France

**France**, officially the **French Communal Republic**, is a Western European country. It is a member of INFOR and is led by a PSOP (Workers' and Peasants' Socialist Party) and Syndicalist-Revolutionary coalition.

## *History*

The aftermath of the revolution was a difficult time for the French nation. Over time, what was once seen as the home of the revolution and a shining beacon of light in an often grim time for European socialists, became a shadow of its original promise. The entrenchment of the bureaucracy of the syndicalist wing of the “Confédération Générale du Travail” - commonly known as the “Travailleurs” had come to sap the vitality of the revolutionary movement itself.

The Travailleurs’ undermining of proletarian democracy and seeming retreat from internationalism - with a lack of international organization linking France to foreign trade unions and revolutionary workers’ parties (which was spotlighted in 1935, with the German government successfully beginning a campaign to break up and neuter German trade unions) - had caused the emergence of a ‘left-wing’ opposition within the CGT to the Travailleur bureaucracy. Chief among them were the “Opposition communiste” and the “Opposition ouvrière”- commonly nicknamed "Jacobins" by the CGT and the media. They condemned the government for having failed to forge working ties between the workers’ movements of all countries.

The frustration and alienation of many workers with what the socialist project that they had put their blood and sweat into was slowly becoming - a monster, akin to the Third Republic in all but name - led to a series of wildcat strikes in late 1935, and the reformation, in some cities, of factory councils, that had been all but abolished by the Travailleur bureaucracy. Such had led, in early January 1936, to the opposition calling for a vote of no confidence, which succeeded with mass defections from the pro-government “Anarchiste” faction, causing the downfall of the Pivert administration. All over the country were mass demonstrations, factory occupations, and public meetings, almost fully self-organized by workers with nominal support from the left-wing opposition.

The Opposition communiste’s programme for reforming the state administration quickly became very popular, causing its prominent members to found the “Parti socialiste ouvrier et paysan” or PSOP; and following soon after, the Opposition ouvrière - along with the Anarchistes defectors - formed the “Comité des syndicalistes-révolutionnaires”, commonly known as the S-Rs, which advocated a similar programme to that of the PSOP and became popular in many areas, especially those which had been Anarchiste strongholds, as the Anarchiste-wing of the CGT disintegrated, the few who still remained merging with the Travailleurs.

Throughout the first weeks of the month of January 1936, the workers began forcing out many of the old trade union bureaucrats and elected new leaders in their place, cementing the new revolutionary order and the dismissal of the CGT leadership as credible in the eyes of many. That series of events became known in France as “la Nivôse Glorieuse” or “Glorious Nivôse”, after the month of the old French Revolutionary Calendar, and would shape the internal pre-war politics of both the socialist French and Italian governments.

The new government was quick to work; a general election to the Bourse Générale du Travail (or BGT - in KR and KN, the French equivalent to a parliament) was called on the 19th of January to take place on the 27th. An election that saw the Communists being elected to form a government (the “Comité de salut public”) under Chairman Charles Rappoport, with Pierre Besnard emerging as the more symbolic - but still important - Chairman of the BGT. In alliance with the Syndicalist-Revolutionaries, the Communists formed a bloc in the BGT, redefining the role of the CGT from a party-like all-encompassing trade union to merely implementing economic plans and organizing production. Furthermore, in the same spirit of the old revolutionary republic, the so-called "Jacobins" pursued a program of abolishing the federal system of communes and established a unitary Communal Republic, while starting a 3-year plan to prepare the French economy and mobilize it for the inevitable war with the German imperialists.

## *The Second Great War*

In September 1939, after the brutal suppression of strikes and protests in Nancy, Alsace and the Ruhr, tensions reached their breaking point, with France sending an ultimatum to Germany on the 10th of September. These "September demands" called for the immediate cessation of all forceful strike suppression by the German government and enshrining of worker and union protections into law, with plebiscites to be held in Dunkerque and Nancy - under French supervision - asking the populace whether they would like to rejoin France. When handed to the Germans, the German government was furious at such “insolence” by the French, with voices calling to immediately declare war on France. However, many in the German government eventually decided that the French ultimatum was just a bluff, and it was simply rejected, in the evening of the 11th of September. The rejection of the ultimatum was received with hesitation from the French, as both the government and the military fell into internal debate over what the response should be. This situation continued for a few days, until, in the morning of the 15th of September, war was declared on Germany.

The initiative and momentum were with French side in the opening weeks of the war, although the stalling in declaring war and the ultimatum period had given a chance for the German defences to be shored up and the German forces to be more prepared for and expecting of the incoming French invasion. The minor French advances were repelled on the border near the occupied city of Nancy. However, with heavy fighting in the outskirts with battle after battle raging on in the next year as French forces tried retaking the long-occupied city in a bloody siege. But as front stabilized more and more it transformed into something reminiscent of the trench warfare of the previous war for those veterans who had the disadvantage of fighting in it. In Flanders-Wallonia, the initial French advances were more successful, advancing into the Ardennes and Wallonia, along with retaking occupied Dunkerque from the Flemish-Wallonian occupiers. However further French offensives were repelled by force of German arms. The true bulk of offensive operations though, happened in the Italian peninsula, as French forces helped Italian forces push through the Apennines, taking Rome in January of 1940, with Anzio falling in February.

