Communism in France

Last updated

Communism has been a part of French politics since the early 20th century at the latest. It has been described as "an enduring presence on the French political scene" for most of the 20th century. [1]

Contents

In 1920, the French Section of the Communist International was founded. [2] This organization went on to become the French Communist Party (Parti communiste français, PCF). Following World War II, the French Communist Party joined the government led by Charles de Gaulle before being dropped by the coalition.[ citation needed ] From November 1946 to 1956, the French Communist Party won more votes than any other party in the French national elections.[ citation needed ] After 1956, their share of the vote gradually declined.[ citation needed ]

In addition to the French Communist Party, there are and have been other French communist political parties.

Early modern period

During the early modern period in Europe, various groups supporting communist ideas appeared. In the 18th century, the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau in his hugely influential The Social Contract (1762) outlined the basis for a political order based on popular sovereignty rather than the rule of monarchs. [3] His views proved influential during the French Revolution of 1789 in which various anti-monarchists, particularly the Jacobins, supported the idea of redistributing wealth equally among the people, including Jean-Paul Marat and Gracchus Babeuf. The latter was involved in the Conspiracy of the Equals of 1796 intending to establish a revolutionary regime based on communal ownership, egalitarianism and the redistribution of property. [4] However, the plot was detected and he and several others involved were arrested and executed. Despite this setback, the example of the French Revolutionary regime and Babeuf's doomed insurrection was an inspiration for radical French thinkers such as Henri de Saint-Simon, Louis Blanc, Charles Fourier and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who declared that "property is theft!" [5]

19th century

By the 1830s and 1840s, the egalitarian concepts of communism and the related ideas of socialism had become widely popular in French revolutionary circles thanks to the writings of social critics and philosophers such as Pierre Leroux and Théodore Dézamy, whose critiques of bourgeoisie liberalism led to a widespread intellectual rejection of laissez-faire capitalism on both economic, philosophical and moral grounds. [6] Importantly, Philippe Buonarroti, one of Babeuf's co-conspirators, survived the crackdown on the Conspiracy of the Equals and went on to write the influential book History of Babeuf's Conspiracy for Equality first published in 1828. [6] Buonarroti's works and teachings went on to inspire early Babouvist communist groups such as the Christian communist League of the Just in 1836 led by Wilhelm Weitling which would later be merged with the Communist Correspondence Committee in Brussels. [7] This merger of the two groups in 1847 formed the Communist League, headed by German socialist labour leader Karl Schapper, who then that same year tasked two founding members, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, to write a manifesto laying out the principles of the new political party. [8]

During the latter half of the 19th century, various left-wing organisations across Europe continued to campaign against the many autocratic right-wing regimes that were then in power. In France, socialists set up a government known as the Paris Commune after the fall of Napoleon III in 1871, but they were soon overthrown and many of their members executed by counter-revolutionaries. [9]

20th century

In Europe, front organizations were especially influential in France which became the base for communist front organizer Willi Münzenberg in 1933. [10]

Eurocommunism

Eurocommunism, a revisionist trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties, was especially prominent in France. They claimed to be developing a theory and practice of social transformation more relevant for Western Europe. During the Cold War, they sought to undermine the influence of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

A Jacobin was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary political movement that was the most famous political club during the French Revolution (1789–1799). The club got its name from meeting at the Dominican rue Saint-Honoré Monastery of the Jacobins. The Dominicans in France were called Jacobins because their first house in Paris was the Saint Jacques Monastery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">François-Noël Babeuf</span> French political agitator and journalist of the French Revolutionary period

François-Noël Babeuf, also known as Gracchus Babeuf, was a French proto-communist, revolutionary, and journalist of the French Revolutionary period. His newspaper Le tribun du peuple was best known for its advocacy for the poor and calling for a popular revolt against the Directory, the government of France. He was a leading advocate for democracy and the abolition of private property. He angered the authorities who were clamping down hard on their radical enemies. In spite of the efforts of his Jacobin friends to save him, Babeuf was executed for his role in the Conspiracy of the Equals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippe Buonarroti</span> Italian utopian socialist (1761-1837)

