Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière
Encyclopedia
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
(i.e. the Workers' International). After the 1917 October Revolution
, it split up (during the 1920 Tours Congress
) into two groups, the majority creating the Section française de l'Internationale communiste (SFIC), which became the French Communist Party
(PCF).
Following the first unification of the French socialist movements in 1901, the French Socialist Party
and the Socialist Party of France
united during the 1905 Globe Congress in Paris, which followed the 1904 Amsterdam Congress of the Second International. The 1905 Globe Congress thus united the Marxist tendency represented by Jules Guesde
with the social-democrat tendency represented by Jean Jaurès
. The "party of the workers' movement" was born, and continued existing until 1969, when it was replaced by the current Socialist Party (PS). The SFIO was led by Jules Guesde
, Jean Jaurès
- who quickly became its most influential figure, Édouard Vaillant
and Paul Lafargue
. It opposed itself to colonialism
and to militarism
, although following Jean Jaurès' assassination on 31 July 1914, four days before Germany
's declaration of war on France, it abandoned its anti-militarist views and, like the whole the Second International, replaced its internationalist
conceptions about class struggle
with patriotism
, by supporting the National Union government
(Union nationale). After the war, this was regarded as a major failure of the socialist movement and explains, in part, the split of the Tours Congress. Jaurès' ashes would be transferred to the Panthéon
in 1924, while his assassin, Raoul Villain
, who was judged but acquitted in 1919, would later be executed by the Spanish Republicans in 1936.
(1871), French socialism was severely weakened. Its leaders died or were exiled. In 1879, during the Marseille Congress, workers' associations created the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France
(FTSF). However, three years later, Jules Guesde
and Paul Lafargue
(the son-in-law of Karl Marx
) left the federation, which they considered too moderate, and founded the French Workers' Party
(POF). The FTSF, led by Paul Brousse
, was defined as "possibilist" because it advocated gradual reforms, whereas the POF promoted Marxism.
At the same time, Édouard Vaillant
and the heirs of Louis Auguste Blanqui
founded the Central Revolutionary Committee
(CRC), which represented the French revolutionary tradition.
In the 1880s, the Socialists knew their first electoral success, winning control of some municipalities. Jean Allemane
and some FTSF members criticized the focus on electoral goals. In 1890, they created the Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party (POSR). Their main objective was to win power through the tactic of the "general strike
". Besides these groups, some politicians declared themselves as independent socialists outside of the political parties. They tended to have moderate opinions.
In the 1890s, the Dreyfus Affair
caused debate in the Socialist movement. For Jules Guesde
, the Socialists should not intervene in an internal conflict of the bourgeoisie. In Jean Jaurès
's opinion, the Socialist movement was a part of the Republican movement and needed to take part in the struggle in ordrer to defend Republican values. In 1899, another debate polarised the Socialist groups regarding the participation of Alexandre Millerand
in Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet, which included the Marquis de Gallifet, best known for having directed the bloody repression during the Paris Commune. Furthemore, the participation in a "bourgeois government" sparked a controversy pitting Jules Guesde
against Jean Jaurès
. In 1902, Guesde and Vaillant founded the Socialist Party of France
, while Jaurès, Allemane and the possibilists formed the French Socialist Party
. In 1905, during the Globe Congress, under pressure from the Second International
, the two groups merged into the "French Section of the Workers' International" (SFIO).
and the revolutionary syndicalists who dominated the trade union
s. The General Confederation of Labour
(CGT) proclaimed its independence from political parties at this time and the non-distinction between political and industrial aims. In addition, some CGT members refused to join the SFIO, because they considered it extremist. They created the Republican-Socialist Party
(PRS).
In contrast to other European socialist parties, the SFIO was a decentralized organization. Its national and executive institutions were weakened by the strong autonomy of its members and local levels of the party. Consequently, the function of secretary general, held by Louis Dubreuilh until 1918, was essentially administrative and the real political leader was Jean Jaurès
, president of the parliamentary group and director of the party paper L'Humanité
.
Unlike the PRS, SFIO members did not participate to Left Bloc
governments, although they supported a part of its policy, notably the laïcité
, based on the 1905 Act of separation between Church and State. However, they criticized the ferocious repression of strikes by Radical Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau
after 1906, following the creation of a Minister of Labour, a post held by PRS leader René Viviani
.
During the July 1914 international crisis, the party was ideologically torn between its membership in the Socialist International
and the wave of patriotism
within France. The assassination of Jaurès, on 31 July 1914, was a setback for the pacifist wing of the party and contributed to the massive increase in support for the wartime government of national unity
. Participation in World War I caused divisions within the party, which were accentuated after 1917. Furthermore, internal disagreements appeared about the 1917 October Bolshevik Revolution
in Russia.
In 1919, the anti-war socialists were heavily defeated in elections by the Bloc National
coalition which played on the middle-classes' fear of Bolshevism (posters with a Bolshevik with a knife between his teeth were used to discredit the socialist movement). The Bloc National won 70% of the seats, forming what became known as the Chambre bleue horizon ("Blue Horizon Chamber").
On 25 December 1920, during the Tours Congress
, a majority of SFIO members voted to join the Communist International
(Comintern; also known as the "Third International"), created by the Bolshevik
s after the 1917 October Revolution
. Led by Boris Souvarine
and Ludovic Frossard, they created the French Section of the Communist International
(SFIC). Another smaller group also accepted the membership to the Comintern, but not all 21 conditions, while the minority, led by Léon Blum
and the majority of the socialists' elected members, decided to, in in Blum's words, "keep the old house" and remain within the Second International. Marcel Sembat, Léon Blum and Albert Thomas
refused to align themselves with Moscow. Paul Faure became secretary general of the SFIO but its most influential figure was Léon Blum, leader of the parliamentary group and director of a new party paper Le Populaire. The previous party paper, L'Humanité
, was controlled by the founders of the SFIC. (However, Ludovic Frossard later resigned from the SFIC and rejoined the SFIO in January 1923.)
One year after the Tours Congress, the CGT trade union made the same split - those who became communists created the United General Confederation of Labour (CGTU), which fused again with the CGT in 1936 during the Popular Front
government. Léon Jouhaux
was CGT's main leader until 1947 and the new split leading to the creation of the reformist Workers' Force (CGT-FO).
in the Cartel des Gauches
coalition. They supported the government led by Radical Édouard Herriot
(1924–1926 and 1932), but they didn't participate.
The first Cartel saw the right-wing terrorized, and capital flight
destabilized the government, while the divided Radicals didn't all support their socialist allies. The monetary crisis, also due to the refusal of Germany to pay the reparations
, caused parliamentary instability. Édouard Herriot, Paul Painlevé
and Aristide Briand
would succeeded each other as president of the Council
until 1926, when the right-wing came back to power with Raymond Poincaré
. The newly elected communist deputies also opposed the first Cartel, refusing to support "bourgeois
" governments.
The second Cartel acceded to power in 1932, but this time, the SFIO only gave their support without the participation of the Radicals, which allied themselves with right-wing radicals. After years of internal feuds the reformist (or right) wing of the party, led by Marcel Déat
and Pierre Renaudel, split from the SFIO in November 1933 to form a neosocialist movement, and merged with the PRS
in the Socialist Republican Union
(USR). The Cartel was again the victim of parliamentary instability, while various scandals led to the 6 February 1934 riots organized by far-right leagues. Radical Édouard Daladier
resigned on the next day, handing out the power to conservative Gaston Doumergue
. It was the first time during the Third Republic
(1871–1940) that a government had to resign because of street pressure.
