Trotskys critique of the Popular Front in France was laid out in his book Whither France? Secondary education was made free to all pupils; previously, it had been closed to the poor, who were unable to afford to pay tuition. Yet the myth remains, and for that reason, it is important to reexamine this storied moment in the past as we organize to meet the challenges of the present and to move forward into the future. Omissions? The early successes of Fascism in Italy and Germany had initially been regarded with equanimity by the Soviet Communist leadership. A harbinger of things to come was Le Pen's performance in the 1982 m, A labor union is a group of workers who have joined together to negotiate with employers in order to secure better wages and working conditions. Revolutions in Russia, Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire overthrew monarchs and brought republican government (of varying degrees of democracy) to the latter three, while they brought socialist revolution to Russia. We have the advantage today, an advantage resulting ironically from the general weakness of the workers movement, that we do not have to deal with powerful Socialist and Communist Parties. The same may be said to be true in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Blum was born into an Alsatian Jewish family. 1. All rights reserved. [11] The Socialists apparent leftism on this question and the Communists moderation represented a jockeying for position in an attempt to attract a radicalizing working class while at the same time maintaining an alliance with the Radicals, the petty bourgeois party, and possibly other parties to their right.[12]. In relation to maritime transport, a Decree of 3 March 1937 issued instructions concerning safety. Socialist Leon Blum, leading the Popular Front, brought together Socialists and Radicals to become Prime Minister from 1936 to 1937. Back to homepage / Live news Popular S.African TV soap on front line of fight against HIV. Unless explicitly set forth in the applicable Credits section of a lecture, third-party content is not covered under the Creative Commons license. [18] With Blum at the head of a Popular Front government, thought Stalin, the Soviet Union would have an ally against Nazi Germany. II, p. 100-104. The Senate voted in favour of these laws within a week.[3]. While the Communists and the Popular Front removed the notoriously reactionary head of the French overseas empire, they did not change the policies or the staff. However, major differences between the SFIO and PRRRS prevented them from forming a cabinet together, as all had expected, leaving France governed by a series of short-lived cabinets formed exclusively of the six Radical parties. After the two exchanged vows on Oct. 21, 2021, in . For the full article, see, https://www.britannica.com/summary/popular-front-European-coalition. The Popular Front strategy not only failed to stop fascism in France, but it also tended to disorient the working class, to bring it under the influence and the sway of the bourgeois political parties. 16. [20] The Popular Front labor legislation represented a kind of labor bill of rights unknown before in French history. "[7] The Walter-Paulin Law of March 1937 set standards for apprenticeship teachers and set up a corps of salaried inspectors,[8] while a decree of June 1937 decided on the "creation of the workshop schools, close to schools [] that should awaken the skills and curiosity of students, open up more to life school work, let them know about the local history and geography. 7. 200 (July-Sept., 2002), p. 35 and fn. French West Africa: An Example of Reformist Colonialism, in: Tony Chafer and Amanda Sackur, French Colonial Empire and the Popular Front: Hope and Disillusion. The Socialists were forced out; only the Radical-Socialists and smaller left-republican parties were left. Bridges (1901-1990) became one of the best known radical trade unionists during the 1930s and, BIBLIOGRAPHY While the Communists had in earlier years been opposed to the military and its budget, they now supported a strong France in alliance with the Soviet Union as a bulwark against Nazi Germany. 55 (Apr-Jun, 1966), pp. For example, rather than supporting Algerian independence, as it once had, the Communist Party now supported the Socialist plan for extending French citizenship to Algeria. 35-36, 123-27, 275-77. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [43][44] The forty hour week was particularly problematic in light of German weapons production - France was trying to compete with a nation which not only had a larger population but one which was working fifty to sixty hour work weeks. Like the Social Democrats, these post-Soviet Communist Parties, most with new names, not only shared in legislating and governing in capitalist states, but also shared responsibility for neoliberal free market policies, for social welfare budget cuts, and for the rollback of union contracts and the decline of workers wages. While this measure was thought of as a response to workers' alienation, the Popular Front gave Lagrange (SFIO), named Under-Secretary for Sports and the organisation of Leisure, responsibility for organizing the use this leisure time with priority to sports. The war also provided the context for the institutionalization of the industrial labor unions and the conversion of their once militant leaderships into bureaucratic business unions. [7] The ultra-left sectarianism of the Third Period of 1928 to 1934 reduced the partys influence in the working class and society, and its membership declined to about 40,000 by 1930. 