The Unified Socialist Party (french: Parti Socialiste Unifié, PSU) was a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, founded on April 3, 1960. It was originally led by

Édouard Depreux Édouard Gustave Depreux (31 October 1898 – 16 October 1981) was a French socialist journalist, essayist, and politician of the French Fourth Republic; he was born in Viesly (''département'' of Nord) and died in Paris. Early career Born ...

(from its creation to 1967).

History

PSU was born through the fusion of the Autonomous Socialist Party (PSA), the Socialist Left Union (UGS), and the group around the journal '' Tribune du Communisme''. The latter was a splinter group of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European ...

(PCF), which had left after the 1956 inner conflict caused by the

Soviet invasion of Hungary The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

. The PSA and the UGS was a splinter group of the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (french: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was foun ...

(SFIO) party, which had left in due to the repressive policy of the SFIO Prime Minister

Guy Mollet Guy Alcide Mollet (; 31 December 1905 – 3 October 1975) was a French politician. He led the socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) from 1946 to 1969 and was the French Prime Minister from 1956 to 1957. As Prime Minist ...

during the

Algerian War of Independence The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...

and his support to General

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...

's return and the advent of the Fifth Republic under the military pressure. The three groups were closely linked from 1958. In 1961, the newly formed party was joined by

Pierre Mendès-France Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, after he had left the Radical Party, and by

Alain Savary Alain Savary (25 April 191817 February 1988) was a French Socialist politician, deputy to the National Assembly of France during the Fourth and Fifth Republic, chairman of the Socialist Party (PS) and a government minister in the 1950s and ...

, a former SFIO member as opposed as Mendès-France was to

's return to power in the turmoil of the

May 1958 crisis The May 1958 crisis, also known as the Algiers putsch or the coup of 13 May, was a political crisis in France during the turmoil of the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962) which led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic and its replacem ...

. In 1965, the PSU aligned with the SFIO and the PCF in supporting the candidacy of

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

in the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

. In contrast with the established socialist parties, the PSU also supported the student uprising of

May 1968 The following events occurred in May 1968: May 1, 1968 (Wednesday) * CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, was formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. * RAF Strike ...

; it subsequently moved away from cooperation with the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of ...

(PS) which succeeded the SFIO after 1969, and developed its own program, based on ''autogestion'' (

workers' self-management Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-management is a def ...

). Michel Rocard was the PSU candidate for the 1969 presidential elections, obtaining 3.61% of the vote in the first round. The party again campaigned for Mitterrand in the 1974 presidential elections — a move which encountered the opposition of the PSU's own supporters at

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

level; the PSU did not sign Mitterrand's ''Common programme of the

Left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album '' Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * ...

'' (agreed with the Communists), and a sizeable section of the party activists, led by Michel Rocard and Robert Chapuis, left to join the renewed

(believing that they could better function as a leftist tendency with the PS). The PSU supported the self-managed

Lip factory LIP is a French watch and clock company whose turmoil became emblematic of the conflicts between workers and capital in France. The LIP factory, based in Besançon in eastern France, began to experience financial problems in the late 1960s and ear ...

. PSU introduced

Huguette Bouchardeau Huguette Bouchardeau (born 1 June 1935) is a French socialist politician, as well as a publisher (founder of HB Éditions), essayist, and biographer. Political career Bouchardeau was a candidate of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU) in the 198 ...

as its candidate for the 1981 presidential elections; she obtained 1.1% of the vote in the first round. In the 1988 presidential elections, the PSU supported the communist dissident candidate

Pierre Juquin Pierre Juquin (born 22 February 1930 in Clermont-Ferrand) is a French communist politician and trade unionist. Early life and PCF politics The son of an SNCF employee, he is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS), and was a teac ...

, who obtained 2.1% of the votes in the first round. In 1989, PSU merged with the

New Left for Socialism, Ecology and Self-management New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

(Juquin's movement), and formed the

Red and Green Alternatives Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

(nowadays integrated in the group '' Les Alternatifs'').

National Secretaries

* 1960–1967:

* 1967–1973:

Michel Rocard Michel Rocard (; 23 August 1930 – 2 July 2016) was a French politician and a member of the Socialist Party (PS). He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991 during which he created the ''Revenu minimum d'ins ...

* 1973–1974: Robert Chapuis * 1974–1979: Michel Mousel * 1979–1981:

* 1981–1983: Jacques Salvator * 1983–1984: Serge Depaquit * 1984–1989: Jean-Claude Le Scornet

Electoral performance

National Assembly

Presidential candidates

Members

Jean Maitron Jean Maitron (17 December 1910 – 16 November 1987) was a French historian specialist of the labour movement. A pioneer of such historical studies in France, he introduced it to University and gave it its archives base, by creating in 1949 the ...

(1917–1987) *

Pierre Vidal-Naquet Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet (; 23 July 1930 – 29 July 2006) was a French historian who began teaching at the '' École des hautes études en sciences sociales'' (EHESS) in 1969. Vidal-Naquet was a specialist in the study of Ancient Greece, bu ...

(1930–2006) *

François Furet François Furet (; 27 March 1927 – 12 July 1997) was a French historian and president of the Saint-Simon Foundation, best known for his books on the French Revolution. From 1985 to 1997, Furet was a professor of French history at the University ...

References

* Marc Heurgon, ''Histoire du PSU'', tome 1 : ''La Fondation et la guerre d'Algérie (1958 - 1962)'', Paris, La Découverte, Paris, 1994. * Tudi Kernalegenn, François Prigent, Gilles Richard, Jacqueline Sainclivier (dir.), ''Le PSU vu d’en bas'', Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2010

* Noëlline Castagnez, Laurent Jalabert, Marc Lazar, Gilles Morin, Jean-François Sirinelli (dir.), ''Le Parti socialiste unifié, Histoire et postérité'', Presses universitaires de Rennes, 201

* Bernard Ravenel, ''Quand la gauche se réinventait. Le PSU, histoire d'un parti visionnaire 1960-1989'', La Découverte, Paris, 2016. {{Authority control Political parties of the French Fifth Republic Political parties established in 1960 Political parties disestablished in 1989 Social democratic parties in France 1960 establishments in France