Career
He was an alumnus of the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud. Active in the Syndicat National des Instituteurs (National Systems Investigation), a staunch supporter of laïcité and a pacifist after service in World War I, Pivert joined the Socialist Party (Personal) and then the French section of the Workers" International (SFIO) wing under Léon Blum (the section of the Party that had refused in 1920 adherence to the Communist International, as opposed to the new French Communist Party, Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party)). Witness to the spontaneous strikes around the country, Blum refused to allow for revolutionary conditions to arise.
However, he was contradicted by the communist press organ L"Humanité (the Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party) was a backer of the Blum government).
The communist editorial read: Non! ("Number!
The Gauche Révolutionnaire left the SFIO to establish the Workers and Peasants" Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste Ouvrier et Paysan, PSOP), which had a hard time finding a place in-between the Socialists and the Stalinists. The PSOP was part of the International Revolutionary Marxist Centre.
In 1940, the PSOP was outlawed after the fall of France to Nazi Germany, through the orders of Vichy government leader Philippe Pétain. Pivert exiled himself to Mexico, and supported the French Resistance.
Returned to France after World World War II, he saw the PSOP divided between the wing that joined the Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party) (which had acquired prestige after its active contribution to the Resistance), and the one that joined the SFIO - he himself opted for the latter.
He became more moderate inside the SFIO, and his audience was curtailed. Pivert was regularly elected to the party leadership, but nonetheless stood for Algeria"s independence and was hostile to the creation of a European Defence Community (contrary to the party line). He antagonized the SFIO further after taking part in a delegation that visited the Soviet Union, and was voted out of his central position.
According to some, Pivert had projected joining the new Parti Socialiste Autonome (PSA) created by Édouard Depreux and Alain Savary, but died before being able to carry out the merger.
However, most of his followers in the SFIO entered the PSA later in 1958.