Jean Allemane
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Jean Allemane (25 August 1843, Sauveterre-de-Comminges,
Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country's ...
– 6 June 1935, Herblay in Seine-et-Oise) was a French socialist politician, veteran of the
Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
of 1871, pioneer of
syndicalism Syndicalism is a Revolutionary politics, revolutionary current within the Left-wing politics, left-wing of the Labour movement, labor movement that seeks to unionize workers Industrial unionism, according to industry and advance their demands t ...
, leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Workers' Party (POSR) and co-founder of the unified
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 found ...
(SFIO) in 1905. He was a deputy in the National Assembly of the
Third French Republic The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...
.


Early life: labour activist and Communard

Jean Allemane was born into a working-class family in Sauveterre-de-Comminges (Haute-Garonne) in southern France. In 1853, he came to Paris with his parents and was apprenticed as a printer. The hardship of working conditions, the republican sympathies of his family and the writings of
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Socia ...
conspired to radicalise Allemane early on. As a teenager he became involved in trade union activity, which was still illegal in France (unions were not legalised until 1906). In 1862, aged 19, he was arrested for his role in organising the first typesetters' strike in Paris. Subsequently, he helped found the typesetters' union. Despite his youth, Allemane played an important role in the emerging French syndicalist movement and emphasised the need for workers to form their own organisations, independent of bourgeois radicals. In 1870, Allemane served in the Parisian National Guard, where he became a corporal. In this capacity, he participated in the uprising of the Paris Commune at the end of the Franco-Prussian War of 1871. Although he welcomed the fall of
Napoléon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
, he mistrusted the conservative republicans around
Adolphe Thiers Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( , ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France and first President of the French Third Republic. Thiers was a key figure in the July Rev ...
who replaced him. In the Commune, Allemane sympathised with the Proudhonist faction. Allemane participated actively in the fighting. After the suppression of the Commune, he went into hiding but was captured, and in 1872, he was sentenced to hard labour in perpetuity into Fort Quélern and banished to the penal colony of New Caledonia. In 1876 he made an unsuccessful attempt to escape. In 1878, he was ordered to participate in suppressing a revolt of the native population but refused. This led to further penalties. However, in 1879, a general amnesty enabled Allemane to return to France.


Socialist partisan politics: POF, FTSF, POSR

In 1880, Allemane became a typesetter at the radical newspaper ''L'Intransigeant'', founded by the republican
Henri Rochefort Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the 'List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.'' * Henri I de Montm ...
. That year, he became a founding member of the
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 work ...
(POF), founded by
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
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 dau ...
. Guesde and Lafargue were by then Marxists (and Lafargue was
Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 p ...
' son-in-law), but the POF was not yet a homogeneous Marxist party, and Allemane sympathised with syndicalist and Proudhonist tendencies. In 1882, he supported the 'Possibilist'
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 Swi ...
in his conflict with Guesde. Like Allemane and Guesde himself, Brousse had been a Communard and had once sympathised with anarchism, but in the 1880s, the party he led – the
Federation of the Socialist Workers of France The Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (french: Fédération des travailleurs socialistes de France, FTSF) was France's first socialist party, being founded in 1879. The party was characterised as possibilist because it promoted gradu ...
(FTSF) – adopted an increasingly reformist course. Allemane became increasingly discenchanted with this. In his own journal, ''Parti Ouvrier'', he called for a more radical course and advocated syndicalist ideas such as a general strike that was to precipitate a revolution, direct action (sabotage, strikes,
factory occupations Occupation of factories is a method of the workers' movement used to prevent lock outs. They may sometimes lead to "recovered factories", in which the workers self-manage the factories. They have been used in many strike actions, including: *t ...
) and the formation of separate proletarian organisations not subject to bourgeois leadership.


