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Description
The French syndicalist movement
Karl Marx, in his important pamphlet The Civil War in France, considered the 1871 Paris Commune as the prototype for a future revolutionary insurrection, the form at last discovered for the emancipation of the proletariat. In fact, triggered by the Parisians' resentment against the defeatist French government and after months of siege by the Prussian Army, the Paris Commune was something more of a Utopian and enthusiastic socialist experiment, having short-lived and anecdotal followings in French provinces, and later smashed in a bloodbath by the Legalist French Army.
The repression that followed decapitated for years the nascent French socialism, while the SPD developed in Germany and the Trade Unions flourished in Britain. Those left in the wake of the debacle were torn apart, divided between the Marxist-inspired Parti Ouvrier Français of Jules Guesde and the French trade unions, encouraged by the successes of Fernand Peloutier's Fédération des Bourses du Travail. The French syndicalist movement was quickly overtaken by anarchist activists, after the repressive "lois scélérates" of 1894.
In 1895, the Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour), vowing to be independant from all political formations, was founded at Limoges, an engagement that was renewed by the 1906 Charte d'Amiens, affirming the anarcho-syndicalist tendency within the CGT, embodied by its vice-secretary Emile Pouget.
Helped by the union of Guesde's revolutionary followers and Jean Jaurès' social-democrats into the Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière (French Section of the Workers' International), the French left was coming into prominence, helped by its role in the Dreyfus affair, when the Weltkrieg broke out.
First an outspoken pacifist, Jaurès was shot down by a nationalist activist four days before the French entry in the war. His successor, Léon Jouhaux, agreed to participate to the Union Sacrée government, followed by most of the SFIO leadership.
Fall of the Third Republic
The revolution was initially sparked by the CGT, who declared a General Strike in the spring of 1919, hot on the heels of a second outbreak of mutiny in the French Army. the mutineers were protesting the Conservative call for a last-ditch counter-offensive following a string of severe French defeats during the German offensives of 1918.
The CGT wanted to paralyse the nation, force the ruling Conservatives to step down and hand over power to the CGT's executive arm; the Comité de Salut Public, or CSP - led by the zealous anarchist Emile Pouget.
They were charged with the task of leading first the General Strike and then the establishment of a new government and constitution which would allow for a complete reconstruction of the French nation. They also had as their immediate aim to end "the abominable war" as soon as possible. In achieving these aims the strike was initially unsuccessful, and the CGT was unable to seize power before the fall of Paris to German general Oskar von Hutier.
The French Civil War
With the fall of Paris however, the General Strike turned violent, as frustrated Unionists became desperate to end the war before the Germans were in a position to occupy the whole country. Skirmishes with police turned into riots across much of the country, and the government was forced to resign, marking the beginning of a transitory period between the Third Republic to the Fourth.
This period was characterised by a dualistic power structure much like that of Russian between the revolutions of 1917 - on the one hand a Provisional Government of Liberals and Socialists, and on the other the CGT, claimed a "legitimate right to power" via their Trade Union structure and a new system of local councils. (However, unlike in Russia - where the Revolutionary Left's gains proved ephemeral - in France this provided the revolutionaries with the chance for permanently taking power.)
This uncertain situation continued through the summer of 1919 until things came to a head in the early autumn when the Provisional Government attempted to disarm and demobilise the French Army following the conclusion of a truce with the Germans. Fearing the Government was attempting to stifle the revolution (the Army was largely supportive of the Left) the Socialist Party began a boycott of the Parliament, and declared itself an ally of the CGT, followed thereafter by a number of the more radical Liberals.
Following this decision the Bolshevik Jacobins declared the Provisional Government an enemy of the Proletariat, encouraging Party members to begin a policy of agitation in favour of a "great purge of France, to forever destroy her class enemies". Inspired by Lenin and his revolutionaries and the outbreak of the Russian Civil War between the Reds and the Whites, gangs of working men and army units sympathetic to the Jacobin cause began to attack and loot the property of the aristocracy and upper middle classes - seizing land by force and holding the Establishment to account in revolutionary "courts".
Although they wanted to put a stop to this policy (they had hoped to negotiate with the Provisional Government), the CGT was unable to prevent the Jacobins from carrying out their attacks, or prevent an escalation of the crisis, as the Provisional Government gathered together the "forces of reaction" to respond with force and attempt a counter-revolution.

