Ted Grant The Generals Capture France Workers must resist
Core Argument¶
Ted Grant argues that the collapse of the French Fourth Republic in May 1958 was not a sudden military coup but a managed transfer of power engineered by the French ruling class, with the active complicity of the Socialist and Communist Party leaderships. The central thesis is that by appealing to the existing bourgeois state to defend "democratic institutions" against General Massu's Algiers putsch, rather than mobilising and arming the working class independently, the reformist and Stalinist leaders politically disarmed the workers and cleared the path for de Gaulle's assumption of quasi-dictatorial power. The generals did not need to fire a bullet because the left had already surrendered the only force that could have stopped them: the organised working class acting independently of the bourgeois state.
Theoretical Grounding¶
The analysis is grounded in the Marxist theory of the state, specifically the understanding that the bourgeois state, including its parliamentary forms, is ultimately an instrument of class rule. Grant draws on the classical Marxist distinction between the form of the state (democratic republic, Bonapartist dictatorship) and its class content. The article applies the Trotskyist analysis of Bonapartism — a regime that arises when the bourgeoisie can no longer rule through parliamentary democracy and the working class is not yet strong enough to take power, leading to a "strong man" balancing between classes. Grant also deploys the Marxist critique of reformism and Stalinism: the Socialist Party (SFIO) and Communist Party (PCF) are condemned not for their weakness but for their conscious strategy of tail-ending bourgeois institutions, which Grant treats as a betrayal rooted in their class-collaborationist theory, not merely tactical error. The piece sits firmly within the Trotskyist tradition's analysis of the Popular Front and the united front tactic, arguing that the correct response to fascist or Bonapartist threats is independent working-class mobilisation, not defence of "democracy" as an abstraction.
Conjunctural Relevance¶
The article addresses the immediate conjuncture of May 1958: General Massu's coup in Algiers on 13 May, the collapse of the Pfimlin government, and de Gaulle's investiture as Prime Minister on 1 June. Grant identifies the key political forces: the SFIO under Guy Mollet, the PCF under Maurice Thorez, and the Gaullist military faction. He notes that the PCF, despite its formal opposition, called for "action" only within the framework of the existing constitution, effectively supporting the Pfimlin government's authority. The article's relevance to the 1985 moment of its publication (and to the present) lies in its warning that reformist and Stalinist parties will, when faced with a choice between working-class power and bourgeois "order," always choose the latter. Grant draws a direct parallel to the rise of Hitler, where the German Communist Party's "social fascist" theory prevented a united front with the Social Democrats. The article remains a case study in how the left's refusal to break with bourgeois institutions in a crisis prepares the ground for authoritarian solutions.
Where the Argument Continues¶
The article is a compressed tactical analysis; it does not develop the longer-term consequences of de Gaulle's rule or the subsequent evolution of the French Fifth Republic. The argument continues in Ted Grant's broader writings on Bonapartism and the state, collected in the Ted Grant Archive on marxist.com. Readers should consult his analyses of the rise of Hitler and the Spanish Civil War for the theoretical framework applied here. The Revolutionary Communist International's ongoing critique of the French Communist Party and the reformist left, including in the Against the Stream podcast, extends this analysis to contemporary French politics, particularly the role of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Insoumise and the PCF in managing working-class discontent within bourgeois frameworks.
Connections¶
- Leon Trotsky, The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany — the theoretical basis for the united front and the critique of the "social fascist" line.
- Ted Grant, The Unbroken Thread — a collection of Grant's writings on the Marxist theory of the state and the history of the Fourth International.
- Frederick Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State — the classical Marxist theory of the state as an instrument of class rule.
- Vladimir Lenin, The State and Revolution — the necessity of smashing the bourgeois state apparatus, which Grant implicitly invokes as the alternative to defending "democratic institutions."
- In Defence of Marxism articles on the rise of Bonapartism in contemporary contexts (e.g., Modi's India, Bolsonaro's Brazil, Macron's France) — which apply the same framework to the current conjuncture.
Key Quotes¶
"The Socialist and Communist leaders appealed to the capitalist state to take action against the insurgents instead of mobilising and arming the workers."
"By tail-ending Pfimlin to 'defend the democratic institutions', they politically disarmed the French workers in the face of the shameful capitulation of Pfimlin to the Generals."
"The generals did not need to fire a bullet. The left had already surrendered the only force that could have stopped them: the organised working class acting independently of the bourgeois state."
"The reformist and Stalinist parties, when faced with a choice between working-class power and bourgeois 'order', will always choose the latter."
"The coup in Algiers paved the way for the rise of General de Gaulle to power without a single shot being fired in metropolitan France."
"The correct response to a Bonapartist threat is not defence of 'democracy' as an abstraction, but independent working-class mobilisation against the entire bourgeois state apparatus."