The SFIO's 35th National Congress, held in the town of Royan between 4 and 7 June 1938, marked the conclusion of a brief period of bitter feuding between the Gauche Révolutionnaire and its opponents. At this meeting, the delegates decided to uphold the disciplinary action which had been taken against the Seine Federation in April and approved a policy resolution which confirmed the cautious strategy which the leadership had followed in the months preceding the congress, whereupon Marceau Pivert and his close supporters left the party to form an entirely new organization.

In this chapter we shall trace the stages by which this happened, dealing first with the period extending from mid-March to mid-April 1938, which saw the imposition of sanctions on the Seine Federation and the fall of Blum's second government; then with the attempt by Pivert and his group to challenge the dissolution of the Seine Federation, and with the various policy motions produced during the preparations for the Royan Congress; and finally, with the debates at this meeting, assessing the factors which enabled the leadership to gain the upper hand in its struggle with the tendances.