Map is Me and Idea is Me and Flag is Not Mine and From kaiserreich.wikia.com/wiki/Com…

Description
The French syndicalist movement
Karl Marx, in his important pamphlet The Civil War in France, considered the 1871 Paris Commune as the prototype for a future revolutionary insurrection, the form at last discovered for the emancipation of the proletariat. In fact, triggered by the Parisians' resentment against the defeatist French government and after months of siege by the Prussian Army, the Paris Commune was something more of a Utopian and enthusiastic socialist experiment, having short-lived and anecdotal followings in French provinces, and later smashed in a bloodbath by the Legalist French Army.
The repression that followed decapitated for years the nascent French socialism, while the SPD developed in Germany and the Trade Unions flourished in Britain. Those left in the wake of the debacle were torn apart, divided between the Marxist-inspired Parti Ouvrier Français of Jules Guesde and the French trade unions, encouraged by the successes of Fernand Peloutier's Fédération des Bourses du Travail. The French syndicalist movement was quickly overtaken by anarchist activists, after the repressive "lois scélérates" of 1894.
In 1895, the Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour), vowing to be independant from all political formations, was founded at Limoges, an engagement that was renewed by the 1906 Charte d'Amiens, affirming the anarcho-syndicalist tendency within the CGT, embodied by its vice-secretary Emile Pouget.
Helped by the union of Guesde's revolutionary followers and Jean Jaurès' social-democrats into the Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière (French Section of the Workers' International), the French left was coming into prominence, helped by its role in the Dreyfus affair, when the Weltkrieg broke out.
First an outspoken pacifist, Jaurès was shot down by a nationalist activist four days before the French entry in the war. His successor, Léon Jouhaux, agreed to participate to the Union Sacrée government, followed by most of the SFIO leadership.
Fall of the Third Republic
The revolution was initially sparked by the CGT, who declared a General Strike in the spring of 1919, hot on the heels of a second outbreak of mutiny in the French Army. the mutineers were protesting the Conservative call for a last-ditch counter-offensive following a string of severe French defeats during the German offensives of 1918.
The CGT wanted to paralyse the nation, force the ruling Conservatives to step down and hand over power to the CGT's executive arm; the Comité de Salut Public, or CSP - led by the zealous anarchist Emile Pouget.
They were charged with the task of leading first the General Strike and then the establishment of a new government and constitution which would allow for a complete reconstruction of the French nation. They also had as their immediate aim to end "the abominable war" as soon as possible. In achieving these aims the strike was initially unsuccessful, and the CGT was unable to seize power before the fall of Paris to German general Oskar von Hutier.
The French Civil War
With the fall of Paris however, the General Strike turned violent, as frustrated Unionists became desperate to end the war before the Germans were in a position to occupy the whole country. Skirmishes with police turned into riots across much of the country, and the government was forced to resign, marking the beginning of a transitory period between the Third Republic to the Fourth.
This period was characterised by a dualistic power structure much like that of Russian between the revolutions of 1917 - on the one hand a Provisional Government of Liberals and Socialists, and on the other the CGT, claimed a "legitimate right to power" via their Trade Union structure and a new system of local councils. (However, unlike in Russia - where the Revolutionary Left's gains proved ephemeral - in France this provided the revolutionaries with the chance for permanently taking power.)
This uncertain situation continued through the summer of 1919 until things came to a head in the early autumn when the Provisional Government attempted to disarm and demobilise the French Army following the conclusion of a truce with the Germans. Fearing the Government was attempting to stifle the revolution (the Army was largely supportive of the Left) the Socialist Party began a boycott of the Parliament, and declared itself an ally of the CGT, followed thereafter by a number of the more radical Liberals.
Following this decision the Bolshevik Jacobins declared the Provisional Government an enemy of the Proletariat, encouraging Party members to begin a policy of agitation in favour of a "great purge of France, to forever destroy her class enemies". Inspired by Lenin and his revolutionaries and the outbreak of the Russian Civil War between the Reds and the Whites, gangs of working men and army units sympathetic to the Jacobin cause began to attack and loot the property of the aristocracy and upper middle classes - seizing land by force and holding the Establishment to account in revolutionary "courts".
Although they wanted to put a stop to this policy (they had hoped to negotiate with the Provisional Government), the CGT was unable to prevent the Jacobins from carrying out their attacks, or prevent an escalation of the crisis, as the Provisional Government gathered together the "forces of reaction" to respond with force and attempt a counter-revolution.

Map is Me and Idea is Me and Flag is Not Mine and From kaiserreich.wikia.com/wiki/Com…