Le Parti socialiste unifié

Founded in April 1960 by several political factions opposed to the conservative leadership of Guy Mollet over the Socialist Party (SFIO) — particularly Mollet's support of de Gaulle's war in Algeria. The founders of the PSU included three main groups — the Autonomous Socialist Party (PSA), a democratic-socialist group of about 8,000 members; Union of the Socialist Left (UGS), a (primarily Catholic) Christian socialist workers' group; and Tribune du communisme, an anti-Stalinist group that broke with the French Communist Party following the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary. After running in an electoral alliance in 1958, the groups formally fused on April 3, 1960.

           The PSU became the leading organization of the anti-war movement until France ended the war in Algeria in 1962. In 1963, the PSU became divided over the issues of parliamentary action (pro and con) and how to approach the next Socialist leadership of François Mitterand. Many PSU members wanted to join Mitterand's center-left Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS), while others did not trust Mitterand's motives. This continued to be a problem as Michel Rocard took over the party in 1967. The PSU's rank and file could make a decisive choice between revolutionary or reformist political stances.

          In May 1968, the PSU was the largest party to support the uprising of workers and students. From this point forward, the PSU was pointedly pulled to far-left and revolutionary politics. Its leaders began theoretically developing a system called autogestion, similar to Guild Socialism or Council Communism in its vocal support for a decentralized system where the workers managed production. Many PSU members also broadened their view of the working class beyond the traditional blue-color model to include white-color and other service workers. Further, the PSU advocated such New Left ideas as feminism.

          At its PSU congress of March 1969, the PSU put forward Seventeen Theses to draw more of the Mai68 participants into the party and prepare for a bigger version of Mai68 that would lead to a successful revolution. PSU activists also worked to draw in laborers from the (newly radcialized) labor federation CFDT. In the 1969 Presidential elections, Rocard received 3.7% of the vote in the first round. But as the new revolution didn't come, the party's rank and file began to become disillusioned with the leadership. Rocard was attacked by many currents on his left (Trotskyists, Maoists, and left-populists) for working with reformists and the old Communist Party.

          Numerous factions to Rocard's left and right began breaking off. The "maoïstes" formed Gauche révolutionnaire ("Revolutionary Left") and the Trotskyists currents within the party either joined the Communist League or Lutte Ouvrière. A group on the "right," led by Martinet, left the PSU and rejoined the Socialist Party. The dissintegration temporarily slowed down in 1972, when most factions decided to work with the leadership of the PSU to build the party instead of losing this opportunity to reach a nation-wide audience with their message. In the 1973 legislative elections, the PSU elected one deputy to the parliament.

          As the revolutionary spirit in France continued to dissipate, the PSU leadership ignited another split by supporting the Presidential campaign of Mitterand in 1974. Rocard himself, so convinced that the PSU's ideas of autogestion would be better achieved as a left wing in the Socialist Party (PS), that he initiated unity talks with the PS in 1974. The merger was soon rejected by two-thirds of the PSU rank and file, and Rocard left the party to join the Socialists in 1974. The remaining stump of the PSU rallied around Michel Mousel, electing him as the new secretary-general.

          The PSU continued to survive as a much smaller organization of activists through the rest of the 1970's and into the 1980's. However, in 1981, they fielded Huguette Bouchardeau for President; Bouchardeau would later become the Environmental Minister under Mitterand. In November 1989, the PSU fused with the Nouvelle Gauche pour le Socialisme, l'Ecologie et l'Autogestion (a group formed around dissident Communist Pierre Juquin) to form the "Red and Green Alternative" (AREV). In 1999, AREV merged with the Convention pour une Alternative Progressive (a split mainly from the Communist Party) to form Les Alternatifs.