Following 6 February 1934 crisis, which the whole of the socialist movement saw as a fascist
conspiracy to overthrow the Republic, a goal pursued by the royalist Action Française
and other far-right leagues, anti-fascist
organizations were created. The French Communist Party
(PCF), supported by the Comintern's abandoning of the "social-fascism" directives in favor of "united front
" directives, got closer to the SFIO, the USR
and the Radical Party
, to form the coalition that would win the 1936 elections and bring about the Popular Front
. In June 1934, Leon Trotsky
proposed the "French Turn
" into the SFIO, which is where the entrism strategy takes its origins from. The trotskyist
Communist League's (the French section of the International Left Opposition
) leaders were divided over the issue of entering the SFIO: Raymond Molinier
was the most supportive of Trotsky's proposal, while Pierre Naville
was opposed to it and Pierre Frank
remained ambivalent. The League finally voted to dissolve into the SFIO in August 1934, where they formed the Bolshevik-Leninist Group (Groupe Bolchevik-Leniniste, GBL). At the Mulhouse
party congress
of June 1935, the Trotskyists led a campaign to prevent the United Front from expanding into a "Popular Front
", which would include the middle-class Radical Party.
However, the Popular Front strategy was adopted and, in the 1936 election
, the coalition became majority and, for the first time, the SFIO obtained more votes and seats than the Radical Party
. In this, Léon Blum
became France's first socialist president of the Council in 1936, while the PCF supported - without participation - his government. A general strike applauded the socialists' victory, while Marceau Pivert
cried "Tout est possible!" ("Everything is possible!"). Pivert would later split and create the Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party
(PSOP); historian Daniel Guérin
was also a member of the latter. Trotsky advised the GBL to break with the SFIO, leading to a confused departure by the Trotskyists from the Socialist Party in early 1936, which drew only about six hundred people from the party. The 1936 Matignon Accords
set up collective bargaining
, and removed all obstacles to union organization
. The terms included a blanket 7-12 percent wage increase, and allowed for paid vacation (2 weeks) and a 40-hour work week — the eight-hour day
had been established following the 1914-18 war of attrition
and its mobilization of industrial capacities.
Within a year, however, Blum's government collapsed over economic policy (as during the Cartel des gauches, capital flight
was an issue, giving rise to the so-called "myth of the 200 hundreds families") in the context of the Great Depression, and also over the issue of the Spanish Civil War
. The demoralised left fell apart and was unable to resist the collapse of the Third Republic after the military defeat of 1940 (during World War II).
in July 1940, following which the latter proclaimed the Révolution nationale
reactionary program and the establishment of the Vichy regime. Although some engaged in Collaborationism
an important part also took part in the Resistance
. Pierre Fourcaud created with Félix Gouin
the Brutus Network
, in which Gaston Defferre
, later mayor of Marseilles for years, participated, along with Daniel Mayer
. In 1942-43, Pétain's regime judged the Third Republic by organizing a public trial, the Riom Trial
, of personalities accused of having "caused" the defeat of France
. Those included Léon Blum
, the Radical-Socialist Édouard Daladier
, the conservatives Paul Reynaud
and Georges Mandel
, etc.
At the same time, Marcel Déat
and some neosocialists who had split from the SFIO in 1933, participated to the Vichy regime and supported Pétain's policy of collaboration. Paul Faure, secretary general of the SFIO from 1920 to 1940, approved of this policy too. He was excluded from the party when it was reconstituted in 1944. In total, 14 of the 17 SFIO ministers who had been in government before the war were expelled for collaboration.
became the largest left-wing party, the project to create a Labour party rallying the non-Communist Resistance
failed in due to the disagreements opposing notably the Socialists and the Christian-Democrats about laïcité
, and the conflict with Charles de Gaulle
about the new organization of the institutions (parliamentary system or presidential government). The SFIO re-emerged and participated in the Three-parties
alliance with the PCF and the Christian-Democrats (Popular Republican Movement
, MRP) under the leadership of de Gaulle, President of the provisional government. This coalition led the social policy inspired by National Council of Resistance's programme, installing the main elements of the French welfare state
, nationalizing banks and some industrial companies. While serving in government during the Forties, the SFIO was partly responsible for setting up the welfare state institutions of the Liberation period and helping to bring about France's economic recovery.
In Spring 1946, the SFIO reluctantly supported the constitutional plans of the Communist Party. They were rejected by referendum
. The party supported the second proposal, prepared with the PCF and the MRP, and it was approved in October 1946
.
However, the coalition split in May 1947. Because of the Cold War
, the Communist ministers were excluded from the cabinet led by Socialist Paul Ramadier
. Anti-communism
prevented the left from forming a united front. The Communists had taken control of the CGT
trade union. This was relatively weakened by the 1948 creation of a social-democratic trade union Workers' Force
(FO), which was supported by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
. This split was led by former CGT secretary general Léon Jouhaux
, who was granted the Nobel peace prize
three years later. Teachers' union (Federation for National Education, FEN) chosen to gain autonomy towards the two confederations in order to conserve its unity. But Socialist syndicalists took the control of the FEN, which became the main training ground of the SFIO party.
A Third Force
coalition was constituted by center-right and center-left parties, including the SFIO, in order to block the opposition of the Communists on the one hand, and of the Gaullists on the other. Besides, in spite of Léon Blum
's support, the party leader Daniel Mayer
was defeated in aid of Guy Mollet
. If the new secretary general was supported by the left-wing of the party, he was very hostile to any form of alliance with the PCF. He said "the Communist Party is not on the Left but in the East". At the beginning of the 1950s, the disagreements with its governmental partners about denominational schools and the colonial problem explained a more critical attitude of the SFIO membership. In 1954, the party was deeply divided about the European Defense Community. Against the instructions of the party lead, the half of the parliamentary group voted against the project, and contributed to its failure.
Progressively, the Algerian War of Independence
became the major issue of the political debate. During the 1956 legislative campaign, the party took part in the Republican Front
, a center-left coalition led by Radical Pierre Mendès France, who advocated a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Guy Mollet
took the lead of the cabinet but led a very repressive policy. After the May 1958 crisis
, he supported the return of Charles de Gaulle
and the establishment of the Fifth Republic
.
Moreover, the SFIO was divided about the repressive policy of Guy Mollet in Algeria
and his support to De Gaulle's return. If the party returned in opposition in 1959, it couldn't prevent the constitution of another Unified Socialist Party
(Parti socialiste unifié or PSU) in 1960, joined the next year by Pierre Mendès France, whom was trying to anchor the Radical party in the left-wing and opposed the colonial wars.
. Youth and the intellectual circles preferred the PSU while the majority of workers considered the PCF as its spokesperson. The Fifth Republic
's Constitution
had been tailored by Charles de Gaulle to satisfy his needs, and his Gaullist
movement managed to gather enough people from the left and the right to govern without the other parties' help.
Furthermore, the SFIO hesitated between allying with the non-Gaullist centre-right (as advocated by Gaston Defferre
) and reconciliation with the Communists. Guy Mollet refused to choose. The SFIO supported François Mitterrand
to the 1965 presidential election
although he was not a member of the party. The SFIO and the Radicals then created the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left
(FGDS), a centre-left coalition led by François Mitterrand. But it split after May 1968 and the electoral disaster of June 1968.
Gaston Defferre
was the SFIO candidate in the 1969 presidential election
. He was eliminated in the first round with only 5% of votes. One month later, at the Issy-les-Moulineaux Congress
, the SFIO was refounded as the modern-day Socialist Party
. Guy Mollet passed on the leadership to Alain Savary
.
in 1934 as Lamine Guèye broke away and formed the Senegalese Socialist Party
(PSS). However as the Senegalese Popular Front
committee as formed, PSS and the SFIO branch cooperated. In 1937 a joint list of SFIO and PSS won the municipal elections in Saint-Louis
. Maître Vidal became mayor of the town. The congress of PSS held 4–5 June 1938 decided to reunify with SFIO. Following that decision, a 11–12 June 1938 a congress of the new federation of SFIO was held in Thiès
.
