Socialists and Communists The degree of importance to be attached
to the alliance struck between the French Socialists and Communists for the purpose of opposing Fascism and war depends on whether it means that the Socialists are moving to the Left or the Communists to the Right. Since the tendency in France is habitually leftward the former assumption sugge3ts itself here, particularly as the Socialists are breaking away in any case from the Radicals, who stand immediately to the Right of them. But the position is a little changed now by the fact that Soviet Russia, and therefore in a lesser degree the Third International, is shedding much of its revolutionary reputation as it approaches the open portals of the League of Nations. Communists in France therefore can afford to divest them- selves of some, of their extremism, and they rather look like _doing it. There is to be no formal alliance between the two parties except for the purposes named, and some leading Socialists, including M. Leon Blum, are opposed to the rapprochement, but it has been carried through none the less, and the fact is significant. It will be more significant if an attempt is made to achieve a wider entente through the Second and Third Internationals.
* *
Previous page
