Popular Front (France)

The workers' movement welcomed this electoral victory by launching a general strike in May–June 1936, resulting in the negotiation of the Matignon Agreements, one of the cornerstones of social rights in France.

The Popular Front dissolved itself in autumn 1938, confronted by internal dissensions related to the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), opposition of the right-wing, and the persistent effects of the Great Depression.

Industry had great difficulty adjusting to the imposition of a 40-hour workweek, which caused serious disruptions while France was desperately trying to catch up with Germany in military production.

There are various reasons for the formation of the Popular Front and its subsequent electoral victory, including the economic crisis caused by the Great Depression, which affected France starting in 1931, financial scandals and the instability of the Chamber of Deputies elected in 1932 that had weakened the ruling parties, the rise of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, the growth of violent far-right leagues in France and in general of fascist-related parties and organisations (Marcel Bucard's Mouvement franciste, which was subsidised by Italian leader Benito Mussolini, Neo-Socialism etc.)

The tensions finally erupted into the infamous 6 February 1934 crisis in which massive riots by authoritarian paramilitary leagues caused the collapse of the Cartel.

The idea of a "Popular Front" therefore came simultaneously from three directions: Thus, antifascism became the order of the day for a growing number of Communists, Socialists and Republicans as a result of a convergence of influences: the collapse of the centre-left coalition of 1932, the fear of the consequences of the 1934 riots and the broader European policy of the Comintern.

[1] Maurice Thorez, secretary general of the SFIC, was the first to call for the formation of a "Popular Front", first in the party press organ L'Humanité in 1934 and then in the Chamber of Deputies.

On 11 June, the Chamber of Deputies voted for the forty-hour workweek, the restoration of civil servants' salaries, and two weeks' paid holidays, by a majority of 528 to 7.

[3] The Blum administration democratised the Bank of France by enabling all shareholders to attend meetings and set up a new council with more representation from government.

Other measures carried out by the Popular Front government improved the pay, pensions, allowances, and taxes of public-sector workers and ex-servicemen.

[5] A decree of 18 June 1937 promulgated the Convention "concerning the marking of the weight on heavy packages transported by vessels which was adopted by the International Labour Conference at Geneva in 1929".

[10] An act of 26 August 1936 that amended the social insurance scheme for commerce and industry raised the maximum daily maternity benefit from 18 to 22 francs, and an order of 13 February 1937 prescribed a special sound signal for road-rail coaches.

"[5] Blum persuaded the workers to accept pay raises and go back to work, ending the massive wave of strikes that disrupted production in 1936.

In turn, the Popular Front was actively fought by right-wing and far-right movements, which often used antisemitic slurs against Blum and other Jewish ministers.

Jackson concludes that the French government "was virtually paralyzed by the menace of Civil War at home, the German danger abroad, and the weakness of her own defenses.

In late 1938, the Communists broke with the coalition by voting against the Munich agreement, in which the Popular Front had joined with the British by handing over part of Czechoslovakia to Germany.

[19] Radical cultural ideas came to the fore in the era of the Popular Front and often were explicitly supported by the governments, as in the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne.

[23] These included patriotism, the veterans' sacrifice, the honor of being an army officer, the prestige of the bourgeois, and the leadership of the Socialist Party and the parliamentary Republic.

The party set up the Union des Jeunes Filles de France (UJFF) to appeal to young working women through publications and activities that were geared to their interests.

It now portrayed the ideal young Communist woman as a paragon of moral probity with her commitment to marriage and motherhood and gender-specific public activism.

Tens of thousands of families who had never seen the sea before now played in the waves, and Léo Lagrange arranged around 500,000 discounted rail trips and hotel accommodation on a massive scale.

However, confronted with an increasing possibility of war with Nazi Germany and affected by the scientific racist theories of the time, which were common beyond the fascist parties, the SFIO began to change its ideas concerning sports during the Popular Front, because its social reforms permitted to the workers' to participate in such leisure activities and also because of the increasing risks of a confrontation with Nazi Germany, particularly after the March 1936 remilitarization of the Rhineland.

Thus, Lagrange stated, "It cannot be a question in a democratic country of militarizing the distractions and the pleasures of the masses and of transforming the joy skillfully distributed into a means of not thinking."

It was done by Georges Barthélémy, deputy of the SFIO, who declared that sports contributed to the "improvement of relations between capital and labour, henceforth to the elimination of the concept of class struggle" and that they were a "means to prevent the moral and physical degeneration of the race."

In protest against holding the event in a fascist country, the Spanish Popular Front, decided to organize rival games in Barcelona, under the name People's Olympiad.

The next year, Dreyfus succeeded in overwhelming the legendary Rudolf Caracciola, and his 480 horsepower (360 kW) Silver Arrow at the Pau Grand Prix, becoming a national hero.

[31] It began a process of government intervention into economic affairs that grew rapidly during the Vichy and postwar regimes into the modern French welfare state.

He adds that it "failed to make the great changes its supporters anticipated and left many ordinary French people deeply disillusioned.

[34][35][36] MacMillan says that Blum "Lacked the inner convictions that he was the man to resolve the country's problems by bold and imaginative leadership," leading him to avoid a showdown with the financial powers, and forfeiting the support of the working class.

More generally, the argument is made that France could not afford the labor reforms in the face of poor economic conditions, the fears of the business community, and the threat of Nazi Germany.