377-419, gives the PS and PC membership figures. The Stalinist Communist Party of the 1930s succeeded in destroying the European revolutionary labor movement and with it the hopes for socialism for generations. Among the French left, the Communists had, before 1934, been the most vocal and active anti-imperialists. The result was the subordination of the left and the labor movement to capitalist parties everywhere, leading to working class defeats in France and Spain where fascism took power and to reform movements which were quickly institutionalized in countries like Mexico and the United States. Unfortunately we cannot take up the complicated events of the Popular Front in Spain in this article, but we plan to return to it in another article in the future. Before the strike wave was over there were 12,142 strikes involving 1,831,000 strikers, and of those more than 12,000 strikes, about 9,000 involved the occupation of the factory. Unio, Popular Entertainment: Escape and Engagement, Popular Arguments for the Existence of God, Popular Front for the Liberation of PalestineGeneral Command (PFLPGC), Popular Front for the Liberation of PalestineSpecial Command, Popular Front for the Liberation of PalestineSpecial Operations, Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf, Popular Piety, Hispanic, in the United States, Popular Sovereignty in Democratic Political Theory, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front-0, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front, https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front, https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front, https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front-0, https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front, https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/popular-front. In effect, the Radical Party stood alone. The world crisis of capitalism which had begun with World War I was followed by the economic crisis of the early 1920s, and then by the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s. 31. Historically the CPUSA has since the mid-1930s supported Democrats, even when it ran its own candidates. The Communists could not support an anti-imperialist movement because that would weaken France. Panel Class or Nation? Many workers still saw the Soviet Union as a workers state and the Communists as the revolutionary workers party. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Within this framework the left skilfully exploited preparations for war internationally to demonstrate that the . It failed to live up to the expectations of the left. 4.I hope to continue this analysis of the Popular Front with another paper dealing with Spain to be published in the near future. "[29] There is general agreement that at first it created enormous excitement and expectation on the left, but in the end, it failed to live up to its promise. At the center of this world historic tragedy was the destruction of the European working class and socialist movement, which had been born in the revolutionary upheavals of the mid-19th century and which had grown to maturity in the first third of the 20th century, only to be obliterated in the 1930s and 1940s by Stalins murder of the Russian Bolshevik revolutionaries, by Mussolinis, Hitlers, and Francos destruction of the Communist and Socialist Parties and anarchist organizations in Italy, Germany, and France. [24], The Communists in the 1920s saw the need to mobilize young women but saw them as auxiliaries to male organizations. [22] Nor did the Communists fight for really strict and effective wage and price controls, and consequently within a few months of the end of the strikes, Price rises rapidly negated the increases in wages.[23] While there were nominal price controls, they were neither adequate nor effective and workers wage gains quickly began to evaporate because of inflation at a rate of 25 to 40 percent. Working people in many European countries, however, now desperately wanted an alliance between Communist and Socialist Parties to stop Hitler. Most historians of the Popular Front recognize the role of the Communist Party in keeping the strike movement from becoming more radical and threatening the Popular Front government. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. While there is some truth in the blurry romantic impressionism of this popular understanding of the period, it tends to obscure more than it illuminates. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Some, following Walter G. Krivitsky, In Stalins Secret Service: An Expos of Russias Secret Policies by the Former Chief of the Soviet Intelligence in Western Europe (University Publications of America, 1985), have suggested that Stalins search for collective security was only buying time in order to reach an agreement with Hitler. By Allison Hope. (May 25, 2023). In 1937, careers guidance classes (classes d'orientation) were established in some lyces as a means of helping pupils to make a better choice of their subsequent course of secondary schooling. The Popular Front - 1936-1938 France, plagued by governmental instability (between 1932 and 1940 there were no fewer than 16 coalition governments in Paris) and acute internal political. For a discussion of the left in Vietnam during this period see, La Lutte and the Vietnamese Trotskyists, a collection of excerpts from Daniel Hemerys book Revolutionnaires Vietnamiens et pouvoir colonial en Indochine, edited by Ted Crawford and published in RevolutionaryHistory, Vol. Democratically controlled by rank-and-file workers in the plants, the strikes had the potential to turn France upside down. ", Jordan, Nicole. Wages increased sharply, in two years the national average was up 48 percent. 