120 years ago: Foundation of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) during the Globe Congress (Paris, April 1905)
Post dedicated to the origins of the SFIO (from 1879 to 1905)
Exactly 120 years ago, from April 23 to April 26, 1905, a congress took place at the Globe Hall in Paris, bringing together the French Socialist Party (Guesdists and the "Vailantists"—in other words, the "Blanquists" after 1889), the French Socialist Party (Jean Jaurès), the Socialist Revolutionary Workers' Party (Allemanists), and several autonomous provincial federations. The acronym SFIO reveals how much this unification of socialisms is associated with the pressure of the Second International, which strives to strengthen socialism on an international scale through structured socialist organizations. Thus, the young SFIO aims to be both a protest and revolutionary organization as well as a reformist one.
The founding of a unified socialist party at the Globe Congress was preceded by long-standing divergences among socialist tendencies. Let us recall the different tendencies...
1. Firstly, the "Guesdists," who grouped together until 1901 within the Workers' Party (renamed the French Workers' Party in 1893), founded by Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue. Allow me to linger a bit on the Guesdist movement… On October 20, 1879, the "Immortal Congress" of Marseille opened, marking the beginning of the history of the first socialist party in France. The Congress brought together 130 delegates from 45 different cities. The Congress hall was decorated with the slogans "Liberty, Equality, Solidarity," "No rights without duties, no duties without rights!," "Science, Peace, Justice"... According to Claude Willard, the immortal Congress of Marseille directed the labor movement towards the path of "scientific socialism." He even considered the Congress as a "welcoming Spanish inn," uniting all tendencies of socialism. Jules Guesde was not absent PRESENT from the Congress, but his loyal advisors Eugène Fournière and Jean Lombard participated in his place.
The Marseille Congress did not immediately lead to a definitive program, but Guesde was entrusted with the task of drafting a precise one. The workers' party program was clearly defined at the Havre Congress in October 1880. It is the first program inspired by Marxism. However, the program still only minimally addressed the working class. The Workers' Party was a relatively decentralized party, encompassing many socialist sensitivities, although in theory, Guesde's ideas and collectivist theses became dominant. During the Reims Congress (November 1881), Benoît Malon, Paul Brousse, and Jules Joffrin expressed their opposition to the centralization of action advocated by Guesde. At the Saint-Étienne Congress in September 1882, Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue defended the necessary revolutionary overthrow "by all means" through a centralized party, opposing any federation. Guesde, accused of aiming to become the supreme leader of the workers' party, was expelled. At the Roanne Congress, the "Guesdists" re-founded the Workers' Party on their principles. The Guesdist party became the French Workers' Party in 1893.
The Guédiste party is particularly established in the Allier department, in northern France, in the Aube department (Pédron), in Provence and Languedoc, as well as in part of western France (Marcel Cachin in Gironde department). In 1882, in Commentry, the first mayor from the Workers' Party, Christophe Thivrier, was elected. He was succeeded by François Faure in 1889, followed by Jean Dumazet in 1892. In 1892, Jean Dormoy, a Guesdist, was elected mayor of Montluçon. Henri Carrette became the mayor of Roubaix, considered "The Mecca of Socialism." Ernest Ferroul was elected in Narbonne. In November 1901, the Guesdists merged into the French Socialist Party, with the Blanquists (Edouard Vaillant is the main character).
2. The Blanquists, grouped from 1881 into the Central Revolutionary Committee, founded by Édouard Vaillant, Émile Eudes, and Ernest Granger. In 1889, one year after Émile Eudes's death, Ernest Granger broke with the Central Revolutionary Committee to join the ranks of Boulangism (from then on, he belonged to the Revolutionary Socialist Central Committee). In 1896, the Central Revolutionary Committee was strengthened by those expelled from Jean Allemane's Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party, who now formed the Communist Revolutionary Alliance within the "Vaillantist" party. In 1898, the Central Revolutionary Committee took the name "Revolutionary Socialist Party." Édouard Vaillant proposed a synthesis program, integrating Marxism with republican socialism. A fervent advocate of a "total action" for the socialist movement, Vaillant supported the simultaneous pursuit of parliamentarism and trade unionism, general strikes, and municipal socialism. During the Dreyfus Affair, Vaillant's supporters drew closer to Jules Guesde, rejecting any alliance with political parties and firmly condemning Alexandre Millerand's participation in Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau's Republican Defense government. Waldeck-Rousseau appointed Gaston de Gallifet in his government, one of the enforcers of the Paris Commune.
