French Social Republic

The **French Social Republic** (in French: *République Sociale Française*), also known as **Commune of France**, is a Syndicalist republic located in Western Europe. In the aftermath of the second Weltkrieg, the Commune also maintains a significant occupation zone in Germany.

## History

### France and the Second Great War

Stagnation and incoherence in the political direction of the new Republic following its creation in 1919 was still a plague upon the function of the State. However, unlike Britain that saw itself only reorganized in the aftermath of a life-or-death crisis, reforms in France took a more orthodox and democratic appearance.

It was with the landslide electoral victory of the Jacobinist faction, finally successful in deposing the stagnant syndicalist order in 1936, which would bring these reforms.

Pierre Semard was catapulted to head of state, and the series of reforms followed was known as the **Year of Changes** (*Année des changements*).

The opposition was powerful at first, but none could deny the disorder of the past, and it was eventually coaxed into a soft coalition. The absolute majority Jacobinists enjoyed in the BGT allowed them to swiftly enact their vision upon France, despite begrudging resistance of the Anarchist and the Radical Republican minority.

The French Federation as it was known in the years before was reformed into the French Social Republic, with the wholesale support of most spectrum of the left. This was excepted by the Anarchistes, who underwent a two-week abstention protest from the BGT. This lasted until they were promised concessions such as elected officers in the military (Which would be reversed half a year later in preparation for the war by the recommendations of the Committee of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.)

The new government realized that while understandable, the existing stigma against intelligence agencies was only harming the Republic. Therefore, meager existing intelligence structures would also be reorganised into the **Bureau for the Suppression of Counter-Revolution and Sabotage** or **The Bureau.** Despite the name, its chief concerns weren't the internal security of France, but an extensive scheme to spread the Revolution across the European continent. This was primarily conducted under the now-infamous secret Operation Lumière.

However, while the industrialisation and rearmament plans, as well as the Bureau, were initially very successful, the reforms to the armed forces were not. French Popular Liberation Army itself was insufficient on its top leadership, and years of political bickering made truly extensive reform in the army delayed. it would not be until the last few years prior to the war that such an action would be achieved.

Even then, many were overlapping or contradictory reforms, and severe lacks of capable officers in its ranks became a problem (due to their questionable loyalty and political leaning that saw most of those that stayed in France gradually released from the force which only intensified by the Gamelin Affairs.)

With the reforms in 1938, the Government tried to educate many of its revolutionary leaders during the civil war in military theory. However, with the war beginning only a year later, the problems of the officer corps were only acceptably resolved in 1941, after the French army's humiliating retreat from Belgium and forced memories of the first war digging themselves in to hold the German off French soils. A permanent divide between the army and the BGT developed.

### The Winter of Politicians

While the decision to hold the 1942 election was popular at home, in the spirit of the French democracy. It was by no means popular with the soldiers and officers in the front line, as the miserable low morale of the army in its 6th month of defending northern France reacted not too well the resources of the nation being poured into another game of politics while the troops slept in the trenches, as well the increasing presence of Bureau officers in the French ranks to counteract its declining morale. Many officers who endured the Winter of 1941 never let go of that bitter memory

### List of Heads of State of France

 Pierre Semard
 Pierre Semard
 Benoit Frachon

## The Social Republic

The French Federation or as usually called the 5th Republic or the Commune was a period of time in which political power in France was extremely decentralised to the point one can consider it half of French politics is controlled by regionalist regimes and its economy dominated by the unions doing the same. Bureaucratic and extremely ineffective, its national politics is plagued by the sharp fierce struggle between the factions. These would hinder France for many years until 1937 where the political crisis of the Federation finally broke down in the Gamelin Affair where the government appeared almost powerless against the rampant right-wing trend in the military. Men like Valois campaigned extensively against the economic disorganization of France, to the point he where he would be charged with conspiracy against the State and fled to Switzerland. Those were the background of the Jacobinist rise to power in 1937, under the leadership of Pierre Semard, the Jacobinist struck a deal with the radical faction of the Traveilleurs who themselves were tired of the bureaucratic nature of the Federation.

