Millerandism

Millerandism 

(ministerialism; “ministerial socialism”), a form of political cooperation between opportunist Socialist Party leaders and the bourgeoisie. The concept of Millerandism originated when the socialist E. A. Millerand joined the French bourgeois government of P. M. R. Waldeck-Rousseau in 1899. V. I. Lenin, who referred to Millerand’s action as “practical Bernsteinism” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 6, p. 8), noted that “Miller-andism in France was the biggest experiment in applying revisionist political tactics on a wide, a really national scale” (ibid, vol. 17, p. 23). The fierce polemics engendered by the “Millerand affair” reflected the sharp struggle between the opportunist and revolutionary tendencies in the French and international socialist movement. In France the followers of Guesde and Blanqui, who were opposed to Millerand, established the Socialist Party of France in 1901. In 1902 the supporters of Millerandism formed the French Socialist Party, which was headed by J. Jaurès. At the Paris Congress of the Second International (1900), K. Kautsky’s “rubber” resolution, which did not, in effect, condemn Millerand’s traitorous action, was adopted by a majority. Despite the resistance of the opportunists, the Amsterdam Congress of the Second International (1904) expressed its opposition to the participation of socialists in bourgeois governments.

B. L. VUL’FSON