Syndicalist France

Syndicalist France, also known as The French Union of Syndicalists, was a sovereign state formed in the post-Great War era.

Post War
France suffered, by far, the worst physical damage with much of it’s industry and infrastructure destroyed during the course of the war. They also suffered the highest casualties by percentage of population among the great powers, and second only to Russia in total number of casualties among the Entente. The psychological impact of such losses, high levels of public debt, and the hardships imposed by the war lead to unrest. An initial wave of worker demonstrations were ended by the deployment of troops, though the issue did not come to widespread violence.

The post war government would prove largely ineffectual in solving the social and economic problems facing France.

Rise of Syndicalism
As the Soviet Communists in Russia and Hungary began to purge dissenting opinions within their parties, the ranks of French socialist parties were bolstered by fleeing Syndicalists and Trotskyists. Leon Trotsky himself arrived in France in 1920 and began to exert significant influence in French socialist circles.

When the government reformed the disorganized and inefficient tax system to cut down on rampant tax evasion, the Radical Syndicalist Party once again were able to stir up public unrest leading to a series of strikes across France.

The socialist parties won significant victories in the 1922 elections and were able to form a dominant coalition in the National Assembly, led by the Syndicalist party.

President Alexandre Millerand appointed Aristide Briand prime minister. Though Briand had been a socialist activist, he had been out of favor with much of the socialist community in France due to his willingness to serve in and cooperate with non-socialist governments. As a result his appointment was seen as soft and favoring the conservatives.

In the following year the new government nationalized the armaments industry in France and seized control of the French National Bank. An aggressive program of improvements for the working class lead to increased wages, but also higher taxes, devalued currency, and a decrease in trade. In addition, worker strikes had become common-place. Nevertheless, Briand’s government was seen as too conservative by Syndicalists who wanted to dismantle the State.

The 1924 French intervention in the Spanish-Rif war also proved deeply unpopular among the Trotskyist-Syndicalist parties. The Briand government, under Syndicalist pressure, delayed and prosecuted the war very unenthusiastically. Taking an active role in the war at all was seen as colonialist imperialism by the Syndicalists and the government’s dithering was seen as unpatriotic and incompetent by conservatives and nationalists.

The nationalists began to take to the streets in demonstrations. Radical left groups responded with counter-demonstrations and soon violent clashes were breaking out with alarming frequency.

President Millerand, dismayed by the growing disorder and violence, resigned and was replaced by Leon Blum. Briand’s government didn’t last much longer. Blum appointed Edouard Daladier prime minister.

The government instituted curfews and severe restrictions on public assemblies. Public order was restored, but in the long term such restrictions began to chafe. In addition, the reforms instituted by the new Syndicalist government had caused complete economic stagnation. While the rest of Europe was beginning an economic boom, France was languishing. Daladier’s government was forced to begin devaluing the Franc.

Unrest of 1928 and Resulting Persecutions of 1929
In the 1927 National Assembly elections, the conservative monarchists won a significant minority of seats. The nationalists and monarchists were able to form a coalition that could block Syndicalists in the National Assembly and effectively deadlock the government. The following year the leader of the Orleanist party Action Francaise, Charles Maurras appeared likely to win the presidency. Unexpectedly Leon Blum was elected to a second term and corruption was widely suspected.

The Action Francaise journal published evidence that the election was indeed rigged and chaos erupted. Right wing nationalists combined with the Orleanist monarchists staged what amounted to a small insurrection. Nationalist mobs seized government offices, burned Syndicalist buildings, and orchestrated riots in the streets.

The Syndicalist government declared a state of emergency and instituted full scale martial law. In short order both the monarchist and nationalist parties were outlawed and elections temporarily suspended. Police and Military forces were deployed to the streets and curfews were instituted.

After the initial crackdown, the Syndicalist government moved to root out opposition sentiment by more systematic means. Leaders and prominent members of nationalist or monarchist organizations were routinely arrested, questioned, and harassed by the police. Syndicalist control of industry was also leveraged to make it difficult for suspected nationalists or monarchists to find employment.

Colonial Wind-down
French Syndicalist parties long opposed colonialism. During the Rif War this opposition lead to the nationalist riots of 1924-25 and the de-facto independence of French Morocco under the control of General Lyautey. After the unrest of 1928 and the subsequent crackdown on monarchists and nationalists, the Syndicalist government was firmly in control and felt secure enough to implement anti-colonialist foreign policy.

The colonial wind-down plan, implemented in 1930 called for the establishment of local governance followed by the withdrawal of French troops in waves.

French Indochina and Pacific Islands
Before leaving, the French established a Syndicalist (in principle) national congress to oversee the former colony and establish a provisional government. In the first wave of withdrawals the bulk of French forces were removed, leaving behind only a few small garrison forces as a half-hearted attempt at providing security for the new provisional government.

As soon as the first wave withdrawal had occurred, a civil war broke out. A monarchist restoration movement, backed by native Auxiliary troops that had formerly served the French Colonial government overthrew the provisional syndicalist government and forced the representatives to flee. The French had no interest in prolonged presence even to shore up the provisional government they had put in place.

