Maurice Thorez

Thorez in 1947

Maurice Thorez (28 April 1900 – 11 July 1964) was a French politician and longtime leader of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 1930 until his death. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister of France from 1946 to 1947.

Quotes

1930s

• To those who said to them that we prepared disorder, the Radicals of the old school answered that they'd learned to distinguish between “the Communists, guardians of freedom, and the fascists, hateful enemies of that freedom.”
  • Fils du Peuple, Thorez’s autobiography, published 1937, 1970 edition

7th World Congress of the Comintern (1935)

Speeches by Marcel Cachin, Maurice Thorez, and Andre Marty at the 7th World Congress

• The name of the Bolshevik Dimitroff is pronounced with heartfelt gratitude and affectionate admiration by all those who want to unite in order to repel the brutal assault of fascism.
• There is no doubt that our struggle in France possesses great international significance. The future of the people of France and of the peoples of Europe, for many years to come, depends upon the issue of this battle and upon the outcome of our anti-fascist movement.
• Never before had a manifestation of such magnitude been witnessed in Paris.
• A mighty wave of discontent is rising through the country. In Paris and in the provinces, in spite of bans, arrests and dismissals, the demonstrations multiply, imposing and militant.
• The revolutionary upsurge is growing. Communist influence is increasing. That is why the French bourgeoisie is turning toward fascist dictatorship, is arming and inciting its mercenary bands.
• The failure to understand the role of fascism, which is at one and the same time a product of capitalist decomposition and the instrument of the brutal and violent offensive of capital against the working class, also resulted in a certain fatalism.