Unified Socialist Party

(USP; Parti Socialiste Unifié), a French political party founded on Apr. 3, 1960, through a merger of the Autonomous Socialist Party, the Union of Left-wing Socialists, and the political group Tribune of Communism. Uniting some socialists, left-wing Catholics, left-wing radicals, Trotskyists, and other groups, it has opposed the Fifth Republic. During the colonial war France waged in Algeria from 1954 to 1962, the USP was already inclined to ultraleftist phrasemongering and adventurism. This tendency grew stronger in the late 1960’s, and during the General Strike of May and June 1968 the USP supported the irresponsible actions of the leaders of the leftist student organizations and attacked the Communists.

As of 1975 the USP had a membership of 10,000, consisting mainly of students, the intelligentsia, white-collar workers, and the petite bourgeoisie. In parliamentary elections the USP receives only from 200,000 to 250,000 votes, but it has considerable influence with the country’s second largest union, the French Democratic Confederation of Labor, which is based on left-wing Catholic social principles.