Abstract
In an article entitled ‘Un Marx inédit!’ published in Le Mouvement socialiste in 1904 Edouard Berth commented that there existed a ‘veritable abyss’ separating the positivism of Comte from the historical materialism of Marx. The inspiration behind the two doctrines, he asserted,
was completely different: the first is essentially conservative, anti-revolutionary; it puts duty above right, order before justice and to understand this it is sufficient to see in action a positivist like A. Keufer! Is not the moderate, pacific, governmental direction that he would like to impress upon the workers’ movement radically opposed to the explicitly revolutionary direction that the syndicalists — those faithful interpreters of the essential ideas of Marx — wish to give to it?1
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Notes
E. Berth, ‘Un Marx inédit!’, MS, XIV, 1904, pp. 99–100.
See P. A. Carcanagues, Le Mouvement syndicaliste réformiste en France (Paris: 1912);
F. Challaye, Syndicalisme révolutionnaire et syndicalisme réformiste (Paris: 1909) and the special issue of Le Mouvement social, 87, 1974 devoted to ‘Réformismes et réformistes français’.
On Dumoulin see P. A. Arum, ‘Du syndicalisme révolutionnaire au Reformisme: Georges Dumoulin (1903–1923)’, ibid., pp. 35–62 and G. Dumoulin, Carnets de route (Lille, 1938).
A. Keufer, ‘Réfutation nécessaire’, RPI, VII, 1909, p. 65. This article was orginally published in La Typographie française, 1 June 1909.
G. Sorel, ‘Lettres de Georges Sorel à Edouard Berth’, Cahiers Georges Sorel, 4, 1986, p. 93.
The literature on Comte is vast but for an interesting recent analysis see R. Vernon, Citizenship and Order (Toronto: 1986), pp. 125–45. Much of the debate that has surrounded Comte has concentrated on the apparent gap between the first ‘positivist’ phase of his writings and the later ‘religious’ phase. It is significant therefore that the proletarian positivists, in opposition to Emile Littré, denied the existence of the break;
see E. Littré, Auguste Comte et la philosophie positive (Paris: 1864)
and E. Antoine, ‘Aperçu sommaire de la vie et sur l’oeuvre de M. Pierre Laffitte’, in P. Laffitte, De la morale positive (Paris: 1881), pp. 52–7.
See M. Sutton, Nationalism, Positivism and Catholicism (Cambridge: 1982).
Little has been written on positivism and the workers’ movement but see M. Perrot, ‘Note sur le positivisme ouvrier’, Romantisme, 21–22, 1978, pp. 201–4
and P. Boivin, Choix d’écrits (Paris: 1938).
Magnin, Jacquemin, Belpaume, Rapport à la société positiviste par la commission chargée d’examiner la question du travail (Paris: 1848).
See F. Magnin, Etudes sociales (Paris: 1913).
See P. Sorlin, Waldeck-Rousseau (Paris: 1966), pp. 246–52.
E. Laporte, F. Magnin and I. Finance, Le Positivisme au congrès ouvrier (Paris: 1877).
P. Laffitte, ‘Nécessité de l’intervention du positivisme dans l’ensemble des affaires humaines’, RO, I, 1878, p. 21.
P. Laffitte, op. cit., p. 18. For a more detailed exposition of Laffitte’s views see P. Laffitte, De la morale positive (Paris: 1881).
See M. Rebérioux, Les Ouvriers du livre et leur fédération (Paris: 1981). For a critical assessment of Keufer’s achievement see M. Harmel, ‘Auguste Keufer’, Les Hommes du Jour, 136, 27 August 1910.
A. Keufer, ‘Le 107e Anniversaire de la naissance d’A. Comte’, RO, XXXI, 1905, p. 279.
A. Keufer, ‘Discours prononcé par M. Aug. Keufer sur le tombe de Fabien Magnin’, RPI, III, 1907, p. 266.
A. Keufer, ‘Discours de M. Auguste Keufer’, RO, XXVI, 1902, p. 47.
A. Keufer, ‘Discours de M. Keufer sur la tombe d’Auguste Comte’, RPI, VII, 1909, p. 283.
A. Keufer, ‘Discours de M. Auguste Keufer’, RO, XXVI, 1902, p. 47.
A. Keufer, ‘Singulières déclarations’, RPI, II, 1907, pp. 435–6. This article was first published in VduP, 14 April 1907 and 5 May, 1907.
