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The Tours Congress was the 18th National Congress of 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 ...
, or SFIO, which took place in
Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...
on 25–30 December 1920. During the Congress, the majority voted to join the Third International and create the French Section of the Communist International, which became the French Communist Party in 1921. The SFIO divided itself in three factions during the Congress: * The larger one gathered those who had accepted the Third International's 21 Conditions behind Fernand Loriot, Boris Souvarine, Ludovic Frossard, and Marcel Cachin. They did not, however, accept all of
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
's conditions, and no vote on the matter took place. This left-wing faction, formed by the younger leaders of the party and most of the SFIO's members, obtained three-quarters of the votes and split away to form the French Section of the Communist International (''Section Française de l'Internationale Communiste'', or SFIC). They took with them the party paper '' L'Humanité'', founded by Jean Jaurès in 1904. '' L'Humanité'' remained tied to the party until the 1990s. * The second faction was led by a minority who accepted the adhesion to the Third International, but only under specific conditions. They finally allied themselves to the third faction. * The third faction led by Léon Blum and most elected socialists (including Paul Faure and Jean Longuet), who completely refused Lenin's conditions and preferred staying inside of the
Second International The Second International, also called the Socialist International, was a political international of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties and Trade union, trade unions which existed from 1889 to 1916. It included representatives from mo ...
. Blum, who would become
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
during the 1936–1938 Popular Front, famously declared: "Someone has to stay and keep the old house." Hence the SFIO split in two: the SFIC (3,208 votes) and the SFIO (1,022 votes). The next year, the CGT trade-union also split, with the creation of the Communist '' Confédération générale du travail unitaire'' (CGTU), which itself merged again with the CGT at the 1936
Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
Congress during the Popular Front. A young
Ho Chi Minh (born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...
, then known as Nguyen Ai Quoc, was present at the congress and made a speech decrying the exploitation of the French colonies, and supporting the proposal to join the Third International. Duiker, William J., '' Ho Chi Minh: A Life.'' New York: Hyperion. 2001. . p72-73


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Leon Blum's speech at Tours Congress
* ttp://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/france/1920/psf-tours.htm Humanité: ''French Socialist Party to Join the III International'' {{French Communist Party Congresses of the Socialist Party (France) Interwar France History of socialism 1920 in France French Section of the Workers' International 1920 conferences Tours, France December 1920 in Europe 1920s political conferences