The Socialist Party of France (Parti socialiste de France) was founded in 1902, during a congress in Commentry

Commentry

Commentry is a commune in the department of Allier in central France. It lies southwest of Moulins by the Orléans railway.-Population:-Economy:...

, by the merger of the Marxist 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...

 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...

 and the Blanquist

Blanquism

In left-wing discourse, Blanquism refers to a conception of revolution generally attributed to Louis Auguste Blanqui which holds that socialist revolution should be carried out by a relatively small group of highly organised and secretive conspirators. Having taken power, the revolutionaries would...

 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...

 of 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...

.

Unlike 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...

 of 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...

, it refused to support "bourgeois governments" and so, to take part in the Bloc des gauches

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...

coalition. However, the two parties merged in 1905, under the pressure 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...

, into the French Section of the Workers' International.

External links

• Account of the Commentry Congress, Gallica