French Elections¶
Core Argument¶
The chapter analyses the seismic shift in French politics following the 1945 elections, arguing that the results represent a revolutionary verdict against capitalism. The French Communist Party (PCF) surged from 1,500,000 votes in 1936 to nearly 4,900,000, becoming the strongest single party. The Socialists fell to third place with approximately 4,350,000 votes, while the traditional bourgeois parties—the Radical Socialists and conservatives—were practically wiped out, the Radicals securing only nine seats after decades of dominance. The reactionary forces, seeing their position untenable, coalesced around the Catholic Popular Republican Movement (MRP), a new party that, to retain support among backward strata, was compelled to adopt a demagogically ‘socialist’ and anti-capitalist platform, attacking trusts and calling for nationalisation. The referendum on the constitution decisively repudiated the old Third Republic, with 19,000,000 voting ‘Yes’ against only 800,000 ‘No’.
The chapter draws a historical comparison with the Russian Revolution of 1917, noting that in Russia the reactionaries united around the liberal Constitutional Democrats, who were openly pro-capitalist. In France, by contrast, the MRP is forced to disguise itself as socialist, a contradiction that a revolutionary programme from the PCF would expose and destroy. The Communists and Socialists together hold a majority, yet neither leadership acts on it. The Socialist Party, terrified by the radicalisation of the masses, supported de Gaulle and now seeks to base itself on the middle class and the MRP, avoiding a Socialist-Communist government. The Stalinist leadership of the PCF, meanwhile, uses its position as a bargaining chip for Soviet diplomacy, bargaining for entry into a government with de Gaulle rather than preparing the workers to take power. They push the working class onto a road of ‘national unity’ with the capitalists.
The chapter polemicises sharply against both the Socialist and Stalinist leaderships, accusing the latter of betraying the revolutionary opportunity. It notes that the Trotskyists of France conducted a campaign for a Socialist-Communist government without coalition with capitalist parties, giving critical support to the CP and SP in the elections and receiving 10,817 votes on an uncompromising revolutionary programme. The chapter concludes that clashes between workers and bosses are inevitable, and that in the coming struggles the masses will reject the Stalinist counterfeit and, under Trotskyist leadership, march towards the conquest of power.