Anti-Boulangist, Dreyfusard

During the
Boulangist Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger (29 April 1837 – 30 September 1891), nicknamed Général Revanche ("General Revenge"), was a French general and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the second decade of the Third Repub ...
crisis of 1886–1889, when the popular nationalist
General Boulanger Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger (29 April 1837 – 30 September 1891), nicknamed Général Revanche ("General Revenge"), was a French general and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the second decade of the Third Repub ...
seemed to threaten a ''coup d'état'', Allemane became one of the most vocal defenders of the Republic. This temporarily re-enforced his alliance with Brousse and with reformist socialists and republicans who opposed the general. (By contrast, the Guesdists and the
Blanquists Blanquism refers to a conception of revolution generally attributed to Louis Auguste Blanqui (1805–1881) which holds that socialist revolution should be carried out by a relatively small group of highly organised and secretive conspirators. Havi ...
maintained an attitude of neutrality between the 'bourgeois general' and the 'bourgeois republic'.) However, once the crisis had passed, Allemane's radicalism put him at odds with the Possibilists and reformists. In 1890 he was expelled from the FTSF and formed his own party, the French Socialist-Revolutionary Workers' Party (''Parti Ouvrier Socialiste-Révolutionnaire''), which called for a general strike, worked closely with the trade union movement and rejected bourgeois parliamentary democracy as insufficiently democratic. Nevertheless, the Allemanists, as they were called, stood for elections, and Allemane later became a deputy in the National Assembly. The Guesdists, as orthodox Marxists, strongly criticised Allemanism: 'general strike is general nonsense' was their slogan, and trade unions should be placed firmly under the political leadership of a socialist party. By contrast, the Allemanists insisted on the autonomy of the trade unions and saw the socialist party merely as the political representative of the extra-parliamentary workers' movement. Allemane's support of the labour movement and his involvement in the CGT translated into working-class support for his party. In January 1901 he ran successfully against the antisemite
Max Régis Max Régis (8 June 1873 – 1950) was a French journalist and politician who promoted anti-semitism in French Algeria during the late 1890s. He was elected mayor of Algiers in 1898 but was soon dismissed from office. He campaigned unsuccessfully f ...
in a Paris by-election for the Chamber of Deputies. He was elected again in 1906. During the
Dreyfus affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...
, Allemane was a staunch defender of the Jewish officer, who, it turned out, was unjustly accused of treason. He denounced the rising tide of anti-Semitism. Again, this aligned him with the Broussists and reformist socialists around
Jean Jaurès Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social demo ...
. (The Guesdists and Blanquists regarded the Dreyfus Affair as a quarrel within the bourgeoisie.) In 1899, the Independent Socialist
Alexandre Millerand Alexandre Millerand (; – ) was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 20 January to 23 September 1920 and President of France from 23 September 1920 to 11 June 1924. His participation in Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet at the sta ...
precipitated a fierce controversy in French and European socialism by joining a bourgeois republican cabinet – something no socialist had done since
Louis Blanc Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc (; ; 29 October 1811 – 6 December 1882) was a French politician and historian. A socialist who favored reforms, he called for the creation of cooperatives in order to guarantee employment for the urban poor. Alth ...
's ill-fated participation in the Provisional Government of the Second Republic in 1848. The controversy over Millerandism coincided with the Revisionist controversy in German Social-Democracy and with the controversy over 'Economism' among Russian Marxists. Revolutionary socialists like Guesde and
Édouard Vaillant Marie Édouard Vaillant (26 January 1840 – 18 December 1915) was a French politician. Born in Vierzon, Cher, son of a lawyer, Édouard Vaillant studied engineering at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, graduating in 1862, and then law ...
saw all three phenomena as a betrayal of the working class; Jaurès and the reformists supported Millerand, albeit reluctantly. Allemane took an intermediate position, sceptical of participation in bourgeois cabinets but willing to support reformist social legislation. Eventually, Millerand left the socialist party altogether.


