Anarchism in France
Anarchism in France can trace its roots to thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who grew up during the Restoration and was the first self-described anarchist. French anarchists fought in the Spanish Civil War as volunteers in the International Brigades. According to journalist Brian Doherty, "The number of people who subscribed to the anarchist movement's many publications was in the tens of thousands in France alone."[1]
Anarcho-syndicalism[edit]
The Confédération nationale du travail (CNT) formed in April 1946 by French anarcho-syndicalists. Anarcho-syndicalism had been a tradition of the French anarchist movement prior to World War II, such as during the heyday of anarchism from the 1890s to World War II. After Communists overtook the French General Confederation of Labor in the 1920s, the anarcho-syndicalists had formed another organization, the Social Revolutionary CGT, which lasted through the beginning of World War II. French anarcho-syndicalists began publishing journals in 1945 and coalesced around the creation of the CNT the next year.[53]
Despite its early affiliation with the International Workingmen's Association (AIT), the CNT had minimal traction within the anarchist movement through the 1980s.[53] In the 1970s, the CNT had less than 100 members.[54] In this period, anarchists supported labor unions but largely did not support organizing an anarcho-syndicalist union as their main tactic.[53] Other anarchist organizations had some traction by the 1970s, such as the Anarchist-Syndicalist Union (UAS), with under 150 members, and the Syndicalist Alliance (SA), which grew to 50 subgroups and 3,000 subscribers from 1970 to mid-decade.[54]
The CNT saw renewed interest in the 1980s, with several hundred members by 1993. The union's participation in the 1995 French general strikes also expanded its footprint.[54] The organization split in 1993 over whether workers should elect workers to co-manage the workplace ("co-gestion"). The majority two-thirds formed the CNT-Vignolles (CNT-F) and the minority became the CNT-AIT. The latter was the faction officially acknowledged by the international anarchist federation. Both factions had periodicals by the same name, Combat Syndicaliste.[55]
1891:
Clichy Affair
1893-1894:
Lois scélérates
1894:
Trial of the Thirty
1894: An anarchist assassinates the French President:
Assassination of Sadi Carnot
1955: becomes the first person from Metropolitan France to be arrested for supporting Algeria.
Pierre Morain
2019: The (Libertarian Communist Union) is founded.
Union communiste libertaire
(1809–1865), philosopher
Pierre Joseph Proudhon
(1813–1869)
Anselme Bellegarrigue
(1821–1864)
Joseph Déjacque
(1830–1905), geographer
Elisée Reclus
(1842–1921), exiled in France
Peter Kropotkin
(1847–1922)
Georges Sorel
(1854–1939)
Jean Grave
(1858–1942)
Sébastien Faure
(1860–1931)
Émile Pouget
(1861–1938)
Han Ryner
(1864–1930)
Zo d'Axa
(1872–1963)
Émile Armand
(1885–1913), burglar and murderer
Léon Lacombe
(1875–1908)
Albert Libertad
(1879–1954)
Marius Jacob
(1888–1934), exiled in France
Nestor Makhno
(1893–1981), writer and activist
Charles-Auguste Bontemps
(1904–1988), anarcho-communist writer
Daniel Guérin
(1910–1987), historian, specialized in the labour movement
Jean Maitron
(1910–1991), activist and organiser of French Anarchist Federation
Maurice Joyeux
(1912–1994), philosopher, Law professor, Sociologist, Theologian, and Christian anarchist
Jacques Ellul
(1913–1960), writer and philosopher
Albert Camus
(1916–1993), singer-songwriter and poet
Léo Ferré
(1920–2010)
Georges Fontenis
(1928–2014)
Alexander Grothendieck
(1959), philosopher
Michel Onfray
See also Category:French anarchists.
(revolutionary-syndicalist, 1945)
CNT-F
(1979)
Action directe
(1979)
Anarchists Union
(1980)
CLODO
(SCALP, antifascist,1984)
No Pasaran
Communism in France
French Left
, an eclectic amalgamation of post-situationist and anarcho-communist ideas attributed to the Tarnac Nine
The Coming Insurrection
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ISBN
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Maitron, Jean
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Patsouras, Louis. The Anarchism of Jean Grave. Montreal. 2003.
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ISBN
Shaya, Gregory. "How to Make an Anarchist-Terrorist: An Essay on the Political Imaginary in Fin de Siècle France", Journal of Social History 44 (2010).
online
Sonn, Richard D. Anarchism and Cultural Politics in Fin-de-Siècle France. University of Nebraska Press. 1989.
Sonn, Richard D. . Penn State Press. 2010.
Sex, Violence, and the Avant-Garde: Anarchism in Interwar France
Varias, Alexander. Paris and the Anarchists. New York. 1996.
Non Fides - anarchist portal
Francophone anarchist federation
CNT France (Vignoles)
CNT France (AIT)
Radio Libertaire
Le Monde Libertaire
"The French Anarchist Movement" by Giovanna Berneri
article on the history of French Anarchism in the period 1950–1970 (in French)