In 1948 Léopold Sédar Senghor
broke away from the Senegalese federation of SFIO, and formed the Senegalese Democratic Bloc
(BDS). During the 1951 National Assembly election
campaign, violence broke out between BDS and SFIO activists. In the end BDS won both seats allocated to Senegal.
In 1956 another SFIO splinter group appeared in Senegal, the Socialist Movement of the Senegalese Union
.
In 1957 the history of SFIO in West Africa came to an end. The federations of SFIO in Cameroon
, Chad
, Moyen-Congo, French Sudan
(Mali
), Gabon
, Guinea
, Niger
, Oubangui-Chari
(Central African Republic
), and Senegal
; the meeting was held in Conakry
from 11 January to 13 January 1957. At that meeting it was decided that the African federations would break with its French parent organisation and form the African Socialist Movement
(MSA), an independent Pan-African party. The Senegal
ese section of MSA was the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action
(PSAS), and it was led by Lamine Guèye. The first meeting of the leading committee of MSA met in Dakar
from 9 February to 10 February the same year. Two SFIO delegates attended the session.
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,...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
, designed as the local section of the Second International
Second International
The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
(i.e. the Workers' International). After the 1917 October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, it split up (during the 1920 Tours Congress
Tours Congress
The Tours Congress was the 18th National Congress of the French Section of the Workers' International, or SFIO, which took place in Tours on 25—30 December 1920...
) into two groups, the majority creating the Section française de l'Internationale communiste (SFIC), which became 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).
Following the first unification of the French socialist movements in 1901, the French Socialist Party
French Socialist Party (1902)
The French Socialist Party was founded in 1902. It came from the merger of the "possibilist" Federation of the Socialist Workers of France , Jean Allemane's Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party and some independent socialist politicians like Jean Jaurès...
and the Socialist Party of France
Socialist Party of France (1902)
The Socialist Party of France was founded in 1902, during a congress in Commentry, by the merger of the Marxist French Workers' Party led by Jules Guesde and the Blanquist Central Revolutionary Committee of Édouard Vaillant....
united during the 1905 Globe Congress in Paris, which followed the 1904 Amsterdam Congress of the Second International. The 1905 Globe Congress thus united the Marxist tendency represented by Jules Guesde
Jules Guesde
Jules Basile Guesde was a French socialist journalist and politician.Guesde was the inspiration for a famous quotation by Karl Marx. Shortly before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter to Guesde and Paul Lafargue, both of whom already claimed to represent "Marxist" principles...
with the social-democrat tendency represented by Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
. The "party of the workers' movement" was born, and continued existing until 1969, when it was replaced by the current Socialist Party (PS). The SFIO was led by Jules Guesde
Jules Guesde
Jules Basile Guesde was a French socialist journalist and politician.Guesde was the inspiration for a famous quotation by Karl Marx. Shortly before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter to Guesde and Paul Lafargue, both of whom already claimed to represent "Marxist" principles...
, Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
- who quickly became its most influential figure, Édouard Vaillant
Édouard Vaillant
Marie Édouard Vaillant was a French politician.Born in Vierzon, Cher, son of a lawyer, Édouard Vaillant studied engineering at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, graduating in 1862, and then law at the Sorbonne. In Paris he knew Charles Longuet, Louis-Auguste Rogeard, and Jules Vallès...
and Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue was a French revolutionary Marxist socialist journalist, literary critic, political writer and activist; he was Karl Marx's son-in-law, having married his second daughter Laura. His best known work is The Right to Be Lazy...
. It opposed itself to colonialism
French colonial empires
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 to militarism
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
, although following Jean Jaurès' assassination on 31 July 1914, four days before Germany
History of Germany
The concept of Germany as a distinct region in central Europe can be traced to Roman commander Julius Caesar, who referred to the unconquered area east of the Rhine as Germania, thus distinguishing it from Gaul , which he had conquered. The victory of the Germanic tribes in the Battle of the...
's declaration of war on France, it abandoned its anti-militarist views and, like the whole the Second International, replaced its internationalist
Proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a Marxist social class concept based on the view that capitalism is now a global system, and therefore the working class must act as a global class if it is to defeat it...
conceptions about 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"....
with patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
, by supporting the National Union government
National unity government
A national unity government, government of national unity, or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other national emergency.- Canada :During World War I the Conservative government of Sir...
(Union nationale). After the war, this was regarded as a major failure of the socialist movement and explains, in part, the split of the Tours Congress. Jaurès' ashes would be transferred to the Panthéon
Pantheon
-Mythology:* Pantheon , the set of gods belonging to a particular mythology* Pantheon * Pantheon, Rome, now a Catholic church, once a temple to the gods of ancient Rome* Any temple dedicated to an entire pantheon-Other buildings:...
in 1924, while his assassin, Raoul Villain
Raoul Villain
Raoul Villain was a French nationalist primarily remembered for his assassination of the French socialist leader Jean Jaurès on July 31, 1914 in Paris.-Early life and background:Villain was born in Reims, Marne, France...
, who was judged but acquitted in 1919, would later be executed by the Spanish Republicans in 1936.
Before the 1905 unification
After the failure of the Paris CommuneParis Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
(1871), French socialism was severely weakened. Its leaders died or were exiled. In 1879, during the Marseille Congress, workers' associations created the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France
Federation of the Socialist Workers of France
France's first socialist party, the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France , was founded in 1879. It was characterised as "possibilist" because it promoted gradual reforms.-Formation:...
(FTSF). However, three years later, Jules Guesde
Jules Guesde
Jules Basile Guesde was a French socialist journalist and politician.Guesde was the inspiration for a famous quotation by Karl Marx. Shortly before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter to Guesde and Paul Lafargue, both of whom already claimed to represent "Marxist" principles...
and Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue was a French revolutionary Marxist socialist journalist, literary critic, political writer and activist; he was Karl Marx's son-in-law, having married his second daughter Laura. His best known work is The Right to Be Lazy...
(the son-in-law of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
) left the federation, which they considered too moderate, and founded the French Workers' Party
French Workers' Party
The Parti Ouvrier Français was the first Marxist party in France, created in 1880 by Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, Marx's son-in-law...
(POF). The FTSF, led by Paul Brousse
Paul Brousse
Paul Brousse was a French socialist, leader of the possibilistes group. He was active in the Jura Federation, a section of the International Working Men's Association , from the northwestern part of Switzerland and the Alsace. He helped edit the Bulletin de la Fédération Jurassienne, along with...
, was defined as "possibilist" because it advocated gradual reforms, whereas the POF promoted Marxism.
At the same time, Édouard Vaillant
Édouard Vaillant
Marie Édouard Vaillant was a French politician.Born in Vierzon, Cher, son of a lawyer, Édouard Vaillant studied engineering at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, graduating in 1862, and then law at the Sorbonne. In Paris he knew Charles Longuet, Louis-Auguste Rogeard, and Jules Vallès...
and the heirs of Louis Auguste Blanqui
Louis Auguste Blanqui
Louis Auguste Blanqui was a French political activist, notable for the revolutionary theory of Blanquism, attributed to him....
founded the Central Revolutionary Committee
Central Revolutionary Committee
The Central Revolutionary Committee was a French Blanquist political party founded in 1881 and dissolved in 1898.The CRC was founded by Édouard Vaillant to continue the political struggle of Auguste Blanqui...
