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Jean Jaurès (1859-1914) |
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Jean Jaurès was a French philosophy professor, journalist, literary critic, and above all a devoted activist for the cause of socialism.
Jaurès was born on September 3rd in Casters in a lower middle-class family. His father Jules was a farmer with occasional financial difficulties. His mother Adelaide Barbaza was a textile manufacturer. They had 2 children Jean and Louis.
Jaurès was a brilliant student. After secondary school he was given a scholarship to attend École Normale Supérieure in Paris. After that he became a teacher and lecturer at the University of Toulouse.
Jaurès was more interested in politics than in teaching. In 1885 he was elected deputy for Tarn. During this time, he met Louise Bois, and they got married.
After being defeated in the 1889 elections, Jaurès returned to his previous work as a teacher. In 1891 he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy. The harsh treatment by the Government against the striking miners of Carmaux prompted him to support the workers. The district of Carmaux elected Jaurès as deputy to the chamber in 1893. He got interested in Marxism and became one of the main founders of the French Socialist Party.
In 1894 Jaurès gained national reputation after being involved in the Dreyfus' affair and defended his innocence. Emile Zola's Publication "J'accuse" played a key role in Jaurès' understanding of that Affair.
Alfred Dreyfus was a captain in the French Army. He was accused of having delivered secret documents to the Germans. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Devil's Island, in French Guyana. The Dreyfus Affairs (1894-1906) during which animosity between France and Germany shocked French Society for 12 years. He was finally acquitted of all charges.
Disagreements over dealings with workers' matters, the socialist movement split into two factions: the French Socialist Party of Jean Jaurès, and the Socialist Party of France of Jules Guesde.
The Jaurès Party, represented a democratic approach towards achieving social equality, and emerged victorious in the legislative elections of 1902 against the Guesde Party.
In 1904, Jaurès founded the newspaper L'Humanité. Following the Amsterdam Congress of the Second International, the French Socialist Parties held a Congress in Rouen in March 1905. The Congress' discussions resulted in a new consolidation with the merger of Jaurès and Guesde factions, allowing the formation of a new Socialist Party. In the same year all the socialist movements unified in the French Section of the Workers International (SFIO).
In 1920, the SFIO split over views on the 1917, Russian October Revolution. The majority who were in favor of The October Revolution established the French Communist Party, and the minority continued as the FSIO (Socialist Party).
In 1908, SFIO assigned Jaurès as the capable leader of the Party. Under his effective leadership, the Socialist Party made steady advances. Jaurès had the deep conviction that the Republic's strength depended above all on retaining the peace.
Albeit in light of this pacifist and humanist belief, the rise of the extreme right in France and abroad was cherished by religions and nationalism; the threat of imperialist war was looming.
Jaurès showed to take an unusually firm stance towards the dominance of capital. He believed that it would lead to the downfall of democracy and into war. He vehemently opposed the very idea of war. He believed that only well-organized international workers would be able to control capital on the global economy, and the dangers that capitalist competition posed to peace. He worked hard to try to obtain from the International Congress, action capable to prevent war (1907 Stuttgart, and 1910 Copenhagen Congresses).
While Jaurès encouraged the establishment of a defensive people's army involving the entire society, he opposed the law of three-year conscription.
Jaurès encouraged German Socialists to organize a general strike in armament factories in case of a war threat. And in 1912, his famous speech at the extraordinary Congress of Basel International prompted the anger of nationalists. Jaurès stressed the absurdity of an armed conflict which capitalists wanted under the flag of nationalism.
As Albert Einstein quotes: Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
On July 25th 1914, as war loomed in Europe, Jaurès once again made a fervent call for peace: "At the moment when we are threatened with murder and savagery, there is one chance for the maintenance of peace and the salvation of civilization, and that is for the proletariat to gather all its forces, and for French, English, Germans, Italians, and Russians to unite so that the united beating of their hearts drives away the horrible nightmare."
Famous American revolutionary John Reed in his visiting to Europe wrote, not only that big gaps between the rich and poor exist, but instead of class struggle, they are preparing themselves for the Great Imperialist War. He wrote "Nations are ready to fly at each other's throats like dogs".
On July 31st 1914, a fanatic nationalist religious man, Raoul Villain, assassinated Jean Jaurès in Paris. Four days before that tragic event Germany had declared war on France. WWI had already started.
WWI or Great War resulted in more than 20 million military and civilian deaths, more than 20 million wounded, and millions more died of starvation and diseases. In 1917-1919, only in Iran, between 8-10 million died from starvation, as the British occupying forces were hoarding foods for themselves.
The movement of large numbers of displaced refugees of War, in Europe was another major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic. The H1N1 influenza, infected more than 500 million people with mortality rates of between 50-100 million in Spain, Europe and around the Globe (1918-1920).
It is sad to say that the 19 years old Louis, the son of the prominent pacifist Jean Jaurès, a recruit French soldier, was killed at the front, near the end of this War in 1918, his body was never found.
In 1919, after WWI, Raoul Villain, the assassin of Jean Jaurès was acquitted in a kangaroo court, and Jaurès' wife, as the plaintiff, was ordered to pay back the court fees.
Anatole France wrote in L'Humanité: "Workers! ... A monstrous verdict proclaims that the assassination of Jaurès is not a crime ..."
After doing a few felonies in France, Raoul Villain fled to the Balearic Island of Ibiza, and there he made a house in a remote area, and placed a cross, as the symbol of Fascists over the hill of its backyard. Subsequently, the Spanish Republicans got suspicious of him, as a spy and tried to detain him, but he resisted their attempt and as a result was shot and died 2 days later, on September 17th 1936.
Jaurès most famous works:
De la réalité du Monde Sensible, 1891.
Action Socialiste : Première Série, 1899.
La Constituante, 1789-1791, published 1901.
Studies in Socialism, 1906.
Histoire Socialiste, 1789-1900, published 1910.
Armée Nouvelle: L'Organisation Socialiste de la France, published 1915.
Democracy and Military Service, an abbreviated translation of L' Armee Nouvelle, published 1916.
Page Choisies, published,1922.
Les Origines du Socialisme Allemande, published 1927.
Œuvres de Jean Jaurès, published 1931.
Histoire Socialiste de la Revolution Française, published 1938.
Anthologie de Jean Jaurès, published 1964.
Esprit du Socialisme : six études et discours, published 1964.
Guerre Franco-Allemande, 1870-1871, first published in 1971.
Causes de la Revolution Française, published 1979.
Les temps de L'affaire Dreyfus, 1897-1899, published 2000.
Critique Littéraire et Critique d'Art, published 2000.