Jules Guesde by Jean-Numa Ducange

Author:Jean-Numa Ducange
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030346102
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

A New Organisation: The Parti Socialiste de France

Guesde wanted the new socialist party to be founded on his own preferred bases. And having passed from failure to failure, the unity projects finally resulted in a split. The third congress of socialist organisations, held in Lyons in May 1901, once again revealed the chasm that was opening up between the partisans and opponents of Millerand’s actions. But this time, the split came to fruition. Guesde and Vaillant decided to launch their own party, the Parti Socialiste de France (PSDF), officially founded in Ivry on 3 November 1901. For them, this meant that unity had, in fact, been realised: the others who took opposed positions had, by this fact alone, set themselves outside of socialism itself. The new party’s charter emphasised that the new organisation ‘must not in any circumstance, through participation in central government … through alliances with bourgeois parties, provide any of the means that could prolong domination over the working class’.34 But facing them stood a Parti Socialiste Français, founded in Tours in March 1902, that was just as well structured, and brought together the independent socialists including Jean Jaurès.

The new PSDF did not enjoy any surge of dynamism, but instead suffered a series of electoral defeats. Above all, the balance of forces with the PSF was much to its disadvantage: at the 1902 legislative elections it collected under 400,000 votes, while its brother-enemy’s candidates took over 600,000. Jaurès’s PSF won 36 seats whereas Guesde’s party won just 13. Only in terms of their number of militants did the partisans of Vaillant and Guesde have the advantage—the PSDF had around 17,000 members, as against 10,000 for the PSF. Beyond sheer numbers, there were also highly symbolic expressions of their differing fortunes, not least Guesde’s emblematic defeat at the ballot box in 1902. He failed to win back his Roubaix seat, unlike his brother-enemy Jaurès, who was again victorious in Carmaux. Had Guesde hesitated about standing, for fear of seeing his authority in the young party threatened should he lose? Probably; but ultimately, he decided to throw himself into the battle. He signed his professions of faith as ‘your representative in 1893–1898, forever your defender’, insisting on his intention to represent one class above all others in the Chamber: ‘You are invited to champion not an MP but a class, your own’.35 Guesde did not skimp on resources and held numerous electoral rallies. But this was all in vain. This was, indeed, a tough period for his friends—the Roubaix city hall also fell in that same year’s municipal elections, as it was captured by the partisans of the local MP, Motte. The ‘Mecca’ of Guesdism thus entered into crisis. Citing his disagreement with Guesde’s maximalism, former Mayor Carette quit the sinking ship; he founded a purely local party, the reformist Parti Ouvrier Socialiste Roubaisien (POSR), allowing him to seal an open alliance with the radical republicans.36

The drop in the number of provincial party papers provides another important indicator of the PSDF’s weakness in this period.

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