Georges Pioch
| Georges Jules Charles Pioch | |
|---|---|
Pioch from Je sais Tout (1909)
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| Born |
9 October 1873 Paris, France |
| Died | 27 March 1953 (aged 79) Nice, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Known for | President of the International League for Peace |
Georges Jules Charles Pioch (9 October 1873 – 27 March 1953) was a French poet, journalist, pacifist and socialist intellectual. He was president of the International League for Peace from 1930–37.
Georges Pioch was born in Paris on 9 October 1873. He began writing, and published collections of poetry in the Mercure de France. He contributed to Paul Fort's review Vers et prose, and was associated with Saint-Georges de Bouhélier. His early works such as La Légende blasphémée (1897), Toi (1897), Le Jour qu'on aime (1898) and Instants de Ville (1898) received good reviews.
As a journalist, from 1900 Pioch wrote on literary and dramatic topics for the Libertaire. Pioch was editor of Gil Blas in 1910, and of Hommes du jour in 1914. He belonged to a group of intellectuals who were committed to the liberation of Alfred Dreyfus. They defended truth and believed that intellectuals should join with the people. In 1914 he contributed to the monthly review La Caravane. In his book 15 000 ! La Foire électorale (1914) he described the elections of 26 April 1914. He observed that the passion and solemnity of the events were more the work of art than of nature, and the heart was not present.
In 1915 Pioch joined the Socialist Party (SFIO). In 1917 Louise Bodin and Colette Reynaud founded the journal La Voix des femmes, to which the major feminists contributed including Nelly Roussel and Hélène Brion. The first issue of La Voix des Femmes appeared on 31 August 1917. Contributors included men such as Boris Souvarine and Georges Pioch as well as women such as Colette Reynaud. In March 1918, Pioch, Séverine, Han Ryner, Léon Werth, Gérard de Lacaze-Duthiers, Génold and Maurice Wullens founded Franchise, a short-lived pacifist and socialist weekly.
After World War I (1914–18) Pioch joined the Blacksmiths' Guild (Ghilde des forgerons), an actively pacifist intellectual organization. He prepared the literary program of an event sponsored by the Socialist party at the Trocadéro on 31 July 1919 where 8,000 people paid tribute to the war dead. On 23 October 1919 he participated in an event organized by the journal Clarté in favor of the Russian Revolution, where 5,000 people heard him speak. In 1920 Pioch was secretary of the SFIO's Federation of the Seine. Just after the end of the Tours Congress pacifist intellectuals including Pioch, Victor Méric and others took a position of opposition to all war, including defense of socialism. At Leon Trotsky's request, in November 1922 the Executive of the Communist International expelled Pioch from the Communist party.
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