Filippo Giuseppe Maria Ludovico Buonarroti, more usually referred to under the French version Philippe Buonarroti, was an Italian utopian socialist, writer, agitator, freemason, and conspirator; he was active in Corsica, France, and Geneva. His History of Babeuf’s Conspiracy of Equals (1828) became a quintessential text for revolutionaries, inspiring such socialists as Blanqui and Marx. He proposed a mutualist strategy that would revolutionize society by stages, starting from monarchy to liberalism, then to radicalism, and finally to communism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conspiracy of the Equals</span> 1796 conspiracy to overthrow the Directory by Babeuf

The Conspiracy of the Equals of May 1796 was a failed coup d'etat during the French Revolution. It was led by François-Noël Babeuf, who wanted to overthrow the Directory and replace it with an egalitarian and proto-socialist republic, inspired by Jacobin ideals.

The history of communism encompasses a wide variety of ideologies and political movements sharing the core principles of common ownership of wealth, economic enterprise, and property. Most modern forms of communism are grounded at least nominally in Marxism, a theory and method conceived by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels during the 19th century. Marxism subsequently gained a widespread following across much of Europe, and throughout the late 1800s its militant supporters were instrumental in a number of unsuccessful revolutions on that continent. During the same era, there was also a proliferation of communist parties which rejected armed revolution, but embraced the Marxist ideal of collective property and a classless society.

Communism is a left-wing to far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society based on need. A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state.

Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some scholars consider it to represent the left of social democracy, while others limit it to the left of communist parties. In certain instances—especially in the news media—far left has been associated with some forms of authoritarianism, anarchism, communism, and Marxism, or are characterized as groups that advocate for revolutionary socialism and related communist ideologies, or anti-capitalism and anti-globalization. Far-left terrorism consists of extremist, militant, or insurgent groups that attempt to realize their ideals through political violence rather than using democratic processes.

19th-century German philosopher Karl Marx, the founder and primary theorist of Marxism, viewed religion as "the soul of soulless conditions" or the "opium of the people". According to Marx, religion in this world of exploitation is an expression of distress and at the same time it is also a protest against the real distress. In other words, religion continues to survive because of oppressive social conditions. When this oppressive and exploitative condition is destroyed, religion will become unnecessary. At the same time, Marx saw religion as a form of protest by the working classes against their poor economic conditions and their alienation. Denys Turner, a scholar of Marx and historical theology, classified Marx's views as adhering to Post-Theism, a philosophical position that regards worshipping deities as an eventually obsolete, but temporarily necessary, stage in humanity's historical spiritual development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Marxist communism</span> Overview of communist-oriented ideologies and practices prior to the works of Karl Marx

While Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels defined communism as a political movement, there were already similar ideas in the past which one could call communist experiments. Marx himself saw primitive communism as the original hunter-gatherer state of humankind. Marx theorized that only after humanity was capable of producing surplus did private property develop.

Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that originates in the works of 19th century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism analyzes and critiques the development of class society and especially of capitalism as well as the role of class struggles in systemic, economic, social and political change. It frames capitalism through a paradigm of exploitation and analyzes class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development – materialist in the sense that the politics and ideas of an epoch are determined by the way in which material production is carried on.

Neo-Babouvism is a revolutionary socialist current in French political theory and action in the 19th century. It hearkened back to the Conspiracy of the Equals of Gracchus Babeuf and his associates, who tried to overthrow the Directory at the end of the French Revolution. After Babeuf's execution, his programme of radical Jacobin republicanism and economic collectivism was propagated by Philippe Buonarroti, who had been associated with the Conspiracy of the Equals and survived. Buonarroti's writings influenced many French revolutionaries in the 1830s and 1840s, among them Théodore Dézamy, Richard Lahautière, Albert Laponneraye and Jean-Jacques Pillot.

Alexandre Théodore Dézamy was a French socialist, a representative of the Neo-Babouvist tendency in early French communism, along with Albert Laponneraye, Richard Lahautière, Jacques Pillot and others. He was also an early associate of Louis-Auguste Blanqui. He and his colleagues formed a link between the extreme left wing of the French Revolution (Babeuf) and Marxism.

