From Moscow to Vichy: Three Working-Class Militants and the French Communist Party, 1920–1940

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean McMeekin
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
The Political ◽  
French Politics ◽  
Vichy Regime ◽  
French Communist Party

‘From Moscow to Vichy’ chronicles the political trajectory of Jules Teulade, Albert Vassart and Henri Barbé, three French labour militants of modest origins who were rapidly whisked into the top ranks of the French Communist Party (PCF) in the early 1920s, but later fell out of favour with Moscow just as the PCF entered its halycon years in the mid-to-late 1930s. Each of them, though for different reasons, turned against their former Russian patrons so violently that political participation in the ‘anti-Communist’ Vichy regime became thinkable. An examination of their unpublished memoirs – long ignored by Gaullist and communist historians, to whom the recollections of ex-Communist Vichy ‘collaborators’ gave little comfort – reveals both the powerful allure the Russian Revolution had for its earliest devotees, and the profound disillusionment that could result for working-class Communists who saw their faith in Moscow betrayed. In their stories, and those of others like them, we can discern something of the devastating fallout of Moscow's invasion of French politics between the two world wars.

Camarades! La naissance du parti communiste en France, Romain Ducoulombier, Paris: Perrin, 2010

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 178-188
Author(s):  
Ian Birchall
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Precise Meaning ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact ◽  
French Communist Party ◽  
Ideological Context

AbstractRomain Ducoulombier, author ofCamarades!, a study of the origins of the French Communist Party, belongs to a different ideological context to earlier authors on the subject, such as Kriegel, Wohl or Robrieux. But though Ducoulombier claims originality for his work, there is little genuinely new here. He fails to grasp the impact of the Russian Revolution on the French working class and has little understanding of the dynamics of the Communist International. He stresses the ‘asceticism’ and ‘messianism’ of the early Communist Party without giving a precise meaning to these terms. Worst of all, Ducoulombier concentrates on archival material while saying remarkably little about the French Communist Party’s actual activities, notably work in the trade unions, anti-militarism and anti-colonialism.

Nation, Locality and Radical Identity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Petrie
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Control ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Political Left ◽  
National Model ◽  
Selection Of

Concentrating upon the years between the 1924 and 1929 general elections, which separated the first and second minority Labour governments, this chapter traces the rise of a modernised, national vision of Labour politics in Scotland. It considers first the reworking of understandings of sovereignty within the Labour movement, as the autonomy enjoyed by provincial trades councils was circumscribed, and notions of Labour as a confederation of working-class bodies, which could in places include the Communist Party, were replaced by a more hierarchical, national model. The electoral consequences of this shift are then considered, as greater central control was exercised over the selection of parliamentary candidates and the conduct of election campaigns. This chapter presents a study of the changing horizons of the political left in inter-war Scotland, analysing the declining importance of locality in the construction of radical political identities.

scholarly journals Mummifying the Working Class: The Cultural Revolution and the Fates of the Political Parties of the 20th Century

2016 ◽  
Vol 227 ◽  
pp. 653-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Russo
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Working Class ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

AbstractA number of prolonged political experiments in Chinese factories during the Cultural Revolution proved that, despite any alleged “historical” connection between the Communist Party and the “working class,” the role of the workers, lacking a deep political reinvention, was framed by a regime of subordination that was ultimately not dissimilar from that under capitalist command. This paper argues that one key point of Deng Xiaoping's reforms derived from taking these experimental results into account accurately but redirecting them towards the opposite aim, an even more stringent disciplining of wage labour. The outcome so far is a governmental discourse which plays an important role in upholding the term “working class” among the emblems of power, while at the same time nailing the workers to an unconditional obedience. The paper discusses the assumption that, while this stratagem is one factor behind the stabilization of the Chinese Communist Party, it has nonetheless affected the decline of the party systems inherited from the 20th century.

The Birth of the Militant Self

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiktor Marzec
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Life Context ◽  
The Life Course

The 1905 Revolution was often considered by workers writing memoirs as the most important event in their lives. This paper examines biographical reminiscences of the political participation of working-class militants in the 1905 Revolution. I scrutinize four tropes used by working-class writers to describe their life stories narrated around their political identity. These are: (1) overcoming misery and destitution, (2) autodidacticism, (3) political initiation, and (4) feeling of belonging to the community of equals. All four demonstrate that the militant self cannot be understood in separation from the life context of the mobilized workers. Participation in party politics was an important factor modifying the life course of workers in the direction resonating with their aspirations and longings. The argument is informed by analysis of over a hundred of biographical testimonies written by militants from various political parties in different political circumstances.

scholarly journals Editorial Introduction to Louis Althusser's 'Letter to the Central Committee of the PCF, 18 March 1966'

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-151
Author(s):  
William Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Editorial Introduction ◽  
The Political ◽  
Marxist Philosophy ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
Theoretical Context ◽  
Philosophical Project ◽  
French Communist Party ◽  
The Way

AbstractAs an accompaniment to the translation into English of Louis Althusser's 'Letter to the Central Committee of the PCF, March 18th, 1966', this note provides the historical and theoretical context necessary to understand Althusser's 'anti-humanist' interventions into French Communist Party policy decisions during the mid-1960s. Because nowhere else in Althusser's published writings do we see as clearly the political stakes involved in his philosophical project, nor the way in which this project evolved from a 'theoreticist' pursuit into a more practical one, the note also argues that the letter is of importance to Althusser scholars, to historians of Marxist thought, and to those interested in the relevance of Althusser's work to contemporary Marxist philosophy.

