Socialist-Communist Union

Last updated

The Socialist-Communist Union (French : Union socialiste-communiste, U.S.-C.), later renamed the Socialist-Communist Party (French : Parti socialiste-communiste), was a socialist political party in France between 1923 and 1932.

Contents

Founding

The party was founded in Boulogne-sur-Seine on April 29, 1923, through the merger of two splinter groups of the French Communist Party; the Federal Socialist Union (formed in December 1922, formed by the Raoul Verfeuil-led rightist tendency of the Communist Party (which opposed the integration of the party into the Communist International) and L-O Frossard's United Communist Party. Frossard had been the First Secretary of the Communist Party but left the party and founded the United Communist Party on January 2, 1923, taking with him several intellectuals and municipal councillors (especially from the Paris region). [1] [2]

The mayors of the Parisian suburbs of Boulogne-sur-Seine, Issy, Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen, Le Pré-Saint-Gervais and Pantin belonged to the party. [2] Prominent members of the party included Georges Pioch, Victor Méric and Ernest Lafont. [3]

Crisis

U.S.-C. suffered a major setback Frossard and other prominent members (such as Henri Sellier) returned to the French Section of the Workers International (SFIO) in 1924. [4] Both U.S.-C. parliamentarians rejoined SFIO. [5]

The remaining U.S.-C. had around 1,000 members. The party got around 10,000 votes in the 1928 French National Assembly election, and a candidate of the party (Ernest Lafont) was elected. Before the election the senator André Morizet and his followers had deserted the party. [5]

The party was renamed 'Socialist-Communist Party' in 1927. [6] In 1932 the party merged with Workers and Peasants Party, forming the Party of Proletarian Unity. [4]

International linkages

In July 1923 a meeting was held in Frankfurt, Germany, attended by the U.S.-C., Georg Ledebour's Socialist League from Germany, the Russian Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and the General Jewish Labour Bund. The meeting decided to set up a joint Information Bureau. [6] The first meeting of the International Bureau of Revolutionary Socialist Parties (the 'Paris Bureau') was held in Berlin in December 1924, in which the U.S.-C. participated. [7] [8]

Press

The party published L'Egalité (started by Frossard's group in January 1923) until April 1924. L'Egalité was a six-page biweekly newspaper. The publishing of L'Egalité was suspended after the crisis in the party that followed the return of Frossard and other prominent members to SFIO. The party launched Bulletin de l'Union Socialiste-Communiste in June 1924. In March 1926 this publication was renamed L'Unité ouvrière. This newspaper was published until December 1931. [2] [4]

In Loire, the party published Le Peuple de la Loire. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Broué</span>

Pierre Broué was a French historian and Trotskyist revolutionary militant whose work covers the history of the Bolshevik Party, the Spanish Revolution and biographies of Leon Trotsky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unified Socialist Party (France)</span> Political party in France

The Unified Socialist Party was a socialist political party in France, founded on April 3, 1960. It was originally led by Édouard Depreux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marceau Pivert</span> French trade unionist

Marceau Pivert was a French schoolteacher, trade unionist, socialist militant, and journalist. He was an alumnus of the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludovic-Oscar Frossard</span> French socialist and communist politician (1889-1946)

Ludovic-Oscar Frossard, also known as L.-O. Frossard or Oscar Frossard, was a French socialist and communist politician. He was a founding member in 1905 and Secretary-General of the French Socialist Party (SFIO) from 1918 to 1920, as well as a founding member and Secretary-General of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 1920 to 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Souvarine</span> French Marxist, communist activist, essayist and journalist

Boris Souvarine, also known as Varine, was a French Marxist, communist activist, essayist and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union of Communist Students</span> Political party in France

The Union of Communist Students is a French student political organization, part of the Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France. It was founded in 1939 but dissolved after World War II. The UEC was re-created in 1956, along with the MJCF. It is independent from the French Communist Party (PCF) although it remains close to it. It maintains exchange contacts with the PCF, in particular on student issues. The UEC is organized in sectors, by university, and is led by a national collective elected during the congress of the MJCF and renewed during the National Assemblies of the facilitators, every year. A national coordination runs the organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexandre Bachelet</span> French politician

Alexandre Edmond Bachelet was a French socialist politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacques Sadoul (politician)</span>