61, Nol. During the early1920s the Communist International, then still led by Vladimir Lenin, promoted throughout Europe, where revolutionary possibilities still seemed greatest, the strategy of the united front among workers, labor unions, and working class organizations, anarchist, Socialist, and Communist, in order to build the forces for revolution. France was in the 1930s a major capitalist power and the center of a vast empire that stretched from the Middle East and Africa to Southeast Asia and to the Caribbean. This is the first full-length study in English of the Popular Front, the left-wing coalition which emerged in France during the 1930s in response to the threat of fascism and which went on to win the elections of 1936, giving France her first socialist premier, Lon Blum. Eric Mann, whose politics might be characterized as neo-Stalinist, argued Ten Reasons to Support Barack Obama. Mann also has usually supported Democrats, arguing the need to stop fascism in the United States by forming an alliance with people of color. 217-226, and in, Adolf Sturmthal, Nationalization and Workers Control in Britain and France, The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. [11] The imposition of the 40-hour week proved highly inefficient, as industry had a difficult time adjusting to it. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), p. 366. Need help in making your donation or in subscribingor just want to send us your suggestions? While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. This Communist inspired rank-and-file rebellion led to a national strike wave in the form of factory occupations.[13]. What had changed to lead the Communists to adopt this new strategy? Studies of the strikes, however, show that it was CGT and CP militants who, following months of propagandizing by the unions and the left, organized the strikes along lines that corresponded to the partys policy. Berghahn Books, 2016, pp.53-54, French Section of the Workers' International, Comit de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, Parti radical-socialiste Camille Pelletan, 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones (PTT), http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/P/09614/09614%281936-1937%29.pdf, http://eduscol.education.fr/cid45998/enseigner-les-territoires-de-la-proximite, Petite histoire des batailles du droit dauteur, "The Popular Front: A Brief but Crucial Period in History", "Front populaire: une priode brve, mais capitale", List of French Communist Party congresses, La Bretagne ouvrire, paysanne et maritime, Federation of Marxist-Leninist Circles in France, Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of France, Federation of the Socialist Workers of France, Socialist Party of France Jean Jaurs Union, Union of Clubs for the Renewal of the Left, Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Popular_Front_(France)&oldid=1159875672, Defunct political party alliances in France, All articles with bare URLs for citations, Articles with bare URLs for citations from March 2022, Articles with PDF format bare URLs for citations, Articles with dead external links from December 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with French-language sources (fr), Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, The frustration felt by many moderate Socialists and left-wing Radical-Socialists at the collapse of their previous attempts at government and an increasing desire to rebuilt that coalition on a stronger basis to combat the economic crisis of the. 3. The Popular Front, was a result of both striving in the workers movement and of Communist policy which was ultimately determined by the Soviet Unions foreign policy as directed by Joseph Stalin. Fletchers position of critical support is also stated at Money Drives Politics. The working class desire for unity in the early 1930s initially conflicted with the Communist Partys opposition to an alliance with the Socialists and with the Socialist and Catholic labor unions. The French Communist Party represented a small yet significant force in France in the early 1930s with the social make-up, as well as the reputation and the image which allowed it to play a leading role. The Blum administration democratised the Bank of France by enabling all shareholders to attend meetings and set up a new council with more representation from government. Popular Front Policy views 1,274,977 updated POPULAR FRONT POLICY Comintern policy during the mid-1930s that encouraged cooperation between communist and non-communist parties in order to stop the spread of fascism. The Communists in this way succeeded in transforming the strikes against the employers into a movement in support of the Popular Front government, while the Popular Front government simultaneously brought employers and unions into tripartite negotiations with the government to reach a national agreement. In any case, in the mid-1930s he was seeking collective security and that principally motivated the Popular Front policy. 