Leon Blum

Leon Blum (April 9th 1872 - March 30th 1950) is a socialist Politician French. He was one of the leaders of the French Section of the International worker (SFIO), and President of the council, i.e. chief of the French government, in 1936, 1938 and 1946. He marked the French political history to have refused the adhesion of the Socialists to the III {{E}} Internationale communist in 1920 and to have been the president of the Council of the Popular front in 1936.

The middle-class intellectual

Leon Blum was born the April 9th 1872 with Paris. Raise Lycée Henri-Iv, it there meets the writer André Gide and publishes his first poems at the 17 years age in a newspaper created with this one. It is allowed in 1890 with the National university, where it is influenced by Lucien Herr. But, it ignores the courses and is excluded from Normale Sup at the end of its first year, having failed the examination of the license (a failure involved the exclusion of the School then). He hesitates then between the Droit and the Littérature, and undertakes finally both with the Université of Paris, by aiming at a career of civil servant. He was bachelor of arts in 1891 and Droit in 1894.

Leon Blum is received with his second presentation of the contest of the Council of State at age the 25 years and is named listener with the Council of State in December 1895. He will make there a brilliant career of almost 25 years, only stopped by his functions of principal private secretary of Marcel Sembat, socialist Ministre of the public Travaux in 1916 in the Cabinet Viviani.

Its relationship with the religion

He respected the Jewish Religion of his fathers, he felt Jewish and French because he thought that one did not prevent the other, and, thereafter, engaged in many movements Zionists after the war. For most of the Jewish population, Blum was a politician like the others. On the other hand, another part of this population saw of an evil eye its accession with the capacity and feared in particular a push of the Antisémitisme.

Blum suffered very early from the Antisémitisme. It was already victim as a literary criticism. But the anti-semitism struck it of more beautiful as of the moment when he was elected with the Room and where its speeches with the Parlement started to gain an immense success. It was thus the target of many attacks in the Quotidien S of Extrême right-hand side. For example, Leon Daudet breaks out against this “ethnic hybrid and hermaphrodite” in the French Action of the September 2nd 1933.

Blum, criticizes literary

Leon Blum, at the beginning of the 20th century, wrote criticisms of books and plays. Its chronicles given to the White Re-examined where he collaborates starting from 1892, establish its reputation in the Parisian literary circle. The director and professor Jean-Laurent Cochet estimate, for its part, that it is “the critic most intelligent of his time”. It côtoie authors of the time (Anna de Noailles for example) and belonged to Parisian life (fighting even in duel for a criticism. He decides for freedom in love before the marriage in his work With the marriage , 1907 )

Here, in example, critic of the Night watchman of Sacha Guitry, by Leon Blum in 1911 (creation date of the part):

“ the Night watchman is one of the best comedies of Sacha Guitry. It gaîté, spirit, exubérance, emotion, irony. Much intelligence. It with the ease and the daring insurance of youth. There is the comic one, and even of the buffoon, and a sudden facility to consider the things under their serious aspect and quasi melancholic person. Sacha Guitry has balance, but it does not have cheeck. It never is frightened, never stopped by the subjects which it tackles, by the types which it foresees, by the words which come to him to mind. And this freedom is never affected nor cynical; even if one could evoke in this connection the great name of Henry Becque. Rene Benjamin very nicely said of him that it was our Molière; I do not believe to exaggerate by recognizing myself that Sacha Guitry has genius. ”

Its entry in policy

Leon Blum really launches out in policy during the Affaire Dreyfus of 1894 to 1906, playing there an active role in the coordination of the " intellectuels" , which caused its rupture with Maurice Barrès, which he hitherto regarded as his Master in Littérature and especially, its meeting with Jean Jaurès in 1897. Consequently, its militant action with the French section of the International worker (SFIO) really starts. It is in company of Jaurès that it takes part in the foundation of Humanity in 1904.

If Jaurès leaves in Blum a large ideological heritage, it is not so much the death of this one which the beginning of the First World War which pushes Leon Blum to enter in policy. It is indeed in August 1914 which he becomes principal private secretary of the Socialist Marcel Sembat within the framework of the Sacred union, after being reformed due to myopia. The adviser of State learns the daily newspaper there from the government action. He leaves the cabinet with the resignation of Sembat in 1917 and turns over to work with the Council of State.

Blum did not cease supporting the effort of war and the policy of the Sacred union. And even if the French socialist party were divided on the question of the war, Blum remained convinced that it was about the good option. However, while being opposed to pacifist, it was not identified therefore with the right wing of the party.

The socialist director

Legislative elections of 1919

It is only a little before the legislative elections of 1919 that Leon Blum reaches the leading circle of the SFIO. At the time of the congress of April 1919, Blum tries to preserve the assets democratic and republican of Jaurès and to insufflate with the Socialiste S a progressive approach of the revolution in the social domains, economic and political. It is thanks to him that the socialist party preserves an appearance of unit at the time of these elections. The line carried it nevertheless. Blum is elected for the first time Député of the Seine; he resigns then of the Council of State. He becomes then secretary, then president of the socialist member of Parliament group. Deputy of the Seine of 1919 at 1928 and Narbonne of 1929 with 1940,

The scission of the Congress of Turns

Before the Popular front

Besides after the episode of the congress of Turns, Blum does not exclude from the agreements préélectorales with the radical , the SFIO supporting in 1924 the radical government of Edouard Herriot without taking part in it. The SFIO knew variable electoral fortunes during the Twenties, but does not suffer from division with the Communist party. Blum is however beaten with the legislative elections of 1928 in the department of the Seine by Jacques Duclos and it must await a by-election in 1929, in Narbonne, to find the Parliament thanks to the call of the federation of the Aude directed by Montel.

