French Section of the Workers' International

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"SFIO" redirects here. For other uses, see SFIO (disambiguation).
French Section of the Workers' International
Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière
Leader
FoundersJules Guesde
Jean Jaurès
Founded25 April 1905; 118 years ago (1905-04-25)
Dissolved4 May 1969; 54 years ago (1969-05-04)
Merger ofFrench Socialist Party
Socialist Party of France
Merged intoSocialist Party
HeadquartersParis
NewspaperLe Populaire (from 1918)
L'Humanité (until 1920)
Trade unionWorkers' Force
Ideology
Political positionLeft-wing[7]
National affiliationLefts Cartel (1924–1934)
Popular Front (1936–1938)
Tripartisme (1944–1947)
Third Force (1947–1958)
International affiliationSecond International (1905–1916)
Labour and Socialist International (1923–1940)
Socialist International (1951–1969)
European Parliament groupSocialist Group
Colours  Red

The French Section of the Workers' International (

workers' movement
.

The SFIO was led by

class struggle with patriotism
like the whole Second International.

Because of conflicting views towards the 1917

Bolshevik-led Communist International, the SFIO split into two groups during the 1920 Tours Congress as the majority created the French Section of the Communist International which joined the Communist International and became the French Communist Party
while the minority continued as the SFIO.

Between 1909 and 1920, the SFIO produced L'Humanité. Its national affiliations included the Lefts Cartel (1924–1934), the Popular Front (1936–1938), the Tripartisme (1944–1947) and the Third Force (1947–1958). Internationally, the party was first affiliated to the Second International (1905–1916), then to the Labour and Socialist International (1923–1940)[8] and finally to the Socialist International (1951–1969). The SFIO's symbol was a red and black circle with the Three Arrows.[citation needed]

Background

Further information: France in the long nineteenth century, French Third Republic, and Paris Commune

After the failure of the Paris Commune of 1871, French socialism was severely weakened. Its leaders died or were exiled. During the 1879

Marseille Congress, workers' associations created the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (FTSF). 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 FTSF knew 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 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

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. During the 1905 Globe Congress, the two groups merged into the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) under pressure from the Second International
.

History

Foundation and early years

The new SFIO party was hemmed between the middle-class liberals of the Radical Party and the revolutionary syndicalists who dominated the trade unions. 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 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 by Louis Dubreuilh until 1918, was essentially administrative and the real political leader was Jean Jaurès, president of the parliamentary group and director of L'Humanité, the party's newspaper,

Unlike the PRS, SFIO members did not participate in

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

Bolshevik Revolution
in Russia.

In 1919, the anti-war socialists were heavily defeated in elections by the National Bloc 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 National Bloc won 70% of the seats, forming what became known as the Chambre bleue horizon (Blue Horizon Chamber).

Communist split and the Popular Front

During the

reformist union confederation Workers' Force
(CGT-FO).

In both 1924 and 1932, the Socialists joined with the

far-right leagues. The Radical Édouard Daladier resigned on the next day, handing out the power to conservative Gaston Doumergue. It was the first time during the French 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 a

Trotskyist leaders of the Communist League (the French section of the International Left Opposition) 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 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 the

paid vacation (two weeks) and a 40-hour work week. The eight-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 the Cartel des gauches, when capital flight was an issue, giving rise to the so-called "myth of the 200 families") in the context of the

fall of France
in the military defeat of 1940 during World War II.

World War II

A number of SFIO members were part of the

collaborationism, an important part also took part in the Resistance and they eventually went on to be part of the National Council of 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 1942–1943, Pétain's regime judged the French Third Republic by organising a public trial, the Riom Trial, of personalities accused of having caused the country's defeat in the Battle of France. They included Léon Blum, the Radical Édouard Daladier and the conservatives Paul Reynaud and Georges 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.

Fourth Republic

After the liberation of France in 1944, the PCF became the largest left-wing party and the project to create a

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.[9] In May 1946, the Socialist-led government of Félix Gouin passed a law that generalised social security, making it obligatory for the whole population.[10] 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[11] the introduction of a national minimum wage[12][13] and the granting from April 1947 onwards of allowances to all aged persons in need.[14]

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".[15] In addition, a Decree of August 1947 instituted the original measures on health and safety committees.[16]

During the years of the French 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.[17]

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.[17] During the spring of 1946, the SFIO reluctantly supported the constitutional plans of the PCF. They were rejected by a referendum. The party supported the second proposal prepared with the PCF and the MRP which was approved in an October 1946 referendum. 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 French left from forming a united front. The Communists had taken control of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) union. This was relatively weakened by the 1948 creation of a social-democratic trade union Workers' Force (FO) which was supported by the American Central Intelligence Agency. This split was led by former CGT secretary general Léon Jouhaux, who was granted the Nobel 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.

