The Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party (Parti socialiste ouvrier et paysan, PSOP) was an ephemeral socialist

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 organisation in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, formed on June 8, 1938 by Marceau Pivert

Marceau Pivert

Marceau Pivert was a French schoolteacher, trade unionist, Socialist militant and journalist. He was an alumnus of the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud.-In the Socialist Party:...

. Its youth wing was the Workers and Peasants' Socialist Youth (Jeunesses Socialistes Ouvrières et Paysannes - JSOP).

It developed out of a left-wing faction that was expelled from the Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière

Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière

The French Section of the Workers' International , founded in 1905, was a French socialist political party, designed as the local section of the Second International...

(SFIO), and named itself Gauche Révolutionnaire ("Revolutionary Left"). Alongside moderate Marxists

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

, the party grouped Trotskyists

Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...

 (as an outcome of the French Turn

French Turn

The French Turn was the name given to the entry between 1934 and 1936 of the French Trotskyists into the Section Française de l'International Ouvrière...

) and Luxemburgists

Luxemburgism

Luxemburgism is a specific revolutionary theory within Marxism, based on the writings of Rosa Luxemburg. According to M. K...

 (such as René Lefeuvre

René Lefeuvre

René Lefeuvre was a French Luxemburgist.As an anti-Stalinist Marxist influenced by Rosa Luxemburg, he joined the Democratic Communist Circle led by Boris Souvarine. He later joined the "Revolutionary Left" tendency within the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière...

). Another well-known leader beside Pivert was Daniel Guérin

Daniel Guérin

Daniel Guérin was a French libertarian and author, best known for his work Anarchism: From Theory to Practice, as well as his collection No Gods No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism in which he collected writings on the idea and movement it inspired, from the first writings of Max Stirner in the...

, a figure of Libertarian Socialism

Libertarian socialism

Libertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production...

.

Internationally, PSOP was an affiliate of the London Bureau of left-wing socialist parties, which also included the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Independent Labour Party

Independent Labour Party

The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...

 and the Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 Workers' Party of Marxist Unification

Workers' Party of Marxist Unification

The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification was a Spanish communist political party formed during the Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil War...

 (POUM).

Appealing to a minority dissatisfied with both the SFIO and the French Communist Party

French Communist Party

The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...

 (PCF), PSOP was a revolutionary socialist party, and had between 8,000 and 10,000 members. It edited the paper Juin 36, named in memory of the 1936 general strike

General strike

A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...

 that caused the split between Pivert and the Popular Front

Popular Front (France)

The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...

 government.

The PSOP collapsed at the beginning of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, when it was outlawed by the Vichy regime

Vichy France

Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

. Most of its former members joined the French Resistance

French Resistance

The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...

, in groups affiliated with either the SFIO or the PCF or in L'Insurgé, an independent group around Lyon.