Types of socialism include a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production and organizational self-management of enterprises as well as the political theories and movements associated with socialism. Social ownership may refer to forms of public, collective or cooperative ownership, or to citizen ownership of equity in which surplus value goes to the working class and hence society as a whole. There are many varieties of socialism and no single definition encapsulates all of them, but social ownership is the common element shared by its various forms Socialists disagree about the degree to which social control or regulation of the economy is necessary, how far society should intervene, and whether government, particularly existing government, is the correct vehicle for change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurocommunism</span> Western European political ideology

Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more relevant for Western Europe. During the Cold War, they sought to reject the influence of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The trend was especially prominent in Italy, Spain, and France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utopian socialism</span> Political theory concerned with imagined socialist societies

Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often described as the presentation of visions and outlines for imaginary or futuristic ideal societies, with positive ideals being the main reason for moving society in such a direction. Later socialists and critics of utopian socialism viewed utopian socialism as not being grounded in actual material conditions of existing society. These visions of ideal societies competed with revolutionary and social democratic movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist League</span> International political party established in June 1847 in London, England

The Communist League was an international political party established on 1 June 1847 in London, England. The organisation was formed through the merger of the League of the Just, headed by Karl Schapper, and the Communist Correspondence Committee of Brussels, Belgium, in which Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were the dominant personalities. The Communist League is regarded as the first Marxist political party and it was on behalf of this group that Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto late in 1847. The Communist League was formally disbanded in November 1852, following the Cologne Communist Trial.

The League of the Just or League of Justice was a Christian communist international revolutionary organization. It was founded in 1836 by branching off from its ancestor, the League of Outlaws, which had formed in Paris in 1834. The League of the Just was largely composed of German emigrant artisans.

The history of socialism has its origins in the Age of Enlightenment and the 1789 French Revolution along with the changes that it brought, although it has precedents in earlier movements and ideas. The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1847-48 just before the Revolutions of 1848 swept Europe, expressing what they termed scientific socialism. In the last third of the 19th century parties dedicated to Democratic socialism arose in Europe, drawing mainly from Marxism. The Australian Labor Party was the world's first elected socialist party when it formed government in the Colony of Queensland for a week in 1899.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Manifesto of the Equals</span> French insurgent polemic written in 1796

The Manifesto of the Equals was a document written in 1796 and recited at a meeting of the Society of the Pantheon, a political group that sought to challenge the new repressive government of France and the Constitution of 1795. This group championed radical leftist ideals of ‘perfect equality’ and ‘communal happiness’ over everything. The authorship of the Manifesto is attributed to a radical atheist, journalist, and playwright named Sylvain Maréchal. However, it is commonly suspected that the document had multiple authors. One man that Maréchal worked closely with was the political journalist François-Noël Babeuf. Babeuf is often referred to as the leader of the Conspiracy of the Equals. The letter was a failed insurrection that attempted to combat the undemocratic policies of the new government, which included limiting voting rights, and banning the right to assembly and free expression. Despite the political failure of this coup d’état, which ended with the conviction and execution of several of its participants, including Babeuf, it did have significant ideological impact on the history of France and socialist ideals. The Manifesto in particular was very influential as the first political manifesto. It was written not just as a theory or declaration, but a relatable and public response to the perceived failure of the existing constitutions and legal documents. The Manifesto, addressed to the "PEOPLE OF FRANCE!", proclaimed the need to remove the revolution from legal procedure, establish greater communal equality, and abolish capitalist ideas like private property. Ultimately, this was intended to continue revolution and incite tremendous political change.

References

  1. "Rural Communism in France, 1920-1939". Department of History. 30 January 1998.
  2. "French Communist Party | political party, France". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  3. David Priestland (2010). The Red Flag: Communism and the Making of the Modern World. Penguin. pp. 5–7.
  4. David Priestland (2010) The Red Flag: Communism and the Making of the Modern World. Penguin. pp. 18–19.
  5. Service (2007:16–17)
  6. 1 2 Paul E Corcoran; Christian Fuchs (25 August 1983). Before Marx: Socialism and Communism in France, 1830–48. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 3–5, 22. ISBN   978-1-349-17146-0.
  7. Franz Mehring, Karl Marx: The Story of His Life. Edward Fitzgerald, trans. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1936; pg. 139.
  8. Christian Fuchs (23 October 2015). Reading Marx in the Information Age: A Media and Communication Studies Perspective on Capital. Routledge. p. 357. ISBN   978-1-317-36449-8.
  9. Service (2007:28).
  10. Julian Jackson, The Popular Front in France (1990) p. x.
  11. Richard Kingsley, ed., In Search of Eurocommunism, (Macmillan, 1981).