The Possibilists (french: Possibilistes), also called Broussists (french: Broussistes), were a faction of the French socialist movement led by

Paul Brousse Paul Brousse (; 23 January 18441 April 1912) was a French socialist, leader of the '' possibilistes'' group. He was active in the Jura Federation, a section of the International Working Men's Association (IWMA), from the northwestern part of Sw ...

Benoît Malon Benoît Malon (23 June 1841 – 13 September 1893), was a French Socialist, writer, communard, and political leader. Biography Malon came from a poor peasant family. An opportunity to escape the life of a rural labourer presented itself whe ...

and others supported the faction although they did not always fully share its inspiring principles. It originated within the "Federation of the Socialist Workers' Party of France" (''Fédération du parti des travailleurs socialistes de France''), a Marxist-inspired organisation founded by

Paul Lafargue Paul Lafargue (; 15 January 1842 – 25 November 1911) was a Cuban- Haitian revolutionary Marxist socialist, political writer, economist, journalist, literary critic, and activist; he was Karl Marx's son-in-law having married his second d ...

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 ...

and others, in

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, in 1879. Brousse opposed Marxist tactics and proclaimed the

reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can eve ...

principle of directing everyday political activity towards achieving the goals that were concretely 'possible' time by time, while maintaining that socialists should keep always ready to jump at future revolutionary opportunities.Carl Landauer, "The Origin of Socialist Reformism in France"; ''International Review of Social History'', Volume 12 , Issue 1 , April 1967 , pp. 81 - 107. The Possibilists soon won a majority within the Federation, inducing the Marxists to split and found their new

French Workers' Party The French Workers' Party (french: Parti Ouvrier Français, POF) was the French socialist party created in 1880 by Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, Karl Marx's son-in-law (famous for having written '' The Right to Be Lazy'', which criticized w ...

(''Parti ouvrier français'', POF) in 1882. The Federation was initially renamed the Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party, and then commonly the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (''Fédération des travailleurs socialistes de France''). In 1902 the small political party of the Possibilists and other groups united in the

French Socialist Party The Socialist Party (french: Parti socialiste , PS) is a French centre-left and social-democratic political party. It holds pro-European views. The PS was for decades the largest party of the " French Left" and used to be one of the two major p ...

, which three years later merged into the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (french: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was foun ...

(Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière'', SFIO).

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See also