The Possibilists (), also called Broussists (), were a faction of the French socialist movement led by Paul Brousse. Benoît Malon and others supported the faction although they did not always fully share its inspiring principles. It originated within the "Federation of the Socialist Workers' Party of France" (''Fédération du parti des travailleurs socialistes de France''), a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

-inspired organisation founded by Paul Lafargue, Jules Guesde and others, in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, in 1879. Brousse opposed Marxist tactics and proclaimed the reformist principle of directing everyday political activity towards achieving the goals that were concretely 'possible' time by time, while maintaining that socialists should keep always ready to jump at future revolutionary opportunities.Carl Landauer, "The Origin of Socialist Reformism in France"; ''International Review of Social History'', Volume 12 , Issue 1 , April 1967, pp. 81–107. The Possibilists soon won a majority within the Federation, inducing the Marxists to split and found their new French Workers' Party (''Parti ouvrier français'', POF) in 1882. The Federation was initially renamed the Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party, and then commonly the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (''Fédération des travailleurs socialistes de France''). In 1902 the small political party of the Possibilists and other groups united in the French Socialist Party, which three years later merged into the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (, SFIO) was a major socialist political party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the present Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representativ ...

(Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière'', SFIO).

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