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92-647: Guy Alcide Mollet ( French pronunciation: [ɡi mɔlɛ] ; 31 December 1905 – 3 October 1975) was a French politician. He led the socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) from 1946 to 1969 and was the French Prime Minister from 1956 to 1957. As Prime Minister, Mollet passed some significant domestic reforms and worked for European integration , proposing the Franco-British Union . He became unpopular in both

184-601: A National Institute of Applied Science was opened in Lyon . Under a decree in November 1956, the National Institute of Nuclear Science and Techniques was authorised "to organise courses for third-cycle doctorates in metallurgy and in accelerator physics awarded by science faculties, as well as to award the necessary certificates for the obtention of these doctorates." A ministerial decision of November 1956, instituted

276-813: A Western European Federation . He represented France at the Council of Europe , and he was President of the Socialist Group on the council's Assembly. From 1951 to 1969, he was vice-president of the Socialist International . During the 1956 legislative campaign , Mollet created a centre-left coalition, the Republican Front , containing the Radical Party of Pierre Mendès-France , the Democratic and Socialist Union of

368-788: A 1955 decree that created a complementary procedure for mediation. To encourage scientific research, a decree in March 1957 made provision for research bonuses to be awarded to research workers of the National Centre for Scientific Research and to staff of universities and technical colleges engaged in research. Under a decree in June 1956, the Atomic Energy Authority founded the National Institute of Technical Nuclear Science at Saclay . Under an act in March 1957,

460-539: A SFIO member, resigned because of his opposition to Mollet's hardline stance in Algeria. Mollet's cabinet carried out a programme of progressive social reform, which was almost unnoticed because of both the international context and the Algerian War. Substantial improvements were made in welfare provision for the sick and elderly, funding for regional aid and housing was increased veterans' payments were extended and

552-582: A course in atomic engineering at the National Institute of Nuclear Science and Techniques" that was "designed to train engineers in the construction and working of nuclear reactors." A decree in August 1956 started a national diploma in fine arts, and a ministerial decision in December 1956 started a national certificate of oenology . A decree in February 1957 founded in each faculty of arts or science, under

644-420: A decentralised organization. Its national and executive institutions were weakened by the strong autonomy of its members and local levels of the party. Consequently, the function of secretary general, held by Louis Dubreuilh until 1918, was essentially administrative and the real political leader was Jean Jaurès , president of the parliamentary group and director of L'Humanité , the party's newspaper, Unlike

736-433: A decree of August 1947 indicated the special precautions to be taken "to protect workers spraying paint or varnish". An Order of 10 September 1947 laid down the terms in which warnings must be given "of the dangers of benzene poisoning" while a circular of October 1947 indicated "how such poisoning can be prevented". In addition, a Decree of August 1947 instituted the original measures on health and safety committees. During

828-556: A heart attack. He is one of the most controversial of the French Socialist leaders. His name is tied up with the SFIO decline and his repressive policy in Algeria. In French political language, the word molletisme equates to duplicity, making left-wing speeches to win elections and then implementing a conservative policy. French Socialist politicians currently prefer the moral authority of Pierre Mendès-France , even though he

920-563: A humiliating backdown. Eden resigned as a result, but Mollet survived the crisis despite fierce leftist criticism. In Michael Karpin 's 2001 documentary A Bomb in the Basement , Abel Thomas, the chief of political staff for France's defense minister in 1956, said that Francis Perrin , the head of the French Atomic Energy Commission , told Mollet that Israel should be provided with a nuclear bomb. According to

1012-478: A national solidarity fund for the elderly was set up, which provided supplementary allowances for elderly people to provide them with a more adequate income. In addition, a law of December 1956 established an allowance for the mothers of household for non-salaried workers. Sales tax on essential commodities was abolished while regional differences in minimum wage standards across France were reduced. A decree of November 1956 abolished written homework for children until

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1104-471: A popular front which would include the liberal Radical Party. The Popular Front strategy was adopted in the 1936 French legislative election and the coalition gained a majority, with SFIO obtaining for the first time more votes and seats than the Radical Party . Léon Blum became France's first Socialist prime minister in 1936 while the PCF supported without participation his government. A general strike applauded

