Whither France?

Beset by economic chaos and financial scandals, the Radical government of France was brought down on February 6, 1934, by armed fascist riots. This was the signal for intense conflicts in France which came to a head with the election of the Popular Front government in May 1936. Finance capital at first tried to solve the crisis in 1934 by installing the Bonapartist government of Gaston Doumergue, but this was short-lived, largely owing to the resistance of the working class.

The alternative was the Popular Front, advocated by the Soviet bureaucracy which needed France as an ally against the growing menace of Nazi Germany. Its role was to prevent the general strike from turning into a revolution, and to preserve the alliance with the bourgeoisie through the Blum government. The lack of a mass revolutionary party enabled it to carry through this betrayal, exposing the working class to the counter-offensive of reaction from 1937 onwards.

Trotsky's articles on France collected in this volume were written in the heat of these tumultuous events. They analyse events from the point of view of the struggle to break the working class from the influence of the bourgeoisie and turn it towards the taking of power. The fight against fascism; the use of the united front tactic to expose the reformist and centrist leaders; the defence of working-class organisations, and how to win over sections of the middle class — all questions with which this volume deals.

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