Social Democracy in France

1955 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 532-545
Author(s):  
Charles A. Micaud
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Simple Explanation ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
French Society ◽  
The Many ◽  
French Communist Party

Ten years after the Liberation, the French Communist Party remains the strongest party in France. It can muster a quarter of the nation's votes and claim more “militants” than all other French parties put together. A majority of industrial workers continue to vote for the “party of the working class” even if they are reluctant to strike on its behalf. This persistent strength is both disturbing and puzzling. It is obviously a major source of weakness not only for French democracy, but for the effectiveness of the Western coalition. There is no simple explanation of the continued hold of Communism, since it is both the cause and the consequence of the many-faceted crisis of French society.

scholarly journals DEMOCRACIA E CRIMINALIZAÇÃO DOS MOVIMENTOS SOCIAIS NO BRASIL: as manifestações de junho de 2013

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 393
Author(s):  
Ilse Gomes Silva
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Action ◽  
Brazilian State ◽  
The Right

Resumo: O artigo tem como objetivo levantar elementos para a análise da ação do Estado brasileiro diante das manifestações de junho de 2013 e compreender o processo de criminalização dos movimentos sociais. As manifestações de junho de 2013, em todo o território brasileiro, denunciaram a precarização das condições de vida da população e a forma violenta do Estado tratar a classe trabalhadora quando ousa reivindicar seus direitos. Diversos movimentos sociais estão nas ruas exercendo o direito à participação política e pressionando as instituições da democracia. A reação violenta do Estado brasileiro a estas manifestações indicam que direitos duramente conquistados, como a liberdade de expressão e organização, estão ameaçados, o que coloca em risco a participação política da classe trabalhadora e, consequentemente, a democracia.Palavras-chave: Poder político, autoritarismo, movimentos sociais, democracia.DEMOCRACY AND CRIMINALIZATION OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN BRAZIL: the manifestations on june 2013Abstract: The article aims to identify elements for the Brazilian state action on the analysis of the manifestations on June 2013 and understand the process of criminalization of social movements. The manifestations on June 2013, in all of Brazil, denounced the deterioration of people’s living conditions and the violent way the state treat the working class when it dares to claim their rights. Diverse social movements are on the streets exercising the right to political participation and exerting pressure on institutions of democracy. The violent reaction of the Brazilian state to these demonstrations indicate that hard-won rights such as freedom of expression and organization, are threatened, which endangers the political participation of the working class and hence democracy.Key words: Political power, authoritarianism, social movements, democracy.

scholarly journals BRITISH ATTITUDES TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 689-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMMA VINCENT MACLEOD
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
The Political ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
The French Revolution

ABSTRACTThe study of British attitudes to the French Revolution continues to attract substantial scholarly attention. In recent years, this has resulted not only in the excavation of a substantial volume of new detail, but also in increasing attention being paid to the political experiences of members of the middling and lower orders during the revolutionary and Napoleonic decades. While historians have been interested in radicals and reformers from these social strata since the publication of E. P. Thompson's The making of the English working class in 1963, it is only more recently that their loyalist and less partisan counterparts have been examined by scholars to the same extent. This article begins by summarizing the recent publication of large collections of primary sources and of major biographies in this area. It then discusses recent historiographical advances and debates in the following areas: the British debate over the French Revolution; the political participation of members of the middle and working classes in patriotic and loyalist activities; the culture of popular politics; and the question of national identity.

scholarly journals Class Against Class: The French Communist Party and the Comintern

1970 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-42
Author(s):  
William A. Hoisington
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
French Politics ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
French Communist Party

Since the 1930's the French Communist party has faithfully endorsed the policy decisions of the Soviet Union, oftentimes despite disagreement with major Soviet pronouncements. In the 1920's, however, the French Communist leadership was divided over the appropriateness of Soviet instructions on matters that appeared to many French Communists clearly within the exclusive domain of the French party. The intrusion of the Comintern, the Soviet-dominated international Communist organization, into the pre-campaign discussion of the tactics for the 1928 elections to the French national assembly forced French Communists to re-examine their goals, their position in French politics, and their relationship with the Soviet Union. The decisions of the French party leaders, made amid what was perhaps the last animated and freewheeling public party debate, determined the party's relationship with the USSR for a full forty years.

scholarly journals From the Russian Revolution to the Cuban Revolution

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 213-242
Author(s):  
Steve Cushion
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Direct Connection ◽  
The Caribbean

The Cuban Communist Party was the most significant working-class response to the Russian Revolution in the Caribbean. Recent research shows that organised workers played a decisive role in the outcome of the Cuban Revolution, but if the working class role has been hidden from history, the revolutionary activity of Afro-Cuban workers has been doubly obscured. There is a direct connection that links the Russian Revolution to the Cuban Revolution.

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