#leon blum

[mzelletetedslesnuages]

Seul l'amour-passion rend heureux, puisque seul il emploie, jusqu'en ses réserves cachées, notre provision d'énergie vitale, et les souffrances qu'il cause.

Léon Blum

[indochina1]

The Leadership of the Popular Front, 1936. Source: New Politics website

In 1936, the so-called Popular Front, consisting of a coalition of the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the Radical Socialists, won legislative elections in France. Coming to power in the wake of the Great Depression and a desire on the part of the electorate to combat the rise of French fascism, the Popular Front government, headed by Socialist leader Leon Blum, was greeted with enthusiasm among nationalist groups in France’s colonies, including Indochina. The new administration talked of creating national autonomy for the colonies, granting French citizenship to colonial subjects and setting up frameworks for national political representation. However, despite some short-lived liberal reforms in Vietnam, the Popular Front did not have the time to deliver on its anti-colonial rhetoric: it collapsed in acrimony in less than two years.

[bagdyernoke]

Léon Blum - Wikipedia

Léon Blum - Wikipedia

Between 1905 and 1907 he wrote Du Mariage a highly controversial (for the period) and much talked about critical essay about the problems with traditional marriage as envisioned in the late 19th century, with its religious and economic background and strong stress on women remaining virgins until their marriage day.

Blum stated that both men and women should enjoy a period of "polygamic" free sex life in order to experience a more mature and stable relationship during later married life: “For both men and women, the life of adventure must precede the life of marriage, the life of instinct must precede the life of reason” 

Unsurprisingly he was targeted by the then-powerful Catholic Church in France, in the wake of the turmoil caused by the separation between church and state implemented by Emile Combes in 1905. Far right and royalist politicians and agitators, and most preeminently Charles Maurras, were incensed, and pelted mostly anti-semitic insults and public outrage at Blum, famously dubbing him "le pornographe du Conseil d'état" as Blum was by then a counsellor of this institution. Although Blum's views are nowadays accepted and mostly mainstream in many developed countries, the book remained an object of scandal long after WWI and the shift to the emancipation of women.

[pyone]

http://www.matthieucolarescu.com

[101quotesaboutlife]

Morality may consist solely in the courage of making a choice.

The post Morality may consist solely in the courage of making a choice. appeared first on 101 Quotes About Life.

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[bulkbinbox]

leon blum por horst p. horst

[joeyboy1970]

The free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought.

LEON BLUM, attributed, Webster's Quotations, Facts and Phrases

[lifeisyetfair]

Je n'oublie pas que, dans la zone occupée, le Parti communiste fournit sa large, sa très large part d'otages et de victimes. J'ai lu l'autre jour, dans une liste d'otages donnée par un journal, le nom du petit Timbaud. J'ai très bien connu le petit Timbaud : c'était un secrétaire de l'Union des Syndicats métallurgiques de la région parisienne. Il était à la conversation du 15 mars. Je l'ai vu souvent et j'ai été bien souvent en bataille avec lui. Seulement, il a été fusillé et il est mort en chantant la Marseillaise, cette Marseillaise que, malgré tout, nous avions apprise aux ouvriers à chanter, peut-être pas la Marseillaise officielle, peut-être pas la Marseillaise des cortèges officiels et des. quais de gare, mais la Marseillaise de Rouget de l'Isle et des volontaires de l'an II, la Marseillaise du groupe de Rude, la Marseillaise de Hugo « ailée et volant dans les balles ». C'est comme cela qu'est mort le petit Timbaud et que sont morts beaucoup d'autres. Par conséquent, pour ma part, en ce qui concerne le Parti communiste, je n'ajouterai rien."

Leon Blum, speech at the Riom Trial. For context, the Socialist leader was on trial for treason under the Vichy government and here in his defense speech addresses his relationship with the French Communist Party, which had been and would be negative, to put it mildly. Here he explains why, under the circumstances, he wasn't going to attack them despite the mutual dislike. French wiki claims Timbaud's actual last words (before he was shot as a hostage by the Germans) were, "Long live the German Communist Party!" which is one of those things that makes you go "Huh?" and then "Oh!" A really interesting gesture. But regardless of whether he actually sang the Marseillaise or not, the description of the Marseillaise in Blum's speech is a beautiful one.