3. The Saint-Étienne Congress (september 1882): Paul Brousse founded the "Possibilist" current. The Possibilists represented the first reformist socialist movement, favoring progressive reforms. According to the Possibilists, collectivism should result from a necessary evolution of competitive capitalism into monopoly, and from monopoly towards public service.
4. The Châtellerault Congress in 1890 marked the rupture between the Allemanists and the Possibilists. The Allemanists (Jean Allemane) formed the Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party. Jean Allemane, after returning from New Caledonia and receiving amnesty in 1880, joined the review "L’Intransigeant," founded by Henri Rochefort. In 1882, following the Saint-Étienne Congress, he joined the Possibilists. In 1888, he became involved in the fight against Boulangism, serving as secretary of the Society for Human Rights. He was an editor of the newspaper Le Parti Ouvrier. In 1889, he participated in founding the Fraternal Society of the Old Combatants of the Commune (which replaced the Society of Exiles founded by Henri Champy), of which he became treasurer. The Allemanists are described by Jean Touchard as "propagandists" of the general strike and antimilitarism. Among the notable figures of the Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party, there are the poet Jean-Baptiste Clément, Lucien Herr, and the deputies Alexandre Avez, Victor Dejeante, Edmond Toussaint.
5. The Independent Socialists: Benoît Malon, Alexandre Millerand, Jean Jaurès.
I will outline the political journey of Jean Jaurès before the 1893 elections. He began his political activity in 1885 as a moderate republican, close to Jules Ferry; he was elected for the first time as a deputy for Tarn at the age of 26 (the youngest deputy). At the start of his political career, Jean Jaurès had nothing of a socialist: he opposed the amnesty for political crimes of the Communards, supported the military expedition to Tonkin by voting for the expedition's credits, and condemned the Decazeville strike in 1886. Subsequently, he became a radical and ran in the 1889 elections but was not elected. How did Jaurès become a socialist? Two decisive events marked this change: his encounter with Lucien Herr, and then the Carmaux miners' strike in 1892. He discovered Marx's theories and expressed his support for the strike. For the first time, he used socialist words and referred to the class struggle. In 1893, he was elected as an independent socialist deputy. He opposed the scélérat laws and expressed his support for the glassmakers of Albi. He ran again in 1898 but was not re-elected. During this period, he published his famous article titled "The Evidence Concerning the Dreyfus Affair." He supported Alexandre Millerand, who joined Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau's Republican Defense government. In the 1902 elections, Jaurès was re-elected, and he then founded the French Socialist Party in Tours. I will return to the development of the unification process of the French socialisms, of which Jaurès was one of the advocates...
Here is Jules Guesde's background before the Marseille Congress: Jules Bazile (he adopted his mother's maiden name as an adult) was born on November 11, 1845, on the street of "la Femme sans tête," which later became Rue Le Regrattier (Paris, Île Saint-Louis). At the age of 19, in order to help his family's financial difficulties, Jules first worked at the Prefecture of the Seine and at the Ministry of the Interior, before embarking on political journalism and beginning his active militancy. He initially worked in Paris, then in Bordeaux and Toulouse, and settled in Montpellier from July 1869 to June 1871. In Montpellier, he first worked for La Liberté de l’Hérault, then participated in founding the review Les Droits de l’Homme on April 27, 1870, which allowed him to meet Paul Brousse, then a medical student. Jules Guesde expressed his views as an ardent republican and supported significant structural reforms. Like any republican, he primarily defended individual liberties, national sovereignty against any return to monarchy, and advocated for the separation of church and state. On economic issues, he aligned with the ideas developed in Louis Blanc’s Organisation du Travail, which argued that cooperatives could not function without state support. In September 1870, Jules Guesde led republican agitation in Montpellier. During the Paris Commune, Jules Guesde, still in Montpellier, wrote articles in honor of the Commune. In July 1871, he was condemned and forced to flee to Switzerland, where he published The Red Book of Rural Justice. There, he discovered Bakunin's theses. In April 1872, in Italy, he married Mathilde Constantini. In 1877, upon returning to Paris, he founded the newspaper L’Egalité, the first French Marxist newspaper. [I will write another post that is more specific to Jules Guesde, promised...]
At the 1893 legislative elections, the socialists received nearly 600,000 votes (between 5 and 7% of the votes cast), finishing in fifth place behind the moderate Republicans, Radicals, Monarchists, and Radical-Socialists. In 1898, the socialists received this time 10% of the votes (nearly 800,000 votes).
