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French Section of the Workers' International Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | |
| Founders | Jules Guesde Jean Jaurès |
| Founded | 25 April 1905; 120 years ago (1905-04-25) |
| Dissolved | 4 May 1969; 56 years ago (1969-05-04) |
| Merger of | French Socialist Party Socialist Party of France |
| Merged into | Socialist Party |
| Headquarters | Paris |
| Newspaper | Le Populaire (from 1918) L'Humanité (until 1920) |
| Trade union | Workers' Force |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Left-wing[8] |
| National affiliation | Lefts Cartel (1924–1934) Popular Front (1936–1938) Tripartisme (1944–1947) Third Force (1947–1958) |
| European Parliament group | Socialist Group |
| International affiliation | Second International (1905–1916) Labour and Socialist International (1923–1940) Socialist International (1951–1969) |
| Colours | Red |
TheFrench Section of the Workers' International (French:Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière,SFIO) was a major socialistpolitical party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the presentSocialist Party.
The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representative to theSecond International, merging theMarxistSocialist Party of France led byJules Guesde and thesocial-democraticFrench Socialist Party led byJean Jaurès, who became the SFIO's leading figure. Electoral support for the party rose from 10 percent in the1906 election to 17 percent in1914, and duringWorld War I it participated in France'snational unity government, sacrificing its ideals ofinternationalistclass struggle in favor of nationalpatriotism, as did most other members of the Second International. In 1920, the SFIO split over views on the 1917Russian Revolution; the majority became theFrench Communist Party, while the minority continued as the SFIO.
In the 1930s, mutual concern overfascism drew the communists and socialists together, prompting them to form thePopular Front. The coalition won the1936 election and formed a government under SFIO leaderLéon Blum, which lasted until 1938. After the outbreak ofWorld War II andGerman conquest of France in 1940, the SFIO was banned, and many of its members took part in theResistance. The SFIO was part of France'stripartisme government from 1944 to 1947, but after the war faced a resurgent Communist Party, which achieved a higher share of the vote in every election for the next three decades. From 1956 to 1957, SFIO leaderGuy Mollet served as prime minister, but the party continued its period of decline and disunity. In 1969, the present Socialist Party of France was formed from a merger of the SFIO and smaller parties.
Between 1909 and 1920, the SFIO published the newspaperL'Humanité. In French politics, it affiliated with theLeft Cartel (1924–1926, and 1934), the Popular Front (1936–1938), the Tripartisme (1944–1947), and theThird Force (1947–1958). Internationally, the party was first affiliated with the Second International (1905–1916), then theLabour and Socialist International (1923–1940),[9] and finally theSocialist International (1951–1969). The SFIO's symbol was a red and black circle with theThree Arrows.
After the failure of the Paris Commune of 1871, French socialism was severely weakened, with its leaders dead or in exile. During the 1879Marseille Congress, workers' associations created theFederation of the Socialist Workers of France (FTSF). Three years later,Jules Guesde andPaul Lafargue (the son-in-law ofKarl Marx) left the federation, which they considered too moderate, and founded theFrench Workers' Party (POF). The FTSF led byPaul Brousse was defined as possibilist because it advocated gradual reforms whereas the POF promoted Marxism. At the same time,Édouard Vaillant and the heirs ofLouis Auguste Blanqui founded theCentral Revolutionary Committee (CRC) which represented the French revolutionary tradition.
In the 1880s, the FTSF saw their first electoral success, winning control of some municipalities.Jean Allemane and some FTSF members criticised the focus on electoral goals. In 1890, they created theRevolutionary Socialist Workers' Party (POSR). Their main objective was to win power through the tactic of thegeneral 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, theDreyfus affair caused debate in the socialist movement. WhileJules Guesde believed socialists should not intervene in this internal conflict of the bourgeoisie,Jean Jaurès urged the socialist movement to join the republican movement's struggle to defend republican values. In 1899, another debate polarised the socialist groups, pitted Guesde against Jaures over the participation of the socialistAlexandre Millerand inPierre Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet, which included theMarquis de Gallifet, who had directed the bloody repression of the Paris Commune. In 1902, Guesde and Vaillant founded theSocialist Party of France while Jaurès, Allemane and the possibilists formed theFrench Socialist Party. During the 1905 Globe Congress, the two groups merged into the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) under pressure from theSecond International.