In the year that followed the establishment of the Social Republic in November 1937, the success of the Jacobinist in consolidating power in the Republic was almost universally accepted as it started to gain fruits and popular support across the population. This was once again enabled by the war, that helped rally the French political factions into a "union sacree" as its leftist-opposition would mock it, but the war would be the context under which the Jacobinist was able to fast-tracked all its political and economic reforms, creating in France a new centralised Government, as elected via universal suffrages alongside the industrial congress BGT, a move welcomed as "democratic" by the leftist-opposition thus finally rendered the Anarchists temporary into its sphere and chewed out its power later when the faction split on opinions once more. This process of consolidation was tested for the first time in 1942 and the electoral victory of the Jacobins in the middle of the retreat into France affirmed that its theorists and the party leadership have played their cards correctly. Over the course of the triumph against Germany, this system only became more entrenched and in the election of 1947, a referendum was also passed for the constitutional amendments to declare France ready to be ready to enter a conversion into a fully socialist economy, this would be passed in a landslide from the ecstasy of victory and the successes of the Jacobins prior forming a wholly Jacobin government. While 1937 nominally considered to be the start of the Social Republic with the electoral victory of the Jacobinist-Travailleurs coalition, 1947 marked the official creation of the French Social Republic or the 6th Republic.

### Corruption and Bureaucracy

The Social Republic have been charged by a renewed wave of opposition since its creation 1947 as merely centralised the prior decentralised bureaucratic system of industrial managements by the unions into a Department of National Economy equally bureaucratic but under the thump of the centralised government where the Jacobins hold absolute power. By exercising direct state management over the unions and their factories, the Jacobins wrestled control away from the local unaccountable union bosses but overtime their replacement in the form of a state bureaucrat became "just as corrupt, bureaucratic, dimwitted and absolutely a betrayal to socialism" as a dissident Radical Travellers representative put it.

### Abuse of Power

The years of war and the centralisation of the Social Republic have created an almost absolute Jacobin domination in the new French Government, elected by universal suffrage meaning that the CGT has little power in restraining the Government, especially in a Jacobin dominated CGT in the years following 1940. The creation of the Bureau in 1937 became the face of this system with its secrecy and nature answerable only to the Government, who for 13 years have been Jacobins. Accusations on the Bureau came from all spectrums of civilian politicians and military leaders, ranging from illegal behaviours in the territory of the Republic, extrajudicial killing in foreign countries and at home for the "Enemies of Democracy", as well as the organisation of terrorism against the civilian population during the war as a part of its many false-flag operations.

## Legislature

The supreme body of legislature in the Social Republic is the National Labour Congress also known as the Bourse Générale du Travail, with the abolition of universal suffrage in 1922 and the formation the syndicalist republic, this is the body that forms the basic of the Federation and later the Social Republic, the national reorganisation in 1947 made no change to the form and function of the BGT, except its constituents, with the introduction of popular recall power from the populate, meaning that referendum by the general population can recall deputies of the local Labour Council or the BGT, this was a move considered breaking the chokehold of labour bosses associated with the moderate Travalliuers although many in France are divided, about the compromise of the proletarian democracy or simply an empty gesture to replace the power base of the Travaileurs in the old unions. Regardless, the system of democracy in France functions according to a syndicalist system, with an industrial democracy exclusively for workers associated with the federated syndicates, in the interest of the dictatorship of the proletarian, this system is inherently tied to the federated syndicates and stripped suffrage of the rest of the population.

In 1937, with the formal formation of the Government of the Republic, a separate executive power was formed with the position of the President of the Republic restored, the national ministries were created under appointment under the Government rather than merely as industrial committees of the BGT, this was ractified in the referendum in April and supported by many in the opposition for the deadlocks that dread the Federation for many years was because the inherently loose structure means that so many branches of Government are working in completely opposite directions. With the establishment of the Jacobin Party-State in 1947, the Government of the Republic or short as the Presidential Administration was total executive power, redelegating the BGT to a mere legislative branch.

## Armed Forces

The French Revolutionary Armed Forces consists of the following branches:

* **French Revolutionary Army**: The national defense force of the country and the largest component, consisted of moslty conscripts and volunteers.
	+ French Revolutionary Land Army
	+ French Revolutionary Navy
	+ French Revolutionary Air Forces
* **National Guards**: Territorial military units and militias, often serving longer term but do not get stationed outside of their recruitment area.
	+ **Militia**: The Militia serves as the law-enforcement component to the National Guards, based on the principle of community self-defense and self-policing, functioning similiar to gendarmerie, membership are conscripted or volunteers, but different from other components of the armed forces where conscripts and volunteers would be discharged after their terms, certain departments can be staffed professionally permanently.
* **Franc-Tireurcs**: Formed during the Second European War as partisans forces behind enemy line, while its historical role vanished, the modern forces were retained by its mother organisation, the Bureau for Suppression of Counter-Revolutionaries and Sabotage as a paramilitary internal security forces. With units pulled from the National Guards, their role remains unchanged to counter foreign infiltration into the fatherland as well as internal conspiracies.

