The Parti Ouvrier Français (POF, or French Workers' Party) was the Socialist party in France, created in 1880 by Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, Marx's son-in-law (famous for having written The Right to Be Lazy, which criticized labour's alienation). A revolutionary party, it had as aim to abolish capitalism and replace it with a socialist society.
The Parti Ouvrier was created in 1882, after the split with Paul Brousse's possibilists, and became the POF in 1893. In 1902, it 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 (SFIO). 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.
Read more about French Workers' Party: Principal Members
Famous quotes containing the words french and/or party:
“I will soon be going out to shape all the singing tomorrows.”
—Gabriel Péri, French Communist leader. Letter, July 1942, written shortly before his execution by the Germans. Quoted in New York Times (April 11, 1943)
“A peace is of the nature of a conquest,
For then both parties nobly are subdued,
And neither party loser.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)