(CRC), which represented the French revolutionary tradition.
In the 1880s, the Socialists knew their first electoral success, winning control of some municipalities. Jean Allemane
Jean Allemane
Jean Allemane was a French socialist politician, veteran of the Paris Commune of 1871, pioneer of syndicalism, leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Workers' Party and co-founder of the unified French Section of the Workers' International in 1905...
and some FTSF members criticized the focus on electoral goals. In 1890, they created the Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party (POSR). Their main objective was to win power through the tactic of the "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...
". Besides these groups, some politicians declared themselves as independent socialists outside of the political parties. They tended to have moderate opinions.
In the 1890s, 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...
caused debate in the Socialist movement. For Jules Guesde
Jules Guesde
Jules Basile Guesde was a French socialist journalist and politician.Guesde was the inspiration for a famous quotation by Karl Marx. Shortly before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter to Guesde and Paul Lafargue, both of whom already claimed to represent "Marxist" principles...
, the Socialists should not intervene in an internal conflict of the bourgeoisie. In Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
's opinion, the Socialist movement was a part of the Republican movement and needed to take part in the struggle in ordrer to defend Republican values. In 1899, another debate polarised the Socialist groups regarding the participation of Alexandre Millerand
Alexandre Millerand
Alexandre Millerand was a French socialist politician. He was President of France from 23 September 1920 to 11 June 1924 and Prime Minister of France 20 January to 23 September 1920...
in Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet, which included the Marquis de Gallifet, best known for having directed the bloody repression during the Paris Commune. Furthemore, the participation in a "bourgeois government" sparked a controversy pitting Jules Guesde
Jules Guesde
Jules Basile Guesde was a French socialist journalist and politician.Guesde was the inspiration for a famous quotation by Karl Marx. Shortly before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter to Guesde and Paul Lafargue, both of whom already claimed to represent "Marxist" principles...
against Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
. In 1902, Guesde and Vaillant founded the Socialist Party of France
Socialist Party of France (1902)
The Socialist Party of France was founded in 1902, during a congress in Commentry, by the merger of the Marxist French Workers' Party led by Jules Guesde and the Blanquist Central Revolutionary Committee of Édouard Vaillant....
, while Jaurès, Allemane and the possibilists formed the French Socialist Party
French Socialist Party (1902)
The French Socialist Party was founded in 1902. It came from the merger of the "possibilist" Federation of the Socialist Workers of France , Jean Allemane's Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party and some independent socialist politicians like Jean Jaurès...
. In 1905, during the Globe Congress, under pressure from the Second International
Second International
The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
, the two groups merged into the "French Section of the Workers' International" (SFIO).
From the 1905 unification to the 1920 Tours Congress split
The new SFIO party was hemmed between the middle class liberals of the Radical PartyRadical-Socialist Party (France)
The Radical Party , is a liberal and centrist political party in France. The Radicals are currently the fourth-largest party in the National Assembly, with 21 seats...
and the revolutionary syndicalists who dominated the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s. The General Confederation of Labour
Confédération générale du travail
The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.It is the largest in terms of votes , and second largest in terms of membership numbers.Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 The General...
(CGT) proclaimed its independence from political parties at this time and the non-distinction between political and industrial aims. In addition, some CGT members refused to join the SFIO, because they considered it extremist. They created the Republican-Socialist Party
Republican-Socialist Party
The Republican-Socialist Party was a French socialist political party during the French Third Republic, founded in 1911 and dissolved in 1934. It was founded by socialists who refused to join the SFIO founded in 1905. The PRS was a non-Marxist "reformist socialist" party located between the SFIO...
(PRS).
In contrast to other European socialist parties, the SFIO was a decentralized organization. Its national and executive institutions were weakened by the strong autonomy of its members and local levels of the party. Consequently, the function of secretary general, held by Louis Dubreuilh until 1918, was essentially administrative and the real political leader was Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
, president of the parliamentary group and director of the party paper 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...
.
Unlike the PRS, SFIO members did not participate to Left Bloc
Bloc des gauches
The Bloc des gauches , aka Bloc républicain was a coalition of Republican political forces created during the French Third Republic in 1899 to contest the 1902 legislative elections...
governments, although they supported a part of its policy, notably the laïcité
Laïcité
French secularism, in French, laïcité is a concept denoting the absence of religious involvement in government affairs as well as absence of government involvement in religious affairs. French secularism has a long history but the current regime is based on the 1905 French law on the Separation of...
, based on the 1905 Act of separation between Church and State. However, they criticized the ferocious repression of strikes by Radical Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman, physician and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. For nearly the final year of World War I he led France, and was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles at the...
after 1906, following the creation of a Minister of Labour, a post held by PRS leader René Viviani
René Viviani
Jean Raphaël Adrien René Viviani was a French politician of the Third Republic, who served as Prime Minister for the first year of World War I. He was born in Sidi Bel Abbès, in French Algeria. In France he sought to protect the rights of socialists and trade union workers.-Biography:His...
.
During the July 1914 international crisis, the party was ideologically torn between its membership in the Socialist International
Socialist International
The Socialist International is a worldwide organization of democratic socialist, social democratic and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...
and the wave of patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
within France. The assassination of Jaurès, on 31 July 1914, was a setback for the pacifist wing of the party and contributed to the massive increase in support for the wartime government of national unity
National unity government
A national unity government, government of national unity, or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other national emergency.- Canada :During World War I the Conservative government of Sir...
. Participation in World War I caused divisions within the party, which were accentuated after 1917. Furthermore, internal disagreements appeared about the 1917 October Bolshevik Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
in Russia.
In 1919, the anti-war socialists were heavily defeated in elections by the Bloc National
National Bloc (France)
The National Bloc was a center-right coalition in France which was in power from 1919 to 1924.- Elections of 1919 :Made up primarily of conservative right wing parties, such as the Fédération républicaine, Alliance démocratique, and Action libérale, the coalition had the support of various radical...
coalition which played on the middle-classes' fear of Bolshevism (posters with a Bolshevik with a knife between his teeth were used to discredit the socialist movement). The Bloc National won 70% of the seats, forming what became known as the Chambre bleue horizon ("Blue Horizon Chamber").
On 25 December 1920, during the Tours Congress
Tours Congress
The Tours Congress was the 18th National Congress of the French Section of the Workers' International, or SFIO, which took place in Tours on 25—30 December 1920...
, a majority of SFIO members voted to join the Communist International
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
(Comintern; also known as the "Third International"), created by the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s after the 1917 October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
. Led by Boris Souvarine
Boris Souvarine
Boris Souvarine was an Imperial Russian-born French socialist, communist activist, essayist, and journalist.-Early years:...
and Ludovic Frossard, they created the French Section of the Communist International
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...
(SFIC). Another smaller group also accepted the membership to the Comintern, but not all 21 conditions, while the minority, led by 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 the majority of the socialists' elected members, decided to, in in Blum's words, "keep the old house" and remain within the Second International. Marcel Sembat, Léon Blum and Albert Thomas
Albert Thomas (minister)
Albert Thomas was a prominent French Socialist and the first Minister of Armament for the French Third Republic during World War I. Following the Treaty of Versailles, he was nominated as the first Director General of the International Labour Office, a position he held until his death in 1932.-...
refused to align themselves with Moscow. Paul Faure became secretary general of the SFIO but its most influential figure was Léon Blum, leader of the parliamentary group and director of a new party paper Le Populaire. The previous party paper, 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...
, was controlled by the founders of the SFIC. (However, Ludovic Frossard later resigned from the SFIC and rejoined the SFIO in January 1923.)