## The Bureau

**The Special Bureau for the Suppression of Counter-Revolution and Sabotage**, or commonly known by its more popular name, The Bureau . Was created in 1947 from the algamation of the Jacobins Special Organisation and the Committee of Infomation as a more effective agency serving the need to protect France against french conspiracies and internal counterrevolutionary threats such as one uncovered during the Gamelin Affair. Neither a ministry nor a part of the military or even the domestic National Guards, the Bureau answer only to the Government of France, which since its conception have been totally controlled by the Jacobin movement . The most secretive and infamous organisation in Europe, the Bureau official mandate gave it the ability to act within all reasonable powers to destroy all threats of counter-revolution, its wartime records in the Euro Bureau created the international arm of this organisation that today is still in the memory of Europe as the one who lit the fire that burned old Europe to cinder.

Its organs are never made public, but its known that implementation of the Bureau detactments inside the French Revolutionary Army led to widespread public knowledge of Bureau activities in France. In Germany and North Africa, the Bureau maintains control over some special units, such as the Volunteers Regiment of the Republic, the only of its kind, other elements of the military often were lended indefinitely. Other includes the William J. Foster Regiment, a part of the International Volunteers Army in North America.

## Political Factions

### The Traditional Opposition

After the creation of the Social Republic in 1937 and the Year of Changes, the process of consolidation have destroyed the real power of most of the Federation-era factions and parties. Which was demonstrated by the French General Labour Election of 1947 and Referendum on the 6th Republic, resulted in an absolute majority for the Jacobin party and its faction in the BGT. However, the remnants of these parties countinue to hold on, despite discredited and lost their power, referred collectively as the "Traditional Opposition" (Opposition traditionnelle). Including the various Anarchiste associations and groups that formed said BGT faction, the French Workers Party and the Commitee of Syndicalist Revolutionaries, forming two wings of the Travailluers faction, as well as some other minor groups like the Radical Republicans (Continental). Although contains numerous stratas of the old parties, they are now united in the hope of a restoration of the Federation, at least in some forms. Also referred to as the **Fédérés,** referring to their belief in the restoration of the Federation and inciting the memory of the Commune of Paris and Great Revolution volunteers.

### The Reformist Jacobins

Related: The Maximum Programme and the Problems of French Socialism

Centers around the Minister of Culture Jean-Paul Sartre as their spokeman, the Reformist Jacobins, or the **Vaillant Clique** referring to its power lies in the social-cultural organisations in the republic created after the Year of Changes, under or affiliated with the Jacobin Party, most notably the Union des vaillants et vaillantes, which harbour in its rank the first generation of post-revolution activists. Much like Sartre, the Vaillantes are rather dormand during the years since establishment of the Social Republic due to its support of the Jacobinist policies, however under Sartre and many young leaders leadership, its ready for a move forward, beyond pragmatic politics, the social status quo of the Jacobin Party as well as the nostalgia politics employed by both Jacobins and their opposition. Althought this "faction" usually is a broad range of anti-Jacobin establishment dissident factions that sometimes include as well the Traditional Opposition and the Blue Republicans.

### '37 Army Clique (The Eighty Niners)

Preferring to call themselves the **Eighty Niners,** referring to their beliefs in the social revolution with national unity vision creation by the original Great Revolution. However, most usually referred by outsiders as the '37 Clique, due to its root in the Army Reforms of the Year of Changes that elevated so many young officers to high leadership to replace the old regime generals after the Gamelin Affair. Its also referred to the Military leaders of the parties that took part in the fighting of the French Civil War, who was reincorporated into the new professional officer corps. Many of them harbour grudges against the Jacobin Party leadership since the beginning like Jacques Doriot, the current Minister of Defence and Armament during the war. To people like General Pierre Brossolette, Jacques Delmas, Henri Frenay and many more. Their vision for France is unclear but its rooted in an anti-party regime feeling that saw the Social Republic being made into a dictatorship of the bureaucracy, it wishes to reunite French society backs to the national cause that many have for it and fought in 1920 against the shameful capitulators and the visions of the original Republic, in other word, a French Revolution.