15. Many other histories from various points of view document Stalins policy as well. The party discarded its original notions of Communist femininity and female political activism as a gender-neutral revolutionary. Yet, given the situation both in France and in Europe at the time, even this remarkable victory remained tenuous. Encouraged by the reunification of the CGT and CGTU and by the Popular Fronts victory in the election, hundreds of thousands of workers struck in factories and other workplaces throughout France in May and June of 1936. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Lorwin, French Labor Movement, p. 79. As a prominent Canadian Communist leader told me in a recent debate, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and he went on to explain that the Popular Front proved to be successful, resulting in the defeat of Fascism and Nazism, in the expansion of the Soviet system to Eastern Europe, and in the post-war anti-colonial movements. So, by the late 1930s, a new right wing, a kind of anti-Popular Front, developed, made up of the old political right, new middle class conservatives, and the employers associations now under new management. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 25. The wars and revolutions that had shattered the old Europe and the postwar economic crises kept the pot boiling. The complex situation did not stop Lagrange from holding fast to an ethical conception of sports that rejected fascist militarism and indoctrination, scientific racist theories and the professionalisation of sports, which he opposed as an elitist conception that ignored the main popular aspect of sport. Guy Bourd, La grve du 30 novembre 1938, Le Mouvement Social, No. The Soviet victory over the Nazis in World War II consolidated Stalins personal dictatorship and, more important, it institutionalized the bureaucratic Communist or bureaucratic collectivist totalitarian system of the Soviet Union. Young Communists dressed in costumes from the revolutionary period and the scholars glorified the Jacobins as heroic predecessors. Other measures carried out by the Popular Front government improved the pay, pensions, allowances, and taxes of public-sector workers and ex-servicemen. [34][35][36] MacMillan says that Blum "Lacked the inner convictions that he was the man to resolve the country's problems by bold and imaginative leadership," leading him to avoid a showdown with the financial powers, and forfeiting the support of the working class. [9] In Paris where the largest march and rally took place, some in the SP and the CGT feared the Communists might not join the protest, or might even organize a counter-demonstration or an attack on the Socialists and trade unionissts as had happened in the past, but, like the strike, the Paris demonstration of 1934 was a triumph of unity. This strategic vision would be ended with the coming of the Popular Front, as Communists argued that only by preserving and strengthening capitalist states allied with the Soviet Union could fascism be stopped. That led parts of the SFIO in supporting a conception of sport used as a training field for future conscription and, eventually, war. [8] The Communists remained nevertheless, the revolutionary working class party of France. He also argues that the Trotskyists attitude toward the mass movements differed little from that of the Stalinists. While some argue for working within the Democratic Party to capture and realign it, others argue for an inside/outside strategy seen as a war of position, taking advantage of the cover of the Democrats to advance the left. While there is no doubt that the strikes and occupations, the union recognition and contracts, and the social legislation represented important victories for the working class, the question is, was it possible to go further? An order dealing with rescue equipment in mines was issued on 19 August 1936, followed by two orders concerning packing and caving on 25 February 1937. Corrections? As the best history of the Popular Front and the strikes of 1936 puts it: To retake leadership of the movement, it was necessary to put oneself at the head of it; to discipline it, it was necessary to unify it; to bring it to an end, it was necessary to generalize.The order for a general strike was therefore a tactic designed to take in hand the spontaneous movement.[17]. The tensions finally erupted into the infamous 6 February 1934 crisis in which massive riots by authoritarian paramilitary leagues caused the collapse of the Cartel. First, the Popular Front was developed to defend the Soviet Union and its new bureaucratic ruling class. Second, the Nazis surprisingly rapid conquest of political power immediately raised the possibility of a German war against the Soviet Union, forcing Stalin to seek new allies to protect his nascent bureaucratic state. n. a party or coalition representing left-wing elements, in particular (, The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English, Arthur Scargill The cost forced the abandonment of the social reform programs that the Popular Front had counted heavily on. Many had been inspired by the Russia Revolution of October 1917. With Nazi Germanys attack on the Soviet Union, the Communists returned to the Popular Front in 1941, and continued it throughout the war and into the postwar period. The Communists most important consideration throughout was the preservation of the Popular Front government of Lon Blum. Many of his de-cisions, on domestic as well as foreign prob- Halperin, S. William. Everywhere the Communist Party declined in membership while much of the left became disoriented by the sudden shift. Thus, Lagrange stated, "It