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A revolutionary imperative
MARY ADOSSIDES looks back at why and how the French Communist Party came into being a century ago
ON THE STREETS: PCF demonstration in Paris

JUST over 100 years ago in 1920 on Christmas Day in Tours, delegates to the SFIO (French Section of the Workers International, the left wing of the Socialist Party) filled the Loire city’s indoor riding academy and opened the way to the foundation of the French Communist Party (PCF).

Eighteen years previously, in 1902, the French Socialist Party (PSF) was founded when Jean Jaures, an independent socialist politician, was eventually elected its leader.

Jaures, founder of the socialist daily l’Humanite, always opposed war and fought for a unified socialist movement.

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