Upon a Cross of Fire, Part 2
It appears that even La Rocque was surprised by the Party’s electoral success in 1936, and soon moved to take advantage of the situation. Despite the Popular Front’s election, and mutterings of “H-Hour” in the FSP Press, La Rocque made no effort to topple the Popular Front. Like many on the Right, he thought the French people would learn the error of their ways in short order: “France,” he wrote, “is going to have the government she has chosen. When this government fails, then it will be the time for right thinking Frenchmen to act; but we shall act only in a legal and constitutional manner.” Such words lost his party thousands of members, but gained it tens of thousands more, convinced of La Rocque’s respect for the law. Although La Rocque did not take a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, he directed policy for his party and was, suddenly, respectable.
The Social Party’s rise after the election was helped by the wave of sit-down strikes that followed the Popular Front’s victory. As the Red Flag flew from factories and apartments across France, it seemed, in the words of the Parisian Le Temps, that: “It appears with blinding certitude that the formation of the Popular Front has screened an offensive determined to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat in France.”
Ultimately, the Popular Front government intervened to settle the wave of striekes by granting workers a wide range of concessions, ranging from wage increases to collective bargaining in the Matignon Accords of June 7. Yet this did not end the strikes, which continued to rock France. Hotel staffs went on strike, forcing unhappy guests to make their own beds, while restaurants closed across the nation. Rumors of union organizers forcing nonstrikers to fall into line, and even those sympathetic to the workers thought they had begun to aspire to political ends.
Meanwhile, Blum’s economic dreams soon foundered. Even before the election, an unbalanced budget and towering deficits had threatened the economy, but Blum’s plans to increase pensions, spend more on the unemployed, and maintain the franc’s value only worsened the situation. Meanwhile, the wage increases had led to a rise inprices, while the establishment of a forty-hour work week reduced productivity. More long term problems remained in the French economy, thanks to years of neglect. While the iron and steel industry had done well from postwar construction, dominance by a variety of small family firms hindered modernization and investment. As a result, even in 1936 steel and car iron production were barely half that of 1929. The army, for its part, was furious that Blum was proposing even more cuts in their budget, such as scrapping construction of the Maginot Line. [1]
Yet it would not be any domestic challenges which slew Blum and the Popular Front. It would be the Spanish quagmire that undid the Third Republic.
Spain
The Spanish Civil War had not begun in earnest before its effects were felt across the Pyrenees. . In France, Léon Blum greeted news of the coup with dismay, and by July 22 had formed a plan to provide the Republican government with munitions. Although Blum initially hesitated, he soon changed his mind when word reached him that Mussolini had already promised to aid Franco and the Nationalist forces. [2] The initial supplies included approximately thirty bombers, several thousand bombs, a considerable number of 75 mm. guns; a pale shadow of what was to follow, but at the time a significant delivery. [3] Mussolini, in response, upped the ante and provided more munitions to Spain, and soon a suspicious number of volunteers flocked to the Nationalists’ banner. [4]
French support for the Spanish Republic infuriated many in France, and threatened to bring down the Blum government. Blum, however, stayed firm, particularly after discovering that Italy was using its aircraft to send revolutionaries to Spain. “Our duty,” he declared, “is to aid our Spanish friends, whatever the consequences that may flow from that support.”
And so the shipments were sent, and arrived in August, where they played a vital role in the defense of Madrid. Arm shipments continued in the months to come, paid for with Spanish gold. Since France’s arms industry had been nationalized, this also led to the accusation that Blum was profiting from the blood of Spain. The radicalization of the Spanish Civil War, meanwhile, was radicalizing French society. Workers staged sympathy strikes across the nation, while bankers in Lyons fretted about a potential “Red Terror.”
In Spain itself, the Republican controlled areas descended into an orgy of violence, as years of pent-up frustration on both sides came loose. Papers in France screamed of assaults on nuns and priests, while anarchists and socialists engaged in class warfare. Blum remained convinced that propping up the Republicans in Madrid was the best way to control the social dimension of the conflict, but where Blum saw a conflict between democracy and tyranny, others saw a conflict between order and Communism.
To this day, there is still debate over who killed Léon Blum, France’s first Socialist Premier. Eyewitnesses blamed everyone from Italian fascists to Spanish anarchists, although the consensus blames frustrated youth from France’s right-wing. Who killed him in the end hardly matters; for he was, in many ways, just one more casualty of the Civil War. And unfortunately for France, he would not be the last.
[1] Are all the reactionaries happy?
[2] Historically Mussolini hesitated at first, but here he’s been humiliated by the League of Nations and views Spain as a way to recoup some prestige.
[3] Okay, historically France did not intervene in the Civil War. But Blum wanted to, and was only dissuaded by the attitude of Cabinet members, rumors of German troops moving to the Rhineland, and fears of Britain’s response, since he needed to keep Britain close due to the German threat. The other thing he was afraid of was civil war in France, but I think he could have, and would have, pressed ahead.
[4] This is slightly earlier than historical, but not significantly. Again, Mussolini is trying to push in Spain for a way to regain legitimacy.
