L'Humanité

Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:Use dmy dates Template:Template other (; Template:Literally) is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organisation of the SFIO, de facto, and thereafter of the French Communist Party (PCF), and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, would not exist."

History and profile

Pre-World War II

was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, leader of the French Socialist Party (PSF), which merged the following year in the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO). Jaurès also edited the paper until his assassination on 31 July 1914.

When the SFIO split at the 1920 Tours Congress, the Communists took control of , which became the official organisation of the French Communist Party (PCF), despite its socialist origins, while the SFIO retained control of the minor daily Le Populaire. The PCF has published it ever since and owns 40% of the paper with the remaining shares held by staff, readers and "friends" of the paper. The paper is also sustained by the annual Fête de l'Humanité, held in the working class suburbs of Paris, at Le Bourget, near Aubervilliers, and to a lesser extent elsewhere in the country.

The fortunes of have fluctuated with those of the PCF. During the 1920s, when the PCF was politically isolated, it was kept in existence only by donations from Party members.

Louis Aragon started to write for in 1933, in the "news in brief" section. He later led Les Lettres françaises, the paper's weekly literary supplement. With the formation of the Popular Front in 1936, Template:'s circulation and status increased, and many leading French intellectuals wrote for it. was banned during World War II but continued publication secretly until the liberation of Paris from German occupation in 1944.

After World War II

The paper's status was highest in the years after World War II, when the PCF was the dominant party of the French left and enjoyed a large circulation. Since the 1980s, however, the PCF has been in decline, mostly due to the rise of the Socialist Party, which took over large sections of PCF support; circulation and economic viability of have declined as well.

Until 1990 the PCF and received regular subsidies from the Soviet Union. According to the French authors Victor Loupan and Pierre Lorrain (fr), received free newsprint from Soviet sources.

Post-Soviet Union

The fall of the Soviet Union and the continued decline of the PCF's electoral base produced a crisis for . Its circulation, more than 500,000 after the war, slumped to under 70,000. In 2001, after a decade of financial decline, the PCF sold 20% of the paper to a group of private investors led by the TV channel TF1 (part of the Bouygues group) and including Hachette (Lagardère Group). TF1 said its motive was "maintenance of media diversity." Despite the irony of a communist newspaper being rescued by private capital, some of which supported right-wing politics, director Patrick Le Hyaric described the sale as "a matter of life or death."

Since 2001, there has been speculation that would cease as a daily newspaper. However, in contrast to most French newspapers, its publication has actually since increased to about 75,000.

After 2001

In 2006, the paper created a weekly edition, . The same year had a circulation of 52,800 copies. In 2008, it sold its headquarters due to financial problems and called for donations. More than €2 million had been donated by the end of 2008. In 2020, had a circulation of 39,522 copies.

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Circulation	103,738	106,151	107,022	105,599	105,069	102,372	100,632	100,831	100,012	97,009	100,259	96,789

Fête de l'Humanité

The newspaper organizes the annual Fête de l'Humanité festival as a fundraising event.

See also

• History of French journalism

Further reading

• Victor Loupan and Pierre Lorrain: L'Argent de Moscou. L'histoire la plus secrete du PCF, Paris, 1994

External links

• Template:In lang Fête de l'Humanité: A weekend of politics and Rock'n'Roll – Radio France Internationale
• Template:In lang L'Humanité (official website)
• Template:In lang L'Humanité на русском языке
• Template:In lang Cinco Noticias - Actual L'Humanité en Español
• Template:In lang Regular French Press Review Template:Webarchive – Radio France International
• Template:In lang L'HumanitéTemplate:'s digital archives from 1904 to 1944 – Gallica, the digital library of the BnF (archived issues themselves are in French)
• Template:In langUnderground edition of L'Humanité (zone nord)Template:Dead link from 1939 to 1944 online in Gallica.
• Template:In langUnderground edition of L'Huma (Bobigny) online in Gallica.
• Template:In lang Underground edition of L'Humanité. Organe central du Parti communiste S.F.I.C. Ed. spéciale féminine. [Zone nord.] online in Gallica.
• Template:In lang "Our Goal", translation of Jean Jaurès' editorial of the first issue