Jacques Numa Sadoul, commonly known as Captain Sadoul, was a French lawyer, communist politician, and writer, one of the founders of the Communist International. He began his career in the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) in Vienne, and, by the time of World War I, was serving under Albert Thomas, the Minister of Armaments. A French Army Captain, he was Thomas' envoy to the Russian Republic, keeping contact with the socialist circles and steering them toward the Entente Powers. After the October Revolution, he maintained close contacts with the Bolsheviks, pledging them his support against the Central Powers during the crisis of 1917–1918. He was unable to prevent Bolshevist Russia from signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which took her out of the war, but, having established close contacts with Leon Trotsky and other communist leaders, became a communist himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jules Nadi</span> French politician

Jules Camille Victor Pomaret, known as Jules Nadi was a French politician who represented Drôme in southeastern France. A socialist since 1898, at different times, he was a member of the French Workers' Party (POF) (1898–1900), French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and the French Communist Party (PCF) (1921–1923).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adéodat Compère-Morel</span> French Socialist politician, agronomist, orator and writer

Adéodat Constant Adolphe Compère-Morel was a French Socialist politician, agronomist, orator and writer. Characterized as a Marxist doctrinaire, he was one of the founders of the Socialist Party of France. A gifted propagandist, he was a particular expert on social reform in rural France and became viewed as his party's agrarian specialist. He was an associate of the likes of revolutionary Marxist socialist journalist and literary critic Paul Lafargue and authored many books and papers, several of which were partly written with Lafargue. His best known and most influential work was Encyclopédie socialiste syndicale et coopérative de l'International ouvrière, published in 1912.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Rappoport</span> Russian and French militant communist politician, journalist and writer

Charles Rappoport was a Russian and French militant communist politician, journalist and writer. A Jewish intellectual, and a multilingual scholar, he's been referred to as "a grand man of French radicalism".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French Workers' Party</span> French evolutionary Marxist party (1880–1902)

The French Workers' Party was the French socialist party created in 1880 by Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, Karl Marx's son-in-law. A revolutionary party, it had as aim to abolish capitalism and replace it with a communist society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French Left</span> Left-wing politics in France

The French Left refers to communist, socialist, social democratic, democratic socialist, and anarchist political forces in France. The term originates from the National Assembly of 1789, where supporters of the revolution were seated on the left of the assembly. During the 1800s, left largely meant support for the Republic, whereas right largely meant support for the monarchy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Brizon</span> French teacher, national deputy, internationalist and pacifist

Pierre Brizon was a French teacher, national deputy, internationalist and pacifist. He was subject to violent attacks in the press and parliament for speaking out against the fighting during World War I.

Louise Saumoneau was a French feminist who later renounced feminism as being irrelevant to the class struggle. She became a union leader and a prominent socialist. During World War I she was active in the internationalist pacifist movement. In a change of stance, after the war she remained with the right of the socialist party after the majority split off to form the French Communist Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucie Colliard</span> French teacher, pacifist, trade unionist and communist

Lucie Colliard, born Lucie Claudine Parmelan was a French teacher, pacifist, trade unionist and communist from Haute-Savoie. She helped found the French teachers' union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marianne Rauze</span> French journalist, feminist, socialist, pacifist and communist

Marianne Rauze was a French journalist, feminist, socialist, pacifist and communist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">François Mayoux</span> French teacher, socialist, communist and revolutionary syndicalist

François Mayoux was a French teacher who became in turn a socialist, communist and revolutionary syndicalist. He and his wife Marie Mayoux were imprisoned during World War I (1914–18) for publishing a pacifist pamphlet. He wrote many articles for anarchist journals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambroise Croizat</span> French politician (1901–1951)

Ambroise Croizat was a French syndicalist and communist politician. As the minister of Labour and of Social security, he founded the French Social security system and the retirement system, between 1945 and 1947. He was also the general secretary of the Fédération des travailleurs de la métallurgie CGT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French Section of the Workers' International</span> Political party in France

The French Section of the Workers' International was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded during the 1905 Globe Congress in Paris as a merger between the French Socialist Party and the Socialist Party of France in order to create the French section of the Second International, designated as the party of the workers' movement.

References