The new SFIO party was hemmed between the middle-classliberals of theRadical Party and therevolutionary syndicalists who dominated thetrade unions. TheGeneral 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 theRepublican-Socialist Party (PRS).
In contrast to other European socialist parties, the SFIO was a decentralised 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 byLouis Dubreuilh until 1918, was essentially administrative and the real political leader wasJean Jaurès, president of the parliamentary group and director ofL'Humanité, the party's newspaper,
Unlike the PRS, SFIO members did not participate inLeft Bloc governments, although they supported a part of its policy, notably thelaïcité, based on the 1905 Act of separation between church and state. However, they criticized the ferocious repression of strikes by Radicalprime ministerGeorges Clemenceau after 1906, following the creation of a Minister of Labour, a post held by PRS leaderRené Viviani.
During the July 1914 international crisis, the party was ideologically torn between its membership in theSocialist International and the wave ofpatriotism 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 wartimegovernment of national unity. Participation in World War I caused divisions within the party which were accentuated after 1917. Furthermore, internal disagreements appeared about the October 1917Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
In 1919, the anti-war socialists were heavily defeated in elections by theNational Bloc coalition which played on the middle-classes' fear ofBolshevism (posters with a Bolshevik with a knife between his teeth were used to discredit the socialist movement). The National Bloc won 70% of the seats, forming what became known as theChambre bleue horizon (Blue Horizon Chamber).
During theTours Congress on 25 December 1920, a majority of SFIO members voted to join theCommunist International, also known as the Comintern and the Third International, created by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution. Led byBoris Souvarine andLudovic-Oscar Frossard, they created theFrench Section of the Communist International (SFIC). Another smaller group also favoured membership in the Comintern, but not all21 conditions. The minority led byLéon Blum and the majority of the Socialists' elected members decided in Blum's words to "keep the old house" and remain within the Second International.Marcel Sembat, Léon Blum andAlbert Thomas refused to align themselves with Moscow.Paul Faure became secretary general of the SFIO, but its most influential figure was Blum, leader of the parliamentary group and director of a new party paperLe Populaire.L'Humanité, the previous party newspaper, was controlled by the founders of the SFIC. However, 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 theConfédération générale du travail unitaire (United General Confederation of Labour; CGTU) which fused again with the CGT in 1936 during thePopular Front government.Léon Jouhaux was the CGT's main leader until 1947 and the new split leading to the creation of thereformist union confederationWorkers' Force (CGT-FO).
In both 1924 and 1932, the Socialists joined with theRadicals in theCartel des Gauches coalition. They supported the government led by RadicalÉdouard Herriot (1924–1926 and 1932), but they did not participate. The first Cartel saw theright-wing terrorised[citation needed] andcapital flight destabilised the government[citation needed] while the divided Radicals did not all support their Socialist allies. The monetary crisis, also due to the refusal of Germany to pay theWorld War I reparations, caused parliamentary instability. Édouard Herriot,Paul Painlevé andAristide Briand succeeded each other as prime minister until 1926, when the French right came back to power withRaymond Poincaré. The newly elected Communist deputies also opposed the first Cartel, refusing to supportbourgeois 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 wing of the party led byMarcel Déat andPierre Renaudel split from the SFIO in November 1933 to form aneosocialist movement and merged with the PRS to form theSocialist Republican Union (USR). The Cartel was again the victim of parliamentary instability while various scandals led to the6 February 1934 riots organised byfar-right leagues. The RadicalÉdouard Daladier resigned on the next day, handing out the power to conservativeGaston Doumergue. It was the first time during theFrench Third Republic that a government had to resign because of street pressure.