1196-568: A third week of paid holidays was introduced. Mollet's government passed other pieces of social legislation during its time in office, including an increase in wages and improved medical benefits. The level and mechanism of state pensions to both the elderly and chronically-ill was improved, and working-class housing was also given close attention. HLMs were a top priority in the government's target of 320,000 houses in 1956. Educational opportunities were increased, and wage-price levels were adjusted in favour of workers and civil servants. In June 1956,

1288-667: The Cartel des Gauches coalition. They supported the government led by Radical Édouard Herriot (1924–1926 and 1932), but they did not participate. The first Cartel saw the right-wing terrorised and capital flight destabilised the government while the divided Radicals did not all support their Socialist allies. The monetary crisis, also due to the refusal of Germany to pay the World War I reparations , caused parliamentary instability. Édouard Herriot, Paul Painlevé and Aristide Briand succeeded each other as prime minister until 1926, when

1380-691: The Confédération générale du travail unitaire (United General Confederation of Labour; CGTU) which fused again with the CGT in 1936 during the Popular Front government. Léon Jouhaux was the CGT's main leader until 1947 and the new split leading to the creation of the reformist union confederation Workers' Force (CGT-FO). In both 1924 and 1932, the Socialists joined with the Radicals in

1472-531: The Algerian War of Independence became the major issue of the political debate. During the 1956 French legislative election campaign, the party took part in the Republican Front , a centre-left coalition led by Radical Pierre Mendès France , who advocated a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Guy Mollet took the lead of the cabinet, but he led a very repressive policy. After the May 1958 crisis , he supported

1564-763: The Brutus Network in which Gaston Defferre , later mayor of Marseilles for years, participated along with Daniel Mayer . In 1942–1943, Pétain's regime judged the French Third Republic by organising a public trial, the Riom Trial , of personalities accused of having caused the country's defeat in the Battle of France . They included Léon Blum , the Radical Édouard Daladier and the conservatives Paul Reynaud and Georges Mandel , among others. At

1656-669: The Cartel des gauches , when capital flight was an issue, giving rise to the so-called "myth of the 200 families") in the context of the Great Depression and also over the issue of the Spanish Civil War . The demoralised left fell apart and was unable to resist the collapse of the Third Republic after the fall of France in the military defeat of 1940 during World War II. A number of SFIO members were part of

1748-599: The Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS), a centre-left coalition led by Mitterrand. It split after the May 68 events and the electoral disaster of June 1968. Defferre was the SFIO candidate in the 1969 French presidential election . He was eliminated in the first round, with only 5% of votes. One month later at the Issy-les-Moulineaux Congress , the SFIO was refounded as

1840-599: The Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (FTSF). Three years later, Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue (the son-in-law of Karl Marx ) left the federation, which they considered too moderate, and founded the French Workers' Party (POF). The FTSF led by Paul Brousse was defined as possibilist because it advocated gradual reforms whereas the POF promoted Marxism. At the same time, Édouard Vaillant and

1932-748: The French Communist Party (PCF), which had become the largest left-wing party, were very poor: "the Communist Party is not on the left, but in the East". He served as deputy prime minister in 1946, in Blum's government. From 1950 to 1951, he was Minister for European Relations in the government of the Radical René Pleven , and in 1951, he was deputy prime minister in the government of Henri Queuille . Mollet supported

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2024-649: The Louvre Palace , and after at different addresses: 10 rue du Mont-Thabor, rue Vaneau and 80 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis. African post offices used this sales outlet to make their stamps available at low cost. At the beginning of the 1990s, the oversea territories and African countries' post offices were inform of the project to close the BEPTOM. La Poste postage stamp agency, the Postage Stamp and Philately National Service , proposed its printing service to

2116-624: The Overseas collectivities , its subsidiaries in Mayotte and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon and the independent public postal operators in New Caledonia , French Polynesia and Wallis-et-Futuna . In Africa, BEPTOM helped post offices took two ways on the market of postage stamp creation: either they hired printers to print their philatelic program, or they gave an agency the contract of creating, printing and selling this program. Depending on

