The socialist movement for the United States of Europe: transnational socialism and the launching of the early European institutions

The object of this dissertation is to establish the existence and reach of the Socialist Movement for the United States of Europe (SMUSE). The SMUSE was a transnational group of socialists and federalists from a dozen European countries, counting notably Italian Socialist Mario Zagari, French cabinet member André Philip French President Guy Mollet, and Belgian Prime Minister Paul-Henri Spaak. The Movement’s members collaborated actively beginning in 1947 with a view to establishing a supranational European community operating on the basis of democratic majority. Founded in the United Kingdom, it was soon spearheaded by the French, in close collaboration with the French Socialist party. It established a relationship between the internationalist wing of the Labour party and Continental socialists in the late 1940s. In mid-1950 it became deeply involved in the campaign for the European Defense Community and the political umbrella under which the EDC would operate. Beginning in 1955, it functioned as a forum of coordination in the context of the Treaties of Rome. After the establishment of the European Communities, many of its adherents became leading members of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, and the Movement continued to function as a forum of socialist dialogue and networking into the 1990s.