Chapter 6 - The Origins of Marxism in Modern France

Summary

This chapter reappraises the impact of Marx’s ideas in France before the mid-1880s; the years to which historians have traditionally dated the beginning of a potent Marxist influence on French socialism. A wider range of French socialists than the Guesdists (to whom the introduction to Marxism is traditionally attributed) made frequent use of Marxist concepts, while Marx was consistently evoked provocatively by French socialists to maintain their revolutionary credentials. Socialists in particular made use of the French Marx, building upon the translational differences to advance their own theories on matters like the right to work and the role of the state. French socialists saw Marx’s ideas as a useful language for working through pressing social problems rather than a fixed doctrine: in fact, ‘orthodox Marxism’ did not exist during this period. These more complicated interactions also reflected the complex and shifting structures of the revolutionary movement as a whole, and revolutionary thought cannot simply be folded into the social and organisational history of French socialism.