One year after the Tours Congress, the CGT trade union made the same split - those who became communists created the United General Confederation of Labour (CGTU), which fused again with the CGT in 1936 during the Popular Front
Popular 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...
government. Léon Jouhaux
Léon Jouhaux
Léon Jouhaux was a French trade union leader who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951.Jouhaux's father worked in a match factory in Aubervilliers. His secondary schooling ended when his father's earnings were stopped by a strike. He gained employment at the factory at age sixteen and immediately...
was CGT's main leader until 1947 and the new split leading to the creation of the reformist Workers' Force (CGT-FO).
From the 1920 Tours Congress to the Popular Front
In 1924 and in 1932, the Socialists joined with the RadicalsRadical-Socialist Party (France)
The Radical Party , is a liberal and centrist political party in France. The Radicals are currently the fourth-largest party in the National Assembly, with 21 seats...
in 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. They supported the government led by Radical Édouard Herriot
Édouard Herriot
Édouard Marie Herriot was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic who served three times as Prime Minister and for many years as President of the Chamber of Deputies....
(1924–1926 and 1932), but they didn't participate.
The first Cartel saw the right-wing terrorized, and capital flight
Capital flight
Capital flight, in economics, occurs when assets and/or money rapidly flow out of a country, due to an economic event and that disturbs investors and causes them to lower their valuation of the assets in that country, or otherwise to lose confidence in its economic...
destabilized the government, while the divided Radicals didn't all support their socialist allies. The monetary crisis, also due to the refusal of Germany to pay the reparations
World War I reparations
World War I reparations refers to the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles following its defeat during World War I...
, caused parliamentary instability. Édouard Herriot, Paul Painlevé
Paul Painlevé
Paul Painlevé was a French mathematician and politician. He served twice as Prime Minister of the Third Republic: 12 September – 13 November 1917 and 17 April – 22 November 1925.-Early life:Painlevé was born in Paris....
and Aristide Briand
Aristide Briand
Aristide Briand was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic and received the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize.- Early life :...
would succeeded each other as president of the Council
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...
until 1926, when the right-wing came back to power with Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Poincaré was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France on five separate occasions and as President of France from 1913 to 1920. Poincaré was a conservative leader primarily committed to political and social stability...
. The newly elected communist deputies also opposed the first Cartel, refusing to support "bourgeois
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
" governments.
The second Cartel acceded to power in 1932, but this time, the SFIO only gave their support without the participation of the Radicals, which allied themselves with right-wing radicals. After years of internal feuds the reformist (or right) wing of the party, led by Marcel Déat
Marcel Déat
Marcel Déat was a French Socialist until 1933, when he initiated a spin-off from the French Section of the Workers' International along with other right-wing 'Neosocialists'. He then founded the collaborationist National Popular Rally during the Vichy regime...
and Pierre Renaudel, split from the SFIO in November 1933 to form a neosocialist movement, and merged with the PRS
Republican-Socialist Party
The Republican-Socialist Party was a French socialist political party during the French Third Republic, founded in 1911 and dissolved in 1934. It was founded by socialists who refused to join the SFIO founded in 1905. The PRS was a non-Marxist "reformist socialist" party located between the SFIO...
in the Socialist Republican Union
Socialist Republican Union
The ' was a political party in France founded in 1935 during the late Third Republic which united the right-wing of the French Section of the Workers' International.The USR was founded by the following parties:*Socialist Party of France-Jean Jaurès Union...
(USR). The Cartel was again the victim of parliamentary instability, while various scandals led to the 6 February 1934 riots organized by far-right leagues. Radical 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...
resigned on the next day, handing out the power to conservative Gaston Doumergue
Gaston Doumergue
Pierre-Paul-Henri-Gaston Doumergue was a French politician of the Third Republic.Doumergue came from a Protestant family. Beginning as a Radical, he turned more towards the political right in his old age. He served as Prime Minister from 9 December 1913 to 2 June 1914...
. It was the first time during the Third Republic
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...
(1871–1940) that a government had to resign because of street pressure.
Following 6 February 1934 crisis, which the whole of the socialist movement saw as a fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
conspiracy to overthrow the Republic, a goal pursued by the royalist Action Française
Action Française
The Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...
and other far-right leagues, anti-fascist
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...
organizations were created. 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), supported by the Comintern's abandoning of the "social-fascism" directives in favor of "united front
United front
The united front is a form of struggle that may be pursued by revolutionaries. The basic theory of the united front tactic was first developed by the Comintern, an international communist organisation created by revolutionaries in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.According to the theses of...
" directives, got closer to the SFIO, the USR
Socialist Republican Union
The ' was a political party in France founded in 1935 during the late Third Republic which united the right-wing of the French Section of the Workers' International.The USR was founded by the following parties:*Socialist Party of France-Jean Jaurès Union...
and the Radical Party
Radical-Socialist Party (France)
The Radical Party , is a liberal and centrist political party in France. The Radicals are currently the fourth-largest party in the National Assembly, with 21 seats...
, to form the coalition that would win the 1936 elections and bring about the Popular Front
Popular 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...
. In June 1934, Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
proposed the "French Turn
French Turn
The French Turn was the name given to the entry between 1934 and 1936 of the French Trotskyists into the Section Française de l'International Ouvrière...
" into the SFIO, which is where the entrism strategy takes its origins from. The 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...
Communist League's (the French section of the International Left Opposition
Left Opposition
The Left Opposition was a faction within the Bolshevik Party from 1923 to 1927, headed de facto by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin's illness and intensified with his death in January...
) leaders were divided over the issue of entering the SFIO: Raymond Molinier
Raymond Molinier
Raymond Molinier was a leader of the Trotskyist movement in France and a pioneer of the Fourth International. In 1929 he founded the journal La Vérité, and in March 1936 he and Pierre Frank co-founded the Parti communiste internationaliste, which merged with two other groups to form the Parti...
was the most supportive of Trotsky's proposal, while Pierre Naville
Pierre Naville
Pierre Naville was a French Surrealist writer and sociologist. He was a prominent member of the 'Investigating Sex' group of Surrealist thinkers.In politics, he was a Communist and then a Trotskyist, before joining the PSU...
was opposed to it and Pierre Frank
Pierre Frank
Pierre Frank was a French Trotskyist leader. He served on the secretariat of the Fourth International from 1948 to 1979....
remained ambivalent. The League finally voted to dissolve into the SFIO in August 1934, where they formed the Bolshevik-Leninist Group (Groupe Bolchevik-Leniniste, GBL). At the Mulhouse
Mulhouse
Mulhouse |mill]] hamlet) is a city and commune in eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. With a population of 110,514 and 278,206 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2006, it is the largest city in the Haut-Rhin département, and the second largest in the Alsace region after...
party congress
Party Congress
A party congress is a general conference of a political party. The congress is attended by delegates who represent the party membership. In most parties the party congress is the highest decision making body of the organisation and elects the party's leadership bodies such as the National Executive...
of June 1935, the Trotskyists led a campaign to prevent the United Front from expanding into a "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...
", which would include the middle-class Radical Party.
However, the Popular Front strategy was adopted and, in the 1936 election
French legislative election, 1936
French legislative elections to elect the 16th legislature of the French Third Republic were held on 26 April and 3 May 1936. This was the last legislature of the Third Republic and the last election before the Second World War. The number of candidates set a record, with 4,807 people vying for 618...
, the coalition became majority and, for the first time, the SFIO obtained more votes and seats than the Radical Party
Radical-Socialist Party (France)
The Radical Party , is a liberal and centrist political party in France. The Radicals are currently the fourth-largest party in the National Assembly, with 21 seats...
