French Section of the Workers' International

"SFIO" redirects here. For other uses, see SFIO (disambiguation).

French Section of the Workers' International Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière
Historic leaders	Jean Jaurès, Paul Lafargue, Jules Guesde, Édouard Vaillant, Léon Blum, Vincent Auriol, Daniel Mayer, Guy Mollet
Founders	Jean Jaurès, Jules Guesde
Founded	April 25, 1905 (1905-04-25)
Dissolved	May 4, 1969 (1969-05-04)
Merger of	Socialist Party of France, French Socialist Party
Merged into	Socialist Party
Headquarters	Paris
Newspaper	L'Humanité
Trade union wing	Workers' Force
Ideology	Socialism (France) Internal factions:  • Democratic socialism  • Social democracy  • Possibilism  • Blanquism
Political position	Left-wing
National affiliation	Lefts Cartel (1924–34) Popular Front (1936–38) Tripartisme (1944–47) Third Force (1947–58)
European affiliation	None
International affiliation	Second International (1905–16), Labour and Socialist International (1923–40), Socialist International (1951–69)
European Parliament group	Socialist Group
Colours	Red
Politics of France Political parties Elections

The French Section of the Workers' International (French: Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière, SFIO) was a French socialist political party founded in 1905 and replaced in 1969 by the current Socialist Party (PS). It was created during the 1905 Globe Congress in Paris as a merger between the French Socialist Party and the Socialist Party of France, in order to create the French section of the Second International (i.e. the Workers' International), designated as the "party of the workers' movement".

The SFIO was led by Jules Guesde, Jean Jaurès (who quickly became its most influential figure), Édouard Vaillant and Paul Lafargue, and united the Marxist tendency represented by Guesde with the social-democratic tendency represented by Jaurès. The SFIO opposed itself to colonialism and to militarism, although it abandoned its anti-militarist views and supported the National Union government (Union nationale) facing Germany's declaration of war on France.

Having replaced internationalist class struggle with patriotism thus like the whole Second International, and because of conflicting views towards the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Bolshevik-led Third International, the SFIO split into two groups during the 1920 Tours Congress: the majority created the Section française de l'Internationale communiste (SFIC) which joined the Third International and became the French Communist Party, while the minority continued as the SFIO.

History

Background

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

After the failure of the Paris Commune (1871), French socialism was severely weakened. Its leaders died or were exiled. In 1879, during the Marseille Congress, workers' associations created the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (FTSF). However, 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 Socialists knew their first electoral success, winning control of some municipalities. Jean Allemane and some FTSF members criticized 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 Dreyfus affair caused debate in the Socialist movement. For Jules Guesde, the Socialists should not intervene in an internal conflict of the bourgeoisie. In Jean Jaurès's opinion, the Socialist movement was a part of the Republican movement and needed to take part in the struggle in order to defend Republican values. In 1899, another debate polarised the Socialist groups regarding the participation of Alexandre Millerand in Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet, which included the Marquis de Gallifet, best known for having directed the bloody repression during the Paris Commune. Furthermore, the participation in a "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. In 1905, during the Globe Congress, under pressure from the Second International, the two groups merged into the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO).

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 decentralized 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 the party paper L'Humanité.

Unlike the PRS, SFIO members did not participate to Left Bloc governments, although they supported a part of its policy, notably the 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 Socialist International and the wave of patriotism 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 wartime government of national unity. Participation in World War I caused divisions within the party, which were accentuated after 1917. Furthermore, internal disagreements appeared about the 1917 October 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 Bloc National won 70% of the seats, forming what became known as the Chambre bleue horizon ("Blue Horizon Chamber").

Communist split and Popular Front

On 25 December 1920, during the Tours Congress, a majority of SFIO members voted to join the Communist International (Comintern; also known as the "Third International"), created by the Bolsheviks after the 1917 October Revolution. Led by Boris Souvarine and Ludovic Frossard, they created the French Section of the Communist International (SFIC). Another smaller group also favoured membership in the Comintern, but not all 21 conditions, while the minority, led by Léon Blum and the majority of the socialists' elected members, decided to in Blum's words, "keep the old house" and remain within the Second International. Marcel Sembat, Léon Blum and Albert 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 paper Le Populaire. The previous party paper, L'Humanité, was controlled by the founders of the SFIC. (However, Ludovic 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 the United General Confederation of Labour (CGTU), which fused again with the CGT in 1936 during the Popular Front government. Léon Jouhaux was CGT's main leader until 1947 and the new split leading to the creation of the reformist union confederation Workers' Force (CGT-FO).

