- French Workers' Party
The "Parti Ouvrier Français" (POF, or French Workers' Party) was the first
Marxist party in France, created in 1880 byJules Guesde andPaul Lafargue , Marx's son-in-law (famous for having written "The Right to Be Lazy ", which criticized labour's alienation). A revolutionary party, it had as aim to abolishcapitalism and replace it with a socialist society.The Parti Ouvrier was created in 1882, after the split with
Paul Brousse 's "possibilists", and became the POF in 1893. In 1902, it merged with the BlanquistCentral Revolutionary Committee to form the Socialist Party of France, and finally merged in 1905 withJean Jaurès ' French Socialist Party to form theSFIO (French Section of theSecond International ).Marcel Cachin , who would lead the split in 1920 which led to the creation of theFrench Communist Party and edited "L'Humanité " newspaper, became a member of the POF in 1891.The Nord,
Pas-de-Calais ,Loire andAllier were the principle bastions of POF electoral strength.Principle members
*
Jules Guesde (1845-1922), Founding member, elected deputy.
*Paul Lafargue (1842-1911), son in law ofKarl Marx , elected deputy.
*Marcel Cachin (1869-1958), member from 1891, led the SFIO Tours split in 1920, future director ofL'Humanité .
*AlexandreBracke-Desrousseaux (1861-1955), professor (Greek Philosophy), future elected deputy for theSFIO .
*Alexandre Zévaès (1873-1953), elected deputyIsère (1898-1910).
*Bernard Cadenat (1853-1930), shemaker, elected deputyBouches-du-Rhône (1898-1919 et 1924-1930), Mayor ofMarseille (1910-1912).
*Ulysse Pastre (1864-1930), researcher, elected deputyGard (1898-1910).
*Jean-Baptiste Bénézech (1852-1909), printer, elected deputyHérault (1898-1909), president of the typography workers union.
*René Chauvin (1860-1936), barber, elected deputy Seine (1893-1898), founder of the coiffeurs workers union. In 1914, he quit the SFIO to found a small workers party promoing a return to class war.
*Hubert Lagardelle (1875-1968),revolutionary syndicalist .
*Prosper Ferrero , elected deputy for Marseille in 1898-1910, mayor ofToulon (1893), "vice-président du conseil général" (1914-1915).
* Jean Bertrand : elected deputy forCorbeil
* Other elected deputies : Philippe Krauss, Bernard, Dufour, etc.
*Pierre Melin (1863-1929)Lutheran , vice-président of "Prud'hommes de Valenciennes", elected deputy.
*Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854-1936) antisemitic antropologist et eugenist, "Procureur de la République" and professor.Bibliography
French
* WILLARD C., "Le Mouvement socialiste en France, 1893-1905. Les guesdistes", Ed. sociales, 1965.
* VERLHAC J., "La formation de l’unité socialiste (1898-1905)," L’Harmattan, 1997 (réed. d'un mémoire paru en 1947).See also
*
SFIO in which the party merged in 1905
*French Third Republic
*France in the nineteenth century
*Socialism andMarxism
*History of the Left in France External links
* [http://lcr51.chez-alice.fr/histoire/parti%20ouvrier/memoire%20maitrise%20sauvegarde/MEMOIRE/memoire.doc Sur le POF à Reims, un mémoire de maîtrise] .
* [http://www.marxists.org/francais/inter_soc/pof/18800700.htm Programme du Parti ouvrier français (1880)]
* [http://www.marxists.org/francais/guesde/index.htm Collection of Guesde's writings from marxists.org]
* [http://www.marxists.org/francais/lafargue/index.htm Collection of Paul Lafargue's writings from marxists.org]
* [http://pschateaulin.free.fr/article.php3?id_article=12 Socialist Party of France. 1871-1905 : historique] : La marche à l’Unité Les Congrès ouvriers et socialistes (1876-1905), 17 March 2005.
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