A. Keufer, ‘Discours de M. Keufer sur la tombe d’Auguste Comte’, RPI, VII, 1909, p. 289.
A. Keufer, ‘Discours de M. Auguste Keufer’, RO, XXVI, 1902, p. 49.
A. Keufer, ‘Hommage international à Auguste Comte’, RO, XXI, 1900, p. 323.
A. Keufer, ‘Discours de M. Auguste Keufer’, RO, XXVI, 1902, p. 49.
A. Keufer, ‘Discours de M. Auguste Keufer’, RO, XXVI, 1902, p. 48.
A. Keufer, ‘Discours de M. Auguste Keufer sur la tombe d’Auguste Comte’, p. 295. See also A. Keufer, ‘Discours de M. A. Keufer’, RO, XVI, 1898, p. 227.
A. Keufer, ‘Discours de M. Auguste Keufer’, RO, XXVI, 1902, p. 50.
A. Keufer, L’Education syndicale: exposé de la méthode organique (Paris: 1910), p. 15. This text was first published as a series of articles in La Typographie française beginning 1 July 1909.
A. Keufer, ‘Le syndicalisme réformiste’, MS, XV, 1905, p. 21.
F. Fagnot, Les Syndicats ouvriers en Angleterre (Paris: 1890).
For Fagnot’s own view of the syndicats see F. Fagnot, Les Attributions des syndicats ourvriers (Paris: 1897). Keufer’s preface was reprinted as ‘L’Histoire du trade-unionisme en Angleterre’, RO, XVIII, 1899, pp. 350–8.
A. Keufer, ‘Discussion sur la réglementation légale du travail’, RO, XXXI, 1905, p. 172.
A. Keufer, ‘Ce qui est licite et illicite en cas de grève’, in C. Gide (ed.), Le Droit de grève (Paris: 1909), pp. 73–99.
As Keufer himself acknowledged for the ‘Enquête sur l’idée de patrie et la classe ouvrière’ organised by Le Mouvement socialiste of the respondants he alone opposed anti-patriotism, see A. Keufer, MS, XVII, 1905, pp. 47–51.
A. Keufer, ‘L’Anti-militarisme et les syndicats’, RPI, IV, 1908, p. 99. This article was first published in La Revue syndicaliste, II, 1906, pp. 160–7.
A. Keufer, MS, XVII, 1905, p. 48.
L. Niel, Les Syndicats et la révolution (Paris: 1902).
L. Niel, La Journée de 8 heures (Paris: 1905).
L. Niel, ‘Les Réformes révolutionnaires’, La Revue syndicaliste, V, 1909, pp. 2–4.
L. Niel, ‘L’Antimilitarisme’, La Revue syndicaliste, II, 1906, pp. 157–60.
L. Niel, La Valeur sociale du syndicalisme (Paris: 1909).
A. Keufer, ‘L’Orientation de la CGT’, L’Humanité, 13 April 1909. See also A. Keufer, ‘L’Election de Niel à la CGT’, La Typographie française, XXVIII, 1 April 1909; A. Thomas, ‘L’Election de Niel’, La Revue syndicaliste, V, 1909, pp. 281–5 and V. Renard, ‘Notre Vote à la CGT’, L’Humanité, 12 March 1909.
E. Pouget, ‘Victoire ministérielle’, La Révolution, 25 February 1909. In La Révolution see also A. Merrheim, ‘Candidat d’Union’, 20 February 1909;
A. Merrheim, ‘Silence significatif’, 28 February 1909;
G. Yvetot, ‘Tout va bien!’, 1 March 1909;
G. Yvetot, ‘A l’oeuvre’, 9 March 1909.
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© 1990 J. R. Jennings
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Jennings, J. (1990). Reformist Syndicalism. In: Syndicalism in France. St Antony’s. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08876-8_4
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