A

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

May 1958 crisis, he supported the return of Charles de Gaulle and the establishment of the French 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 another Unified Socialist Party (PSU) in 1960, joined the next year by Pierre Mendès France
, who was trying to anchor the Radical Party amongst the left-wing movement and opposed the colonial wars.

Decline

The SFIO received its lowest vote in the 1960s. It was discredited by the contradictory policies of its leaders during the Fourth Republic. Youth and the intellectual circles preferred the PSU and workers the PCF. The French Fifth Republic's constitution had been tailored by Charles de Gaulle to satisfy his needs and his Gaullism 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

centre-left coalition led by Mitterrand. It split after the May 68 events and the electoral disaster of June 1968. Defferre was the SFIO candidate in the 1969 French 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. Mollet passed on the leadership to Alain Savary
.

African splits

The SFIO suffered a split in Senegal in 1934 as Lamine Guèye broke away and formed the Senegalese Socialist Party (PSS). As the Senegalese Popular 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 in Saint-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 in Thiès.[18]

In 1948, Léopold Sédar Senghor broke away from the Senegalese federation of SFIO and formed the Senegalese Democratic Bloc (BDS). During the 1951 French legislative election campaign, violence broke out between BDS and SFIO activists. In the end, the BDS won both seats allocated to Senegal.[18]

In 1956, another SFIO splinter group appeared in Senegal, the Socialist Movement of the Senegalese Union.[19]

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 in Conakry 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 the African Socialist Movement (MSA), an independent pan-African party. The Senegalese 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 1957 the same year. Two SFIO delegates attended the session.[18]

General secretaries

Election results

Presidential elections

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 — — —

Legislative elections

Chamber of Deputies

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
 Increase 21
1914 1,413,044 16.76
103 / 595
 Increase 27
1919 1,728,663 21.22
67 / 613
 Decrease 34
1924 1,814,000 20.10
104 / 581
 Increase 36
1928 1,708,972 18.05
100 / 604
 Decrease 4
1932 1,964,384 20.51
132 / 607
 Increase 32
1936 1,955,306 19.86
149 / 610
 Increase 17

National Assembly

National Assembly
Year No. of votes % of vote No. of seats Change
1945 4,561,411 23.8
134 / 522
 Steady
1946
(June) 		4,187,747 21.1
128 / 586
 Decrease 6
1946
(November) 		3,433,901 17.9
102 / 627
 Decrease 26
1951 2,894,001 15.4
107 / 625
 Increase 5
1956 3,247,431 15.3
95 / 595
 Decrease 12
Year No. of 1st round votes % of 1st round vote No. of seats Change
1958 3,167,354 15.5
40 / 576
 Decrease 55
1962 2,298,729 12.5
65 / 491
 Increase 18
1967 4,224,110 (in the FGDS) 19.0
114 / 491
 —
1968 3,660,250 (in the FGDS) 16.5
57 / 487
 Decrease 57

See also

Footnotes

  1. JSTOR 1171436
    .
  2. doi:10.3917/pox.076.0121
    .
  3. ISBN 9783937209876
    .
  4. S2CID 144702684
    .
  5. ISBN 9780802189790
    .
  6. ISBN 9781107188150.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  7. S2CID 162339547
    .
  8. ^ Kowalski, Werner (1985). Geschichte der sozialistischen arbeiter-internationale: 1923–1940. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften (in German).
  9. ^ Hanley, D. L.; Kerr, A. P.; Waites, N. H. (1984). Contemporary France: Politics and Society Since 1945.
  10. ISBN 9781586032913
    . Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  11. ^ Paul, Susanne. "Historique de la Securite Sociale francaise". Global Action on Aging. Archived from the original on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  12. ISBN 9780739102831
    . Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  13. ISBN 9780521368094
    . Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  14. ^ Chambers Encyclopaedia new edition, Volume V: Edward-Franks, George Newnes Ltd. 1959, supplementary information 1961, printed and bound in England by Hazel Watson and Viney Ltd., Aylesbury and Slough.
  15. ^ "Protection of the health of workers in places of employment" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  16. ISBN 9780857931658
    . Retrieved 4 May 2018 – via Google Books.
  17. ^ a b Codding Jr., George A.; Safran, William. Ideology and Politics: The Socialist Party of France.
  18. ^ a b c Zuccarelli, François (1988). La vie politique sénégalaise (1789–1940). Paris: CHEAM (in French).
  19. ^ Nzouankeu, Jacques Mariel (1984). Les partis politiques sénégalais. Dakar: Editions Clairafrique (in French).

Further reading

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