. In this, 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 France's first socialist president of the Council in 1936, while the PCF supported - without participation - his government. A general strike applauded the socialists' victory, while 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:...
cried "Tout est possible!" ("Everything is possible!"). Pivert would later split and create the Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party
Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party
The Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party was an ephemeral socialist organisation in France, formed on June 8, 1938 by Marceau Pivert...
(PSOP); historian Daniel Guérin
Daniel Guérin
Daniel Guérin was a French libertarian and author, best known for his work Anarchism: From Theory to Practice, as well as his collection No Gods No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism in which he collected writings on the idea and movement it inspired, from the first writings of Max Stirner in the...
was also a member of the latter. Trotsky advised the GBL to break with the SFIO, leading to a confused departure by the Trotskyists from the Socialist Party in early 1936, which drew only about six hundred people from the party. The 1936 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...
set up collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
, and removed all obstacles to union organization
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...
. The terms included a blanket 7-12 percent wage increase, and allowed for paid vacation (2 weeks) and a 40-hour work week — the eight-hour day
Eight-hour day
The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life and imposed long hours and poor working conditions. With working conditions...
had been established following the 1914-18 war of attrition
War of Attrition
The international community and both countries attempted to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict. The Jarring Mission of the United Nations was supposed to ensure that the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 242 would be observed, but by late 1970 it was clear that this mission had been...
and its mobilization of industrial capacities.
Within a year, however, Blum's government collapsed over economic policy (as during the Cartel des gauches, capital flight
Capital flight
Capital flight, in economics, occurs when assets and/or money rapidly flow out of a country, due to an economic event and that disturbs investors and causes them to lower their valuation of the assets in that country, or otherwise to lose confidence in its economic...
was an issue, giving rise to the so-called "myth of the 200 hundreds families") in the context of the Great Depression, and also over the issue of 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...
. The demoralised left fell apart and was unable to resist the collapse of the Third Republic after the military defeat of 1940 (during World War II).
World War II
A number of SFIO members were part of the Vichy 80 who refused to vote extraordinary powers to Marshal Philippe PétainPhilippe 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...
in July 1940, following which the latter proclaimed the Révolution nationale
Révolution nationale
The Révolution nationale was the official ideological name under which the Vichy regime established by Marshal Philippe Pétain in July 1940 presented its program...
reactionary program and the establishment of the Vichy regime. Although some engaged in Collaborationism
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
an important part also took 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...
. Pierre Fourcaud created with Félix Gouin
Félix Gouin
Félix Gouin was a French Socialist politician, member of the French Section of the Workers' International .-Personal life:Félix Gouin was born in Peypin, Bouches-du-Rhône, the son of school teachers...
the Brutus Network
Brutus Network
The Brutus Network was a French Resistant movement during World War II. It was founded in 1941 by Pierre Fourcaud, parachuted in France with instructions from Charles de Gaulle to set up an intelligence network , and other socialist members of the French Section of the Workers' International ,...
, in which Gaston Defferre
Gaston Defferre
Gaston Defferre was a French socialist politician.-Biography:Lawyer and member of the French Section of the Workers' International political party, he was a member of the Brutus Network, a Resistance Socialist group during World War II...
, later mayor of Marseilles for years, participated, along with Daniel Mayer
Daniel Mayer
Daniel William Mayer was a member of the French Section of the Workers' International , a socialist party in France, president of the Ligue des droits de l'homme from 1958 to 1975. He founded the Comité d'Action Socialiste in 1941 and was a member of the Brutus Network, a Resistant Socialist group...
. In 1942-43, Pétain's regime judged the Third Republic by organizing a public trial, the Riom Trial
Riom Trial
The Riom Trial was an attempt by the Vichy France regime, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, to prove that the leaders of the French Third Republic had been responsible for France's defeat by Germany in 1940...
, of personalities accused of having "caused" the defeat of France
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
. Those included 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:...
, the Radical-Socialist 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...
, the conservatives Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud was a French politician and lawyer prominent in the interwar period, noted for his stances on economic liberalism and militant opposition to Germany. He was the penultimate Prime Minister of the Third Republic and vice-president of the Democratic Republican Alliance center-right...
and Georges Mandel
Georges Mandel
Georges Mandel was a French politician, journalist, and French Resistance leader.-Biography:Born Louis George Rothschild in Chatou, Yvelines, was the son of a tailor...
, etc.
At the same time, Marcel Déat
Marcel Déat
Marcel Déat was a French Socialist until 1933, when he initiated a spin-off from the French Section of the Workers' International along with other right-wing 'Neosocialists'. He then founded the collaborationist National Popular Rally during the Vichy regime...
and some neosocialists who had split from the SFIO in 1933, participated to the Vichy regime and supported Pétain's policy of collaboration. Paul Faure, secretary general of the SFIO from 1920 to 1940, approved of this policy too. He was excluded from the party when it was reconstituted in 1944. In total, 14 of the 17 SFIO ministers who had been in government before the war were expelled for collaboration.
Under the Fourth Republic
After the liberation of France in 1944, while the PCFFrench 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...
became the largest left-wing party, the project to create a Labour party rallying the non-Communist 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...
failed in due to the disagreements opposing notably the Socialists and the Christian-Democrats about laïcité
Laïcité
French secularism, in French, laïcité is a concept denoting the absence of religious involvement in government affairs as well as absence of government involvement in religious affairs. French secularism has a long history but the current regime is based on the 1905 French law on the Separation of...
, and the conflict with Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
about the new organization of the institutions (parliamentary system or presidential government). The SFIO re-emerged and participated in the Three-parties
Three-parties
The Three-Parties Alliance was a coalition which governed in France from 1944 to 1947, and was composed of the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Christian Democrat Popular Republican Movement , which to begin with contained the regrouped Gaullists...
alliance with the PCF and the Christian-Democrats (Popular Republican Movement
Popular Republican Movement
The Popular Republican Movement was a French Christian democratic party of the Fourth Republic...
, MRP) under the leadership of de Gaulle, President of the provisional government. This coalition led the social policy inspired by National Council of Resistance's programme, installing the main elements of the French welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
, nationalizing banks and some industrial companies. While serving in government during the Forties, the SFIO was partly responsible for setting up the welfare state institutions of the Liberation period and helping to bring about France's economic recovery.
In Spring 1946, the SFIO reluctantly supported the constitutional plans of the Communist Party. They were rejected by referendum
French constitutional referendum, May 1946
A constitutional referendum was held in France on 5 May 1946. Voters were asked whether they approved of a new constitution proposed by the National Assembly elected in 1945. Moderates, Radicals, and the Popular Republican Movement campaigned against the referendum. It was rejected by 52.8% of...
. The party supported the second proposal, prepared with the PCF and the MRP, and it was approved in October 1946
French constitutional referendum, October 1946
A constitutional referendum was held in France on 13 October 1946. Voters were asked whether they approved of a new constitution proposed by the Constituent Assembly elected in June. Unlike the May referendum, which saw a previous constitutional proposal rejected, the new constitution was accepted...
.
However, the coalition split in May 1947. Because of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, the Communist ministers were excluded from the cabinet led by Socialist 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...
. Anti-communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
prevented the left from forming a united front. The Communists had taken control of the CGT
Confédération générale du travail
The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.It is the largest in terms of votes , and second largest in terms of membership numbers.Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 The General...
trade union. This was relatively weakened by the 1948 creation of a social-democratic trade union Workers' Force
Force Ouvrière
The General Confederation of Labor - Workers' Force is one of the five major union federations in France. In terms of following, it is the third behind the CGT and the CFDT....