cannot be a question in a democratic country of militarizing the distractions and the pleasures of the masses and of transforming the joy skillfully distributed into a means of not thinking." [27], Many historians judge the Popular Front to be a failure in terms of economics, foreign policy and long-term stability. In particular, he now wanted an alliance with France and England. He adds that it "failed to make the great changes its supporters anticipated and left many ordinary French people deeply disillusioned. [14], The Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936 and deeply divided the government, which tried to remain neutral. While usually described as a spontaneous workers movement, the strikes were in reality organized by rank-and-file shop floor militants from the CGT and the Communist Party. Today in Ukraine Very important to learn these lessons for todays struggle beginning in Ukraine. The Communist International simultaneously terminated the Popular Front, subordinating Communist politics to the Communist-Nazi alliance. Duclos, a Communist Party leader, writes of the spontaneous movement of factory occupations with the participation of workers who had never before in their lives gone on strike. [My trans.] In 1922 the Communist Party had 79,000 members compared to the Socialist Partys 178,000, but in 1928, though its membership figures had fallen, it had won 11 percent of the vote, 1,064,000 to the Socialists 1,698,000. Fourth, after being attacked by Germany in 1941, the Soviet Union just as suddenly returned to its Popular Front policiesonly now often in the form of governments of national unity to win the war. After one year of major activity, it lost its spirit by June 1937 and could only temporize as the European crisis worsened. As one historian has noted, The Popular Front government coalition did notat any stage question imperialism itself, even in its programme for government.[26], The Communist Party, once historically the most outspoken opponent of French imperialism, now became instead, along with the Socialist Party, an advocate of a more humane empire. Unity at all levels became the watchword. (New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1968) made up of articles written between Feb. 1934 and May-June 1936. Considering that he was a right-wing hardliner (who accepted the reality of modern times only AFTER the events of WW2), it's more likely that he would've used his position in the military to coup the Communists rather than accept that they were in power. "Lon Blum and the French Socialists as a government party. The shifts in the Communist Party strategy between 1927 and Stalins death in 1953 form the context for understanding the place of the Popular Front in Communist thinking. It was only in 1984 that the National Front began its rapid ascent. The video shows the woman and child standing in the doorway before beginning to go inside as a man stands off in the distance. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Workers reacted to the employers workplace and political offensive in the late autumn of 1938, once again engaging in strikes and factory occupations, but by November 25 and 26 the majority of the factory occupations had ended. It was this that led him to seek to transform the old policy of the United Frontthat is, an alliance between working class partiesinto the Popular Frontthat is, an alliance of the working class parties with radical (petty bourgeois) and capitalist parties opposed to Fascism-Nazism in Europe. A brief biographical note on Zyromski can be found in the Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders. However, Blum finally decided not to vote for the funds to pay the athletes' expenses. Lech Walesa (born 1943), charismatic leader of Solidarity, the independent trade union movement in Poland, was awarded the 19, Harry A.R. The tendency of Stalinist imperialism which only became absolutely clear after World War II with the conquest of Easter Europe and the extension of the bureaucratic communist social system to China, first revealed itself in Spain during the Popular Front period. The workers obtained major new rights, but their 48 percent increase in wages was offset by a 46 percent rise in prices. To subscribe, click here. popular front, In European politics, any coalition of working-class and middle-class political parties united to defend democracy against an expected fascist assault. 28. What bound these three incongruous positions together? Throughout the latter decades of the twentieth century, many people could hardly tell a Communist from a left liberal, for liberalism had become the costume of Communismwhich is not to say that Communists became liberals. 2, Whole Number 50), France was in the 1930s a major capitalist power, While the Communist Party attempted to moderate, Surprisingly, while the French Communist Party, The Popular Front, A Social and Political Tragedy: The Case of France. [38][39] Others point to the Communists, who refused to turn the general strike into a revolution, as well as their refusal to join the government. 17. Jackson concludes that the French government "was virtually paralyzed by the menace of Civil War at home, the German danger abroad, and the weakness of her own defenses. In late 1938, the Communists broke with the coalition by voting against the Munich agreement, in which the Popular Front had joined with the British by handing over part of Czechoslovakia to Germany.
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