French antimilitarism before World War I: Gustave Hervé and L'Affiche Rouge of 1905

Gustave Hervé's political emergence occurred amidst the Dreyfus Affair. This accelerated his radicalisation. By 1901 he attained notoriety for an apparent image of the tricolour on a dungpile. Soon, his antimilitarist movement called Hervéism attempted to unite the revolutionary Left. After soc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European review of history = Revue européene d'histoire 2012-04, Vol.19 (2), p.249-274
Main Author: Loughlin, Michael Burt
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affiche Rouge
Anarchism
Anti-militarism
antimilitarism
Biographies
European history
Fascism
France
French Revolution
Gustave Hervé
Herve, Gustave
Left
Left Wing Politics
Liberalism
Political action
Political Campaigns
Political history
Political movements
Radicalism
Revolutionaries
Social activism
Socialism
Socialist Parties
syndicalism
the Second International
Trade unionism
War
World War I
World War One
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Summary:Gustave Hervé's political emergence occurred amidst the Dreyfus Affair. This accelerated his radicalisation. By 1901 he attained notoriety for an apparent image of the tricolour on a dungpile. Soon, his antimilitarist movement called Hervéism attempted to unite the revolutionary Left. After socialist unification, Hervé led the most extreme faction and created a weekly newspaper, La Guerre sociale. In 1905 he joined the Association Internationale Antimilitariste (AIA) which issued a poster based on his ideas. His experience with the AIA presaged several transformations on the French Left. Before 1914 Hervé was a strident voice within European socialism, advocating revolutionary means to prevent war. Years of incendiary campaigns failed to implement his ideas. Despite his dedication, the quixotic Hervé grew frustrated with leftist divisions. His disillusionment arose from a naive reading of an anachronistic revolutionary tradition. Hervé's sincere, yet romantic and eclectic, socialism exhibited atavistic features. Before the war Hervé rallied to 'la patrie en danger'; in 1919 he created a French national socialist party. Such shifts have been tied to Fascism. Though some recent scholars have stressed the dangers posed by antimilitarism, this article documents a more ambiguous picture of Hervé's experience with the AIA and his later antimilitarist activities.
ISSN:1350-7486
1469-8293
DOI:10.1080/13507486.2012.663079