(FO), which was supported by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
. This split was led by former CGT secretary general Léon Jouhaux
Léon Jouhaux
Léon Jouhaux was a French trade union leader who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951.Jouhaux's father worked in a match factory in Aubervilliers. His secondary schooling ended when his father's earnings were stopped by a strike. He gained employment at the factory at age sixteen and immediately...
, who was granted the Nobel peace prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
three years later. Teachers' union (Federation for National Education, FEN) chosen to gain autonomy towards the two confederations in order to conserve its unity. But Socialist syndicalists took the control of the FEN, which became the main training ground of the SFIO party.
A Third Force
Third Force (France)
The Third Force was a French coalition during the Fourth Republic which gathered the French Section of the Workers' International party, the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance centre-right party, the Radicals, the Christian democrat Popular Republican Movement and other centrist...
coalition was constituted by center-right and center-left parties, including the SFIO, in order to block the opposition of the Communists on the one hand, and of the Gaullists on the other. Besides, in spite of 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:...
's support, the party leader Daniel Mayer
Daniel Mayer
Daniel William Mayer was a member of the French Section of the Workers' International , a socialist party in France, president of the Ligue des droits de l'homme from 1958 to 1975. He founded the Comité d'Action Socialiste in 1941 and was a member of the Brutus Network, a Resistant Socialist group...
was defeated in aid of Guy Mollet
Guy Mollet
Guy Mollet was a French Socialist politician. He led the French Section of the Workers' International party from 1946 to 1969 and was Prime Minister in 1956–1957.-Early life and World War II:...
. If the new secretary general was supported by the left-wing of the party, he was very hostile to any form of alliance with the PCF. He said "the Communist Party is not on the Left but in the East". At the beginning of the 1950s, the disagreements with its governmental partners about denominational schools and the colonial problem explained a more critical attitude of the SFIO membership. In 1954, the party was deeply divided about the European Defense Community. Against the instructions of the party lead, the half of the parliamentary group voted against the project, and contributed to its failure.
Progressively, the Algerian War of Independence
Algerian War of Independence
The Algerian War was a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria's gaining its independence from France...
became the major issue of the political debate. During the 1956 legislative campaign, the party took part in the Republican Front
Republican Front (France)
The Republican Front was a French center-left coalition which won the 1956 legislative election. In the context of the Algerian War, behind Pierre Mendès-France, it gathered the French Section of the Workers' International , the Radical Party, the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance...
, a center-left coalition led by Radical Pierre Mendès France, who advocated a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Guy Mollet
Guy Mollet
Guy Mollet was a French Socialist politician. He led the French Section of the Workers' International party from 1946 to 1969 and was Prime Minister in 1956–1957.-Early life and World War II:...
took the lead of the cabinet but led a very repressive policy. After the May 1958 crisis
May 1958 crisis
The May 1958 crisis was a political crisis in France during the turmoil of the Algerian War of Independence which led to the return of Charles de Gaulle to political responsibilities after a ten year absence...
, he supported the return of Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
and the establishment of the Fifth Republic
French Fifth Republic
The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...
.
Moreover, the SFIO was divided about the repressive policy of Guy Mollet in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
and his support to De Gaulle's return. If the party returned in opposition in 1959, it couldn't prevent the constitution of another Unified Socialist Party
Unified Socialist Party (France)
The Unified Socialist Party was a socialist political party in France, founded on April 3, 1960. It was originally led by Édouard Depreux , and by Michel Rocard .- History :...
(Parti socialiste unifié or PSU) in 1960, joined the next year by Pierre Mendès France, whom was trying to anchor the Radical party in the left-wing and opposed the colonial wars.
The Fifth Republic
The SFIO received its lowest vote in the 1960s. It was discredited by the contradictory policies of its leaders during the Fourth RepublicFourth Republic
Fourth Republic may refer to:* French Fourth Republic * Fourth Republic of the Philippines * Fourth Republic of South Korea * The Fourth Republic of Niger...
. Youth and the intellectual circles preferred the PSU while the majority of workers considered the PCF as its spokesperson. The Fifth Republic
French Fifth Republic
The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...
's Constitution
Constitution of France
The current Constitution of France was adopted on 4 October 1958. It is typically called the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, and replaced that of the Fourth Republic dating from 1946. Charles de Gaulle was the main driving force in introducing the new constitution and inaugurating the Fifth...
had been tailored by Charles de Gaulle to satisfy his needs, and his Gaullist
Gaullism
Gaullism is a French political ideology based on the thought and action of Resistance leader then president Charles de Gaulle.-Foreign policy:...
movement managed to gather enough people from the left and the right to govern without the other parties' help.
Furthermore, the SFIO hesitated between allying with the non-Gaullist centre-right (as advocated by Gaston Defferre
Gaston Defferre
Gaston Defferre was a French socialist politician.-Biography:Lawyer and member of the French Section of the Workers' International political party, he was a member of the Brutus Network, a Resistance Socialist group during World War II...
) and reconciliation with the Communists. Guy Mollet refused to choose. The SFIO supported François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
to the 1965 presidential election
French presidential election, 1965
The 1965 French presidential election was the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage of the Fifth Republic. It was also the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage since the Second Republic in 1848. It was won by incumbent president Charles de Gaulle who resigned...
although he was not a member of the party. The SFIO and the Radicals then created the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left
Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left
The Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left was a conglomerate of French left-wing non-Communist forces. It was founded to support François Mitterrand's candidature at the 1965 presidential election and to couter-balance the Communist preponderance over the French left...
(FGDS), a centre-left coalition led by François Mitterrand. But it split after May 1968 and the electoral disaster of June 1968.
Gaston Defferre
Gaston Defferre
Gaston Defferre was a French socialist politician.-Biography:Lawyer and member of the French Section of the Workers' International political party, he was a member of the Brutus Network, a Resistance Socialist group during World War II...
was the SFIO candidate in the 1969 presidential election
French presidential election, 1969
The 1969 French presidential election took place on 1 June and 15 June 1969. It occurred due to the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle on 28 April 1969. Indeed, De Gaulle had decided to consult the voters by referendum about regionalisation and the reform of the Senate, and he had announced...
. He was eliminated in the first round with only 5% of votes. One month later, at the Issy-les-Moulineaux Congress
Issy-les-Moulineaux Congress
The Issy-les-Moulineaux Congress was the second national congress of the French Socialist Party . It took place on July 11 to 13, 1969. This marked the transformation of the old French Section of the Workers' International into the new PS...
, the SFIO was refounded as the modern-day 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...
. Guy Mollet passed on the leadership to Alain Savary
Alain Savary
Alain Savary was a French Socialist politician, deputy to the National Assembly of France during the Fourth and Fifth Republic, chairman of the Socialist Party and a government minister in the 1950s and in 1981, when he was nominated by President François Mitterrand as Minister of National...
.
In West Africa
The SFIO suffered a split in SenegalSenegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
in 1934 as Lamine Guèye broke away and formed the Senegalese Socialist Party
Senegalese Socialist Party
Senegalese Socialist Party was a political party in Senegal. PSS was founded in July 1934 by Lamine Guèye, as a split from the French Section of the Workers' International...
(PSS). However as the Senegalese Popular Front
Popular 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...
committee as formed, PSS and the SFIO branch cooperated. In 1937 a joint list of SFIO and PSS won the municipal elections in Saint-Louis
Saint-Louis, Senegal
Saint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, and 320 km north of Senegal's capital city Dakar, it has a population officially estimated at 176,000 in 2005. Saint-Louis...
