FRENCH COMMUNISTS AND COLONIAL REVOLUTIONARIES: THE COLONIAL SECTION OF THE FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY, 1921-1926.
Item
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Title
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FRENCH COMMUNISTS AND COLONIAL REVOLUTIONARIES: THE COLONIAL SECTION OF THE FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY, 1921-1926.
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Identifier
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AAI8023724
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identifier
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8023724
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Creator
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O'MELIA, ROBERT EMMET.
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Contributor
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Donald J. Harvey
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Date
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1980
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, European
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Abstract
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This is a study of the anticolonial campaign, and those who waged it, in France in the early 1920's. Two main anticolonial groups and their interrelationship are concentrated on: the French communists and the colonial nationalists. In the case of the former, the Colonial Section of the French Communist Party is the focal point; for the latter, the Intercolonial Union and the groups that adhered to it are the main concern. The predecessors of both the Colonial Section and the Intercolonial Union are also explored.;The central part of the narrative deals with the liaison between the Colonial Section and the Intercolonial Union. The end of the study covers the sudden disaffection between these two organizations and its causes, and the final dissolution of the Intercolonial Union.;Although the study for the most part limits itself to the activities of the two groups within France alone, the nature of their anticolonial campaign and its international ramifications necessitate the inclusion of: certain actions in the French colonies with which the Colonial Section and the Intercolonial Union were either directly or indirectly involved, or to which they responded; and certain policies and decisions of the Third Communist International.;The main theory behind anticolonialism, and therefore this narrative, is that of national self-determination. This study shows the dichotomy inherent in the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist version of national self-determination as exemplified by the two anticolonial allies--the Colonial Section of the French Communist Party and the Intercolonial Union. Although drawn together in a common campaign, their motives were often diametrically opposed. The Colonial Section initially and outwardly opposed colonialism for international proletarian reasons. It could equally have been for a form of beneign proletarian colonialism for the same reasons. In either instance, the communist theory could be justifiably cited to validate both positions. To the Intercolonial Union, and the majority of colonial emigres that made it up, nationalism--often as equally bourgeois as it was proletarian--was the raison d'etre behind their anticolonialism; and regardless of the temporary or permanent conversion of some among them to international communism, national independence remained foremost in their minds.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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History