2208-860: The Pas-de-Calais département . He joined the French Army in 1939 and was taken prisoner by the Germans. Released after seven months, he joined the French Resistance , where he was a captain, in the Arras area and was three times arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo . In October 1945, Mollet was elected to the French National Assembly as a representative from Pas-de-Calais . In 1946, he became Secretary-General of

2300-619: The Protocol of Sèvres , in a joint attack of Egypt. The Israelis invaded Egypt first, with British and French troops invading the northern Suez Canal area shortly afterward, under the pretext of restoring order in the area. However, the scheme met with unexpected opposition from the United States , both at the United Nations General Assembly and with economical measures. France and Britain were forced into

2392-690: The Socialist Party of France while Jaurès, Allemane and the possibilists formed the French Socialist Party . During the 1905 Globe Congress, the two groups merged into the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) under pressure from the Second International . The new SFIO party was hemmed between the middle-class liberals of the Radical Party and the revolutionary syndicalists who dominated

2484-798: The Vichy 80 who refused to vote extraordinary powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain in July 1940, following which the latter proclaimed the Révolution nationale reactionary program and the establishment of the Vichy regime . Although some engaged in collaborationism , an important part also took part in the Resistance and they eventually went on to be part of the National Council of the Resistance . Pierre Fourcaud created with Félix Gouin

2576-635: The WADP Numbering System ( WNS ) and the discovery of illegal stamps , never ordered by the countries they bore the name, former BEPTOM helped countries in Francophone Africa had retook charge of their philatelic programs. By its actions financed partly with public subventions and unbilled to the helped countries, the BEPTOM competeted with the Société française d'études de télécommunications and France Câbles et Radio , even if

2668-524: The protectorates of Morocco and Tunisia , and in anticipation of the independence of other overseas territories. During this process, the Bureau d'études des postes et télécommunications d'outre-mer was created. It had to power to respond to requests for assistance from overseas territories and independent states by providing four internal services. In 1991, the Auditor General reported to

2760-470: The social-democratic French Socialist Party led by Jean Jaurès , who became the SFIO's leading figure. Electoral support for the party rose from 10 percent in the 1906 election to 17 percent in 1914 , and during World War I it participated in France's national unity government , sacrificing its ideals of internationalist class struggle in favor of national patriotism , as did most other members of

2852-479: The trade unions . The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) proclaimed its independence from political parties at this time and the non-distinction between political and industrial aims. In addition, some CGT members refused to join the SFIO because they considered it extremist. They created the Republican-Socialist Party (PRS). In contrast to other European socialist parties, the SFIO was

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2944-581: The Algerian rebels and also nationalised the Suez Canal , which led to the Suez Crisis . The Anglophile Mollet and British Prime Minister Anthony Eden shared a mutual concern for maintaining their overseas possessions. Eden also feared that Nasser intended to cut off oil supplies to Europe . In October 1956 Mollet, Eden and the prime minister of Israel , David Ben-Gurion , met and colluded, in

3036-640: The Communist International (SFIC). Another smaller group also favoured membership in the Comintern, but not all 21 conditions . The minority led by Léon Blum and the majority of the Socialists' elected members decided in Blum's words to "keep the old house" and remain within the Second International. Marcel Sembat , Léon Blum and Albert Thomas refused to align themselves with Moscow. Paul Faure became secretary general of

3128-707: The Communist ministers were excluded from the cabinet led by Socialist Paul Ramadier . Anti-communism prevented the French left from forming a united front. The Communists had taken control of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) union. This was relatively weakened by the 1948 creation of a social-democratic trade union Workers' Force (FO) which was supported by the American Central Intelligence Agency . This split

3220-622: The Forties, the SFIO was partly responsible for setting up the welfare state institutions of the Liberation period and helping to bring about France's economic recovery. In May 1946, the Socialist-led government of Félix Gouin passed a law that generalised social security, making it obligatory for the whole population. A number of progressive reforms were also introduced during Paul Ramadier's tenure as prime minister in 1947, including