In 1924 and in 1932, the Socialists joined with the Radicals in the Cartel des Gauches coalition. They supported the government led by Radical Édouard Herriot (1924–1926 and 1932), but they didn't participate.

The first Cartel saw the right-wing terrorised, and capital flight destabilised the government, while the divided Radicals didn't all support their Socialist allies. The monetary crisis, also due to the refusal of Germany to pay the World War I reparations, caused parliamentary instability. Édouard Herriot, Paul Painlevé and Aristide Briand would succeeded each other as president of the Council until 1926, when the French political right came back to power with Raymond Poincaré. The newly elected communist deputies also opposed the first Cartel, refusing to support "bourgeois" 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 by Marcel Déat and Pierre Renaudel, split from the SFIO in November 1933 to form a neosocialist movement, and merged with the PRS into form the Socialist Republican Union (USR). The Cartel was again the victim of parliamentary instability, while various scandals led to the 6 February 1934 riots organised by far-right leagues. Radical Édouard Daladier resigned on the next day, handing out the power to conservative Gaston Doumergue. It was the first time during the Third Republic (1871–1940) 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 fascist conspiracy to overthrow the Republic, a goal pursued by the royalist Action Française and other far-right leagues, anti-fascist organisations were created. The French Communist Party (PCF), supported by the Comintern's abandoning of the "social-fascism" directives in favor of "united front" directives, got closer to the SFIO, the USR and the Radical Party, to form the coalition that would win the 1936 elections and bring about the Popular Front. In June 1934, Leon Trotsky proposed the "French Turn" into the SFIO, which is where the entrism strategy takes its origins from. The trotskyist Communist League's (the French section of the International Left Opposition) leaders 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.

However, the Popular Front strategy was adopted and, in the 1936 election, the coalition became majority and, for the first time, the SFIO obtained more votes and seats than the Radical Party. In this, Léon Blum became France's first Socialist President of the Council in 1936, while the PCF supported - without participation - his government. A general strike applauded the socialists' victory, while Marceau Pivert cried "Tout est possible!" ("Everything is possible!"). Pivert would later split and create the Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party (PSOP); historian Daniel Guérin was also a member of the latter. Trotsky advised the GBL to break with the SFIO, leading to a confused departure by the Trotskyists from the Socialist Party in early 1936, which drew only about six hundred people from the party. The 1936 Matignon Accords set up collective bargaining, and removed all obstacles to union organisation. The terms included a blanket 7-12 percent wage increase, and allowed for paid vacation (2 weeks) and a 40-hour work week — the eight-hour day had been established following the 1914–18 war of attrition and its mobilisation of industrial capacities.

Within a year, however, Blum's government collapsed over economic policy (as during the Cartel des gauches, capital flight was an issue, giving rise to the so-called "myth of the 200 hundreds families") in the context of the Great Depression, and also over the issue of the Spanish Civil War. The demoralised left fell apart and was unable to resist the collapse of the Third Republic after the military defeat of 1940 (during World War II).

World War II

A number of SFIO members were part of the Vichy 80 who refused to vote extraordinary powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain in July 1940, following which the latter proclaimed the Révolution nationale reactionary program and the establishment of the Vichy regime. Although some engaged in Collaborationism an important part also took part in 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 1942–43, Pétain's regime judged the Third Republic by organising a public trial, the Riom Trial, of personalities accused of having "caused" the defeat of France. Those included Léon Blum, the Radical Édouard Daladier, the conservatives Paul Reynaud and Georges Mandel, etc.

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.

