A Militant Labour Programme for the French Communist Party [1]¶
Core Argument¶
This chapter, a programme of action adopted unanimously by the Fourth World Congress of the Communist International on 5 December 1922, lays out a comprehensive strategic and tactical blueprint for the French Communist Party (PCF) in the immediate period. Its core argument is that the party’s most pressing task is to organise the resistance of the proletariat against the capitalist offensive then underway in France and across the industrialised world. The programme insists that the defence of the eight-hour working day, the maintenance of wage scales, and the struggle for immediate economic demands constitute the best possible platform for reuniting a disorganised working class and restoring its confidence.
The document is structured as a series of fifteen concrete directives. It argues that the party must demonstrate the interdependence of wages and the eight-hour day, and must agitate around every attack on workers’ interests, including wage taxes, rent increases, and sales taxes. A central tactical innovation is the call for the creation of factory and shop committees embracing all workers in each enterprise, irrespective of union or political affiliation, with the aim of introducing workers’ control over conditions of work and production. The tactic of the united front is declared the governing rule for every mass action, with the party required to issue appeals to rival labour organisations while maintaining its unconditional independence and right to criticise all participants.
The programme addresses the party’s relationship to the trade unions in detail. It calls for the formation of trade-union committees and communist cells in every factory and enterprise to penetrate the masses. Communists are instructed to work within both the reformist CGT and the CGTU, seeking to re-establish trade-union unity and combat tendencies toward organisational exclusiveness and anarchistic ideology. The party must advocate for the adhesion of French unions to the Red Trade-Union International (RILU) and expose the Amsterdam International’s class collaboration.
A significant polemical thrust is directed against the Versailles Treaty and its consequences. The programme argues that the French and German bourgeoisies are collaborating to merge French iron and German coal interests, and that the occupation of the Ruhr signifies the enslavement of Ruhr coal miners. It warns that French workers will face competition from cheap German production due to the depreciation of the mark. The party is instructed to call for fraternisation of French and German workers and soldiers on the left bank of the Rhine, and to combat French imperialism not only in Germany but globally, with specific reference to the treaties of St. Germain, Neuilly, Trianon and Sèvres.
The programme also mandates systematic anti-militarist propaganda in the army, based on the principle of arming the proletariat and disarming the bourgeoisie. It demands unconditional support for the national demands of colonial peoples exploited by French imperialism, including their right to autonomy and independence. Work among the peasantry, women, and youth is given detailed attention, with calls for equal pay for equal work without distinction of sex and for the closest reciprocal relations between the party and the Communist Youth. The final section insists on strict centralisation, inflexible discipline, and the systematic development of Marxist education through theoretical courses and party schools.