Popular Front, Léon Blum, French history, 1936 elections, strike movement, politicization, French Communist Party, French Section of the Workers International, Maurice Thorez, antifascism
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This historical work retraces the chronological history of the Popular Front, from its birth to its fall, analyzing its impact on various social milieus and geographical scales.
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[...] The parties of the extreme right such as the PPF or the CSAR had much less importance but participated in social agitation. The eighth chapter 'Each Their Own Popular Front?' questions the different memories around the political movement. The Popular Front marked a high point in the lives of intellectuals and particularly those in Paris. They were the initiators of several Committees that allowed the movement to be extended to all scales in France. However, academics remained outside the movement without ever really taking a position. [...]
[...] This popular rally had its first victory with the municipal elections of May 1935. It allowed for a new youth to be given to the 'Amsterdam-Pleyel' movement, an anti-fascist movement born in 1932. The numerous victories of the Popular Rally allowed, at the 7th Congress of Komintern, for Moscow to give the green light to the French Communist Party to support the movement. Social urgency and the defense of the Republic then formed the alliance of the Popular Front to give hope back to the French people. [...]
[...] The actions implemented by the Committee allowed for the multiplication of demonstrations in Paris, but also in the provinces, which made it possible to disseminate the fight against fascism at all levels and in all classes. France from all backgrounds was united before the left-wing parties were. All these demonstrations eventually created the Popular Rally in 1935. The movement was open to all: working-class but also middle-class, and it was in 1935 that Thorez used the expression of the 'Popular Front' for the first time. [...]
[...] This crisis affects a large part of industrial jobs and the rural world. Farmers are the first victims of the collapse of financial markets and find themselves in great precariousness. Several leaders emerge to oppose the conditions of ruined and dispossessed farmers. At first, there is Renaud Thorez, and then in February 1933, Maurice Thorez joins the fight. Another figure emerges, Henri d'Halluin from right-wing political parties, who organizes Peasant Defense Committees. In addition to a financial crisis, fascism develops. [...]
[...] The work of Antoine Prost, Around the Popular Front. Aspects of the social movement in the 20th century, Paris, Le Seuil is a work that allows us to understand all the mutations of French society in its entirety. However, this work lacks a commented bibliography that allows the reader to have a historical synthesis at the same time as the unfolding of the chapters. In addition to the analysis and criticism of the sources, Jean Vigreux offers us in the annexes the speeches of the men and women who marked this period and the different revolutions that followed. [...]
