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The “New Left” in France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Charles A. Micaud
Charles A. Micaud
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
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Extract

The term “New Left” designates a state of mind—the desire to do away with the division and impotence of the old Left—rather than a definite sector of the political spectrum. It has, in fact, been used in three different contexts. In its most specific sense, it has meant the Nouvelle Gauche behind Claude Bourdet and his neutralist weekly, France-Observateur. In its broadest sense, it includes all the rebels at the Left, from the reformist followers of Mendès-France to non-Communist revolutionary Marxists. Finally, the term can designate—and this is how it is used here—the groups that occupy the no-man's-land between the Socialists and the Communists.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , July 1958 , pp. 537 - 559
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1958

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References

1 Besides these organizations, the Union Progressiste of Pierre Cot, the group that is most closely identified with the French Communist Party (PCF), the Parti socialiste unitaire, and several short-lived formations of Christian Progressists (behind the periodicals Positions, Jeunesse de l'Eglise, Quinzaine) should be mentioned. Together with the MLP, mese represented the pro-Communist left wing of the “New Left.” The Jeune République was its right wing; in the elections of 1956, most of its followers voted for the Socialist ticket when they did not have a list of their own, whereas the former voted mainly for the Communist Party.

2 It is significant that only two-thirds of the membership of the Jeune République accepted this merger. Since the elections of 1956, the Algerian war has acted as a catalyst and brought about rapprochements that would not have been possible before the Socialists became identified with the policy of “pacification” in Algeria.

3 An inquiry made in Grenoble in the spring of 1956 confirmed the strength of the New Left among students. This was due, among other factors, to the influence of two brilliant and popular university professors. Professor Georges Lavau, who was the candidate of the Jeune République, obtained 2,445 votes in the city proper, or about 5 per cent of the expressed votes, compared with 4,059 for the Catholic Mouvement républicain populaire (MRP), 7,976 for the SFIO, and 14,070 for the Parti communist français (PCF). The JR did not fare as well in the working-class suburbs.

4 Les Temps modernes, special number, “La Gauche,” Nos. 112–113 (1955), “Possibilités et limites d'une ‘Nouvelle Gauche,’” pp. 1922ff.

5 Esprit (February 1946), “Débat à haute voix,” pp. 166ff.

6 ibid. (July 1955), pp. 1204ff.

7 Les Temps modernes, op.cit., pp. 1930–31.

8 Express, November 9, 1956.

9 op.cit., “La pensée de Droite, aujourd'hui,” p. 1539.

10 ibid., p. 1645.

11 ibid., Jean Pouillon, “Le Gauche et l'histoire,” pp. 1659ff.

12 ibid., pp. 1698ff.

13 ibid., pp. 1546ff.

14 L'Opium des Intellectuels, Paris, 1955, p. 230.

15 “Options fondamentales du MLP,” 18th National Congress, November 11–16, 1954, published by Mouvement de Libération du Peuple, 54 Blvd. Garibaldi, Paris.

16 The delegates at the 1957 Congress may give an approximate image of the social composition of the MLP membership: workers formed 28 per cent of the total; white-collar workers, 26 per cent; technicians and engineers, 9 per cent; intellectuals and liberal professions, 20 per cent; others, 17 per cent. Of those present, 56 per cent were members of the CGT, 17 per cent of the Confédération française des Travailleurs chrétiens (CFTC). See Perspectives socialistes, “Trauvaux 1957,” supplement to No. 94 (November 1956), p. 100.

17 op.cit.

18 Supplement to Perspectives ouvrières, No. 69 (October 1955).

19 Perspectives socialistes, “Travaux 1957,” op.cit., pp. 125ff.

20 ibid., January 15, 1956.

21 Les Temps modernes, op.cit., p. 1539.

22 Cahiers des Groupes Reconstruction (February 1954), pp. 4ff. This publication represents the views of the left-wing minority of the CFTC. Despite its aggressive trade unionism and its faith in democratic socialism, it adopts a realistic attitude toward the Communist Party.

23 Raymond Aron develops a similar thesis in L'Opium des Intellectuels, op.cit. See also Schumann, Maurice, Le Vrai Malaise des Intellectuels de Gauche, Paris, 1957.Google Scholar

24 Les Prêtres ouvriers, Paris, 1954, p. 219.

25 Ibid., p. 230.

28 Ibid., p. 267.

* This mildly optimistic note needs to be somewhat modified in view of the recent advent to power of General de Gaulle. The fear of an authoritarian form of government could polarize social and political forces around the extreme Right and the extreme Left. For many Leftists, including the supporters of the “New Left,” a Popular Front is the logical and inevitable answer to the threat of “fascism”; the dilemma of the Center Left has already led to a painful drama of conscience that has split the ranks of the Socialists and the Radicals. The issue of Republican defense may well give the Communist Party another chance.