Léon Nicole (10 April 1887 in Montcherand, Vaud – 28 June 1965 in Geneva) was a prominent trade unionist, journalist, politician and member of the Grand Council of Geneva and the Swiss National Council. In 1933, he was a member of the first Cantonal government in Switzerland with a Socialist majority and the first socialist ever elected to lead a Canton. He was elected the first President of the Swiss Party of Labour in 1944. In 1952 he was expelled from the Party of Labour because, over the opposition of most of the party's membership, he opposed Swiss neutrality on the grounds of the Zhdanov doctrine.[1] He accused his former party of Titoism, and in 1954 set up a rival communist party called the Progressive Party.
Early life
Nicole attended school in his home village and Orbe before leaving for further education in St. Gallen. He worked in the postal service from 1905 to 1919, stationed in Geneva from 1911 and was a union leader between 1919 and 1921. He was editor of several socialist newspapers including Labour and Workers' Voice.
Political career
Nicole joined the Swiss Socialist Party in 1909 and was active as a trade unionist. He was one of the leaders of the 1918 general strike in Geneva, was imprisoned and subsequently acquitted by a military court in 1919.[2]
In 1933, he was the first Socialist to be elected leader of a canton of Switzerland, when on 3 December he was voted into the Présidence (Presidency) of the Geneva Council of State, the executive body of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.[3]
References
^"Le Parti suisse du travail de 1944 à nos jours" [The Swiss Party of Labour, from 1944 to today]. Parti Suisse du Travail — Parti Ouvrier et Populaire (in French). n.d. Archived from the original on 2023-10-24. Retrieved 2024-09-01. Nicole était convaincu que la Troisième Guerre Mondiale avait en fait déjà commencé. Par là, il avait déjà anticipé ce que Andrej Jdanov avait proclammé en septembre 1947 lors de la création du bureau d'information des partis communistes et du travail (Kominform), à savoir la théorie des deux camps opposés et irréconciliables dans laquelle il n'y avait plus de place, ni pour une neutralité à la suisse, ni pour une coexistence pacifique. Cette position mena, au début des années cinquante, au conflit entre d'une part Nicole et ses amis et d'autre part, la majorité du Parti du Travail, conflit qui se termina par l'exclusion de Nicole à la fin de 1952. [Nicole was convinced that the Third World War had in fact already begin. On this point, he anticipated what Andrei Zhdanov went on to proclaim in September 1947, at the creation of the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (Cominform)—namely, the theory of two irreconcilably opposed camps which allowed no place for Swiss neutrality nor any peaceful coexistence. This position lead, beginning in the fifties, to conflict between Nicole and his friends on the one hand, and the majority of the Party of Labour on the other, ending in Nicole's expulsion in late 1952.]
[self-published source]
^Cerutti, Mauro (9 November 2010). "Léon Nicole". Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (in French). Retrieved 26 October 2019.
