THE FRENCH POPULAR FRONT July 1936: How Blum depended on the Stalinists

The Popular Front in France was a political alliance of the leaders of the working-class parties with a section of the ruling class based on defending bourgeois democracy and reforms within capitalism.

In order to preserve this alliance the Communist Party took a leading part in bringing to an end the great strike novement of June 1936 whicl threatened to lead to a revolutionary confrontation between the working class and Leon Blum's government.

Although the Communist Party leaders had agreed not to enter Blum's governmentin order not to frighten the middle class — it depended upon communist votes in the Chamber of Deputies. Moreover, in the government's early months, two members of the Political Bureau, usually Maurice Thorez and Jacques Duclos, met the Prime Minister each morning at his residence.

They were thus fully informed of Blum's intentions and assisted in putting over to the working class his policy of 'the exercise of power' In August Thorez introduced the idea of what he called 'a French Front', which was to be an alliance of all classes barring the big bourgeoisiethe monopolists of the '200 families' said to rule France.

He called for:

'A French Front for the respect of the law, which can only mean, at present, the effective dissolution and disarmament of the fascist leagues, the defence of the Constitution and of the Republic.

'A French Front, for the defence the national economy, which can only mean, in present conditions, the protection and assistance of elements in the middle class and the support of peasant demands, by making the rich pay and preventing certain capitalists from sabotaging national production.

'A French Front for the freedom and independence of our country, which means an active and consistent policy in agreement with those countries which really desire peace and collective security. That means rejecting with indignation any foreign interference in the affairs of the country!

This piece of open class-collaboration, appealing to nationalism, prostrating itself before the middle class and appealing to all the most backward sentiments in the working class, speaks for itself.

Thorez, or more properly Stalin, had been seriously alarmed by the May-June events and the threat of volution. was necessary, once again, to give assurances to the Popular Front partners. The main thing was to ensure a government ready to join in the policy of collective security which the Soviet Union was advocating and not likely to alarm the British government of Neville Chamberlain.

As Gitton (later to be revealed as a police agent in the Party) put it: 'We consider it impossible, in the face of the Hitler menace, to carry out a policy which would emperil the security of France.' The policy of a broad front of this kind did not appeal to Leon Blum who knew that, partly because he was a Jew, he would not be accentable as Prime Minister to the parliamentary groups to the right of the Popular Front. Thorez allowed the slogan of a French Front to drop out of sight after only a short life.

While the strikes were being brought under control - and some lasted well into JulyBlum turned to deal with the pressing problems which his government had inherited and which had been intensified by the militancy of the working class. It was necessary, above all, to restore order and stability based upon respect for private . property, while avoiding civil war. Above: Leon Blum, Socialist Party leader and Prime minister, with Maurice Thorez, leader of the Communist Party, which backed Blum's government. made in order to bring the strikes to an end. They meant higher costs for business at a time when employers were struggling to restore profitability.

The nature of these 'conquests', won in struggle, disguised the fact that in the events of 1936 the working class had been cheated of power and pushed back. The employers had not only recovered their factories, but they were determined to win back the concessions and increase the exploitation of the working class.

An important change soon took place in the strategy of the big employers, whose organization had negotiated the Matignon Agreement. A veritable coup d'état replaced its conciliatory leaders with hard-liners determined to fight it out with the working class. To signal the change its name was changed to the Confédération Générale du Patronat Français (the French Employers' Confederation instead of the Confederation for French Production).

From the summer of 1936 employers began to pour money into the coffers of the two extreme right-wing parties, the Parti Social Français of Colonel de la Rocque and the more openly fascist party, the Parti Populaire Français of the communist renegade Jacques Doriot. The capitalists had come to the conclusion that Tha an authoritarian government was absolutely necessary. This was the view, for example, of Louis Renault. He, like many other employers, became pro-Nazi on • the basis of better Hitler than the Popular Front.

The two years following the election victory of the Popular Front in 1936 saw the bitterest class battles in French history, which culminated in the demoralization and defeat of the working class.

The responsibility for this lies primarily on the shoulders of the Communist Party as the result of its counterrevolutionary policy during the strikes, which it maintained in the following period. CONTINUED TOMORROW