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TheFrench Turn was the name given to theentry between 1934 and 1936 of theFrench Trotskyists into theFrench Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, the contemporary name of theFrench Socialist Party). The French Turn was repeated byTrotskyists in other countries during the 1930s.
The idea of the French Turn originated after the6 February 1934 riots around theStavisky Affair in 1934, which led to the downfall of theDaladier government. Fearing thatfascists would seize power as they had inGermany andItaly, the Socialist Party (SFIO) andFrench Communist Party (PCF) formed a "united front".
TheCommunist League, the French section of theInternational Left Opposition, remained at this time a small and predominantlymiddle-class organization.Leon Trotsky saw a great opportunity in the United Front for an expansion of the Trotskyists' ranks. While he saw no possibility of re-entering the Communist Party because of its lack of internal democracy, he believed that the Trotskyists could build a base in the SFIO, which had moved to theleft under the leadership ofLéon Blum. Trotsky formally proposed the "French Turn" into the SFIO in June 1934.
The Communist League's leaders were divided over the issue of entering the SFIO. WhileRaymond Molinier was the most supportive of Trotsky's proposal,Pierre Naville vocally opposed the motion, andPierre Frank remained ambivalent. After two months of formal discussion, the League voted to dissolve into the SFIO in August 1934. In the Socialist Party, they formed theBolshevik-Leninist Group (Groupe Bolchevik-Leniniste, GBL). Naville split from the group.[1]
Upon entering the SFIO, the GBL began to build a base among the party's left wing. The Trotskyists' influence was strongest in the youth affiliate,Young Socialists, and the Parisian party branches. At theMulhouseparty congress of June 1935, the Trotskyists led an unsuccessful campaign to prevent the United Front from expanding into a "popular front", which would include the middle-classRadical Party.Jean Rous of the GBL was elected to the SFIO's National Administrative Committee.
After the formation of thePopular Front, Trotsky advised the GBL to break with the SFIO and begin forming a new revolutionary party. This created new divisions within the GBL's leadership. While Naville supported a split, Molinier hoped to develop connections withMarceau Pivert, one of the primary leaders of the SFIO's left wing. This led to a confused and awkward departure by the Trotskyists from the Socialist Party in early 1936, which drew only about six hundred people from the party. Molinier and Naville formed two separate parties, and their divisions were reinforced over how to relate to Pivert's new party, theWorkers and Peasants Socialist Party (PSOP).
The French Trotskyists were dispersed when World War II began, but in 1944 they re-unified into theInternationalist Communist Party (PCI).
In other countries, the French Turn was repeated by Trotsky's other followers:
The French Turn remained a lasting issue of debate between Trotsky's often-divided followers after World War II. Some believed that the French Turn was a success, and they promoted the idea thatentryism should be continued. The main advocates of this view in the 1950s and 1960s wereMichel Pablo, secretary of theInternational Secretariat of the Fourth International, andGerry Healy, secretary of theInternational Committee of the Fourth International, which both supported entrism. Pablo developed a special type of the turn which involved working underground in the Communist Parties: this was strongly opposed by the ICFI.
Others in the Trotskyist movement have believed the French Turn to be either a failure or unprincipled and advocated the independence of Trotskyists fromsocial-democratic and communist parties:Hugo Oehler developed this view at the time of the French Turn. The issue of entryism remains a point of contention among Trotskyists to this day.
