s...
(RAD) - Minister of AirMinister of Air (France)From 1928-1947, the Minister of Air was, in the Government of France , the cabinet member in charge of the French Air Force... - Jean ZayJean ZayJean Zay is a French politician born in Orléans on 6 August 1904 and assassinated 20 June 1944 by the miliciens in Molles . He was the Minister of National Education and Fine Arts from 1936 until 1939....
(RAD) - Minister of National EducationMinister of National EducationMinister of National Education can refer to:* Minister of National Education * Minister of National Education * Minister of National Education * Minister of National Education... - Albert Rivière (SFIO) - Minister of Pensions
- Georges MonnetGeorges MonnetNot to be confused with the French wartime foreign minister Georges BonnetGeorges Monnet was a prominent socialist politician in 1930s France and a member of Paul Reynaud's war cabinet as Minister of Blockade. Preceding that, he was Minister of Agriculture in Léon Blum's government...
(RAD) - Minister of AgricultureMinister of Agriculture (France)The Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing of France is the governmental body charged with regulation and policy, for agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food.The department is headquartered in Hotel Villeroy, at No... - Marius Moutet (SFIO) - Minister of Colonies
- Albert Bedouce (SFIO) - Minister of Public WorksMinister of Public Works (France)The Minister of Public Works was a cabinet member in the Government of France. Formerly known as "Ministre des Travaux Publics" , in 1870, it was largely subsumed by the position of Minister of Transportation. Since the 1960s, the positions of Minister of Public Works has reappeared, often...
- Henri Sellier (SFIO) - Minister of Public Health
- Robert Jardillier (SFIO) - Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones (PTT)Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones (France)The Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, to which was later added the charge of Telephones , was, in the Government of France, the cabinet member in charge of the French Postal Service and development of the national telecommunication system.The position was occasionally combined with Minister of...
- Paul Bastid (RAD) - Minister of Trade
- Léo LagrangeLéo LagrangeLéo Lagrange was a French Under-Secretary of State for Sports and for the Organisation of Leisure during the Popular Front...
(SFIO), Under-Secretary of State for Leisure and Sports (under the authority of the Minister of Public Health)
- On 18 November 1936, Marx DormoyMarx DormoyMarx Dormoy was a French socialist politician, noted for his opposition to the far right.-Early career:Born in Montluçon, he was elected mayor of his native town in 1926, and representative of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière to the French National Assembly in 1931 for the Allier...
(SFIO) replaced Roger Salengro at the Interior, following the latter's suicide.
See also
- Popular Front in SenegalPopular Front (Senegal)Ahead of the 1936 elections to the French National Assembly, a Popular Front committee was formed in Senegal. It consisted of the local branch of French Section of the Workers' International , the Senegalese Socialist Party, the local Communist cell, Human Rights League and the local branch of the...
- Matignon Accords (1936)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...
- History of the Left in FranceHistory of the Left in FranceThe Left in France at the beginning of the 20th century was represented by two main political parties, the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party and the French Section of the Workers' International , created in 1905 as a merger of various Marxist parties...
External links
- "The Popular Front: A Brief but Crucial Period in History", interview with Henri Malberg, translated from "Front populaire : une période brève, mais capitale", originally published on April 18, 2006 in L'HumanitéL'HumanitéL'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...