factory ble for those who are bold enough,' ty left wing.
Yet within two years reaction was again in control CGT (trade conCOLIC muster two million, of its tive million members. 3011 a one day general strike.
he weakest of the imperial powers, France had La role in the world that did not correspond economic weight. None felt the crisis more acutely than the imDoversed peasants and the BOOKCCOCS OLIC OWES Fascism had triumphed in Germany in 1933 and the danger seemed real enough ul rialice.
On 6 February 1934, after a day of violent demonstrations, armed fascist and royalist gangs attempted storm Chamber of Deputies to OVerLITOW ment. The government of TASEOS -DO COUC which came to power three presided over an eight-month offensive by the fascist Fiery Cross. It seemed that France must go the same way as Ger many. Shaken The parties of the working class were shaken February. the events The Communist Party had been violently ty, applying the line of the which said that democracy the left Was face of fascism.
From the Socialist ParMarceau Pivert and Jean Zyromsky called united action with the CP Their call was echoed by Jacques Doriot, leader of the CP mayor of St. Denis. Doriot had gone too fast. The CP expelled him only to adopt his positions immediately afterwards. Doriot formed his own party and soon became a fascist himself. IN JUNE 1936 a great movement of strikes and occupations spread through France. For millions of working people something had changed and they felt they could take their fate into their own hands. 'Now everything is possiwrote Marceau Pivert, the leader of the Socialist ParThose that remained in ine SFIO were careerists and timeservers, but as ine CP became more sectarian and turned into instrument Stalin's foreign policy, things began to change.
Workers began to look to the socialists and left. wing tendencies emerged the party. The JUne 1935 Congress of the SFIO saw a pitched battle between left and right, with Jean Zyromsky advocating the seizure power by 'direct action' The Socialists decided that they could not share with a party of the ruling class, that it must be *all Conference decisions did not deter the party leadership In July, Blum addressed a meeting Thorez and the Radical Party leader Daladier. The Front Populaire War born.
Limits The programme of the Popular Front was very Timuted acceptable the Radicals. Under the slogan 'Bread, Peace and Liberty the alliance promised COUPCIaLIOHE the League Nations, dissolution of the fascist combat organizations, and an unspecified reduction in the length of the working week.
Added to this were the reform Bank 1001 France and the tax system Workers' power was not on the agenda.
When the came in May 1963, the left was victorious. The most startling 1s pec the esults was the defeat suf fered by the bourgeois component ot the Front.
Radical Party. At the same time as the workers" parties vastly increased their vote, the Radicals lost 43 scats.
The social and political the workers had repudiated alliance the Radicals threatening the rule 0l their class.
On the Matignon agreement was French workers had won a 2 per cent increase in wages paid holidays and the 40 hour week. They also gain1 CLOZLEOn by the employers of their right to bargain collectively. But they had been cheated of power. On the rotskvists opposed the agreement.
The leaders the working class, both and Communist, cord not their to over.
For all their rhetoric, they WO C firmly tied to the ruling class.
For a time, it looked a if a new leadership could emerge from the left of the SFIO. As well as the Trotskyists, who briefly joined the SFIO in 1934, there was the tendency led by Pivert, which included such figures as Daniel Guerin.
Was to be tendency could break Blum, and so ended up supporting him: "No matter how much the centrists babble about the masses they always orient themselves to the reformist apparatus. Repeating this or that revolutionary slogan, Marceau Pivert subordinates the abstract principle • Casabici which in action turns out be the UHIL patriots against the revoluLUISES. Working class celebrate Popular Front victory in Paris Leon Blum, socialist Prime Minister of the Popular Front And so it turned out, Pivert supported the Matignon agreement and acted as the left-wing conscience of Leon Blum.
The government that took power in June 1936 was composed exelusively of Socialists and Radicals.
The CP CGT elected to take part themselves, but to give their support. Carried to power by the workers, the Popular Front proved incapable of changing their basic situation The gains made by the strike movement were HOWCYCE large enough to damage the interests of the bourgeoisie. Economic sabotage by the bosses led inevitably financial crisis. Revolutionary measures against capital were not open to a social democrat in alliance with a capitalist party, SO Bum was obliged to "restore confidence instead.
By March 1937 he was calling for a 'pause" in the reforms. This only encouraged the ruling class in its attacks The devalua tion of the franc, carried out by the Blum government, helped to unload the burden or the economid crisis onto the shoulders of the working class. A growing proportion the workers sank into passivity and scepticism and the peasants and shopkeepers turned back to the bourgeois parties The June 193yemnment tell in Blum arena the Popular Front acted as it did at home.
RIT words supported the Spanish Republic against fascism. In practice, Blum became the chief advocate 'non-intervention policy promoted by British When Hitler and Mussolini were supplying Franco with all the arms he needed, Blum was helping to strangle the Republic.
The same Radical ParMaurice Thorez, French CP leader There to which had tied showed how ENCHISE VOS 'democratic'it really was.
In November 1938 the Daladier HOVCHIIHIICE varned that efforts to en force the 40 hour week in munitions would be considered a crime; workers could be given a two-year prison sentence for olding anti-war discussions.
The workers respondcd to this WIEN a spon taneous wave of strikes, but the CGT , with the support of the Socialist and Dal Lic limited action to a one-day protest stoppage, the Popular Front had prepared the road to defeat.
Blum turned on the opposition the SFIO in June 1938, forcing Piver to form the Workers Calle Peasants Socialist Party (PSOP). But Pivert had not been won to Marxism: he supported de Gaulle in the war and then returned to the mainstream of the SFIO. Jean Zyromsky, the other former leader left, joined the CP CHRONOLOGY 1920 French Cp reation of Congress 1934 Altempted fascist COLE Doumergue governexpels Doriol 1935 Mulhouse Congress of SFIO 1936 /ictory of Popula Occupation of factories Mati ignon agreements Devaluatio Spanish Civil Wa 1937 announces pause - Fall of Blum Pivertistes ex-1958 Spelled from SFIC Munich Novem Del of General Strike.
Further reading: the only book on the period which 1s Lcon France? Trotsky's *Whither