Following 6 February 1934 crisis, which the whole of the socialist movement saw as afascist conspiracy to overthrow the Republic, a goal pursued by the royalistAction Française and otherfar-right leagues,anti-fascist organisations were created. The Comintern abandoned itssocial-fascism directive ofsocial democracy in favor ofunited front directives. TheFrench Communist Party (PCF) got closer to the SFIO, the USR and the Radical Party to form the coalition that would win the1936 French legislative election and bring about the Popular Front. In June 1934,Leon Trotsky proposed theFrench Turn into the SFIO, the origin of the strategy ofentrism. TheTrotskyist leaders of theCommunist League (the French section of theInternational Left Opposition) were divided over the issue of entering the SFIO.Raymond Molinier was the most supportive of Trotsky's proposal whilePierre Naville was opposed to it andPierre Frank remained ambivalent. The League finally voted to dissolve into the SFIO in August 1934, where they formed theBolshevik-Leninist Group (Groupe Bolchevik-Leniniste, GBL). At theMulhouse 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 liberal Radical Party.
The Popular Front strategy was adopted in the 1936 French legislative election and the coalition gained a majority, with SFIO obtaining for the first time more votes and seats than theRadical Party.Léon Blum became France's first Socialist prime minister in 1936 while the PCF supported without participation his government. A general strike applauded the socialists' victory whileMarceau Pivert cried "Tout est possible!"[This quote needs a citation] ("Everything is possible!"), but Pivert would later split and create theWorkers and Peasants' Socialist Party (PSOP), with historianDaniel Guérin also being a member of the latter. Trotsky advised the GBL to break with the SFIO, leading to a confused departure by the Trotskyists from the SFIO in early 1936, which drew only about six hundred people from the party. TheMatignon Accords (1936) set upcollective bargaining, and removed all obstacles tounion organisation. The terms included a blanket 7–12% wage increase and allowed forpaid vacation (two weeks) and a 40-hour work week. Theeight-hour day had been established following the war of 1914–1918 of attrition and its mobilisation of industrial capacities.
Within a year, Blum's government collapsed over economic policy (as during theCartel des gauches, when capital flight was an issue, giving rise to the so-called "myth of the 200 families") in the context of theGreat Depression and also over the issue of theSpanish Civil War. The demoralised left fell apart and was unable to resist the collapse of the Third Republic after thefall of France in the military defeat of 1940 during World War II.
A number of SFIO members were part of theVichy 80 who refused to vote extraordinary powers to MarshalPhilippe Pétain in July 1940, following which the latter proclaimed theRévolution nationale reactionary program and the establishment of theVichy regime. Although some engaged incollaborationism, an important part also took part in theResistance and they eventually went on to be part of theNational Council of the Resistance.Pierre Fourcaud created withFélix Gouin theBrutus Network in whichGaston Defferre, later mayor of Marseilles for years, participated along withDaniel Mayer. In 1942–1943, Pétain's regime judged the French Third Republic by organising a public trial, theRiom Trial, of personalities accused of having caused the country's defeat in theBattle of France. They includedLéon Blum, the RadicalÉdouard Daladier and the conservativesPaul Reynaud andGeorges Mandel, among others.
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.
