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Andre Malraux's Devotion to Caesarism Erik Meddles Regis University
Regis University ePublications at Regis University All Regis University Theses Spring 2010 Partisan of Greatness: Andre Malraux's Devotion to Caesarism Erik Meddles Regis University Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.regis.edu/theses Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Meddles, Erik, "Partisan of Greatness: Andre Malraux's Devotion to Caesarism" (2010). All Regis University Theses. 544. https://epublications.regis.edu/theses/544 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by ePublications at Regis University. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Regis University Theses by an authorized administrator of ePublications at Regis University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Regis University Regis College Honors Theses Disclaimer Use of the materials available in the Regis University Thesis Collection (“Collection”) is limited and restricted to those users who agree to comply with the following terms of use. Regis University reserves the right to deny access to the Collection to any person who violates these terms of use or who seeks to or does alter, avoid or supersede the functional conditions, restrictions and limitations of the Collection. The site may be used only for lawful purposes. The user is solely responsible for knowing and adhering to any and all applicable laws, rules, and regulations relating or pertaining to use of the Collection. All content in this Collection is owned by and subject to the exclusive control of Regis University and the authors of the materials. It is available only for research purposes and may not be used in violation of copyright laws or for unlawful purposes. -
The Dutch Internationalist Communists and the Events in Spain (1936–7)
chapter 9 The Dutch Internationalist Communists and the Events in Spain (1936–7) While the civil war in Spain did not cause a crisis in the gic, it nonetheless had a profound importance in the group’s history. It was the test-bed of the Dutch group’s revolutionary theory, confronted with a civil war which was to prepare the Second World-War, in the midst of revolutionary convulsions and an atmosphere of ‘anti-fascist’ popular fronts. Although often identified with anarchism, Dutch ‘councilism’ vigorously set itself apart from this current and denounced not its weaknesses, but its ‘passage into the camp of the bourgeoisie’. The gic defended a political analysis of the ‘Spanish revolution’ close to that of the Italian communist left. Finally, the events in Spain gave rise to the gic’s last attempt before 1939 to confront the revolutionary political milieu to the left of Trotskyism in Europe. This attempt was not without confusion, and even political ambiguity. Following the creation of the Republic, the internationalist Dutch commun- ists followed the evolution of the Spanish situation with great care. In 1931, the gic denounced not only the Republican bourgeoisie, which supported the Socialist Party of Largo Caballero, but also the anarchist movement. The cnt abandoned its old ‘principle’ of hostility to electoralism, and had its adherents vote en masse for Republican candidates. Far from seeing the cnt as a compon- ent of the workers’ movement, the gic insisted that anarcho-syndicalism had crossed the Rubicon with its ‘collaboration with bourgeois order’. The cnt had become ‘the ally of the bourgeoisie’.As an anarcho-syndicalist current, and thus a partisan of trade-unionism, the political action of the cnt could only lead to a strengthening of capitalism. -
Revolutionary Syndicalist Opposition to the First World War: A
Re-evaluating syndicalist opposition to the First World War Darlington, RR http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0023656X.2012.731834 Title Re-evaluating syndicalist opposition to the First World War Authors Darlington, RR Type Article URL This version is available at: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/19226/ Published Date 2012 USIR is a digital collection of the research output of the University of Salford. Where copyright permits, full text material held in the repository is made freely available online and can be read, downloaded and copied for non-commercial private study or research purposes. Please check the manuscript for any further copyright restrictions. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. Re-evaluating Syndicalist Opposition to the First World War Abstract It has been argued that support for the First World War by the important French syndicalist organisation, the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) has tended to obscure the fact that other national syndicalist organisations remained faithful to their professed workers’ internationalism: on this basis syndicalists beyond France, more than any other ideological persuasion within the organised trade union movement in immediate pre-war and wartime Europe, can be seen to have constituted an authentic movement of opposition to the war in their refusal to subordinate class interests to those of the state, to endorse policies of ‘defencism’ of the ‘national interest’ and to abandon the rhetoric of class conflict. This article, which attempts to contribute to a much neglected comparative historiography of the international syndicalist movement, re-evaluates the syndicalist response across a broad geographical field of canvas (embracing France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Britain and America) to reveal a rather more nuanced, ambiguous and uneven picture. -