. Maître Vidal became mayor of the town. The congress of PSS held 4–5 June 1938 decided to reunify with SFIO. Following that decision, a 11–12 June 1938 a congress of the new federation of SFIO was held in Thiès
Thiès
Thiès is the third largest city in Senegal with a population officially estimated at 320,000 in 2005. It lies 60 km east of Dakar on the N2 road and at the junction of railway lines to Dakar, Bamako and St-Louis...
.
In 1948 Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor was a Senegalese poet, politician, and cultural theorist who for two decades served as the first president of Senegal . Senghor was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française. Before independence, he founded the political party called the Senegalese...
broke away from the Senegalese federation of SFIO, and formed the Senegalese Democratic Bloc
Senegalese Democratic Bloc
Senegalese Democratic Bloc was a political party in Senegal, founded on October 27, 1948 by Léopold Sédar Senghor, following a split from the French Section of the Workers' International...
(BDS). During the 1951 National Assembly election
French legislative election, 1951
Legislative elections were held in France on 17 June 1951 to elect the second National Assembly of the Fourth Republic.After the Second World War, the three parties which took a major part in the French Resistance to the German occupation dominated the political scene and government: the French...
campaign, violence broke out between BDS and SFIO activists. In the end BDS won both seats allocated to Senegal.
In 1956 another SFIO splinter group appeared in Senegal, the Socialist Movement of the Senegalese Union
Socialist Movement of the Senegalese Union
Socialist Movement of the Senegalese Union was a splinter-group of French Section of the Workers' International in Senegal. MSUS appeared in 1956 and merged into the Senegalese Popular Bloc ....
.
In 1957 the history of SFIO in West Africa came to an end. The federations of SFIO in Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
, Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
, Moyen-Congo, French Sudan
French Sudan
French Sudan was a colony in French West Africa that had two separate periods of existence, first from 1890 to 1899, then from 1920 to 1960, when the territory became the independent nation of Mali.-Colonial establishment:...
(Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
), Gabon
Gabon
Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...
, Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
, Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
, Oubangui-Chari
Oubangui-Chari
Oubangui-Chari, or Ubangi-Shari, was a French territory in central Africa which later became the independent Central African Republic . French activity in the area began in 1889 with the establishment of an outpost at Bangui, now the capital of CAR. The territory was named in 1894.In 1903, French...
(Central African Republic
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...
), and Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
; the meeting was held in Conakry
Conakry
Conakry is the capital and largest city of Guinea. Conakry is a port city on the Atlantic Ocean and serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea with a 2009 population of 1,548,500...
from 11 January to 13 January 1957. At that meeting it was decided that the African federations would break with its French parent organisation and form the African Socialist Movement
African Socialist Movement
African Socialist Movement was a political party in French West Africa. The MSA was formed following a meeting of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière federations of Cameroon, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, French Sudan , Gabon, Guinea, Niger, Oubangui-Chari , and Senegal; the...
(MSA), an independent Pan-African party. The Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
ese section of MSA was the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action
Senegalese Party of Socialist Action
Senegalese Party of Socialist Action was a political party in Senegal led by Lamine Guèye...
(PSAS), and it was led by Lamine Guèye. The first meeting of the leading committee of MSA met in Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
from 9 February to 10 February the same year. Two SFIO delegates attended the session.
Election results
- 1906French legislative election, 1906The 1906 general election was held on 6 and 20 May 1906.-Popular Vote:-Parliamentary Groups:- Sources :*...
: 9.95% - 1910French legislative election, 1910-Popular Vote:-Parliamentary Groups:- Sources :*...
: 13.23% - 1914French legislative election, 1914The 1914 general elections were held on 26 April and 10 May 1914, months before the outbreak of the First World War. The left won a landslide victory, though the entirety of the chambers, from Catholics to socialists united during World War I to form the Union sacrée.-Popular Vote:-Parliamentary...
: 16.76% - 1919French legislative election, 1919The 1919 legislative election, the first election held after World War I, was held on 16 and 30 November 1919.Proportional representation by department replaced the Two-round system by arrondissements in use since 1889...
: 21.22% - 1924: 20.16%
- 1928French legislative election, 1928Legislative elections in France to elect the 14th legislature of the French Third Republic were held on 22 and 29 April 1928.-Popular Vote:-Parliamentary Groups:...
: 18.05% - 1932: 20.51%
- 1936French legislative election, 1936French legislative elections to elect the 16th legislature of the French Third Republic were held on 26 April and 3 May 1936. This was the last legislature of the Third Republic and the last election before the Second World War. The number of candidates set a record, with 4,807 people vying for 618...
: 19.86% - 1945French legislative election, 1945A legislative election was held in France on 21 October 1945 to elect a constituent assembly to draft a constitution for a Fourth French Republic. 79.83% of voters participated. Women and soldiers were allowed to vote...
: 23.45% - June 1946French legislative election, June 1946Legislative elections were held in France on 2 June 1946 to elect the second post-war National Assembly designated to prepare a new Constitution...
: 21.14% - November 1946French legislative election, November 1946Legislative election was held in France on 10 November 1946 to elect the first National Assembly of the Fourth Republic. The electoral system used was proportional representation....
: 17.9% - 1951French legislative election, 1951Legislative elections were held in France on 17 June 1951 to elect the second National Assembly of the Fourth Republic.After the Second World War, the three parties which took a major part in the French Resistance to the German occupation dominated the political scene and government: the French...
: 15.39% - 1956: 14.93%
- 1958French legislative election, 1958- National Assembly by Parliamentary Group:...
: 15.5% - 1962French legislative election, 1962- National Assembly by Parliamentary Group:...
: 12.5% - 1965 (Presidential)French presidential election, 1965The 1965 French presidential election was the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage of the Fifth Republic. It was also the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage since the Second Republic in 1848. It was won by incumbent president Charles de Gaulle who resigned...
: 31.72%, 44.8% in runoff (Common FGDSFederation of the Democratic and Socialist LeftThe Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left was a conglomerate of French left-wing non-Communist forces. It was founded to support François Mitterrand's candidature at the 1965 presidential election and to couter-balance the Communist preponderance over the French left...
–PCFFrench 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...
-Radical candidacy) - 1967French legislative election, 1967French legislative elections took place on 5 and 12 March 1967 to elect the 3rd National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.In December 1965, Charles de Gaulle was re-elected President of France in the first Presidential election by universal suffrage. However, contrary to predictions, there had been a...
: 19% (result of the FGDSFederation of the Democratic and Socialist LeftThe Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left was a conglomerate of French left-wing non-Communist forces. It was founded to support François Mitterrand's candidature at the 1965 presidential election and to couter-balance the Communist preponderance over the French left...
, including other left-wing parties) - 1968French legislative election, 1968- National Assembly by Parliamentary Group:...
: 16.5% (result of the FGDSFederation of the Democratic and Socialist LeftThe Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left was a conglomerate of French left-wing non-Communist forces. It was founded to support François Mitterrand's candidature at the 1965 presidential election and to couter-balance the Communist preponderance over the French left...
, including other left-wing parties) - 1969 (Presidential)French presidential election, 1969The 1969 French presidential election took place on 1 June and 15 June 1969. It occurred due to the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle on 28 April 1969. Indeed, De Gaulle had decided to consult the voters by referendum about regionalisation and the reform of the Senate, and he had announced...
: 5.01%
See also
- French Socialist Party
- History of communismHistory of communismThe history of the political ideology of communism hypothetically stretches all the way from the Palaeolithic up until the present day. However, most modern forms of communism are based upon Marxism, a variant of the ideology formed by the sociologist Karl Marx in the 1840s...
- History of socialismHistory of socialismThe history of socialism has its origins in the French Revolution of 1789 and the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, although it has precedents in earlier movements and ideas. The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in 1848 just before the Revolutions...
- 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...