What Makes French Socialism Strong and as Weak as It Is
Lipschitz, Dr. Siegfried
What Makes French Socialism Strong and as Weak as It Is By Dr. Siegfried Lipschitz IN France the call for Socialism * action is heard no less distinctly than anywhere else. Comrades shake...
...These are General Motors units...
...The France of today is the France of yesterday, living and basking in the glory < f an accomplished world mission...
...Do not rely on gossip and do not exaggerate...
...It is followed by the red CGTU with 150,000 members and a number of autonomous unions...
...Blum called attention to the admirable work of those who rebuilt the party from the shattered remains in 1918 and led it through Communist dissentions to the height of success...
...Most girls want to get husbands...
...Precisely nowhere...
...In a pinch they are not going to be too parI ticular as to whose husbands they get...
...Among them are far-reaching parliamentary decisions affecting the life of the present French government as well as the unity of the Socialist Party...
...I maintain that articles on problems peculiar to women— part icularly women of the working class — (do you doubt that there are such p r o b1 ems ?) have a place alongside dissertations on coalition government and articles on Marxian dialectics...
...When he finally asked amfd thundrous applause where and when the party failed to act, tti* opposition was for the moment silenced...
...And they close with the bitter remark: Of what use is our party — the strongest political party in France — if we remain outside the realm of real power and permit the ruling bourgeoisie to use us in exchange for a few doubtful gifts...
...Labor," organ of the railroad unions...
...The French proletariat offers an almost photographic picture of these conditions...
...Neo-Socialism The difficulties of a class-conscious proletarian policy in France are enormous...
...The great majority of the French populace consists of small self-sufficient farmers independent of industrialism...
...Paul Faure whipped the right wing at the party congress with the ironical remark: "Oh well, you are reformists without reforms...
...Some of them say "good morning" to the "help" and some of them act as though the "help" were part of the machinery...
...We want the facts...
...The French movement possesses an imposing array of leaders...
...The preachers of independent action are constantly losing ground...
...In every step of organizing its company union, the Chevrolet is both breaking the law and breaking its word...
...but Henry, at least, did not sign the code...
...What's wrong with talking and writing about these things, among others...
...The left opposition is led by the able Zyromski and nvert who see the salvation of Socialism only in a definite left orientation.1 All these men reflect the controversial character of the French government which is partly explained by its organizational structure...
...Out of the boiling devil's brew a new and yet so very old theory rises its head: Neo-Socialism, which proposes new ways and new methods in the realization of Socialism...
...They are demonstrated by the almost daily violent debates between rightists and leftists in the party organ Populaire...
...The Socialist leader Leon Blum exposed them and declared before the party congress last summer as well as before the recent International Socialist Conference that confusion and political manoeuvres art the real factors underlying the cry for action...
...Or a 'Gene Tunney can be brushed off and hauled right out of the prize ring...
...At the right stands the honest and clear thinking Henaudel while the extreme right wing is led by the powerful and brilliant Marquet, mayor of Bordeaux...
...And just where does that leave the girls of the working class...
...Or you show her $35 a week today, steady money, and shell give up her job without any regrets...
...She ia ready and willing at any time to leave her job for a man who earns $50 a week...
...Another fifteen percent are the while collar workers, employees in offices and stores and the petty officialdom...
...They don't like to work long hours for low pay under miserable, degrading conditions, but what, the deuce, nobody likes it, and yet they all do it Lots of people haven't got jobs at all and would be glad to change places with them...
...I am only trying to justify myself for using this valuable space on matters which often appear to be merely the trivialities of human existence—and woman's existence at that...
...STORIES of the NRA Do you know of any cases of nibbling at the NRA in a code industry t Ws recently asked our readers to report cases of violations...
...Take this very question of the lack of eligible men...
...Party decisions are moved by considerations of daily events and not of the all important future...
...Charging that their employers had disregarded the NRA code of shorter hours and higher wages, several hundred tool, die and pattern makers in the Buick and Chevrolet Motor Companies and the A. C. Spark* Plug Company walked out shortly after the above editorial appeared...
...But its bureaucratic apparatus is insignificant as compared with the tremendous organization machinery of the former German Social Democracy...
...And one boss is pretty much like another...
...As far as they can see everybody works...
...I'm surprised that our party—and the old-line parties as well—pay so little attention to matters of vital interest to women...
...The first jlace in the trade union field is occupied by the CGT with more than 80,000 members which corresponds closely to the old Social Democratic free German trade unions...
...Democracy, individualism1 and anti-clericalism are her achievements...
...Germany is the country of the halfheartedly begun and never completed bourgeois revolution of 1848...
...And there you are...
...They don't get terribly excited about exploitation, their's or anybody else's...
...At present they are fighting word battles while things are drifting and shaping themselves within the orbit of bourgeois society...
...ger confined his thoughts of freedom and liberty to his studio while others enacted them ia bloody battles France is the result of the completed bourgeois revolution...
...The Communists, who dominated the labor field after the Tours split in 1920, have dwindled to less than 15,000 members and are losing daily...
...And the union organiser or the Socialist propagandist who takes this into account when talking to her has a better chance to getting her interest...
...The law, in terms which no one need misunderstand, has outlawed "company unions" and has declared that the workers have a right to .choose their own representatives, "without interference or coercion" from the boss...
...For the Nasi triumph dearly shows hew deeply militarism asd reaction are rooted ia the seel 3 the German people, proving iksm selves infinitely stronger thai the best and progressive forces of the German nation...
...Out of the ruins of the aspirations of the half baked German middleclass a strong classconscious proletariat began to rise which—as history seems to prove —is destined only to complete the cycle of German bourgeois liberation...
