NAZIS IN FRANCE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 645, 25 September 1933, Page 7

NAZIS IN FRANCE

SOCIAUSTIC TRENDS EVIDENCE OF CONGRESS GIVES UNEXJPECTED REVEL ATION S. CHANGED PRINCIPLES SOUGHT. Hhe French Socialist Congi'ess has resulted in the unexpected revelation of a movement within the group toward National Socialism. The congress was ostensibly called to pass a vote of censnre on the indiscipline of some eighty Deputies in the Chamber, and it faithfully fulfilled its purp'ose. But, in doing so,' it laid bare the frank recognition of a section of the Socialist hody thattimes had changed and that Socialism even in France must change with them if it was to survive. This section, not yet very numerous but clearly imjbued with fervour and foree, believes that Socialism as a politieally constructive force (if it ever was that) has failed; that the day of internationalism is over before it has even dawned; that doctrinaire Marxism is hased on a fallaey; and th'at a new in-spii-ation 'is in the field. They are looking beyond questions whether the Socialist Party shall take part.in n "hourgeois" military credits and Budgets. They have seen Socialist groups in the Chamber vote against these things and hring Governments down one after another, and they begin to think that the Socialism of Karl Marx and Leon Blum was, far from leading them into the promised land, leading them only into the deserfc. The Revolutionaries, they observe, are without a revolution, the Evolutionists fail to evolve, and. the Reformists have secured no reforms. Youth Unsatisfied. The Socialist- poiicy is xnus negative in result, and the young men whose class hitherto supported it are intelligent enough to know this. "What," they as, "has Socialism to offer us?" At the congress, M. Blum, strictly doctrinaire, could only point to his own convictions, unshaken by forty years 'experience, and affirm that in the great cause of liherty and justice the young men rnust not only be taught revolutionary virtues but also the virtue of patience. This condemnation of Socialism to sttrile opposition in the vague hope of something' arriving on the horizon might have done for a leisured age. It does not appeat to the youth of the movement. The doctrinaires of the party have lately accustomed themselves to the thought that the world crisis is wofking for Socialism. But there is no sign of it. The unemployed and hungry man — as was pointed out in the congress — is not a revolutionary in the Socialist sense: he is a creature of misery and despair, ready to follow any political adventurer. "Hitler enrolled him in his hundreds of thousands; his success was founded on Germany's 5,000,000 unemployed." And, again: "If Fascism were only a mercenary movement at the service of the banks and great industries, it would never have acquired its dynamic force in the middle class es of Italy and Germaiiy." Middle-class Unrest. The class that is becoming classconscious in France is just this middle class, usually called the petite bourgeosie. It has been the German middle class on the verge of being proletarianised, and it will not allow itself to go the same way without a struggle. Its ranks are seething with unrest and exasperation. It is here that the minority in the Socialist Party perceive their scope for action. Socialism, they say, must keep in touch' with the democracy, with the' whole nation, t and especially with the middle classes, and not cut itself off from all but a section limited in numbers and ideas. There is no future for strict proletarian internationalism, and if the imagination of the middleclass masses is to be touched, if its dynamic force is to be set in motion, then there must be a change in the principles and programme of Socialism. There can he no doubt in the mind of the most casual observer that large masses of the French' public are in a state of suppressed revolt against the slackness and general disorder that have paralysed the machinery of all States. They are equally disgusted with Parliamnentary methods and the ruck of politicians, whether of the Right or Left. As the result of the Russian, Italian, and German experi- ' ments th'e masses in France are per"meated with the notion that a cure 'for these evils can be brought about only by some movement that carries with it the strong element of authoxity. The Socialist Congress showed that there are Socialists who think that their party should make a bid for the honour and rewards of initiating such a poiicy. And they plainly admit that if Socialism is to carry it out, the element of nationalism must find a prominent place in its programme. M. Tardieu's Fascism. In the course- of the congress a prominent Deputy was found. declaring that .if Socialism was to retain and extend its appeal it must appear ,as "an island of order and authority" in the present chaotic France. M. Blum was frankly shocked, and the delegates who supported th'e theory were mocked and abused and outvoted. For the course they advocatedwas clearly National Socialism, indistinguishahle- in its broad aims from any other National Socialism. Opposition to dictatorships in any form has been one of the foremost tenets of French Socialism, and offieially it still is. But opposition is coming t0 he regarded as an unsatisfying creed, whether Nationalist or Radieal, and so we find the French Fascist movement begun hy M. Tardieu and M. Flandin on the Right hefng followed by a hrand of French National Socialism on th'e Left. Should either movement develop, the other is iikely to f ollow it in a spirit of competition, with coxisequences that can easily be deduced. The only doubtful factor is that of leadershiip. In neither direction is it possihle to discern a politician who is man enough for the job. But movements, especi-, ally iin France, have a way of throwing genius to the surface, and it Yrould not he safe to presume failure on this ground alone.