Jean Pierre Raffin-Dugens (3 December 1861 – 26 March 1946) was a French politician. He was a socialist, internationalist and pacifist. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

(1914–1918) he was one of the few national deputies to remain true to the principle that the workers of the world should not support wars between their countries arranged by political and military leaders. After attending an international pacifist conference in Switzerland in 1916 he was subject to a storm of criticism. He was not reelected after the war.

Early years

Jean Pierre Raffin-Dugens was born on 3 December 1861 in Saint-Pierre-d'Allevard, Isère. He became a teacher. He believed in freethought, and in 1905 attended an international congress of freethought, "the Trocadéro", at

Voiron Voiron (; frp, Vouèron) is a commune (French municipality) in the ninth district of the Isère department in southeastern France. It is the capital of the canton of Voiron and has been part of the Grenoble-Alpes Métropole since 2010. Voiron ...

in Isère. There he first met Pierre Brizon. Raffin-Dugens entered politics in 1910, running for the 2nd district of

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

in the department of Isère in the national elections. He was elected in the second round of voting. He was very active in defending the principles on which he was elected. He was involved in issues concerning education, and was strongly and actively opposed to military spending. Raffin-Dugens was reelected in 1914 in the second round of voting.

World War I

Raffin-Dugens stayed true to his pacifist principles after the outbreak of

(July 1914 – November 1918). He said he regretted the socialists having voted for war funding, and demanded resumption of contacts between socialists of all countries. In 1915 he criticized

Jules Guesde Jules Bazile, known as Jules Guesde (; 11 November 1845 – 28 July 1922) was a French socialist journalist and politician. Guesde was the inspiration for a famous quotation by Karl Marx. Shortly before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter ...

's position of "war to the end". An international socialist conference at Kienthal in Switzerland was arranged for the end of April 1916, a follow-up to the 1915

Zimmerwald Conference The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 to 8, 1915. It was the first of three international socialist conferences convened by anti-militarist socialist parties from countries that were originally neutral ...

. The

Confédération générale du travail The General Confederation of Labour (french: Confédération Générale du Travail, CGT) is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions. It is ...

(CGT, General Confederation of Labor) leaders

Alphonse Merrheim Alphonse Adolphe Merrheim (7 May 1871 – 23 October 1923) was a French copper smith and trade union leader. Early years Alphonse Adolphe Merrheim was born on 7 May 1871 in La Madeleine, Nord, a suburb of Lille. He became a coppersmith, and adopt ...

, Albert Bourderon and

Marie Mayoux Marie Mayoux (24 April 1878 – 16 June 1969) was a French teacher, revolutionary syndicalist, pacifist and libertarian. She and her husband François Mayoux were imprisoned during World War I (1914–18) for her pacifist activities. Life Early ...

were expected to represent France, but were refused the passports they needed to travel. Three delegates from the SFIO led by Alexandre Blanc were able to attend as deputies with parliamentary immunity. Raffin-Dugins and Pierre Brizon accompanied Blanc. All three were teachers by profession. On their return from Switzerland, the three deputies were the targets of a violent press campaign in which they were accused of being defeatists, traitors and spies. They were repudiated by leaders of the Socialist party. On 24 June 1916 Brizon, Blanc and Raffins-Dugens refused to vote for war credits. Writing in ''Le Populaire'' on 3–9 July 1916

Jean Longuet Jean-Laurent-Frederick Longuet (5 October 1876 – 11 September 1938) was a French socialist politician and journalist. He was Karl Marx's grandson. Early years Jean, often called 'Johnny' as a boy by his family, was born in London on October 5 ...

said the stance of Brizon, Blanc and Raffin-Dugens was courageous, in strong contrast to that of the other elected socialists. In December 1916, at the CGT's second national conference in Paris, Raffin-Dugens and Bourderon broke ranks with the Zimmerwaldians. They voted with the SFIO minority, in favor of accepting U.S. President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

's offer to mediate peace. In February the Committee for the Resumption of International Relations split, with Raffin-Dugens, Bourderon and Brizon joining the SFIO minority led by

, while the Socialists

Fernand Loriot Fernand Loriot (10 October 1870 – 12 October 1932) was a French teacher who was active in forming the teachers' union. He took a pacifist stance during World War I. He was one of the founders of the French Communist Party. Early years Loriot was ...

Charles Rappoport Charles Rappoport (14 June 1865 – 17 November 1941) was a Russian and French militant communist politician, journalist and writer. A Jewish intellectual, and a multilingual scholar, he's been referred to as "a grand man of French radicalism". ...

Louise Saumoneau Louise Saumoneau (17 December 1875 – 23 February 1950) was a French feminist who later renounced feminism as being irrelevant to the class struggle. She became a union leader and a prominent socialist. During World War I she was active in the int ...

and

François Mayoux François Mayoux (24 June 1882 – 21 July 1967) was a French teacher who became in turn a socialist, communist and revolutionary syndicalist. He and his wife Marie Mayoux were imprisoned during World War I (1914–18) for publishing a pacifist pa ...

took control of the committee. Merrheim withdrew to concentrate on union work.

Post-war

On 11 November 1918 Raffin-Dugens was the only deputy to vote against a national tribute to the armed forces and to President

Georges Clemenceau Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (, also , ; 28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A key figure of the Independent Radicals, he was a ...

and

Ferdinand Foch Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Ar ...

. In 1919 Raffin-Dugens voted against demanding reparations from Germany. He insisted that the German people should not be made responsible for the imperialism of their leaders, and called for a German Republic to be established. His courageous defense of his principles did not win him reelection in the 1919 national elections. During the

Tours Congress The Tours Congress was the 18th National Congress of the French Section of the Workers' International, or SFIO, which took place in Tours on 25–30 December 1920. During the Congress, the majority voted to join the Third International and create ...

of 1920 he moved to the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

, along with the majority of Socialists. He did not take much further part on politics. Jean Raffin-Dugins died on 26 March 1946 in

, Isère.

References

Citations Sources * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raffin-Dugens, Jean Pierre 1861 births 1946 deaths People from Isère French Section of the Workers' International politicians French Communist Party politicians Members of the 10th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 11th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of Parliament for Isère