Votre recherche
Résultats 2 ressources
-
The objective of this research is to measure the impact of the Spanish Civil War on the attitude of the French Popular Front about the collaboration with Soviet Union from 1936 to 1937. It takes shape in a political and journalistic opinion study based on a survey of three French daily newspapers attached to the Popular Front during the 1930s, namely L’Humanité, Le Populaire and L’Œuvre. The analysis is articulated through the events of 1936 to 1937 such as the ratification of the Franco-Soviet mutual assistance pact, the election of the Popular Front and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The impact of the conflict in Spain is in fact measured in the intensification of the political polarization in France which influence the attitude of de Popular Front about the collaboration with Soviet Union. Despite the advent of a new Popular Front government, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War elevated the political polarization between the left and the right in France, which started in 1934, at its peak. Without a strong coalition between the left and the center right, collective security led by the USSR could not succeed. While some journalists are tempted by the appeasement policy, others develop a more clear-sighted and realistic vision of the threat posed by Nazi Germany and the importance of a close Franco-Soviet relationship.
-
The dissertation represents the first attempt to construct a narrative about the Young Communist League of Canada (founded in 1923) during the inter-war period, so far absent in existing research on Canadian communism or socialism. The thesis focuses on the evolution of the relationship between the Young Communist League (YCL) and the Communist International and Young Communist International where Soviet Communists played a predominant role. It sheds light on numerous minor and major changes of policy shaped by the national and international contexts in which these organisations had to act. The dissertation argues that despite genuine enthusiasm toward the International’s line and the Soviet experience, Young Canadian Communists often found it difficult to implement the International’s directives in Canada. Neither the International nor the communist movement in Canada was monolithic. On the contrary, there appear to have been numerous conflicts on three levels: between the International and the League; between the League and the Communist Party of Canada; and between local or linguistic groups in the League and its national leadership. The state repression of the left during the whole inter-war period, derisory level of funding and membership numbers also impeded the implementation of the International’s policies. At the same time, the International’s weaker levels of control allowed for a certain degree of flexibility and autonomy in the Canadian League’s policies. Following the position of the Young Communist International, the Canadian communist youth placed special emphasis on anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist, and later anti-fascist and anti-Nazi, militancy. However, the League appeared to have acted independently as far as immediate demands of the youth and cultural policies were concerned, especially during the Great Depression era. The League engaged in joint activism with other youth organisations, even when Moscow did not encourage such strategy. The initiatives often came from local grassroots organizers, although Canadian authorities were convinced that Moscow was behind each and every action of the League. In the 1930s in particular the YCL, through a network of social and cultural organisations, gained access to youth of different political orientations – the socialist left, centre-left and even “bourgeois forces.” The YCL’s impact and outreach were further increased by the fact that the organisation’s sympathizers, if not members, belonged to diverse social backgrounds and included not only young workers and farmers but also High School and University students, artists, sportsmen, young white collars, many of them belonging to religious youth groups. For these young people, the YCL was the place that provided Marxist solutions to burning questions of the time such as youth unemployment and absence of welfare, social injustice, growth of fascism and imperialism in Canada and abroad.