Yellow socialism

Yellow socialism has two meanings. It was an economic system proposed in 1902 by Pierre Biétry, as an alternative to the "Red socialism" advocated in Marxism. Yellow socialism was prominent until World War I, competing with Marxism for support among workers. "Yellow socialism" was also a Marxist term of abuse for all non-Marxist socialists.

After the war, the movement became absorbed into fascism, and the previously developed Austrian national socialism which from 1920 developed into Nazism.

Biétry envisioned workers organizing as part of a capitalist system, forming unions which would operate in parallel with groups of businesses (a structure similar to corporatism). Workers would get a greater share of company profits through negotiation between each union and the corresponding business group. Above this would be a strong authoritarian state.

Pierre Biétry had been a member of the Marxist French Workers' Party, but left it in 1900. Disappointed by the failure of "Red socialism" to improve the condition of the workers, he now advocated cooperation between organized labor and capitalist businesses. He called this "Yellow socialism", as a deliberate contrast to Marxist "Red socialism". In 1902, he founded the Fédération nationale des Jaunes de France ("National Federation of Yellows of France" - FNJF). Later, affiliated Swiss and German "Yellow" groups formed. All the "Yellow" groups were strongly opposed to Marxism.

The FNJF gained some support among more conservative workers when strikes by unions of the "Red" Confédération générale du travail (CGT) included violence.

In the next few years, Biétry added anti-semitism to the FNJF program, and the FNJF became entangled with the reactionary French right wing. Some of its members and organizers joined Action Française; other returned to the CGT. The FNJF held its last congress in 1909. Biétry went to Indochina and died there in 1918.

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