...But we must go further...
...In a specific case it is asserted that one manufacturer increased the price of his product 175 per cent within a few hoars after the code for his industry was approved...
...These articles constitute a flat violation of the National Recovery Act and of the jwhole NRA program...
...Under different circumstances their talents would be much more valuable...
...I don't say we should have a fashion section or print recipies—the big dailies can beat us hollow at that—but with women hanging suspended in the air, as it were—we should devote space to the perplexing situation they find themselves in...
...Here are a few reports from the NRA front...
...Comrades shake their heads and complain sadly that the j>arty line is not clear...
...And at the same time, the Chevrolet Motor Company is violating the code which it has signed and flouting the NRA by trying to force its employees into a company union...
...Next to Leon Mum, who seems to me the perfect blending of a college it her and priest, is the parliamentary leader Paul Faure...
...There is also a small party of "proletarian unity" which exercises some influence in the municipalities and has a few deputies in the French chamber...
...In France the class features of the movement are not as pronounced as in Belgium...
...The Chevrolet Double Cross The Chevrolet Motor Company, a branch of General Motors, is publishing half-page "ads" in metropolitan papers, declaring its support of the NRA program, and saying in big type: "We are proud and glad to do our part...
...No less different is the attitude of the French in regard to discipline...
...0ONT be alarmed...
...The recent strikes of the Seine river boatmen, who erected barricades of river barges and steamers thereby stopping all river traffic, is a case in point...
...There ia furthermore the steadily mounting war peril and the rising tide of European fascism...
...The views of Leon Blum explain many of the difficulties of the party...
...Well, I'm standing by my guns...
...Perhaps nothing explains the French movement better than a comparison with the once potent Herman labor movement...
...The answer is really difficult if we try to understand that the alleged inertia of the party is severely criticized by those who only yesterday voiced their discontent and fear with the party's determined stand against Poincare and his reactionary-militaristic policies...
...Bitter and cutting was the retort of the fiery Alsatian Grumbach: "And you—revolutionaries without a revolution...
...The French Party The French Socialist Party has 130,000 members, which is a marvelous success considering the lack of enthusiasm of the French for mass organization...
...This is not turning into an advice to the lovelorn column...
...most of its leadership formerly belonged to official Moscow Communism...
...Syndicalist trends are visible everywhere...
...Two Countries Germany is a highly developed industrial country, with a population fifty percent of organized workers and proletarians...
...So I say, not lets woman's stuff—but more...
...Among the complaints by retailers is the charge that certain manufacturers, in anticipation of the approval of permanent codes, built up huge stocks of merchandise which they are now forcing on the retailers at exorbitant prices With the explanation that increased costs under the codes are responsible...
...They say: our youth is rebellious and clamoring for deeds...
...To insist upon action only for action's sake is quixotic as long as the contemplated action does not tend toward Socialist ends...
...4bout the Gal Who's Looking for a Man By Gertrude Weil Klein As in the midst of battle There is room for thoughts of love....—Santayana...
...And a Guggenheim heiress can crash the baggage master's office and grab herself off a nice baggage smasher...
...It happens to be part of my daily job to talk to working girls, I and I know when they're listening to me with both ears and all their attention, and when they're just being polite and don't hear a word I'm saying...
...Marquet was one of the storm centers of the International Socialist Conference, the great nope of Neo-Socialism, and he likes to play with such dangerous definitions as "leadership," "authority," "Socialism within the national framework" which will make him dear to all fascist and semi-fascist hearts...
...What is it these critics want...
...It is sufficiently organized and extremely individualistic...
...All about us are world-shaking problems—and I write about the dearth of eligible males...
...Don't let anyone tell you otherwise...
...They're listening when I talk about their personal problems...
...The strikers, headed by Matthew Smith, a Chevrolet employee, said there were 1,800 workers on strike...
...The dangers confronting French Socialism at every turn are manifold and at times overwhelming...
...Labor has received a copy of the "articles," really a constitution and by-laws, of the "Employers' Association and Works Council" which the Chevrolet is trying to establish as a means of dealing with its workers...
...Plainer words could not be used...
...Henry Ford has been well berated for refusing, to cooperate with the NRA...
...France, on the other hand, is the ideal country of the petty bourgeois who lives and eats well...
...Profiteering Under Codes Action is promised by the NRA to curb profiteering by certain industries now operating under codes...
...And since most of them are "good" girls you can just imagine the devil it raises with complexes, neuroses and such...
...The average working girl is different in her methods of thinking from the average working man...
...The Chevrolet signs it with one hand and breaks it with the other...
...Where the average man dreams of getting out of the shop some day and setting up In a little business of his own, the average girl dreams of getting married...
...As has been said, French syndicalist sympathies are strong...
...That's what girls are interested in...
...These charges are not made less serious by the conflicts within the party itself...
...Retailers complain that manufacturers of specialized products in Which competition is limited have boosted prices out of all proportion to increased costs...
...Finally, there is a host of small and smaller groups which either follow Trotsky, agitate for some form of "democratic communism" or clamor loudly for the creation of a new Communist Party independent of Moscow influence...
...It must be said to the honor of the French workers that the desire for trade union unity is decidedly pro* nounced...
...As I once did and was severely criticized for so doing...
...The German Bar...
...The party is composed of four distinct groups which discuss their differences and opposite views almost daily in Populaire...
...Nevertheless, it is the only mass party of the French proletariat...
...Now, society girls, when the stag line offers no special quip to their hearts or senses, can go slumming and fish up an Irving Berlin...
Vol. 16 • October 1933 • No. 15