3312-594: The French Empire but not in Algeria. Gaston Defferre's loi-cadre of 23 June 1956 generalised universal suffrage throughout the territories d'outre-mer and based their assemblies on a single voting roll. The government established the BEPTOM (Bureau d'études des postes et télécommunications d'outre-mer) to support communications in the newly independent former colonies. Despite those successes, Mollet, who wanted to concentrate on domestic issues, found himself confronted with several major foreign policy crises. Egypt 's president, Gamal Abdel Nasser , continued to support

3404-409: The French right came back to power with Raymond Poincaré . The newly elected Communist deputies also opposed the first Cartel, refusing to support bourgeois governments. The second Cartel acceded to power in 1932, but this time the SFIO only gave their support without the participation of the Radicals which allied themselves with right-wing radicals. After years of internal feuds, the reformist wing of

3496-413: The July 1914 international crisis, the party was ideologically torn between its membership in the Socialist International and the wave of patriotism within France. The assassination of Jaurès on 31 July 1914 was a setback for the pacifist wing of the party and contributed to the massive increase in support for the wartime government of national unity . Participation in World War I caused divisions within

3588-452: The Left but in the East". At the beginning of the 1950s, the disagreements with its governmental partners about denominational schools and the colonial problem explained a more critical attitude of the SFIO membership. In 1954, the party was deeply divided about the European Defense Community . Against the instructions of the party lead, the half of the parliamentary group voted against the project and contributed to its failure. Progressively,

3680-474: The Minister of Industry on the future of the post and telecommunication cooperation. Then, following discussions with public and private stakeholders in both France and Africa, the Bureau was abolished on 1 January 1995 following a decree signed by Prime Minister Édouard Balladur on 22 December 1995. BEPTOM helped to install, maintain and regulate postal networks including the creation of postage stamps if territories and countries asked for it. BEPTOM provided

3772-423: The PRS, SFIO members did not participate in Left Bloc governments, although they supported a part of its policy, notably the laïcité , based on the 1905 Act of separation between church and state. However, they criticized the ferocious repression of strikes by Radical prime minister Georges Clemenceau after 1906, following the creation of a Minister of Labour, a post held by PRS leader René Viviani . During

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3864-456: The Radical Party amongst the left-wing movement and opposed the colonial wars. The SFIO received its lowest vote in the 1960s. It was discredited by the contradictory policies of its leaders during the Fourth Republic . Youth and the intellectual circles preferred the PSU and workers the PCF. The French Fifth Republic's constitution had been tailored by Charles de Gaulle to satisfy his needs and his Gaullism managed to gather enough people from

3956-450: The Resistance of François Mitterrand and the Social Gaullists of Jacques Chaban-Delmas . The coalition won the election with a promise to re-establish the peace in Algeria . As leader of the main party of the coalition, Mollet led and formed a cabinet in January 1956. In foreign policy, Mollet negotiated and signed the Treaty of Rome , creating the European Economic Community . Liberalising reforms were carried out in various parts of

4048-440: The SFIO, but Gaulle's new Fifth Republic made it a powerless opposition party. By the 1960s, it was in terminal decline. During the 1965 presidential campaign , he presented himself again as the guardian of Socialist identity, opposing the candidacy of Gaston Defferre , who proposed the constitution of a " Great Federation " with the non-Gaullist centre-right. Mollet supported François Mitterrand 's candidacy and participated in

4140-424: The SFIO, but its most influential figure was Blum, leader of the parliamentary group and director of a new party paper Le Populaire . L'Humanité , the previous party newspaper, was controlled by the founders of the SFIC. However, Frossard later resigned from the SFIC and rejoined the SFIO in January 1923. One year after the Tours Congress, the CGT trade union made the same split. Those who became Communists created

4232-401: The SFIO, in order to block the opposition of the Communists on the one hand, and of the Gaullists on the other. Besides, in spite of Léon Blum 's support, the party leader Daniel Mayer was defeated in aid of Guy Mollet . If the new secretary general was supported by the left wing of the party, he was very hostile to any form of alliance with the PCF. He said that "the Communist Party is not on

4324-415: The SFIO, standing against Daniel Mayer , the candidate supported by Léon Blum . He was also Mayor of Arras at this time. Mollet represented the left-wing of the party, which feared the dissolution of the Socialist identity in a centrist alliance. Although he retained Marxist terminology, he accepted the alliance with the centre and centre-right parties during the Fourth Republic , and his relations with