Under the Fourth Republic

After the liberation of France in 1944, while the PCF became the largest left-wing party, the project to create a labour-based political party rallying the non-Communist Resistance failed in due to the disagreements opposing notably the Socialists and the Christian Democrats about laïcité, and the conflict with Charles de Gaulle about the new organisation of the institutions (parliamentary system or presidential government). The SFIO re-emerged and participated in the Three-parties alliance with the PCF and the Christian- democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP) under the leadership of de Gaulle, President of the provisional government. This coalition led the social policy inspired by National Council of Resistance's programme, installing the main elements of the French welfare 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. In May 1946, the Socialist-led government of Félix Gouin passed a law that generalised social security, making it obligatory for the whole population. 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, the introduction of a national minimum wage, and the granting (from April 1947 onwards) of allowances to all aged persons in need.

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.” In addition, a Decree of August 1947 instituted the original measures on health and safety committees.

During the years of the 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.

In the early years of the 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.

In Spring 1946, the SFIO reluctantly supported the constitutional plans of the Communist Party. They were rejected by referendum. The party supported the second proposal, prepared with the PCF and the MRP, and it was approved in October 1946.

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 U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. This split was led by former CGT secretary general Léon Jouhaux, who was granted the Nobel Peace Prize three years later. Teachers' union (Federation for National Education, FEN) chosen to gain autonomy towards the two confederations in order to conserve its unity. But Socialist syndicalists took the control of the FEN, which became the main training ground of the SFIO party.

A Third 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 of Léon Blum's support, the party leader Daniel Mayer was defeated in aid of Guy 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 "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 the 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 Algerian War of Independence became the major issue of the political debate. During the 1956 legislative campaign, the party took part in the Republican Front, a centre-left coalition led by Radical Pierre Mendès France, who advocated a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Guy Mollet took the lead of the cabinet but led a very repressive policy. After the May 1958 crisis, he supported the return of Charles de Gaulle and the establishment of the 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 couldn't 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 and dissolution

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 while the majority of workers considered the PCF as its spokesperson. The Fifth Republic's Constitution had been tailored by Charles de Gaulle to satisfy his needs, and his Gaullist movement 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 Gaston Defferre) and reconciliation with the Communists. Guy Mollet refused to choose. The SFIO supported François Mitterrand to the 1965 presidential election although he was not a member of the party. The SFIO and the Radicals then created the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS), a centre-left coalition led by François Mitterrand. But it split after May 1968 and the electoral disaster of June 1968.

Gaston Defferre was the SFIO candidate in the 1969 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. Guy Mollet passed on the leadership to Alain Savary.

The African Question

The SFIO suffered a split in Senegal in 1934 as Lamine Guèye broke away and formed the Senegalese Socialist Party (PSS). However, as the Senegalese Popular Front committee as formed, PSS and the SFIO branch cooperated. In 1937 a joint list of SFIO and PSS won the municipal elections in Saint-Louis. Maître Vidal became mayor of the town. The congress of PSS held 4–5 June 1938 decided to reunify with SFIO. Following that decision, on 11–12 June 1938 a congress of the new federation of SFIO was held in Thiès.

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

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

In 1957 the history of 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 the same year. Two SFIO delegates attended the session.

Structure

• General Secretary: Louis Dubreuilh (1905−18), Ludovic-Oscar Frossard (1918−20), Paul Faure (1920−40), Position vacant (1940−43), Daniel Mayer (1943−46), Guy Mollet (1946−69)

Election results

• 1906: 9.95%
• 1910: 13.23%
• 1914: 16.76%
• 1919: 21.22%
• 1924: 20.16%
• 1928: 18.05%
• 1932: 20.51%
• 1936: 19.86%
• 1945: 23.45%
• June 1946: 21.14%
• November 1946: 17.9%
• 1951: 15.39%
• 1956: 14.93%
• 1958: 15.5%
• 1962: 12.5%
• 1965 (Presidential): 31.72%, 44.8% in runoff (Common FGDS–PCF-Radical candidacy)
• 1967: 19% (result of the FGDS, including other left-wing parties)
• 1968: 16.5% (result of the FGDS, including other left-wing parties)
• 1969 (Presidential): 5.01%

See also

• French Socialist Party
• History of socialism
• History of the Left in France

Further reading

• D.A. MacGibbon, "French Socialism Today," Journal of Political Economy, Part 1: vol. 19, no. 1 (Jan. 1911), pp. 36–46; Part 2: vol. 19, No. 2 (Feb. 1911), pp. 98–110. Part 1 and Part 2 in JSTOR.