At the beginning of the Years 1930, the France entered the Economic crisis. It is as at this time, after the defeat of the Droite member of Parliament in 1932, as the Extrême right-hand side took a new rise. This one consisted of various organizations, formed with the beginning of the year twenty, which had many common points, like the denunciation of the parliamentary Régime.

Among the Socialists, two main tendencies took shape on the international plan to fight against the Fascisme. On the one hand a fringe, incarnated on the right by the British, the Scandinavians, the Czechs and the Poles who wanted to adapt the Socialisme to the middle-classes; and in addition a left tendency of incarnated by the Italy, the Swiss , the France and the Belgium which proposed “a revolutionary tactic of proletarian fight for the conquest of the capacity”. Blum also recommended to insist on the shared interests of the middle-classes with the working classes.

Beginning June 1934, of the contacts were tied between SFIO and the PCF, the negotiations advanced quickly thanks to give-and-take (PCF being thorough in certain cases by the IC). For the first time since the scission of Turns, they are bound by a mutual political commitment. The agreement concluded the July 27th did not have a direct electoral purpose, but was directed towards the action. During the cantonal elections of October 1934, the reciprocal Désistement accepted for the first time made progress the two parties whereas the radicals regressed.

In 1935, in particular at the time of the signature of Franco-Soviet alliance, the tensions between holding of a war Antifascist and those which attached a paramount importance to the Paix still intensified.

The statesman

The Popular front

See also: Popular front (France)

It is the Communist leader Maurice Thorez who, by articles in Humanity , called with the formation of broad “a Popular front” (It quotes Eugen Fried, representative of the IC in France), after the former communist leader and future collaborationnist Jacques Doriot had also proposed it to him two years before (the project had then been rejected by Moscow and Doriot excluded from PCF). Besides Thorez presented its project a few weeks later in front of the House of Commons. He also proposed to associate with this Popular front the radical , which were at the time related to the right-hand side and the party best represented with the Chambre.

The agreements of the Popular front allowed the victory the legislative elections of April 1936 and led to the first government with dominant Socialist of the III {{E}} République. Blum became President of the Council as from June. It “was not given the responsability with any particular responsibility to be devoted entire to the direction of the government”. The Gouvernement was then only made up of Socialists and radicals, the Communists supporting it of outside. This government of Popular front was also the first to include/understand women, whereas at that time they could not vote yet in France.

The reasons of the victory of the Popular front are multiple: economic crisis, rise of Adolf Hitler, accounting scandals, instability of the government of the legislature of 1932, existence of the leagues of extreme right-hand side, armed and increasingly many, riots of the February 6th, 1934. All these elements took part in its emergence.

The results giving the victorious Popular front to the elections gave much hope within the Prolétariat, which started a spontaneous general strike. The Socialist Marceau Pivert exhorted Blum to seize the power immediately, while basing himself on this popular mobilization and without awaiting the official transfer of power. But Blum preferred to wait. These strikes obliged nevertheless the Patronat to negotiate with the employees and their trade unions, and to grant paid vacations and a fall of the working time.

Leon Blum was prevented from intervening openly by the opposition of the radicals and the United Kingdom, main ally of France, without forgetting the activism of the extreme right-hand side and of part of the right-hand side, and had to choose, against the opinion of the Communists, the non-intervention in the war of Spain. There was however a clandestine help, organized by Pierre Cot and Jules Moch. One can note that the relationship with the Italy was much more difficult than with the Germany.

On the internal plan, the Blum government managed to solve the Social crisis. But as of the summer 1936, it had to deal with various difficulties, among which the Dévaluation of the franc because of the monetary situation and the financial Politique in general, which transformed the concern of the right-hand side into solved opposition.

Calumnies of the Extrême right-hand side aimed all the personalities of the Popular front. They had in particular as a consequence the suicide of the Minister of Interior Department Roger Salengro. The arrival of Blum to the capacity started also a wave of Antisémitisme of a very great width. It was haï and insulted as seldom it was the case a French political life however agitated. Charles Maurras writes in the French Action of May 15th 1936: “It is as a Jew that it is necessary to see, conceive, hear, fight and cut down Blum. This last verb will appear a little strong of coffee: I hasten to add that one will have to cut down physically Blum only the day when its policy will have brought us the impious war which it dreams against our Italian comrades in arms. This day admittedly it will not have to be missed. ” And Ingenuous Pierre Gaxotte in of April 7th 1938: “It incarnates all that counterirritates us blood and the goose flesh gives us. It is the evil, it is death. ”

In the French Presse was formed two quite distinct camps, on the one hand the partisans of the Popular front ( Humanity , Popular the , Work , Friday , Marianne , etc), on the other hand the opponents ( the French Action , the Echo of Paris , the Friend of the people , the Day , Candide , Gringoire , I am , etc everywhere). Between these two positions, very few newspapers or weekly magazines played the chart of neutrality. The press going in the direction of the Popular front was largely weaker than the Presse of opposition, and one like the other contributed to the failure of the Gouvernement of Popular front. It is in the foreign press, in particular Anglo-Saxon, that appeared the most objective analyzes.

