The origins and rise of the Popular Front have been described many times: the Amsterdam–Pleyel movement, inspired by Barbusse and Rolland, and Bergery's Front commun in 1933, can be seen as abortive attempts to create a unified movement of the left; but it was the events of 6 February and the continued activities of the Leagues which made such a movement seem urgent and possible. Less well-known than this story is the formation of the Popular Front's programme, particularly of its economic and financial proposals. It would of course be absurdly restrictive to reduce the history of the Popular Front to a somewhat arid account of the negotiations which preceded the appearance of its programme. Much more than this it was above all an immense popular celebration punctuated by increasingly massive demonstrations and meetings, the Jemappes and Valmy of a new revolutionary epic occurring on the battlefields of republican Paris: ‘If we are equal to our destiny’ declared La Lumière ‘14 July 1935 will stand in the history of humanity alongside 14 July 1789’. But the largely secret negotiations to produce a programme of government for the left were not irrelevant to the spectacular public expressions of republican solidarity: it was precisely the lack of such a programme which had fated the left in 1932.