In
1889,
the
collapse
of
a
company
set
up
to
build
the
Panama
Canal
involved
several
members
of
the
government
in
a
corruption
scandal,
which
was
one
factor
in
the
dramatic
socialist
gains
in
the
elections
of
1893.
More
importantly,
the
urban
working
class
was
becoming
more
class-conscious
under
the
influence
of
the
ideas
of
Karl
Marx.
The
strength
of
the
movement,
however,
was
undermined
by
divisions,
the
chief
one
being
Jules
Guesde's
Marxian
Party.
Among
the
independent
socialists
was
Jean
Jaurès
,
who
joined
with
Guesde
in
1905
to
found
the
Parti
Socialiste
.
The
trade
union
movement,
unified
in
1895
as
the
Confédération
Générale
du
Travail
(CGT),
remained
aloof
in
its
anarcho-syndicalist
preference
for
direct
action.
In
1894,
Captain
Dreyfus
,
a
Jewish
army
officer,
was
convicted
by
court
martial
of
spying
for
the
Germans
and
shipped
off
to
the
penal
colony
of
Devil's
Island
for
life.
It
soon
became
clear
that
he
had
been
framed
-
by
the
army
itself
-
yet
they
refused
to
reconsider
his
case.
The
affair
immediately
became
an
issue
between
the
Catholic
Right
and
the
Republican
Left,
with
Jaurès,
Émile
Zola
and
Clemenceau
coming
out
in
favour
of
Dreyfus.
Charles
Maurras,
founder
of
the
fascist
Action
Française
-
precursor
of
Europe's
Blackshirts
-
took
the
part
of
the
army.
Dreyfus
was
officially
rehabilitated
in
1904,
with
his
health
ruined
by
penal
servitude
in
the
tropics.
But
in
the
wake
of
the
affair
the
more
radical
element
in
the
Republican
movement
had
begun
to
dominate
the
administration,
bringing
the
army
under
closer
civilian
control
and
dissolving
most
of
the
religious
orders.
The
country
enjoyed
a
period
of
renewed
prosperity
in
the
years
preceding
World
War
I,
yet
there
remained
serious
unresolved
conflicts
in
the
political
fabric
of
French
society.
On
the
Right
was
Maurras'
lunatic
fringe
with
its
strong-arm
Camelots
du
Roi,
and
on
the
Left,
the
far
bigger
constituency
of
the
working
class
-
unrepresented
in
government.
Although
most
workers
now
voted
for
it,
the
Socialist
Party
was
not
permitted
to
participate
in
bourgeois
governments
under
the
constitution
of
the
Second
International,
to
which
it
belonged.
Several
major
strikes
were
brutally
suppressed.