France Study Trip “Presidential Election in France” a Project Within the Boschalumninetwork
Politicis of France Study trip “Presidential Election in France” a project within the BoschAlumniNetwork France Area Total 643,801 km2 Metropolitan France1 551,695 km2 Population Total January 2017 estimate 66,991,000 (20th) Metropolitan France January 2017 estimate 64,859,000[5] (22nd) Metropolitan France Density 117,6/km2 Politics of France The Fifth Republic The Fifth Republic was established by Charles de Gaulle under the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958. It emerged from the collapse of the Fourth Republic, replacing the former parliamen- tary republic with a semi-presidential, or dual-executive, system that split powers between a prime min- ister as head of government and a president as head of state. De Gaulle, who was the first president elected under the Fifth Republic in December 1958, believed in a strong head of state, which he de- scribed as embodying “l'esprit de la nation” (the spirit of the nation). The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic". The constitu- tion provides for a separation of powers and proclaims France's "attachment to the Rights of Man and the principles of national sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789." The Fifth Republic is France's third-longest political regime, after the hereditary and feudal monarchies of the Ancien Régime (15th century – 1792) and the parliamentary Third Republic (1879–1940). Executive branch Executive power is exercised by the President of the Republic and the Government. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and ministers. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President, and is responsible to Parliament. -
The New Popular Front in France
THE NEW POPULAR FRONT IN FRANCE by George Ross The 1978 General Elections may well bring the French Left (and the Communist Party) to power in France. The Right Centre coalition which has ruled France for twenty years has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to deal with the present economic crisis-high inflation, unemployment, low growth-which it has played a major role in creating. As a result it has been rapidly losing support while simultaneously splitting into warring factions. The Union de la Gauche (Communists, Socialists and Left Radicals) has, meanwhile, become an electoral majority in the country (a fact demonstrated both in opinion polls and in the results of the March 1977 municipal elections). Its leaders, Fran~oisMitterrand and the PS (Parti Socialiste) and Georges Marchais of the PCF (Parti Communiste Francais) are now seen as genuine statesmen and as plausible Ministers of France, by a majority of Frenchmen. Its 'Common Programme for a Government of Left Union' is received as a credible platform for resolving the economic crisis and bringing needed change to French society. Rumour has it in Paris that high civil servants have already begun preparing for the arrival of new men in power. The stock exchange has begun to vibrate with fear-and with the beginnings of an investment strike against the Left (a strike which, because it has started so far in advance of the actual election date, has had the effect of undermining the existing regime even further). The Gaullist fraction of the ruling majority has already begun a barrage of anti-Left hysteria against the 'socialo- communist enemy' with its 'Marxist programme' to remove France from the 'camp of liberty'. -
The Popular Front: Roadblock to Revolution
Internationalist Group League for th,e Fourth International The Popular Front: Roadblock to Revolution Volunteers from the anarcho-syndicalist CNT and POUM militias head to the front against Franco's forces in Spanish Civil War, Barcelona, September 1936. The bourgeois Popular Front government defended capitalist property, dissolved workers' militias and blocked the road to revolution. Internationalist Group Class Readings May 2007 $2 ® <f$l~ 1162-M Introduction The question of the popular front is one of the defining issues in our epoch that sharply counterpose the revolution ary Marxism of Leon Trotsky to the opportunist maneuverings of the Stalinists and social democrats. Consequently, study of the popular front is indispensable for all those who seek to play a role in sweeping away capitalism - a system that has brought with it untold poverty, racial, ethnic, national and sexual oppression and endless war - and opening the road to a socialist future. "In sum, the People's Front is a bloc of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat," Trotsky wrote in December 1937 in re sponse to questions from the French magazine Marianne. Trotsky noted: "When two forces tend in opposite directions, the diagonal of the parallelogram approaches zero. This is exactly the graphic formula of a People's Front govern ment." As a bloc, a political coalition, the popular (or people's) front is not merely a matter of policy, but of organization. Opportunists regularly pursue class-collaborationist policies, tailing after one or another bourgeois or petty-bourgeois force. But it is in moments of crisis or acute struggle that they find it necessary to organizationally chain the working class and other oppressed groups to the class enemy (or a sector of it). -
The French Fifth Republic
