Born in a working-class and peasant family in Paris, Georges Valois went to Singapore at the age of 17, returning to Paris in 1898.[2] In his early years, he was an anarcho-syndicalist. He found work as a secretary at L'Humanité Nouvelle where he met Georges Sorel.[2] Later, after a stay in Imperial Russia (1903), he worked as secretary at Armand Colin publishing house.
After having written his first book, L'Homme Qui Vient (The Coming Man), he met the nationalist and monarchist writer Charles Maurras and became a member of his Action Française, where he continued to follow the workers' movement. As his employment would have been compromised by an involvement in the far-right monarchist league, he took the pseudonym of Georges Valois.[2]
In 1925, Valois founded the weekly Le Nouveau Siècle (The New Century), which was seen by Maurras as a potential rival.[2] As a result, he lost his job at La Nouvelle librairie nationale. The rupture with Maurras became even more serious after his creation the same year of the Faisceau league.[2]
His long-term collaborator Jacques Arthuys was one of the leaders of the new league.[3] It was assisted by major entrepreneurs in their fight against the agitation of the French Communist Party (PCF). After some initial success (it was joined by such extremist figures as Hubert Lagardelle and Marcel Bucard), it disappeared in 1928, when Valois had already been excluded from the party. The middle class may have withdrawn its support because of its lack of confidence in fascism as a plausible solution for France or because it considered, following a trend established by the Roman Catholic Church (which in 1926 excommunicated the Action française), that the best solution was to infiltrate the Third Republic's institutions.
After the 6 February 1934 crisis, Valois founded Le Nouvel Age ("The New Era"), which he presented as a left-wing review, along with the Cahiers bleus. However, Le Nouvel Age promoted a post-capitalist economy using a corporatist economy.[2] In 1935, he attempted to join the SFIO, but was turned down although he was backed by Marceau Pivert.