Paul Brousse

Paul Louis Marie Brousse (French: [bʁus]; 1844–1912) was a French socialist politician. After training as a physician, he was radicalised by the events of the Paris Commune and joined the anarchist faction of the International Workingmen's Association (IWMA). After being expelled from the IWMA over his opposition to Marxism, he fled to Spain and participated in an attempted revolution in Barcelona. He then went to Switzerland and joined the Jura Federation of the Anti-Authoritarian International, in which he focused much of his time publishing propaganda for German speakers. He developed the theory of propaganda by the deed, became an early advocate of anarchist communism and proposed workers seize power in local governments.

After being expelled from Switzerland over his revolutionary political writings, he returned to France and became a leader of the possibilist movement, which advocated for social reform through municipal socialism. As the leader of the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (FTSF), he was elected to the Municipal Council of Paris and participated in the founding of the Socialist International. But he soon began to lose influence in the French socialist movement, culminating in a split in the FTSF after he expelled Jean Allemane from the party. He then gave way to a new generation of French socialists, led by Alexandre Millerand.