In 1896, during the London Congress, the central issue concerned political action and the way it should be conducted to achieve social revolution. Two major camps opposed each other on this matter. On one side are the anarchists, syndicalists, and Allemanists who reject the idea of using elections, parliamentarism, or any form of institutional political action as means of change. They believe that social transformation should be achieved through direct means, such as direct action, general strikes, and the union as the primary class organization, without resorting to parliamentary institutions, which they consider to be an unnecessary or compromising step.
How did the unification process unfold (1896-1905) ?
On May 30, 1896, following the municipal elections, all socialist municipalities in France gathered at the Saint-Mandé Banquet. Alexandre Millerand, a supporter of reformist socialism, deputy of the Seine, and political director of La Petite République, delivered an initial speech advocating for the unification of the various socialist tendencies. He expressed criticism towards revolutionary socialist movements, particularly Blanquism ("The conquest of public powers can only be achieved through universal suffrage, which points to parliamentary action and completely excludes any idea of forceful takeover like that of Blanqui"), and promoted patriotism ("Internationalism does not exclude patriotism; a socialist must not abandon the idea of homeland").
Consequently, contrary to what Jean Touchard might have suggested, a true union among the different socialists was not entirely feasible, since anarchists, revolutionary syndicalists, Allemanists, and Blanquists (before 1901) were excluded. From 1899 to 1902, Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau led the government of the Republican Defense to fight against the reactionary and anti-Dreyfus right and far-right. Alexandre Millerand became increasingly unpopular in the eyes of most socialists, and his entry into Waldeck-Rousseau’s government in 1899 further diminished his popularity.
In 1897, Jaurès launched his "call for socialist unity": "Here is the immediate task that confronts us. First of all, we must prepare the unity of the French Socialist Party. It is not a matter of a despotic and dead unity: the various socialist organizations can and must continue to exist, but they must always be able to consult and deliberate together in a sincere manner for joint action. In fact, this goal is much closer to being achieved than our enemies imagine. All, collectivists or communists, share the same social ideal. It is true that there are disagreements over tactics, over the methods of struggle. But these are not irreducible, and moreover, just recently, did not the Belgian Socialist Party, despite the opposing tendencies of those who accepted electoral alliances with democratic radicals and those who rejected them, give us the admirable and encouraging example of its harmony, of its truly fraternal spirit? Similarly, it does not matter whether among us some believe more strongly in the effectiveness of universal suffrage, while others emphasize the necessity of revolutionary action! No one among us refuses to engage in electoral battles, and no one seeks to block the unforeseen advances of history or to imprison socialism within the ballot box. The replacement of social property by capitalist property is an economic revolution too profound; it stirs too many conflicting passions, too many hopes, and too many fears for anyone to be allowed to chart with certainty the path that the proletariat will follow. The essential thing is that everyone is resolved to harness all political and economic forces that can prepare the new order. The essential is that no one gets intoxicated by their own actions; all those working on economic organization, all those founding, managing, and developing unions or cooperatives, all those responding to the call of struggling workers, all those wresting a fragment of municipal and legislative power from capital, all those who in parliamentary battles strike blows and unfurl the flag even within the enemy’s forge—these are soldiers of the same army, fighters of the same struggle, brothers in the same hope. And the force of circumstances, the very grouping of our opponents, the equally relentless capitalist persecution against political parties and economic groups, against the Workers’ Glassworks in the South, against the Roubaisian proletariat in the North—all of this will gradually lead us to that socialist unity which will multiply the action of our party."
His speech may seem contradictory for a "socialist" (who is not really one, but oh well...^^), a reformist and "humanist" republican, who, from 1892 to 1905, strongly opposed other socialists, and who, through his speech, aspires to a "beautiful sun"; the unification of socialism in the image of the "unity of the proletariat." He maintains "the conviction that unity will be achieved." After his speech, Jean Jaurès expressed the idea of organizing a congress for socialist unity, where all socialist organizations established since the immortal Congress of Marseille in 1879 should be represented, as well as "all the vital forces of the party."
In October 1898, under Jaurès's impetus, a Vigilance Committee was set up, followed by a Confederation in December, and an Agreement Committee in January 1899. In these three "Jaurésian" organizations, decisions were to be made unanimously.In December 1899, the General Congress of socialist organizations met in the Japy Hall. The main decisions taken were the regular holding of congresses, the creation of a General Committee composed in the same "manner" as the Agreement Committee, but where decisions are now made by majority.