4416-413: The SFIO, the USR and the Radical Party to form the coalition that would win the 1936 French legislative election and bring about the Popular Front. In June 1934, Leon Trotsky proposed the French Turn into the SFIO, the origin of the strategy of entrism . The Trotskyist leaders of the Communist League (the French section of the International Left Opposition ) were divided over the issue of entering

4508-434: The SFIO. Raymond Molinier was the most supportive of Trotsky's proposal while Pierre Naville was opposed to it and Pierre Frank remained ambivalent. The League finally voted to dissolve into the SFIO in August 1934, where they formed the Bolshevik-Leninist Group ( Groupe Bolchevik-Leniniste , GBL). At the Mulhouse party congress of June 1935, the Trotskyists led a campaign to prevent the united front from expanding into

4600-445: The Second International. In 1920, the SFIO split over views on the 1917 Russian Revolution ; the majority became the French Communist Party , while the minority continued as the SFIO. In the 1930s, mutual concern over fascism drew the communists and socialists together, prompting them to form the Popular Front . The coalition won the 1936 election and formed a government under SFIO leader Léon Blum , which lasted until 1938. After

4692-408: The centre-left coalition Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left , which would split three years later. His leadership over the party was being more and more challenged. He could not prevent Defferre being the SFIO candidate at the 1969 presidential election . The disastrous result (5%) induced the SFIO to merge with left-wing clubs to form the new French Socialist Party . Mollet abandoned

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4784-421: The compulsory arbitration of works disputes. Mollet's cabinet was the last government formed by the SFIO, which was in increasing decline, and it was also the last stable government of the Fourth Republic . The Algiers coup in May 1958, led by veterans of the First Indochina War and the Suez Crisis, brought Charles de Gaulle to power from retirement and in effect seized power. Mollet supported de Gaulle on

4876-404: The countries' financial possibilities and need in postage stamps for their interior market, some kept a controlled policy of stamp issues like Mali that hired reputed printers like Courvoisier and the Tunisian post. Others lost control of their issuing policy like Burkina Faso : agencies proposed on the philatelic market many stamps without any thematic links to the country. From the creation of

4968-478: The dean's authority, "a training institute for secondary school teachers, run by a professor" to train future teachers for secondary, teacher training, national vocational and technical schools. Although the Mollet government introduced a broad range of reforms during its time in office, financial constraints prevented the passage of other planned reforms, such as the refunding of a higher percentage of prescription charges, extended rights for comités d'enterprise and

5060-403: The documentary, France provided Israel with a nuclear reactor and staff to set it up in Israel, together with enriched uranium and the means to produce plutonium, in exchange for support in the Suez War. In the post-war period, Mollet was aware of, and approved of, the fraudulent elections held in French Algeria while the Socialist Naegelen was governor-general of Algeria from 1948 to 1951. Like

5152-419: The end, the BDS won both seats allocated to Senegal. In 1956, another SFIO splinter group appeared in Senegal, the Socialist Movement of the Senegalese Union . In 1957, the history of the SFIO in West Africa came to an end. The federations of SFIO in Cameroon, Chad, Moyen-Congo, Sudan, Gabon, Guinea, Niger, Oubangui-Chari and Senegal all met in Conakry from 11 January to 13 January 1957. At that meeting it

5244-430: The extension of social security to government workers the introduction of a national minimum wage and the granting from April 1947 onwards of allowances to all aged persons in need. Various measures were also introduced during the SFIO's time in office to improve health and safety in the workplace. An Order of July 1947 prescribed the installation of showers for the use of staff "employed on dirty or unhealthy work" and

5336-474: The grounds that France needed a new constitution to allow the formation of strong governments. De Gaulle appointed him one of four Secretaries of State in his first cabinet. That caused the creation of the PSU, the Unified Socialist Party , formed by the PSA Autonomous Socialist Party and the UGS ( Union de la gauche socialiste , a split of the SFIO). Mollet resigned from de Gaulle's cabinet in 1959 and did not hold office again. He remained Secretary-General of

