Jean Jaurès

French politician

• Born: September 3, 1859
• Birthplace: Castres, France
• Died: July 31, 1914
• Place of death: Paris, France

Through the use of his powerful oratorical skills and his philosophical studies, Jaurès became the founder of French socialism and a leading international advocate for peace in the years leading up to World War I, which began only days after he died.

Early Life

Auguste-Marie-Joseph-Jean Jaurès (zho-rahz) was the first son of Jean-Henri Jules and his wife Marie-Adélaïde Barbaza, a family of traders and rural smallholders in Castres, France. Because of his family’s lower-middle-class standing, Jaurès was not held to the strict rules of behavior set by the wealthier middle class. Instead, he was free to form his own opinions and could intermingle with the laboring classes of the region, which had been a largely agricultural area but was slowly developing some industry.

Jaurès first attended school at the pension Séjal, a small private establishment run by a priest. He enthusiastically participated in school and, in 1869, was admitted to the Collège de Castres with a scholarship. During his seven years at the school, Jaurès impressed many of his fellow students and teachers. In 1875, his impressive intellect was noticed by Inspector-General of Schools Nicolas-Félix Deltour, who was seeking to recruit young men to help boost the educational system in France. Through Deltour’s assistance, Jaurès began his Parisian education at Sainte-Barbe in 1876 in preparation for his move in 1878 to the École Normale Supérieure, one of the most demanding and prestigious schools in the nation.

Jaurès’s obvious love of learning allowed him to flourish at the École Normale Supérieure. He chose philosophy as his field of study, although he was attracted to both languages and history as well. In 1881, he participated in the aggregation, a series of oral and written examinations to determine who would receive the best teaching posts in France. He placed third and requested a post in philosophy at the Lycée d’Albi in order to be near his parents. When his father died in 1882 and his mother came to live with him, Jaurès decided to move to Toulouse, where he was offered a position in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Toulouse in 1883.

Because of his outstanding oratorical skill and his passion for republican politics, Jaurès was placed on the republican list for his region during the 1885 elections. He was the youngest deputy in the 1885-1889 parliament and soon became disillusioned with republicanism. His true political education began after his defeat in the elections of 1889 when he returned to the University of Toulouse and threw himself into studying various political ideas, particularly the socialist theories of Louis Blanc, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Ferdinand Lassalle, and Karl Marx. Gradually, he began to initiate closer contact with the urban working classes and to develop a fledgling socialist commitment.

Life’s Work

For Jaurès, the Carmaux mining strike of 1892 was a critical turning point. He saw the struggle between the miners and their employers as an issue of human dignity, an attempt by the workers to free themselves. He championed their cause and was elected deputy for Carmaux in an 1892 by-election and then in the 1893 general election. Throughout the 1890’s his oratorical skills and his socialist theories pushed him to the forefront of the socialist faction of parliament. He spoke on a variety of topics in the Chamber of Deputies, ranging from education to military affairs.

Although busy as a deputy and leader of the socialists, Jaurès continued to participate regularly in labor disputes and came to understand some of the strengths of working-class culture as well as the weakness of working-class collective organization. He firmly believed in the power of socialist politics rather than a dependency on the sudden strikes and calls to the barricades advocated by the syndicalist faction of the socialist movement. During the Fourth Congress of the Second International meeting in London in 1896, Jaurès attempted to unify the various factions by denying that anarchism constituted part of socialism (thus singling out an extremely divisive element of the Congress) and by supporting syndicalism as an important part of socialism. However, he continued to make it clear that working through standard government politics was the preferred and more effective path. Despite his eloquent speeches, he failed to make the distinction between anarchism and syndicalism apparent to all.

By 1897 Jaurès had become involved in the Dreyfus affair , in which a Jewish army officer was falsely accused of selling military secrets. Jaurès was consumed with a desire to see justice prevail. He believed that the future of the republic lay in how socialists reacted. For Jaurès, socialists had to defend the republic and fight for justice in this matter. Because the bourgeois parties were failing to uphold the banner of republican government, he concluded that the socialists must take it. Jaurès proceeded to rail against the government’s actions in the Dreyfus case. His outspoken moves would serve to work against him in the coming year.

When Jaurès arrived back in his home region in the spring of 1898 to campaign for reelection, he found that his opponents had already begun campaigning against him. They denounced him as an enemy of religion and an agent of the Jews. The employers of Carmaux were determined to see Jaurès defeated at all costs. They broke up socialist meetings and prevented Jaurès from forming an audience for his speeches. When the May votes came in, Jaurès found himself defeated. Instead of turning away from the issues that had caused his defeat, he continued to involve himself in the Dreyfus affair. He also began editing the Paris daily La Petite République (the small republic) and writing the Histoire socialiste de la révolution française (1901-1907; socialist history of the French Revolution).

