By the end of 1937, the Popular Front was no more than a ghost of its former self, and each of its constituent parties was coming to accept that the balance of forces within the party system might alter drastically and suddenly, with only the briefest of warnings. This uncertainty weakened the internal cohesion of the SFIO and worked to the advantage of its dissident tendances, whose prescriptions for changes of strategy could now be recommended to the membership with much more urgency than in the past. In this chapter, we shall examine how both the Bataille Socialiste and the Gauche Révolutionnaire responded to this opportunity, and how the latter group greatly improved its organizational and moral position within the party. Its first gains were made at the National Council meeting of 17 January 1938, where the central leaders maintained their authority only by agreeing that the party should not be represented in the government which Camille Chautemps was then trying to form. Shortly afterwards, the Gauche Révolutionnaire took charge of the Seine Federation, one of the most powerful administrative units within the party's organization, and immediately launched a drive to force a change of strategy upon the next regular meeting of the National Council, which was expected to take place on 27 March.