21 The French Fifth Republic Kamaya Jayatissa “Dans le tumulte des hommes et des événements, la solitude était ma tentation. Maintenant, elle est mon amie. De quelle autre se contenter lorsqu’on a rencontré l’Histoire ?”1 Charles de Gaulle The Origins of the Fifth Republic In the early 1950s, French political life was dominated by its colonial wars. Following the military defeat and humiliation of Dien Bien Phu, in May 1954, the government of Pierre Mendès France was forced to negotiate the permanent withdrawal of its troops from Indo-China, putting an end to nearly eight years of conflict.2 For France, this defeat marked the beginning of the decolonisation process in all its colonies. Even though both Morocco and Tunisia gained independence without too much struggle in 1956, the situation was to be very different in Algeria where the links with the Hexagon were deeply rooted since 1830.3 “Algeria was the trigger of the crises, which was fatal to the regime”, stressed French political scientist, René Raymond. It indeed initiated the beginning of a conflict that was to drown the Fourth Republic in a severe institutional crisis. Despite commendable achievements, 4 the Fourth Republic remained unloved by many. Known as la mal aimée,5 it comprised 1 “In the tumult of men and events, solitude was my temptation. Now she is my friend. How else to be content when we met history?” 2 In June 1954, having signed the said agreement, newly appointed President, Pierre Mendès France announced to the French Parliament that he had achieve his aim of ‘an honourable settlement’ to end a war that had cost at least 300,000 lives. -
Liberty Leading the Women: Delacroix’S Liberty As Transitional Image
Kimberly Carroll (Eugene Delacroix. Liberty Leading the People, 1830. Musée du Louvre, Paris.) Liberty Leading the Women: Delacroix’s Liberty as Transitional Image One of the most iconic transformed into a true wom- overthrow of the monarchy works of revolutionary art is an of the people. Delacroix that had been reinstituted Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty introduces through her figure shortly after the first French Leading the People, a paint- a level of specificity that Revolution of 1789 – 99. It ing from 1830 that depicts transcends her traditional debuted in the Paris Salon the July Revolution of the representations as a passive, in 1831 and was met with same year (Fig 1.). The main mythological, or allegorical mixed reactions. figure of the painting is the symbol. In looking to the or- Many were horrified at the symbol of Liberty, an igins of the figure of liberty, depiction of an event in allegorical representation the role of women during the what would have been of the ideal of perfect free- revolutions, the artist’s own contemporary history in dom. Liberty is represented history, and the reappear- which a bare-breasted through the female form, a ance of this figure into our woman was painted leading traditional manner of rep- own contemporary world, the people of France. In the resentation of victory that the evolution of Delacroix’s same year of its debut, the dates back to antiquity (Fig. Liberty as an image can be painting “was censored by 2). Many components of her seen to serve as a bridge Louis-Philippe” and was appearance clearly indicate from a purely allegorical fig- “hidden from the public for that she is an allegorical rep- ure to a real woman. -
Reclaiming Syndicalism: from Spain to South Africa to Global Labour Today
Global Issues Reclaiming Syndicalism: From Spain to South Africa to global labour today Lucien van der Walt, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa Union politics remain central to the new century. It remains central because of the ongoing importance of unions as mass movements, internationally, and because unions, like other popular movements, are confronted with the very real challenge of articulating an alternative, transformative vision. There is much to be learned from the historic and current tradition of anarcho- and revolutionary syndicalism. This is a tradition with a surprisingly substantial and impressive history, including in the former colonial world; a tradition that envisages anti-bureaucratic and bottom-up trade unions as key means of educating and mobilising workers, and of championing the economic, social and political struggles of the broad working class, independent of parliamentary politics and party tutelage; and that aims, ultimately, at transforming society through union-led workplace occupations that will institute self-management and participatory economic planning, abolishing markets, hierarchies and states. This contribution seeks, firstly, to contribute to the recovery of the historical memory of the working class by drawing attention to its multiple traditions and rich history; secondly, to make a contribution to current debates on the struggles, direction and options for the working class movement (including unions) in a period of flux in which the fixed patterns of the last forty years are slowly melting away; thirdly, it argues that many current union approaches – among them, business unionism, social movement unionism, and political unionism – have substantial failings and limitations; and finally, it points to the need for labour studies and industrial sociology to pay greater attention to labour traditions besides business unionism, social movement unionism, and political unionism. -
The Popular Fronts and the Civil War in Spain Tim Rees
