| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
France's first socialist party, the French Workers' Party (Parti Ouvrier Français) was founded in 1880 by Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue (the son-in-law of Karl Marx). But in 1882 it split into two factions, a Marxist group led by Guesde and a moderate or "Possibilist" group led by Paul Brousse . Further splits followed, and none of the various socialist groups had much electoral success. They were hemmed in between the middle class liberals of the Radical Party and the revolutionary syndicalists who dominated the trade unions.
In 1899Events January events January 1 End of Spanish rule in Cuba. January 1 Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City. January 3 The first known use of the word " automobile", in an editorial in the New York Times''. January 6 Lord Curzon becomes a vic there was a realignment of French socialism, with the formation of the Socialist Party of France (Parti Socialiste de France) on the left and the French Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste Français) on the right, led by Alexandre MillerandAlexandre Millerand ( February 10, 1859 April 7, 1943 at Versailles, France) was a French socialist and politician. He was president of France from September 23, 1920 to June 11, 1924 and Prime Minister of France January 20 to September 23, 1920 Born in P. In 1905Events January-April January 22 Massacre of Russian demonstrators at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, one of the triggers of the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905. January 26 The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier, however, these two parties united under the leadership of Jean JaurèsJean Leon Jaures ( September 3, 1859 July 31, 1914) was a French Socialist leader. He was one of the first social democrats, differentiating his French Socialist Party from those advocating revolutionary class war and strict communism. He was born at Cast in the Parti Socialiste Unifié. The French socialists were strongly pacifist, but following the assassination of Jaurès in 1914Events January 4 77 seal hunters freeze to death on ice near Labrador January 5 Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor February 13 Copyright: In New York City the ASCAP (for American Society of Compos they were unable to resist the wave of militarism which followed the outbreak of World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of.
The Socialists suffered a severe split over particpation in the wartime government of national unity. In 1919Events January January 1 Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company January 5 Spartacist uprising Socialist demonstrations in Berlin turn into attempted communist revolution with Spartacist League in the forefront January 9 Spartacus the anti-war socialists were heavily defeated in elections. The left-wing of the party broke away and formed the French Communist PartyThe French Communist Party Parti Communiste Francais or PCF was founded in 1920. The party publishes a daily newspaper called L'Humanit which was started in 1904 as the paper of the Socialist Party. In fact the PCF, originally known as the French Section in 1920. The right wing, led by Léon Blum, regrouped as the French Section of the Workers' International (Section Française de l'International Ouvrière or SFIO). (Right wing was a relative term: the SFIO was an orthodox Marxist party, but opposed to the revolutionary rhetoric of the Communists.)
In 1924 and again in 1932, the Socialists joined with the Radicals in the Coalitions of the Left (Cartels des Gauches), but refused actually to join the non-Socialist governments led by the Radicals Edouard Herriot and Edouard Daladier. These governments failed because the Socialists and the Radicals could not agree on economic policy, and also because the powerful Communist Party, following the policy laid down by the Soviet Union, refused to support "bourgeois" governments.
In 1934, the Communists changed their line, and the three parties came together in the Popular Front, which won the 1936 elections and brought Blum to power as France's first socialist prime minister. Within a year, however, his government collapsed over economic policy and also over the issue of the Spanish Civil War. The demoralised left fell apart and was unable to resist the collapse of the French republic after the military defeat of 1940.
After the liberation of France in 1944, the SFIO re-emerged under the new leadership of Guy Mollet, who was Prime Minister at the head of a minority government in 1957. But the party was in decline, as were the Radicals, the left never came close either to forming a united front or to winning an election during the Fourth Republic. Under the leadership of Gaston Defferre the SFIO reached its lowest ebb in the 1960s, and in 1969 it was wound up.
François Mitterrand, who had been a conservative before the war and an independent of the left during the 1950s, took the lead in forming a new Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste) in 1969. He was helped by the near disappearance of the Radicals, although the Communists remained an obstacle to the unity of the left. In 1974 Mitterrand came close to winning a presidential election, and the Socialists became the dominant party of the left.
In 1981 Mitterrand formed an alliance with the Communists and the left-wing of the Radicals, and defeated the incumbent conservative, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, to become the first socialist President of France. He was re-elected in 1988. During his time as President, the Socialist Party usually had a majority in the National Assembly. Socialist Prime Ministers during Mitterrand's presidency were Pierre Mauroy, Laurent Fabius, Michel Rocard, Edith Cresson and Pierre Bérégovoy.
Mitterrand was the last elected national leader in Europe to attempt to carry out a socialist program, futhering the dirigiste trends of the preceding conservative governments. His first government nationalised the banks, the insurance industry and the defence industries. Workers' wages were increased and their working hours reduced, and many other sweeping reforms carried out. As a result there was a flight of capital from France (the traditional response of the French business class to threats from the left), and a severe economic crisis.