The first half of 1941 offered very little change on the German front, until the 4th of June of that year, when an old snake’s head never rose from his sleep, and the savage butcher crowned Wilhelm II was no more! French morale was boosted by the news, with the Revolutionary Military Council (INFOR’s high command) starting to plan a series of assaults, trying to take advantage of the instability caused by the death of the German’s beloved Kaiser. By the end of the month, INFOR forces had begun a series of front-wide pushes - however, momentum was not to last as discoveries by R.E.D. and B.C.R.A. (British and French intelligence services, respectively) spies were quick to bring down hopes for the offensives: The newly-crowned Kaiser Wilhelm III had sidelined the Reichstag and convened a new cabinet of zealous military men, who were quick to declare martial law all over Germany, rather than merely the frontline territories of Alsace-Lorraine and Nancy, as the new Chancellor, Kurt von Schleicher, initiated a full mobilization of Germany. Eventually, the socialist offensives would be repulsed, and German forces would start to prepare for their first major offensive of the war.

Meanwhile in Italy, Napoli fell to French and Italian troops, quickly followed by the expert Italian mountaineers, the Arditi del Popolo, taking Salerno and Foggia. Ahead of them, the retreating Sicilian troops began their organized reconsolidation southwards, abandoning the regions of Puglia, Basilicata and Campania in favor of defending their retreat route through Calabria to safeguard the island behind them.

On the home front, the Chairman of the CSP, Charles Rappoport, stepped down due to ill-health on the 26th of May. Emergency elections went through that same week, and Ludovic-Oscar Frossard was elected as the new Chairman.

The summer of 1941 changed the face of the German front completely, seldom did the front keep unchanged for more than a few days. Very much unlike the past war and the first year and a half of this war, the frontline was always fluid and shifting, primarily due to INFOR’s bombing campaigns and the mobility afforded by modern technologies, as opposed to the Grande Guerre. On the 11th of December Charles Rappoport collapses in his house, and is quickly taken to the hospital; he does not live to see the next day.

The turn of the year to 1942 witnesses a revitalized German army begin a series of front-wide pushes in late February under the command of Marshals Hermann Hoth and Fedor von Bock. These offensives soon breaking French defences near Nancy, reoccupying Dunkerque and taking Lille from the French, with a German spearhead driving fast towards Verdun, the last real defensible position before the geography becomes very favourable for the attacker.

The disgraced Marceau Pivert, having been in political self-exile for the past 6 years, comes out of his political retirement in the most surprising of ways, broadcasting through the radio a speech for the soldiers of both France and the greater Workers’ Armed Forces, “Though I have times and time again underestimated the danger that the Imperial German snake caused to us and to the world all over, with its colonialism and imperialism ravaging all corners of the world, I stand here today, not as a former Chairman of the CSP, not as a disgraced politician who cannot offer any apologies that would be deemed enough for my unknowing crimes against our revolution, but as a socialist first and foremost [...] the freedom or enslavement of mankind by the capitalists is in our hands [...] only we can slay the capitalist snake [...] only we can free our working class brethren in Germany, we shall not falter [...] we shall fight to the last man for the defense of our revolution. Today we stand as humans against the oppressive machine of capitalism [...] we shall avenge our fallen comrades, fathers, sons and brothers.”

As the Germans reach Verdun, French forces, outnumbered as they are, pull a heroic defense of Verdun, as they wait for British reinforcements to relieve them. As they endured two long weeks of continuous German bombardment as the French lines hold, veterans of the previous war reportedly began singing an old military chant from the past war, rebirthing the motto of “On ne passe pas !” (“One does not pass”, alternatively, “They shall not pass”), as French forces bar the German forces from entering “France’s door” on the borders of the Meuse river.

In 1943, the Netherlands are pressured to enter the war by Kurt von Schleicher, with their fresh troops marching to aid in defence of both Nancy and Flanders-Wallonia. In the same year, after the, unbeknownst to French officials, signing of the Mosley-Derental Pact, the Russian State enters the war, forcing a chaotic reorientation of German arms in bloody fighting over White Ruthenia, the Baltic, and Ukraine. Russian entry would prove to be the turning point of the war, which while stagnant until now had started to cause some collapse of Franco-British troops due to the overwhelming presence of German force of arms. The surprise and shock of the Russian invasion forces the Germans to quickly shift troops eastward to support Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's counter-offensives, allowing INFOR troops to make their first offensive since 1941 in the fall of 1943, finally liberating Nancy.

