Сен-Кантен
He was conscripted into the navy, where he joined the sailors who refused to be a strikebreaker against striking workers at the Saint-Nazaire power station. At his discharge, he settled first at Saint-Quentin, Aisne, then Paris, where he worked as an electrician. In 1923, he left the French socialist party and in 1927, joined the French Communist Party (PCF), becoming close to Maurice Thorez, though he maintained his union ties.