5428-417: The heirs of Louis Auguste Blanqui founded the Central Revolutionary Committee (CRC) which represented the French revolutionary tradition. In the 1880s, the FTSF saw their first electoral success, winning control of some municipalities. Jean Allemane and some FTSF members criticised the focus on electoral goals. In 1890, they created the Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party (POSR). Their main objective

5520-460: The institutions (parliamentary system or presidential government). The SFIO re-emerged and participated in the three-parties alliance with the PCF and the Christian-democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP). This coalition led the social policy inspired by National Council of Resistance 's programme, installing the main elements of the French welfare state , nationalising banks and some industrial companies. While serving in government during

5612-498: The land obtained compensation for the improvements that they made on the land. The sharecroppers also had the right to join a marketing cooperative, while their conflicts with owners were to be resolved at arbitration tribunals to which both sides elected an equal number of representatives. In the early years of the French Fourth Republic, the SFIO played an instrumental role in securing appropriations for 1,000 additional state elementary school teachers and in bringing in bills to extend

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5704-473: The leadership to Alain Savary . However, the internal opposition to Savary accused Mollet of being the true party leader from the sidelines and allied with François Mitterrand , who joined the party during the Épinay Congress and took the leadership in 1971. Mollet and his followers were ejected in the minority of the party. He mocked the Socialist speeches of Mitterrand: "He is not socialist, he has learned to speak socialist". Mollet died in Paris in 1975 of

5796-418: The left and the right in the country for his international policy, especially during the Suez Crisis and the Algerian War . He was born in Flers in Normandy , the son of a textile worker. He was educated in Le Havre and became an English teacher in Arras Grammar School. Like most other teachers, he was an active member of the socialist SFIO , joining in 1923, and in 1928 he became SFIO Secretary for

5888-417: The left and the right to govern without the other parties' help. Furthermore, the SFIO hesitated between allying with the non-Gaullist centre-right (as advocated by Gaston Defferre ) and reconciliation with the Communists. Mollet refused to choose. The SFIO supported François Mitterrand to the 1965 French presidential election even if he was not a member of the party. The SFIO and the Radicals then created

5980-432: The modern-day Socialist Party . Mollet passed on the leadership to Alain Savary . The SFIO suffered a split in Senegal in 1934 as Lamine Guèye broke away and formed the Senegalese Socialist Party (PSS). As the Senegalese Popular Front committee as formed, the SFIO and the PSS branch cooperated. In 1937, a joint list of both the SFIO and the PSS won the municipal elections in Saint-Louis . Maître Vidal became mayor of

6072-403: The national laic school system to kindergarten and nursery school levels. During the spring of 1946, the SFIO reluctantly supported the constitutional plans of the PCF. They were rejected by a referendum . The party supported the second proposal prepared with the PCF and the MRP which was approved in an October 1946 referendum . However, the coalition split in May 1947. Because of the Cold War ,

6164-425: The necessary expertise in the form of French stamp designers and engravers and the French Post's printing plant, the Imprimerie des timbres-poste et des valeurs fiduciaires . In 1894 the Minister of Colonies began selling stamps to collectors through the Agence des timbres-poste d'outre-mer (ATPOM, Overseas Postage Stamp Agency), located first on the avenue de la Bourdonnais , then at the Pavillon de Flore in

6256-401: The office was notable as the postage stamp agency and printer of the late French colonies. It sold these issues to collectors through an agency in Paris . Its impact on telecommunications was limited by the competition from French private companies in Francophone Africa. From 1956, French Overseas posts and telecommunications were reorganized and decentralized following the independence of

6348-438: The outbreak of World War II and German conquest of France in 1940, the SFIO was banned, and many of its members took part in the Resistance . The SFIO was part of France's tripartisme government from 1944 to 1947, but after the war faced a resurgent Communist Party, which achieved a higher share of the vote in every election for the next three decades. From 1956 to 1957, SFIO leader Guy Mollet served as prime minister, but

6440-416: The party continued its period of decline and disunity. In 1969, the present Socialist Party of France was formed from a merger of the SFIO and smaller parties. Between 1909 and 1920, the SFIO published the newspaper L'Humanité . In French politics, it affiliated with the Left Cartel (1924–1934), the Popular Front (1936–1938), the Tripartisme (1944–1947), and the Third Force (1947–1958). Internationally,