### Blue Republicans

A broad terms, more often derogatory and used in mocking nature. Referring to members of the BGT, that believe in a softer, more "humanistic" version of socialism as its being built in France. "Blue" Republican refers to the colour of the French flag, a nod to republican values, but not its revolutionary spirit, as denote by the red blood of the proletarian. Some members have hijacked the term into referring to the national myth of the uprising that overthrown the Bourbon Restoration. As the white flag of royalty is torn by the blood of the people, it reveals the blue sky, pure and peaceful, above all carnage born after oppression is overthrown. Notable members usually included Pierre Mendès France.

### Jacobin Central Committee

The central leadership organ of the Jacobin Party, or officially the French Revolutionary Workers Party, inherited from the synthesis of Marxist and Syndicalist traditions, the Comite Central is the very symbol of French way to socialism, as would be called by its supporters and the very heart of the disease of stagnation and bureaucracy as called by their opponents. By democratic constitution of the party, its not a defined group but a democratically elected board of leadership, but its well know that only the old guards control this organ. Men like Pierre Sermand, Benoît Frachon, Jacques Duclos and others.

### Economic Crimes Committee Clique

Formed in 1940 as the war progress and the Jacobin party fully controls state power, the party itself and the BGT faction recognised the danger of corruption and bureaucracy in the reforms, with responded by the creation of the Economic Crime Commitee, during the war it involved heavily on home front matters with the Bureau. While a member of the committee always was also a member of the Central Committee, the ECC activities however created around itself an understanding of the mechanism and underlying problems of the Social Republic better than anyone, it was in this understanding that its leadership, centres around the current Minister of Agriculture and also the chairman of the ECC - Waldeck Rochet, found itself sometimes at odd with the rest of the Central Committee regarding the direction of the national economy and policy. The ECC is condemned by many to be another symptoms of the disease of bureaucracy, when it focuses on the matters of its own creation, the problems that could never be fixed with such a stopgap measures, despite the harsh and deadly charges that the ECC enlists ranging from life sentences to death penalty regarding the matters it considers "economic crimes".

## Glossary

The Jacobin Party - The French Revolutionary Workers Party, its BGT parliamentary faction and associated organisations.

The Federation - The French Communal Federation, or the 5th French Republic, the form of decentralised government exists in France from 1921 to 1947 (de-jure) and 1921-1937 (de facto).

The Social Republic - The French Social Republic, or the 6th French Republic, created officially after the 1947 General BGT Election and Referendum, de facto created in 1937 after the Year of Changes.

Government of the Republic - the formal cabinet and ministries of France created in 1937 during the Year of Change, foming an independent executive organ away from the BGT.

President of the Republic - the head of state of France, elected directly via BGT parliamentary majority.

Gamelin Affair - An event occurred during the year of change regarding General Maurice Gamelin, considering conducts undignified with the revolutionary traditions of France, conspiracy and incompetence. The "Barrack Show Trial" concluded an era of the frankenstein French Revolutionary Army with a mix of unprofessional elected officers and old regime officers. Gamelin was charged with treason for conspiracy with the exiled capitulator government against the present republic, indignity of the highest revolutionary traditions of France and the Republic, however escaped the death penalty by service to the fatherland during the civil war and the capitulation that saved the honour of France and republican revolutionary traditions. His charge was life sentence under house arrest in his home village. With this trial, the new government clean swept the old officer breed and start the reconstruction for a brand new professional revolutionary army officer corps.

Year of Changes - The year 1937 after the collapse in confidence in the government of the French Workers' Party and its BGT faction by the uncover of the Gamelin Affair that demonstrate the incapacity of the government in dealing with developing right-wing conspiratoral circles within the Republic's armed forces. The election of 1937 saw the rise in power of the anti-moderate radical travailleurs faction, the CSR allied with the BGT faction of the Jacobin Party, the French Revolutionary Workers Party and reached a massive landslide in the general election of that year.

## Leaders

Benoît FrachonJacques DoriotFrançois MitterrandPierre Mendès FranceWaldeck RochetJean-Paul Sartre

## See Also

* **Commune of France** at the **Kaiserreich Wiki**, for information on the Commune's formation and history before 1936.