After the liberation of France in 1944, the PCF became the largest left-wing party and the project to create alabour-based political party rallying the non-CommunistResistance failed in part due to the disagreements opposing notably the Socialists and the Christian Democrats aboutlaïcité and the conflict withCharles de Gaulle about the new organisation of the institutions (parliamentary system or presidential government). The SFIO re-emerged and participated in thethree-parties alliance with the PCF and the Christian-democraticPopular Republican Movement (MRP). This coalition led thesocial policy inspired byNational Council of Resistance's programme, installing the main elements of the Frenchwelfare state,nationalising 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.[10] In May 1946, the Socialist-led government ofFélix Gouin passed a law that generalised social security, making it obligatory for the whole population.[11] A number of progressive reforms were also introduced during Paul Ramadier's tenure as prime minister in 1947, including the extension of social security to government workers[12] the introduction of a national minimum wage[13][14] and the granting from April 1947 onwards of allowances to all aged persons in need.[15]
Various measures were also introduced during the SFIO's time in office to improve health and safety in the workplace. An Order of July 1947 prescribed the installation of showers for the use of staff "employed on dirty or unhealthy work" and a decree of August 1947 indicated the special precautions to be taken "to protect workers spraying paint or varnish". An Order of 10 September 1947 laid down the terms in which warnings must be given "of the dangers of benzene poisoning" while a circular of October 1947 indicated "how such poisoning can be prevented".[16] In addition, a Decree of August 1947 instituted the original measures on health and safety committees.[17]
During the years of theFrench Fourth Republic, the SFIO was also active in pressing for changes in areas such as education and agriculture. Through the efforts of the SFIO, a comprehensive Farm Law was passed in 1946 which provided that sharecroppers had the right to renew their options at the expiration of their leaseholds and that the owner could repossess the land only if he or his children worked it. In addition, sharecroppers could acquire ownership at low interest rates while those who were forced to leave the land obtained compensation for the improvements that they made on the land. The sharecroppers also had the right to join a marketing cooperative, while their conflicts with owners were to be resolved at arbitration tribunals to which both sides elected an equal number of representatives.[18]
In the early years of the French Fourth Republic, the SFIO played an instrumental role in securing appropriations for 1,000 additional state elementary school teachers and in bringing in bills to extend the national laic school system to kindergarten and nursery school levels.[18] During the spring of 1946, the SFIO reluctantly supported the constitutional plans of the PCF. They were rejected by areferendum. The party supported the second proposal prepared with the PCF and the MRP which was approved in an October 1946referendum. However, the coalition split in May 1947. Because of theCold War, the Communist ministers were excluded from the cabinet led by SocialistPaul Ramadier.Anti-communism prevented the French left from forming a united front. The Communists had taken control of theGeneral Confederation of Labour (CGT) union. This was relatively weakened by the 1948 creation of a social-democratic trade unionWorkers' Force (FO) which was supported by the AmericanCentral Intelligence Agency. This split was led by former CGT secretary generalLéon Jouhaux, who was granted theNobel Peace Prize three years later. The teachers' union (Federation for National Education, FEN) chose to gain autonomy towards the two confederations in order to conserve its unity, but SFIO syndicalists took the control of the FEN which became the main training ground of the SFIO party.
AThird Force coalition was constituted by centre-right and centre-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 ofLéon Blum's support, the party leaderDaniel Mayer was defeated in aid ofGuy 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 that "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 theEuropean 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, theAlgerian War of Independence became the major issue of the political debate. During the1956 French legislative election campaign, the party took part in theRepublican Front, a centre-left coalition led by RadicalPierre Mendès France, who advocated a peaceful resolution of the conflict.Guy Mollet took the lead of the cabinet, but he led a very repressive policy. After theMay 1958 crisis, he supported the return ofCharles de Gaulle and the establishment of theFrench 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 could not prevent the constitution of anotherUnified Socialist Party (PSU) in 1960, joined the next year byPierre Mendès France, who was trying to anchor the Radical Party amongst the left-wing movement and opposed the colonial wars.
The SFIO received its lowest vote in the 1960s. It was discredited by the contradictory policies of its leaders during theFourth Republic. Youth and the intellectual circles preferred the PSU and workers the PCF. The French Fifth Republic'sconstitution had been tailored by Charles de Gaulle to satisfy his needs and hisGaullism 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 byGaston Defferre) and reconciliation with the Communists. Mollet refused to choose. The SFIO supportedFrançois Mitterrand to the1965 French presidential election even if he was not a member of the party. The SFIO and the Radicals then created theFederation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS), acentre-left coalition led by Mitterrand. It split after theMay 68 events and the electoral disaster of June 1968. Defferre was the SFIO candidate in the1969 French presidential election. He was eliminated in the first round, with only 5% of votes. One month later at theIssy-les-Moulineaux Congress, the SFIO was refounded as the modern-daySocialist Party. Mollet passed on the leadership toAlain Savary.