During his time away from the Chamber of Deputies, Jaurès devoted himself to supporting a reformist socialist approach to government. He backed the entry of Alexandre Millerand, a socialist lawyer, into the bourgeois government of René Waldeck-Rousseau in 1899 despite opposition from many leading socialists, such as Jules Guesde and Édouard Vaillant, who felt that he was compromising too many socialist ideas in the process. Despite this opposition, Jaurès continued to defend his position, believing that it was necessary for the socialists to defend and consolidate the republic. Breaking with Guesde and Vaillant in 1902, he formed the Parti Socialiste Français and joined with the radicals to form a leftist bloc that won a victory in the 1902 elections. Among the victorious electors, Jaurès was appointed one of the vice presidents of the Chamber of Deputies.

By 1904 Jaurès’s leftist bloc had begun to disintegrate from attacks both within and without. Simultaneously, his Parti Socialiste Français was also dying. Realizing that his compromises with the bourgeois parties had diluted his message, Jaurès began calling for socialist unity. He repaired his relationships with Guesde and especially Vaillant. He abandoned his reformist notions in favor of a more traditional socialist line, embracing the class nature of the socialist struggle as well as its revolutionary character. In April, 1905, under Jaurès’s leadership, a pact of union was signed, and the Section Française de L’Internationale Ouvrière (SFIO), a new unified socialist party, was formed.

Jaurès emerged as the undisputed leader of the new party. He formulated policy on almost every subject but was particularly concerned with a desire for closer unity between the syndicalist socialists and the SFIO. He showed a great ability for political flexibility regarding the syndicalists and even developed a complex theory of the working class. Jaurès also made military reform a priority. In his work L’Armée Nouvelle (1911; Democracy and Military Service , 1972), he stated that socialists should not work to undermine the military. Instead, the military should be adjusted to the pattern of the French revolutionary armies of 1792-1795, which would bring back the national spirit of 1792 and promote social cohesion. This program ultimately proved unpopular.

Aside from his political and military reform interests, Jaurès was also concerned with the growing militarism of Europe in the years prior to World War I. He called for a political reconciliation between France and Germany and declared arbitration as the best method to resolve disputes. He made several trips to places such as Basel, Switzerland (1912), and Brussels, Belgium (1914), to make speeches in favor of peace. Many began to feel that he was the final barrier against the growing war fever of European governments. However, Jaurès’s stance against war brought his downfall. On July 31, 1914, as Jaurès sat in a Paris café with a group of his colleagues with his back to a window, a right-wing fanatic named Raoul Villain, who thought Jaurès’s pacifism would lead the nation astray, shot him twice. He died within minutes. His ashes were later moved to the Pantheon on November 23, 1924.

Significance

Without the powerful leadership and oratorical grace of Jean Jaurès, it is doubtful that the socialist movement would have been able to unify itself in the turmoil of the early twentieth century. Too many divisive issues worked against this outcome. Jaurès was able to use his unique ability to compromise and speak to the hearts of the working classes to help bring about the necessary cohesion to achieve advances for the lower classes.

Jaurès’s humble beginnings at Castres allowed Jaurès to identify with the working classes, and the educational opportunities he was given permitted him to bring the issues of the working classes to the government. By immersing himself in the works of great philosophers, he was able to conceive his own vision for how the Socialist Party should be constructed and run. His was a flexible policy. It was his strong personality that held the party to a middle course between the paths of reformists and revolutionaries. As Daniel Halévy stated in 1905, “What, then, was this party? I will define it in a word: it was Jaurès. It was his reflection. He created it. He kept it together.”

Bibliography

Goldberg, Harvey. The Life of Jean Jaurès. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1962. The definitive biography of Jaurès. Traces the development of Jaurès’s political ideas and his rise to the head of the French socialist movement. Includes a detailed bibliography and some photographs.

Jaurès, Jean. Democracy and Military Service. New York: Garland, 1972. An English translation of Jaurès’s L’Armée Nouvelle, which details his ideas for the military and the importance of capturing a democratic spirit for the nation.

Pease, Margaret. Jean Jaurès: Socialist and Humanitarian. London: Headley Brothers, 1916. Written shortly after Jaurès’s death, this book includes an excellent introduction by former British Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald. A fairly succinct biography of Jaurès but somewhat weakened by its lack of a bibliography.

Rebérioux, Madeleine. “Party Practice and the Jaurèsian Vision: The SFIO (1905-1914).” In Socialism in France: From Jaurès to Mitterand, edited by Stuart Williams. London: Frances Pinter, 1983. A short essay on the particulars of Jaurès’s vision for the united Socialist Party. Also includes ideas for how to approach the study of Socialist Party politics at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Sowerwine, Charles. France Since 1870: Culture, Politics, and Society. New York: Palgrave, 2001. An overview of French history, politics, and culture during the Third Republic through the late twentieth century. Includes information about Jaurès.

Stuart, Robert C. Marxism at Work: Ideology, Class, and French Socialism During the Third Republic. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Examination of French Marxism during the late nineteenth century focusing on the followers of Jules Guesde (Guesdists). Includes information about Jaurès.

Tuchman, Barbara W. “The Death of Jaurès.” In The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914. New York: Macmillan, 1966. An essay in a collection devoted to the study of the period prior to World War I. Follows Jaurès’s ideas leading up to World War I as well as the impact of his assassination on world events. Includes some photographs.