The PCF ( Parti Communiste Français) was placed in a very awkward position when the Germans and Soviets signed their Pact on August 23, 1939 . Until then it had been stridently anti-fascist, just like the German communist party, and the fascists resolutely anti-communist. Not only were they suddenly ( and with no warning or consultation from Moscow) supposed to switch their message, but as loyal supporters of Stalin ( now Hitler's ally) they were put in the position of aiding the sworn enemy of France, and so the Party and all Comintern-affiliated organizations were banned and the PCF kicked out of the government. Many of the leaders were arrested, or fled the country. Not surprisingly, some of the Party actually refused to go along with the about-face...... but the leadership that didn't leave the country or end up in jail stuck to Stalin.

That continued even after the French defeat of June 1940. Though it denounced the German occupation, the PCF kept away from asking its members to resist the German army. It instead focused most of its attention on opposition to the Vichy government. It had some small success with organizing strikes for higher pay ( though a significant coal mine strike in May of 1941 in the Pas-de-Calais resulted in a very heavy German crackdown) and managed some demonstrations. It tried to continue as a political party: it even continued to print the newspaper Humanité...after officially requesting permission from the Germans to do so! But the Vichy French government would continue to arrest Communist militants like the previous one- if Stalin kept the PCF from working against the Germans, the Germans did not seem to have tried to keep the Vichy government from going after the PCF.

The political history of the French Resistance is pretty complex. There were many different groups, from Royalists to Catholics to Communists. There were some that hated DeGaulle, some that loved DeGaulle, some that hated England , some that worked for England and were supplied by England. Some thought Petain was actually biding his time , trying to resist the Germans, some did not. And there were many different ideas as to what should be done, whether it was supply intelligence to England, distribute newspapers and propaganda, sabotage railways and other infrastructure, or actually attack the German occupying army. Organization was quite slow, and even after Jean Moulin unified much of the Resistance, never great. So, not surprisingly not all the members of the PCF were controlled by the leadership. There were some Party members who began a resistance, such as George Guingouin in Limoges, or simply dropped away from the PCF in revulsion, then came back after 1941.. But they were acting in line with their own consciences and not at all in line with the Party leadership. And of course after the War, there were plenty of PCF members who tried to claim that the Party had actually done far more , far earlier than Operation Barbarossa in 1941, after which it really did begin to go after the German occupation. In which exaggeration they joined lots of other members of the Resistance, of course.

Olivier Wieviorka: The French Resistance