Schism and Solidarity in Social Movements

From the fall of the Paris Commune to the creation of the powerful French Communist Party, the French labor movement lurched between a pattern of ideological polarization and organizational fragmentation and one of broad-based solidarity. Ansell analyzes the dynamic interplay among political mobilization, organization-building, and ideological articulation that produced these shifts between schism and solidarity. The aim is to shed new light on the historical development of the French labor movement and to develop a more generic understanding of schism and solidarity in organizations and social movements.