10 The Popular Fronts and the Civil War in Spain tim rees Our desire is that all the organizations of the Popular Front be strengthened. Our desire is that all anti-fascist forces be consolidated, wherever they are to be found. Although I know that this can lead to criticism of our position, of our actions, never, never, can it be said that a single member, not a one, has been attracted to the party by the promise of advancement or the lure of personal 1 gain. These words were spoken as part of a rousing closing speech made by Jesús Hernández, a leading figure in the Spanish Communist Party (PCE), at a party plenum held in March 1937. At the time Spain was nine months into its brutal civil war which raged on until the final defeat of the republican side at the hands of General Franco’s Nationalists in April 1939.Theplenum was held partly to publicize the growing strength of the communist party but its central theme, echoed by all the speakers present, was to extol support for the Popular Front as an alliance of all the political parties and trade unions that supported the republic. In evoking the idea of the Popular Front, and the language of anti-fascism which accompanied it, the PCE was following policies common to the international communist movement. In the context of the war in Spain, Hernández hammered home the message that cooperation was the key to ultimate victory and that the PCE was providing a selfless example in working toward that common goal, all of which was reflected in the title of his speech: “Everything Within the Popular Front.” This plenum, and another held in November 1937, presented the PCE as not just at the heart of the conflict in Spain but as part of a worldwide struggle being led by the international communist movement against the threat of 1 Partido Comunista de España, Todo dentro del Frente Popular (Valencia: Ediciones del Partido Comunista de España, 1937). -
The Appeals of Communism in France 7
CHAPTER TWO THE APPEALSOF COMMUNISMIN FRANCE As the importance of French communism to Moscow rests in part upon the widespread appeal of the PCF within France , it is important to understand that appeal . To do so we must return to the PCF 's origins . For if the Communist Party of France in 1966 seemed to have lost much in common with the party born in December 1920 at the Congress of Tours , it nevertheless retained the marks of its ancestry . In her extensive study , Les origin es du communisme franr ;ais (1914 - 1920 ); the historian Annie Kriegel , an old Communist militant notable for her " activity among the intellectuals ," has described in great detail the period between the Congress of Tours and the beginning of the First World War . She concluded that the adherence of the overwhelming majority of the Socialist Party to the Third International in 1920 can be explained only by the con - currence of certain specific circumstances in the French labor movement - that is, the Socialist defeat in the election of November 1919 , followed by the failure of the Syndicalist attempt at " total revolution " (the rail workers ' strike ), which was harshly suppressed in May 1920 . Seeing their hopes shattered , the French Socialists could not but " discover " bolshevism , which had just overcome civil war and foreign intervention in Russia . Adherence to the Third International , and thus the establishment of a link with the victorious Russian Revolution , made it possible to capture the dynamism and revolutionary energy of victorious bolshev - ism and inject it into French and European socialism , without absorbing everything which made bolshevism a specifically Russian product .2 In sum , for the French Socialists , adherence to the twenty -one conditions of the Communist International was to remain a formality . -
Communist Trade Unionism and Industrial Relations on the French Railways, 1914–1939
Fellow Travellers Communist Trade Unionism and Industrial Relations on the French Railways, 1914–1939 STUDIES IN LABOUR HISTORY 13 Studies in Labour History ‘…a series which will undoubtedly become an important force in re-invigorating the study of Labour History.’ English Historical Review Studies in Labour History provides reassessments of broad themes along with more detailed studies arising from the latest research in the field of labour and working-class history, both in Britain and throughout the world. Most books are single-authored but there are also volumes of essays focussed on key themes and issues, usually emerging from major conferences organized by the British Society for the Study of Labour History. The series includes studies of labour organizations, including international ones, where there is a need for new research or modern reassessment. It is also its objective to extend the breadth of labour history’s gaze beyond conven- tionally organized workers, sometimes to workplace experiences in general, sometimes to industrial relations, but also to working-class lives beyond the immediate realm of work in households and communities. Fellow Travellers Communist Trade Unionism and Industrial Relations on the French Railways, 1914–1939 Thomas Beaumont Fellow Travellers LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRESS First published 2019 by Liverpool University Press 4 Cambridge Street Liverpool L69 7ZU Copyright © 2019 Thomas Beaumont The right of Thomas Beaumont to be identified as the author of this book has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.