Unification of French socialism

Despite the quarrel over Millerandism, the
Second International The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued th ...
was putting pressure on the many French socialist organisations to come together. In 1902, a first attempt at unification failed, because the differences between centralists and federalists, revolutionaries and reformists, were still too great. The centralist and revolutionary POF of Guesde united with Vaillant's Blanquist Socialist-Revolutionary Party (France) and with the small Revolutionary Communist Alliance (ACR), which had splintered off from Allemane's POSR. These groups formed the
Socialist Party of France 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 ...
(PSdF). Meanwhile, Allemane's POSR joined with Brousse's FTSF and the Independent Socialists of Jean Jaurès to form 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 ...
(PSF). The two rival socialist parties were finally merged in 1905 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 found ...
(
SFIO Party 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 ...
). Allemane served as a deputy for the SFIO from 1906 to 1910, representing the XIth ''arrondissement'' of Paris. Even as deputy, Allemane maintained his work as a printer and founded a printers' co-operative called ''La Productrice'', which serve as a socialist print shop. In 1910, he published his ''Memoirs of a Communard''.


War and the appeal of radicalism of the left and right

The outbreak of
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 ...
bitterly divided the French socialists (as it did the socialists of most countries). Allemane had been a staunch opponent of militarism in his previous writings, but in 1914, he supported war 'in defence of the nation'. Anti-war critics on the left saw this as a grave betrayal. However, after the war, Allemane turned once again to the left. Already in 1917, he had welcomed the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
. Although he was sceptical of
Leninism Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vanguardis ...
and had never really embraced
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
, he accepted the
October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
. In 1920, at its 18th Congress in Tours, the SFIO split over the question whether to remain in the Second International or join Lenin's new
Third International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
. The majority voted the join the Third International and henceforth called itself 'French Section of the Communist International', subsequently renamed
French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...
(PCF). Allemane voted with the majority for adhesion to the Third International, because its radicalism appealed to him. Nevertheless, he did not join the PCF. Instead, in the 1920s, he flirted with the National Socialist party of
Gustave Hervé Gustave Hervé (Brest, January 2, 1871 – Paris, October 25, 1944) was a French politician. At first, he was a fervent antimilitarist socialist and pacifist, but he later turned to equally zealous ultranationalism, declaring his ''patriotisme'' ...
(formerly an anti-militarist socialist but, since 1914, a staunch nationalist). This group sought to unite socialists who had taken a 'patriotic' position during the First World War, but it also attracted old Boulangist and anti-Dreyfusard elements, as well as anti-Marxist syndicalists. In the course of the 1920s, this party developed more and more in a
fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
direction. Allemane, however, never actually played a role in this party. Instead, in his last years he concentrated on the activities of his
Masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...
lodge, a group he believed to be particularly susceptible to Socialist pressure. Jean Allemane joined Les Rénovateurs de Clichy, a lodge from
Grand Orient de France The Grand Orient de France (GODF) is the oldest and largest of several Freemasonry, Freemasonic organizations based in France and is the oldest in Continental Europe (as it was formed out of an older Grand Lodge of France in 1773, and briefly ab ...
,Daniel Ligou, Dictionnaire de la franc-maçonnerie, Paris : Presses universitaires de France, 3d edition, 1991, p. 37. the same lodge as Jean-Baptiste Clément, ''Le temps des cerises'' song composer. He died in 1935 at Herblay in Seine-et-Oise.


Notes


References


Further reading

* Cole, G.D.H., ''The Second International.'' New York, 1956. * Didier, B., ''L’Allemanisme 1890–1905.'' Reims, 1990. (in French) * Noland, A., ''The Founding of the French Socialist Party (1893–1905)''. Cambridge, 1956. * Reynolds, S., 'Allemane, the Allemanists and Le Parti Ouvrier: The Problems of a Socialist Newspaper 1888–1900.' ''European History Quarterly'', vol. 15, 1985, pp. 43–70. * Winock M., 'La naissance du parti allemaniste (1890–1891).' In: ''Le Mouvement social.'' No. 75, avril–juin 1971. (in French)


External links

* http://jeanallemane.free.fr/Les_Allemanistes.html * http://jeanallemane.free.fr/Biographies_de_Jean_Allema.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Allemane, Jean 1843 births 1935 deaths People from Haute-Garonne Politicians from Occitania (administrative region) French Workers' Party politicians Federation of the Socialist Workers of France politicians Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party (France) politicians French Socialist Party (1902) politicians French Section of the Workers' International politicians Members of the 7th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 9th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic French Freemasons Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Communards