Tripartism and Its Aftermath

This chapter argues that the restoration of democracy in France started in earnest only with the election in October 1945 of a Constituent Assembly. When voters rejected the Constituent Assembly's draft constitution in the requisite referendum, another six months elapsed before a second Constituent Assembly reached sufficient compromises to produce a new draft, which won voter approval by a thin margin. During the long provisional interval, the CNR Common Program helped undergird Charles de Gaulle's unity government and subsequent tripartite coalitions after the general abruptly exited the scene. However, until the fall of 1947, when a great strike wave brought the experiment to an explosive end, tripartism remained the political framework for France's postwar moment. Successive governments addressed the intractable challenges of postwar recovery while they sought to implement the “peaceful revolution” imagined by CNR in such matters as economic controls, social security, housing, and educational opportunity.

Labour’s Moment: The Election of 1945 and After

This chapter focuses on Britain after World War II. The British could take pride in their stubborn endurance over six long years of war, but the toll and the scars ran deep by 1945: over 950,000 wartime casualties, including 357,000 killed; massive bombing destruction of already scarce housing; pervasive shortages and bleak austerities; and an empty treasury. From day one, inexorable postwar economic and financial constraints enveloped the Labour government, apart from its self-inflicted wounds such as the winter coal crisis in 1946–47 and the convertibility fiasco. However, across its five-year term of office, Labour stood by its proclaimed egalitarian values. Labour honored its unprecedented commitment “to raise the living standards of the people as a whole,” and it linked that goal to the imperative of raising the economy's productive capacities. The chapter also looks at the general election of 1945.

The Travails of the French Left

This chapter examines the French Left. After the fall of France in June 1940, the French parliament convoked in the town of Vichy granted “full powers” to Marshal Pétain, thereby interring the Third Republic and accepting French collaboration with Hitler. Over two-thirds of the Socialist parliamentarians ignored the pleas of their leader Léon Blum and voted yes. The French Left was again in disarray. In the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Socialist Party split apart and the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) labor confederation experienced a comparable schism. Fifteen years later, a reunited Left forged a Popular Front alliance that won a remarkable electoral victory in 1936. Within two years, the Popular Front collapsed; Munich bitterly divided the Socialist camp; and the French Communist Party went its own way. Under these extreme circumstances, however, the French Resistance created new openings for the Left, in tandem with General Charles de Gaulle's Free France in London.

Britain: Labour’s Long Apprenticeship

This chapter discusses the Labour Party's contribution to the British people at war and the promise they offered for a postwar future. The roots of the Labour Party go back to 1900, when Britain's labor federation, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), sought to increase the political influence of the working class in Parliament. A conference convened by the TUC launched the Labour Representation Committee, which changed its name to the Labour Party in 1906 after it had established a toehold in the House of Commons. In Winston Churchill's coalition, the Prime Minister himself ran the war and personally made important military and diplomatic decisions. The chapter then looks at Labour's wartime presence, focusing on the development of the civil defense and the mobilization of workers. It also considers the Beveridge Report.

Conclusion: Three Scenarios, One Story?

This concluding chapter argues that as the three western allies crossed the threshold of victory after profoundly different wartime experiences, their postwar moments were bound to vary as well. Independently from one another, progressives in the three countries held comparable values and agendas for postwar change, which they encapsulated in three manifestos: the Common Program of the clandestine National Council of the Resistance (CNR) in early 1944; the Labour Party manifesto for the 1945 British general election, Let Us Face the Future; and The People's Program for 1944 of the CIO-PAC for the U.S. election of November 1944. When aligned, these three programs constitute a new portal into the postwar moment. Domestic postwar struggles in each country form three distinct scenarios, but they constitute a single story as well, foreshadowed by the common themes in the three manifestos.

The United States: Divided Government, Divided Nation

This chapter looks at the challenges faced by progressives in veterans organizations, the labor movement, national politics, and the 1948 presidential election in the U.S. The impact of domestic communism and anti-communism commands a prominent place here. The anti-communist affidavit required of union officials by the Taft–Hartley law of 1947 was an early warning sign of the tidal wave of anti-communism starting to wash over American political culture. No matter how the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) acted, dealing with communist influence in its unions would divide the federation. However, the problem of communism in American public life went far beyond the confines of organized labor. It erupted most visibly in the Hollywood film studios and the broadcasting industry. Conflict within the American Veterans Committee (AVC) makes for an especially illuminating case study. The chapter then considers the fate of Harry Truman's “Fair Deal” program during his second term.

Building Socialism British Style

This chapter examines the postwar legacy of the Labour Party. Labour's legacy included a fully formed welfare state with the National Health Service (NHS) at its core; an ambitious public housing program; strong trade union bargaining power; quasi-Keynesian fiscal tactics to sustain purchasing power; a degree of central planning for a mixed economy; and a constant reiteration of egalitarian values. A few of Labour's far-reaching programs no doubt had roots of a sort in the thought and experience of the coalition years of World War II. However, the forms and transformational heft of Labour's postwar settlement derived in the main from the party's prewar social democratic agenda, its surprisingly decisive victory in 1945, and its hard-fought exercise of power. After 1951, the Conservatives came to terms with Labour's bedrock achievements but worked steadily to modify them incrementally in favor of free enterprise.

Postwar Prospects in the U.S.

This chapter explores the launching of progressive visions for the postwar in the U.S. As the CIO-PAC (CIO-Political Action Committee) produced a flurry of electoral activism, it also crystalized a progressive program for postwar America. Its principal manifesto, The People's Program for 1944, raised a progressive standard for renewal in the postwar moment. The manifesto demanded jobs for all with adequate wages; affordable housing; provision for all of adequate medical care; equality of educational opportunity; and improved protection from the economic perils of old age, sickness, accident, or unemployment. The chapter then considers Franklin Roosevelt's re-election campaign; Harry Truman's approach to reconversion after V-J Day; the conflicts between big business and big labor during the postwar moment; the impact of the G.I. Bill of Rights; and the Republican sweep of Congress in the election of 1946 and its direct result: passage of the anti-union Taft–Hartley labor law.

Starting Over, with de Gaulle or without Him

This chapter assesses postwar France. In one respect, the postwar moment began earlier in France than elsewhere with the gradual liberation of French soil in the summer of 1944. Alongside the Allied armies, Charles de Gaulle's Free French units and the paramilitary forces (FFI) of the Resistance helped drive out the Nazis and oust Vichy's collaborators. However, liberation of the national territory was the first of two steps necessary to make France whole again. Only the conquest of the Reich would allow the repatriation from Germany of more than two million French prisoners of war (POWs), forced laborers, and surviving concentration camp deportees. Once that was achieved, the progressive project of renewal, the “peaceful revolution” envisaged by the National Council of the Resistance (CNR) Common Program, could begin in earnest.

The Roosevelt Era: From the New Deal to D-Day

This chapter looks at the progressive forces in the U.S. In the U.S., Franklin Roosevelt's presidency became the prime force for progressive gains. In the New Deal's ascendant phase from 1932 to 1936, the agricultural and industrial recovery strategies of the “Hundred Days” came first and foundered. Later, Roosevelt's administration enacted social security, inventive new programs for work relief, and the Wagner labor relations act that changed the rules of the game for trade unions. Once the European war began in 1939, the U.S. gradually became “the arsenal of democracy.” However, only on a fraught and twisting path did Roosevelt finally lead America into the crucible of World War II. Meanwhile, a new social movement reinforced the progressive thrust of Roosevelt's presidency—the rise of new trade unions in the mass production industries impelled by the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations), a new labor federation.