Blum gave its resignation in June 1937 and was replaced by a radical government. In March 1938, it formed its second government with the participation of Pierre Mendès France like Sous-secrétaire of State in the Treasury, but it was reversed 3 weeks later by the Sénat. The final defeat of the Popular front took place in September - December 1938 with the come to power of Edouard Daladier.

The assessment of the Popular front is mitigated, but this short experiment allowed all the same a big number of advanced in many fields, in particular in the social domain: Paid vacations (obtained following strikes, but they appeared already in the profession of faith of Jean-Baptiste Lebas, future Minister for Labor), Semaine forty hours, establishment of the collective agreements, prolongation of the Scolarité at 14 years, etc the revival of the expenditure of armament, priority even in front of the welfare expenditures, is also to put at its credit.

The Second world war

Blum condemned the attitude of PCF vis-a-vis the Pacte germano-Soviet, attitude which caused the departure of a certain number of Communists who turned to the SFIO, with the downstream of Leon Blum, but against the opinion of other Socialists. Leon Blum also put at back part of the Socialists because of his nonpacifist positions.

During the vote of the full powerss to the marshal Pétain, Leon Blum belonged to the eighty members of Parliament of the National Assembly who voted against. At this time, part of the SFIO was already in England.

The Supreme court of justice was established by Pétain in July 1940 to seek the political officials of the war. A great number of politicians were condemned. Blum was indignant some. It was stopped with Colomiers in his friend Eugene Montel the September 15th 1940, interned with the Château of Chazeron, then with Bourassol. Its places of detention become the place of rallying of the resistant Socialists, like Jean Pierre-Bloch, Felix Gouin his lawyer or André Philip. The former head of government keeps up to date conscientiously with the situation and exhorts his comrades to resist. He was translated in front of the Cour of Riom but his defense, and that of Daladier, was so effective and so courageous that the lawsuit was suspended sine die. Beyond Blum or Daladier, they was the presidents of the Council and the members of the Popular front who were aimed. Vichy in particular reproached them for being responsible for the defeat while having prevented the rearmament of France by the installation of social reforms. Blum showed with brilliance which rearmament was never as intense as under the Popular front, while the Pétain marshal, when he was Minister for the war, had reduced the appropriations of the army.

Blum was transferred to the Fort from Portalet, then delivered by Pierre Laval to the Nazis and off-set in March 1943 in a forest small house with Buchenwald separated from a few hundred meters of the camp His/her brother Rene Blum, founder of the Ballet of the Opera to Monte Carlo, was assassinated with Auschwitz.

During its detention, it maintained an important correspondence and started to write a work of reflections which it finished in December 1944 and which was published after the war under the title On a human scale .

The Post-war period

The April 3rd 1945, Leon Blum and his wife are taken along in a convoy of prisoners and at the end of one month of peregrinations, they were found in a hotel of the the Italian Tyrol, where, on May 4th, they saw the first American soldiers.

Refusing a post of minister proposed by de Gaulle, it took again her daily articles in the newspaper Popular the .

He was chief of the French delegation, then president of the conference constitutive of UNESCO, after having negotiated the cancellation of the war debts of the France near the the United States: the Agreements Blum-Byrnes of May 1946, consequently authorized occasion the diffusion of American films in the French rooms of Cinéma, introducing a component of the American way off life into the Mass culture to the Frenchwoman.

Leon Blum directed the provisional last Gouvernement before the introduction of the Fourth Republic, of December 1946 at January 1947.

He withdrew himself then with Jouy-in-Josas close to Versailles where he died the March 30th 1950 of one infarction at the 77 years age. There remained political director of the Populaire until its death. He denounced in particular the danger which RPF for the parliamentary mode constituted.

Works of Leon Blum

New conversations of Goethe with Eckerman , 1901.
Of the marriage , 1907.
Stendhal and the beylism , 1914.
Memories on the Business , 1935. Gallimard. New ED. 2001, Coll.Folio History. ISBN 2070327523
the governmental reform , 1936.
to be socialist
On a human scale , 1945. Gallimard. New ED. 2000, Coll.Idées
the history will judge , 1945.

Blum in the fiction

Therese and Leon , of Claude Goretta with Claude Rich (Leon); Farm Dominique (Therese) 88 min, followed by a " Complements audios" - From what was born socialism? by Leon Blum, May 1929 & - Song of strike by Whimsical Champi, May 1936. Montparnasse editions. Left in room in 2000 and DVD in 2005 a political vision and close friend” ('' Libération '') “an extraordinary performance Claude Rich in a Leon Blum truer than natural” ('' Nouvel Observateur '')

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