Skip to main content

Primary sourceSpeech1906

The World's Famous Orations, Vol. 7: Debate on Socialism

Jean Léon Jaurès · 1906

A passage from an anthology of famous speeches that records Jean Léon Jaurès's 1906 speech in the debate on socialism with Clemenceau. It argues that the social conflict lies deeper than strikes.

Shows Clemenceau as Minister of the Interior in 1906, defending strike-suppression measures that a Socialist leader openly opposed in the Chamber.

Ask Georges Clemenceau about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Full text (Wikisource)

About this source

What it is

This is a passage from volume 7 of an anthology called The World's Famous Orations. It reports a speech by Jean Léon Jaurès in the 1906 debate on socialism with Clemenceau. Jaurès says the economic civil war appears in strikes but exists at the very bottom of a system of property that gives power to some and servitude to others.

Why it matters

In 1906 Clemenceau was Minister of the Interior. The passage refers to his measures to suppress disorders during great strikes, and to projects by M. Millerand on compulsory arbitration and collective contracts. Jaurès, then chief of the Socialist Party, uses the debate to challenge the idea that strikes could simply be ended by law. It shows how sharply French politicians disagreed about labour and property.

Look closer

  • Which words does Jaurès use for the conflict between workers and owners, and why does he call it a civil war?
  • Who is speaking here, and which opponents are named in the passage?
  • What does this anthology leave out, such as Clemenceau's own reply in the debate?

This speech is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Georges Clemenceau on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Georges Clemenceau sources

Meet the AI Georges Clemenceau →
Front cover of a printed booklet of the Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany, signed at Versailles June 28th, 1919, with a royal crest at the bottom and London publisher details. Tan cover with grey spine.Document

Primary source

Treaty of Versailles

28 June 1919

Black-and-white photograph of four men in dark suits standing on a stone step before a doorway. Left: a man with white hair talking with a man in a suit with a mustache. Right of them: a mustached older man with a bow tie, and a man with white hair at the far right. A Signal Corps stamp is visible at lower left.Photograph

Primary source

The Big Four at the Paris Peace Conference

Edward N. Jackson · 27 May 1919

Painting of a formal assembly in an ornate gilded hall with tall arched windows. Men in dark suits and some in military uniform sit and stand around a long table in the foreground, with a seated figure in the lower center.Painting

Primary source

The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 28 June 1919

William Orpen · 1919

Front page of the newspaper L'Aurore, Thursday 13 January 1898, with the large headline J'Accuse...! Lettre au Président de la République, par Émile Zola. Dense columns of printed text fill the page.Newspaper article

Primary source

J'accuse…!

Émile Zola · 13 January 1898

Painting of a bald man with a dark handlebar mustache, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and dark bow tie, with arms folded against a muted grey-brown background. Loose, sketchy brushwork.Painting

Primary source

Portrait of Georges Clemenceau

Édouard Manet · 1879-1880

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Georges Clemenceau now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions