The Peace Movement's Last Stand

Despite rising international tensions, a substantial peace movement worked to prevent war. The Socialist International, meeting in Basel in 1912, had pledged that workers would refuse to fight their brothers across borders. French and German trade unionists held joint meetings, swearing solidarity against their warmongering governments.

Teachers, organized in their own unions, embraced pacifist pedagogy, using their classrooms to promote international understanding. The Ligue des Droits de l'Homme, born from the Dreyfus Affair, warned against militarism's dangers. Even some military officers, like Lieutenant Colonel Émile Mayer, questioned whether modern industrial war could achieve any rational political objective.

On July 31, 1914, Jean Jaurès made his final speech: "The ruling classes shriek 'patriotic duty,' but workers' duty is to prevent the crime of war. We still have time, comrades. Peace can yet prevail over the merchants of death."