French Workers' Party


The French Workers' Party was the French socialist party created in 1880 by Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, Karl Marx's son-in-law. A revolutionary party, it had as aim to abolish capitalism and replace it with a socialist society.
The party originated with a secession from Federation of the Socialist Workers of France, which was founded in 1879, after a split with Paul Brousse's possibilists. The party's programme, written by Guesde with input from Marx, Lafargue and Friedrich Engels, was approved at the opening congress. The party officially became the POF in 1893.
In 1902, the party merged with the Blanquist Central Revolutionary Committee to form the Socialist Party of France and finally merged in 1905 with Jean Jaurès' French Socialist Party to form the French Section of the Workers' International. Marcel Cachin, who would lead the split in 1920 which led to the creation of the French Communist Party and edited L'Humanité newspaper, became a member of the POF in 1891.
The Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Loire and Allier were the principal bastions of POF electoral strength.

Principal members