Jean Jaures Strategy Ideas

This thesis is a review of Jean Jaures's political thoughts and tactics. Antimilitarist, defender of Alfred Dreyfus and active supporter of the miners of Carmaux, Jean Jaurès was one of the most beloved pre war socialist leaders. Jean Jaurès was one France's first social democrats who in 1902 became the leader of the French Socialist Party. He was influenced by the eclectic socialism of Benoit Malon, which mixed the anarchist ideas of Proudhon and Saint-Simon with a more positive attitude towards the state and the republic. Jaurès'party opposed both Jules Guesde's revolutionary socialism and the Radicals under George Clemenceau.The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal that shook France and Jaurès'stance against the racist and militaristic bigotry had a positive influence in the development of reformist socialism in France. All his life Jaurès strove to achieve a compromise between reformists and revolutionaries in France. Jean Jaurès was devoted to the antimilitarist cause and strove to prevent the outbreak of the war by diplomatic means. He wanted to forge an understanding between France and Germany as a means to avert war. Jaurès believed that if the workers in both countries could be convinced to stage a general strike the war could be prevented.