The Japanese, however, were only to eager to step in. Japanese forces arrived ostensibly with the mission of securing the civilian population and allowing the remaining French Garrisons to safely withdraw from the country. In practice, the Japanese simply replaced the French as colonizers and they put in place a puppet monarchy supported by Japanese occupation.

French Mandate in Syria
In 1920 the French and British had essentially betrayed the Syrian forces that had rebelled against the Ottomans with the promise of receiving their own state after the Allied victory. The great powers consistently ignored the wishes of the locals in the region and pursued their mandate to manage the region more as a means to impose colonial rule.

The French administration divided Syria up into six states along ethnic lines in an attempt to defeat the pan-Arab nationalist sentiment that opposed French presence in Syria. This was only really successful in the case of Lebanon where the Maronite Christian population hailed the French as liberators.

With the French withdrawal in 1930 the Sanjak of Alexandretta was seized by the Ottoman Turks. The British, as well as a sizable portion of the local population pressured the French to create a Kingdom of Syria under the Faisal of the Hashemite family. The Syndicalist home government, however, would not countenance the idea of creating a monarchy. As a result, the remaining states of Aleppo, Alawaite, Damascus and Jabal al-Druze were united as the Republic of Syria by the French before their withdrawal.

The Turkish annexation of Alexandretta sparked a conflict between the Ottoman Sultanate and the fledgling Republic of Syria. Almost immediately after the French withdrawal, Faisal returned to Syria and was proclaimed Faisal I, King of Syria. The republican government offered no real resistance to the new monarchy, and indeed, many of the officials of the Republic were simply appointed as officials of the new Kingdom.

The conflict between between the Ottomans and Syrians would grow into the War of Syrian Succession.

French West Africa
In preparation for the planned withdrawal, the French colonial administration created several local state governments formed into the Federation of West African States. The Federated States included Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Dahomey, and Niger.

Following the French withdrawal the Federation did not last long. The divergent interests and regional problems faced by the members left the Federation largely incapable of getting anything meaningful done. The Federation collapsed in 1932 with most of the members declaring independence or succumbing to internal political upheavals and unrest. A shell of the Federation, consisting of Senegal and French Sudan, now renamed to Mali survived another two years before these two also went their separate ways.

Molinier Government and the Communist International Congress
In 1932 the French economy was getting worse as a result of the disorganization caused by Syndicalist reforms. In addition France’s position internationally was suffering heavily. President Blum appointed Raymond Molinier Prime Minister, a move strongly influenced by Trotsky. Molinier immediately launched ambitious social, political, and economic reforms internally. He also had grand visions for the advancement of international Marxism. In 1934 Molinier called the 3rd Communist International Congress in Paris. The Comintern was dominated by Trotsky’s influence and was focused on supporting revolutionary movements around the globe.

The Stalinist Soviets controlled Russia and Hungary, but Molinier successfully limited their influence in the Comintern. During this time Trotsky’s influence pushed syndicalism in France away from its anarchist roots and established the idea of the necessity of a centralized state.

Throughout the 1930’s the Molinier government would reorganize the French economy and bring it back to a position of international competitiveness. In addition Molinier brought the Syndicalist Union of Piedmont under the French sphere of influence, establishing it as a virtual client state of France.

Molinier would dominate French politics for the next 50 years. In 1982 Molinier finally retired from politics, relinquishing the reigns of state. Though Molinier managed to keep France growing economically, the French economy almost always lagged behind the other industrial powers, never rising above 5th in world rankings and usually ranking between 6th and 8th.

Post-Molinier governments continued the centralizing tendency of Trotsky’s adherents. When the First Contact War began, Syndicalist France was one of the most ardent supporters of the United Earth Government Charter.

Space Race
In 1940 Molinier announced his grand plan to bring Syndicalism to the stars by getting France into the Space Race. France achieved their first space flight six years later.

In the mid 40’s Molinier oversaw the reorganization of the French government away from a parliamentary presidential system to a system of federated syndicats led by the Syndicat National which in turn was presided over by the First Secretary. Molinier would hold the position of First Secretary of the Syndicat National for nearly forty years.

In 1947 anti-French sentiment in Syria led to an outbreak of riots. French colonial forces were stretched thin as the situation in Syria approached full-blown revolution. Syndicalists in France staged demonstrations denouncing the old colonialist / Imperialist ways. By the end of the year the Syndicat National voted to withdraw from Syria and create a step-down plan for withdrawal from all colonial possessions.

The French colonial wind-down resulted in a further bolstering of the Bonapartist forces in Morocco.

By 1953 the French had begun construction of an orbital space station (Vaillant Station).

Vaillant Station would serve as a common station to all Comintern member parties and as such developed a diverse multi-national community. It also became the launch point for the majority of Comintern exploration and colonization efforts.

In 1962, about four years after work on Vaillant Station was finally completed, The Syndicalist French established an outpost on Enceladus

The first FTL tests were conducted by the UFES (Union Francaise d’Etudes Spatiales - French Union of Space Studies) in 1971 and in 1974 the French established their first extrasolar colony, Jouhaux.

During the 1984 conflict between the British Empire and the South American Tripartite the Union of France would not intervene militarily but diplomatically supported the South American Tripartite.