By mid-1944, Holland, Belgium, Alsace-Lorraine, and a portion of the Rhineland are all liberated by French and British arms, with the French flag being hoisted over Strasbourg’s city for the first time in more than 70 years. Though initially seeing great success with Manstein's "backhand blows" against the Russian state putting Petrograd, Moscow, and the Caucasus to threat after recovering their bearings, Manstein's efforts were too little and too late. Following Savinkov's purge of the incompetent old guard of the White Army, the reformed and reorganized Russian forces punish the overstretched and over-confident Germans caught in a vice between the Russian State's forces before them and Slavic partisans behind them.

By 1945 Manstein was forced to abandon the majority of the Reich's puppet states to the east to withdraw to more defensible positions and the Russian army poised itself to sweep into central Europe. Despite Chancellor von Schleicher’s massive militarization, Germany found itself on a downward spiral with its forces spread thin on three fronts: the eastern front with Russia and its opportunistic allies, the western front with France and Britain, and a southern front with Italy and France. Already, the international had by now secured the Italian mainland, despite the presence of the German lead coalition's fleet comprised of its Mediterranean squadrons, the reactionary regime in Algiers, and its other southern allies allowing the insular fortresses to remain for now.

With the French and British troops being aided in no small part due to socialist and Catholic partisans rising up in areas where military control was weak enough to be thrown off the march further eastwards could begin in earnest despite tremendous Imperial resistance. The ranks of the French and British armies swelled with defecting partisans who raised the red banner in solidarity, weakening the Heer at the same time as they bolstered the revolutionary soldiery.

The mutinies only further intensify as Magdeburg falls to the Franco-British troops in the last week of April, 1946, making it clear that even the hope of a negotiated peace was no longer in the cards. That very week, Savinkov’s army was victorious in Warsaw while the Balkans offensives in support of its allies of Romania and Serbia shatter the Reich's access to those vital resources. The siege of Berlin begins on the tail-end of July 1946, with Berlin falling to INFOR troops fully by August 15th, and along with it, the once-mighty German Empire.

### North African Front

While fighting died down in Europe, a new front opened up in North Africa, after Italian troops had paved the way with their liberation of Sicily in mid-1944. With the guns silent in Europe, the International followed up on the gains in Italy with a naval invasion of North Africa in late 1947, after the French and British navies had secured naval supremacy in the Mediterranean. This victory however, did not without a heavy price for the Italians, who lost a good portion of their southern fleet in late 1944 when a National French bomber dropped a nuclear bomb on the port city of Trapani. A travesty that completely devastated the city and the fleet, as the Italian forces were preparing for an invasion of both North Africa and Sardinia. The fighting in North Africa was brutal, as many Algerian nationalist revolts rose up in conjunction with the advance of Franco-Italian troops in North Africa, in no small part due to the activities of the R.E.D. and B.C.R.A.

With the fall of Algiers in February of 1948, National French troops begin their long trek across the Trans-Saharan Railway to Dakar, where they arrive in June. In reaction to these development, the Italian and French forces, after they liberated the islands of Macaronesia (Canarias, Madeira, Cabo Verde and Azores) in 1946 and 1947, launch an invasion of the over-militarized city of Dakar, to aid the natives in their struggle against the National French government. Aided by the revolt of the natives, the Battle of Dakar is an astounding success for the Franco-Italian troops. It is not one devoid of tragedy however, as INFOR troops uncover mass graves and labor camps that the National French had been using to quell and suppress the strikes that had been going on in Dakar since 1945. In all three of Senegal, Tunisia and Algeria, decolonial, national democratic governments are formed. These young governments are aided with French and Italian arms to mop up the last strongholds of National French resistance, as Senegalese troops march southwards to help out Ahmed Sékou Touré’s anti-National French uprising in Guinea, assisted with a French aerial squadron.

On the internal front, the 1946 elections result in the election of Marcel Cachin as Chairman of the BGT, and Boris Souvarine as Chairman of the CSP, replacing Pierre Besnard and Ludovic-Oscar Frossard, respectively; in Besnard’s case due to him being unwilling to nominate himself again after serving for 10 years as Chairman of the BGT, to not set an ‘authoritarian’ precedent, while Frossard steps down due to the stress of leading the country in the middle of the worst years of the war.

## *Post-war situation*

As the war dies down in Africa and as the reconstruction efforts in both Europe and North Africa begin in earnest, the Communal Republic is at its zenith. While German bombings damaged its industry and cities throughout the war, it has emerged relatively unscathed from the war, as INFOR begins to prepare for an increasingly-likely staredown with the Russian bear in the east. As other socialist nations industrialize and reconstruct, it is only a matter of time before the Communal Republic loses its title as the primary socialist nation of the world. However, it will forever remain in the memory of all proletarians and oppressed people of the world as the nation that suffered the most to kill the beast of Imperial Germany.