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The SFIO suffered a split in Senegal in 1934 asLamine Guèye broke away and formed theSenegalese Socialist Party (PSS). As the SenegalesePopular Front committee as formed, the SFIO and the PSS branch cooperated. In 1937, a joint list of both the SFIO and the PSS won the municipal elections inSaint-Louis. Maître Vidal became mayor of the town. The congress of the PSS held 4–5 June 1938 decided to reunify with the SFIO. Following that decision, the 11–12 June 1938 congress of the new federation of SFIO was held inThiès.[19]
In 1948,Léopold Sédar Senghor broke away from the Senegalese federation of SFIO and formed theSenegalese Democratic Bloc (BDS). During the1951 French legislative election campaign, violence broke out between BDS and SFIO activists. In the end, the BDS won both seats allocated to Senegal.[19]
In 1956, another SFIO splinter group appeared in Senegal, theSocialist Movement of the Senegalese Union.[20]
In 1957, the history of the SFIO in West Africa came to an end. The federations of SFIO in Cameroon, Chad, Moyen-Congo, Sudan, Gabon, Guinea, Niger, Oubangui-Chari and Senegal all met inConakry from 11 January to 13 January 1957. At that meeting it was decided that the African federations would break with their French parent organisation and form theAfrican Socialist Movement (MSA), an independentpan-African party. The Senegalese section of MSA was theSenegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS) and it was led byLamine Guèye. The first meeting of the leading committee of MSA met inDakar from 9 February to 10 February 1957 the same year. Two SFIO delegates attended the session.[19]
| Presidency of the French Republic | ||||||||||||||||
| Year | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Rank | Votes | % | Rank | |||||||||||
| 1913 | Édouard Vaillant | 63 | 7.27 | 3rd | 69 | 8.03 | 3rd | |||||||||
| 1920 (September) | Gustave Delory | 69 | 8.78 | 2nd | — | — | — | |||||||||
| 1932 | Paul Faure | 114 | 14.67 | 2nd | — | — | — | |||||||||
| 1939 | Albert Bedouce | 151 | 16.70 | 2nd | — | — | — | |||||||||
| 1947 | Vincent Auriol | 452 | 51.19 | 1st | — | — | — | |||||||||
| 1953 | Marcel-Edmond Naegelen | 160 | 17.24 | 1st | 329 | 37.77 | 2nd | |||||||||
| 1969 | Gaston Defferre | 1 133 222 | 5.01 | 4th | — | — | — | |||||||||
| Chamber of Deputies | ||||
| Year | No. of votes | % of vote | No. of seats | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1906 | 877,221 | 9.95 | 54 / 585 | — |
| 1910 | 1,110,561 | 13.15 | 75 / 595 |  21 |
| 1914 | 1,413,044 | 16.76 | 103 / 595 | 27 |
| 1919 | 1,728,663 | 21.22 | 67 / 613 |  34 |
| 1924 | 1,814,000 | 20.10 | 104 / 581 | 36 |
| 1928 | 1,708,972 | 18.05 | 100 / 604 | 4 |
| 1932 | 1,964,384 | 20.51 | 132 / 607 | 32 |
| 1936 | 1,955,306 | 19.86 | 149 / 610 | 17 |
| National Assembly | ||||
| Year | No. of votes | % of vote | No. of seats | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | 4,561,411 | 23.8 | 134 / 522 |  |
| 1946 (June) | 4,187,747 | 21.1 | 128 / 586 | 6 |
| 1946 (November) | 3,433,901 | 17.9 | 102 / 627 | 26 |
| 1951 | 2,894,001 | 15.4 | 107 / 625 | 5 |
| 1956 | 3,247,431 | 15.3 | 95 / 595 | 12 |
| Year | No. of 1st round votes | % of 1st round vote | No. of seats | Change |
| 1958 | 3,167,354 | 15.5 | 40 / 576 | 55 |
| 1962 | 2,298,729 | 12.5 | 65 / 491 | 18 |
| 1967 | 4,224,110 (in theFGDS) | 19.0 | 114 / 491 | — |
| 1968 | 3,660,250 (in theFGDS) | 16.5 | 57 / 487 | 57 |
In 1947 the social democratic SFIO […]
[...] from the Radical Socialist party and the communist SFIO.
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