6532-417: The party led by Marcel Déat and Pierre Renaudel split from the SFIO in November 1933 to form a neosocialist movement and merged with the PRS to form the Socialist Republican Union (USR). The Cartel was again the victim of parliamentary instability while various scandals led to the 6 February 1934 riots organised by far-right leagues. The Radical Édouard Daladier resigned on the next day, handing out

6624-626: The party was first affiliated with the Second International (1905–1916), then the Labour and Socialist International (1923–1940), and finally the Socialist International (1951–1969). The SFIO's symbol was a red and black circle with the Three Arrows . After the failure of the Paris Commune of 1871, French socialism was severely weakened, with its leaders dead or in exile. During the 1879 Marseille Congress , workers' associations created

6716-610: The party which were accentuated after 1917. Furthermore, internal disagreements appeared about the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. In 1919, the anti-war socialists were heavily defeated in elections by the National Bloc coalition which played on the middle-classes' fear of Bolshevism (posters with a Bolshevik with a knife between his teeth were used to discredit the socialist movement). The National Bloc won 70% of

6808-451: The party. The Matignon Accords (1936) set up collective bargaining , and removed all obstacles to union organisation . The terms included a blanket 7–12% wage increase and allowed for paid vacation (two weeks) and a 40-hour work week. The eight-hour day had been established following the war of 1914–1918 of attrition and its mobilisation of industrial capacities. Within a year, Blum's government collapsed over economic policy (as during

6900-716: The power to conservative Gaston Doumergue . It was the first time during the French Third Republic that a government had to resign because of street pressure. Following 6 February 1934 crisis, which the whole of the socialist movement saw as a fascist conspiracy to overthrow the Republic, a goal pursued by the royalist Action Française and other far-right leagues, anti-fascist organisations were created. The Comintern abandoned its social-fascism directive of social democracy in favor of united front directives. The French Communist Party (PCF) got closer to

6992-511: The rest of the French Left , Mollet opposed French colonialism and had supported Mendès-France's efforts in office to withdraw from Tunisia and Morocco , which were granted independence in 1956 by the loi-cadre Deferre . Mollet's government was left with the issue of the three French departments of Algeria, where the presence of a million non-Muslim French residents made a simple withdrawal politically difficult. At first, Mollet's policy

7084-490: The return of Charles de Gaulle and the establishment of the French Fifth Republic . Moreover, the SFIO was divided about the repressive policy of Guy Mollet in Algeria and his support to De Gaulle's return. If the party returned in opposition in 1959, it could not prevent the constitution of another Unified Socialist Party (PSU) in 1960, joined the next year by Pierre Mendès France , who was trying to anchor

7176-451: The same time, Marcel Déat and some neosocialists who had split from the SFIO in 1933, participated to the Vichy regime and supported Pétain's policy of collaboration. Paul Faure , secretary general of the SFIO from 1920 to 1940, approved of this policy too. He was excluded from the party when it was reconstituted in 1944. In total, 14 of the 17 SFIO ministers who had been in government before

7268-872: The seats, forming what became known as the Chambre bleue horizon (Blue Horizon Chamber). During the Tours Congress on 25 December 1920, a majority of SFIO members voted to join the Communist International , also known as the Comintern and the Third International, created by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution. Led by Boris Souvarine and Ludovic-Oscar Frossard , they created the French Section of

7360-675: The session. BEPTOM The Bureau d'études des postes et télécommunications d'outre-mer (BEPTOM, Office of Oversea Posts and Telecommunications Studies in English) was a French public institution, financially autonomous. Linked to the French Minister of Cooperation , its goal was to help in the postal and telecommunication areas the French Overseas territories and the newly independent states that asked for it. It operated from 1956 until late 1994. In philately ,

7452-596: The sixth grade, thereby lightening the load on French schoolchildren; official instructions of January 1957 also specified that nursery schools should include such facilities as a medical room and a recreational room. An act was passed in April 1957 to allow people who employed domestic help in their service to form an employers' association, and a law was passed for the legal status of the Agence France-Presse news agency. In addition, an act in July 1957 confirmed

