Summary

Like many organizations and social movements, the Third Republic French labor movement exhibited a marked tendency toward schism into competing sectarian organizations. During the roughly fifty-year period from the fall of the Paris Commune to the creation of the powerful French Communist party, the French labor movement shifted from schism to broad-based solidarity and back to schism. Ansell analyzes the dynamic interplay between organization, ideology, and political mobilization that produced these shifts between schism and solidarity. The aim is not only to shed light on the evolution of the Third Republic French labor movement, but also to develop a more generic understanding of schism and solidarity in organizations and social movements. This book builds on insights drawn from sociological analyses of Protestant sects and anthropological studies of segmentary societies, as well as from organization and social movement theory. Book jacket.