Hidden financings. On the socialist uses of cooperation in the North of France at the turn of the 20th century

Financements occultés: sur les usages socialistes de la coopération dans le Nord au tournant du XXe siècle

Sylvain Celle (), Thomas Chevallier () and Vianney Schlegel
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Sylvain Celle: COACTIS - COnception de l'ACTIon en Situation - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne, TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - IEP Lyon - Sciences Po Lyon - Institut d'études politiques de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Thomas Chevallier: IRISSO - Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Sciences Sociales - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Vianney Schlegel: CERAPS - Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Administratives, Politiques et Sociales - UMR 8026 - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Using the case of the Union de Lille consumer cooperative as a starting point, and studying socialist cooperation in northern France more generally, this article examines the practices of discretion, dissimulation, and secrecy regarding the financing of partisan political activities at the turn of the 20th century. By revisiting the debates on the role that cooperatives should play in the political struggle and in the achievement of socialism, the study highlights the strategies of publicization and discretion mobilized by cooperative leaders with regard to the principle of systematically subsidizing political parties. Beyond these issues, the examination of the archives of the Union de Lille shows that certain decisions that jeopardized the cooperative economic model were hidden from the members, while the strategies of class alliance or alliance with Freemasonry were the subject of ambivalent representations, oscillating between ideological opposition and tacit or pragmatic acceptance in the name of the financing needs of the political struggle. Finally, all of the debates and practices analyzed can be related to the processes of structuring and professionalization of French political life: the constitution of a culture of secrecy around the issues of financing the political field reflects its autonomization, and the growing selectivity in access to its highest positions.

Keywords: socialism; cooperative movement; labour movement; political finance; culture of secrecy; socialisme; mouvement coopératif; mouvement ouvrier; financement de la vie politique; culture du secret (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04076805v1
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Published in Politix, 2022, 2022/2 (138), pp.127-151. ⟨10.3917/pox.138.0127⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04076805

DOI: 10.3917/pox.138.0127

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