7544-550: The socialist movement to join the republican movement's struggle to defend republican values. In 1899, another debate polarised the socialist groups, pitted Guesde against Jaures over the participation of the socialist Alexandre Millerand in Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau 's cabinet, which included the Marquis de Gallifet , who had directed the bloody repression of the Paris Commune. In 1902, Guesde and Vaillant founded

7636-598: The socialists' victory while Marceau Pivert cried "Tout est possible!" ("Everything is possible!"), but Pivert would later split and create the Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party (PSOP), with historian Daniel Guérin also being a member of the latter. Trotsky advised the GBL to break with the SFIO, leading to a confused departure by the Trotskyists from the SFIO in early 1936, which drew only about six hundred people from

7728-676: The town. The congress of the PSS held 4–5 June 1938 decided to reunify with the SFIO. Following that decision, the 11–12 June 1938 congress of the new federation of SFIO was held in Thiès . In 1948, Léopold Sédar Senghor broke away from the Senegalese federation of SFIO and formed the Senegalese Democratic Bloc (BDS). During the 1951 French legislative election campaign, violence broke out between BDS and SFIO activists. In

7820-485: The war were expelled for collaboration. After the liberation of France in 1944, the PCF became the largest left-wing party and the project to create a labour -based political party rallying the non-Communist Resistance failed in part due to the disagreements opposing notably the Socialists and the Christian Democrats about laïcité and the conflict with Charles de Gaulle about the new organisation of

7912-587: The years of the French Fourth Republic , the SFIO was also active in pressing for changes in areas such as education and agriculture. Through the efforts of the SFIO, a comprehensive Farm Law was passed in 1946 which provided that sharecroppers had the right to renew their options at the expiration of their leaseholds and that the owner could repossess the land only if he or his children worked it. In addition, sharecroppers could acquire ownership at low interest rates while those who were forced to leave

8004-688: Was decided that the African federations would break with their French parent organisation and form the African Socialist Movement (MSA), an independent pan-African party. The Senegalese section of MSA was the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS) and it was led by Lamine Guèye . The first meeting of the leading committee of MSA met in Dakar from 9 February to 10 February 1957 the same year. Two SFIO delegates attended

8096-581: Was led by former CGT secretary general Léon Jouhaux , who was granted the Nobel Peace Prize three years later. The teachers' union ( Federation for National Education , FEN) chose to gain autonomy towards the two confederations in order to conserve its unity, but SFIO syndicalists took the control of the FEN which became the main training ground of the SFIO party. A Third Force coalition was constituted by centre-right and centre-left parties, including

8188-623: Was not a member of the party. His biography, by Denis Lefebvre, was called Guy Mollet: Le mal aimé ("Guy Mollet: The Unloved One"). The cabinet lasted from 1 February 1956 to 13 June 1957 and contained the following members: : French Section of the Workers%27 International The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representative to the Second International , merging the Marxist Socialist Party of France led by Jules Guesde and

8280-515: Was referred to as la journée des tomates ("the day of tomatoes"). He poured French troops into Algeria, where they conducted a campaign of counterterrorism, including torture , particularly during the Battle of Algiers (January to October 1957). It was too much for most French people, and Mollet's government collapsed in June 1957 on the issue of the taxation to pay for the Algerian War. The Secretary of State to Foreign Affairs, Alain Savary , also

8372-633: Was to negotiate with the National Liberation Front (FLN). Once in office, however, he changed his mind and argued that the FLN insurgents must be defeated before negotiations could begin. Mollet's visit to Algiers , the capital of French Algeria, was a stormy one, with almost everyone against him. He was pelted with rotten tomatoes at a demonstration in Algiers on 6 February 1956, a few weeks after he became prime minister. The memorable event

8464-478: Was to win power through the tactic of the general strike . Besides these groups, some politicians declared themselves as independent socialists outside of the political parties. They tended to have moderate opinions. In the 1890s, the Dreyfus affair caused debate in the socialist movement. While Jules Guesde believed socialists should not intervene in this internal conflict of the bourgeoisie, Jean Jaurès urged

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