After the fleeting unity of the December 1899 Congress at Salle Japy, the French socialist movement tore itself apart once again in 1900. During the Wagram Congress (organized by Jaurès) in September 1900, delegates from the French Workers' Party (POF) left the hall. Jaurès proposed the creation of "autonomous departmental federations" (anti-Guesdist), which would bring together within a department all groups (including unions and cooperatives), regardless of their organizational affiliation.
At the third Congress in Lyon in May 1901, the "Vaillantists" of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (PSR) were the ones to walk out in turn. The Guesdists of the POF, the Vaillantists of the PSR, and the Communist Alliance regrouped in November 1901 to establish the Socialist Revolutionary Unity. Then, during the Congress of Commentry in September 1902, the French Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste de France) was founded. This organic unity, rooted in Marxist and Blanquist heritages, was based notably on a firm stance of radical opposition to the bourgeois State, but also on the acceptance of a relatively "centralized" leadership. The newspaper "Le Socialiste," which had been the central organ of the French Workers' Party since 1885 (new name of L'Egalité of Jules Guesde), became the central organ of the Socialist Party of France. The party was led by an Executive Commission of the National Council, which included, in addition to Guesde and Vaillant, Alexandre Bracke-Desrousseaux, Louis Dubreuilh, Arthur Groussier. Before the Globe Congress of April 1905, the two congresses of the French Socialist Party took place in Reims in September 1903 and in Lille in April 1904. In 1904, the French Socialist Party had around 16,000 members. In the 1902 legislative elections, the PSDF secured only 300,000 votes. In the 1904 municipal elections, the party lost three municipalities: Lille, Bourges, and Montluçon. However, the PSDF maintained the presence of the parties that formed it, but the few breakthroughs it achieved in departments other than those of the former POF could not compensate for its losses.
The French Socialist Party (PSF) of Jean Jaurès was founded in March 1902 in Tours. In the 1902 legislative elections, 37 PSF representatives sat in the Chamber of Deputies, with over 500,000 votes. By 1904, it had gathered 12,000 members. Therefore, the French Socialist Party was primarily led by its parliamentary group. Jean Jaurès made La Petite République the central organ of the PSF.
During the 1902 legislative elections, the split between the PSF and the PSDF did not benefit Guesdisme, and its distinctly revolutionary approach aroused hostility from the Radicals of the South, who until then had constituted the party's electoral base. However, just like the POF, from which it inherited all its weaknesses, the PSDF failed to establish itself as an indispensable guide in the eyes of the working masses. Despite the repeated affirmation of revolutionary principles, it was clear that there was a lack of creative effort to analyze the specific conditions of the struggle. Guesdisme consistently refused any organic unity that would have required tempering the uncompromising nature of its doctrine.
The PSF and the PSDF do not embody the entirety of organized socialist life. The Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party refused to join the ranks of the French Socialist Party. Seven autonomous departmental federations, considered too 'revolutionary' for the French Socialist Party and too 'unitary' for the Socialist Party of France, remain outside the parties. Only the Saône-et-Loire Federation joins the PSDF in January 1905. Other federations leave the PSF to maintain their autonomy. Between February 1904 and March 1905, the PSF lost at least 4,000 members.
In August 1904, the Amsterdam Congress took place. Following this congress, the Second International mandated the unification of the PSF and the PSDF. The Amsterdam Congress condemned revisionism de Bernstein, in accordance with the positions adopted by the Dresden Congress (1903). However, the "Jaurésists" are not excluded from the International, whose goal at the beginning of the 20th century is to restore the unity of the various French socialist tendencies. In a certain way you can say that the Amsterdam Congress ultimately "reconciles" Guesde and Jaurès.
A second socialist unit develops from August 1904 until April 1905. The PSDF experiences a slight increase, regaining some members who had left the PSF (such as Hubert Lagardelle - future minister under the Vichy regime !). At the PSF, there are incessant procedural debates regarding the role of elected officials. A unitarian current (left wing) is forming within the party. Young militants gain a majority at the Interfederal Committee, which opposes the parliamentary group. This includes Jean Longuet, Pierre Renaudel, Ellen-Prévost. The unitarian faction criticizes the parliamentary group for being too close to the Radicals, and thus for moving away from socialism (or even "renouncing" it…).
