286 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
286 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
HUMEURS NOIRES
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French Anarchist Federation
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B.P.79
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59370 MONS EN BAROEUL
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FRANCE
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E-Mail: HumeursNoires@lifl.fr
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This come from the group REFLEX in France.
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REFLEX: Reseau d'Etude, de Formation, de Liaison contre
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l'Extreme-Droite et la Xenophobie
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This review (and the people act against racism, fascism, laws against
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migrants,cops murder...)
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REFLEX, 14 rue de NANTEUIL, 75015 PARIS, FRANCE
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Reflexes international n 1(part 2/3)
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The red-brown scandal
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====================
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Earlier this year, a major scandal erupted in France over the
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exposed links between communists and the extreme right. Known as the
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Red- Brown scandal, these links sought to build the politics of
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national-bolshevism in France.
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The term national-bolshevism joins two very precise political
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concept. "National" is of course a reference to nationalism, that is
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to say an overvaluation of national characters, national independence,
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the unity of the nation , eventually integrating racial
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characteristics etc. "Bolshevism" refers to two different ideas; the
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first, strictly meaning the majority faction (Bolsheviks) of the
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social-democratic workers party in Russia. Thus bolshevism refers to
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Leninism , or a possible interpretation of the works of Karl Marx and
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the organisational conclusions that the ideology draws, particularly
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in Lenin's major works; the necessity of a structured and disciplined
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party representing the avant garde of the proletariat and leading it
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during a revolution. But more generally, bolshevism refers to a
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political and economic system established after the taking of power by
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the Bolsheviks in October 1917, thanks to the progressive elimination
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of the workers' council system to which they were fundamentally
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opposed.1
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Logically, these two terms do not appear to have much in
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common, apart from being two bourgeois ideologies from the 19th
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century. However, European political evolution has seen national-
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bolshevism become a dominant movement. Thus in Germany,
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national-bolshevism designated the movement led by the Strasser
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brothers, and represented the left wing of the NSDAP (Nazi
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Party). Gregor Strasser, a trainee chemist, joined in the post-World
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War 1 period first the D AP then the NSDAP. His first years as a
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militant were deeply rooted for him in the themes that he would
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develop later; social inequality , extreme misery after the war, the
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humiliation of Germany, revolutionary fervour...
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At the end of June 1993, following an enquiry by the
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journalist Marieue Besnard and the novelist Didier Daeninckx, the
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French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine revealed links that united
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communists and richt extremists, notably concerning the collaboration
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of certain journals such as L'Idiot International and Le Choc du
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Mois.2 The relative failure of the auempt by the new riCht to
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infiltrate the classic right, the evolution of a section of members of
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GRECE 3 who joined the Front National, political chanCes(the fall of
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the Berlin Wall, the collapse of communism, the liberal consensus in
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Europe) led to new orientations; in 1 989 Robert S teuckers estimated
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that "the new right finds itself faced with a challenge - to renew its
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discourse, to monopolise the new intellectual paths (Foucault,
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Deleuze, Guattari, Gusdorf, Peguy etc), to create a transplant between
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the new ideological language and its existing . body" 5
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The Belgian new right were the first to study the German
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national- bolshevik Ernst Niekisch. Following that, one saw a
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flourishing in the new right press of references to philosophers and
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leftist writers, and the sometimes pure and simple theft of
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libertarian slogans criticising the consumer society and the ideology
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of work, for example.6 This with the aim, of course, of affirming
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ideas of inequality, of separate development, behind leftist
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terminology, but also of erasing the left-right opposition and making
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appear new "peripheral convergences fichtinc the world of merchandise
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and all the power of economic reason" . 7
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On 12 May 1993, Alain de Benoist of GRECE, pleaded for the abandonment
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of the left-right distinction, with him preferring the notion of a
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..centre" and a "periphery", the first being composed of a "dominant
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ideology", the second regrouping"all those who do not accept this
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ideolocy" (this being an adapted version of analyses on links between
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centre countries in the northern hemisphere and peripheral countries
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in the southern hemisphere). This speech would have been unremarkable
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if it had not taken place at a conference organised by Franceue
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Lazare, a member of the executive council of the French Communist
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Party. No one in the communist ranks found fault with any of that8 .
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A week later, the magazine Elements (published by GRECE)
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invited Marc Cohen, Communist Party member and editor of L'Idiot
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International, to come and speak there about the "recomposition of the
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French intellectual landscape" . Edward Limonov,9 editorial consultant
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at L' Idiot, also collaborated on Revolution, a weekly communist Party
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magazine aimed at intellectuals, like Le Choc du Mois, the extreme
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right monthly, modern, swaggerinC and intellectually agressive. 10
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Finally, last May, L'Idiot published the article Towards a
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National Front by Jean-Paul Cruse. This communist, a trade unionist
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and journalist on the daily leftist newspaper Liberation, proposed "an
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authoritarian politics of redressment for the country" which would
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rally "people of spirit acainst people of things, civilisation against
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merchandise - and the greatness of nations against the balkanisation
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of the world... under the order of Wall street, international Zionism,
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theFrankfurt exchange and the dwarfs of Tokyo". Decidely, a typical
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conspiracy theory. Because for Cruse "the destruction caused by the
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old left opens nothing new in the field". It would be necessary
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therefore "to forge a new alliance", a "front" to regrouP .,Pasqua,ll
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Chevenement,12 the communists and ultra-nationalists"' a new front
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for a "violent burst of industrial and cultural nationalism" . The
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national office of Cruse's trade union responded in a press release by
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affirming Cruse's right to freedom of speech and condemning his
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position, recalling that "these ideas are not those of the CGT" and
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that it fought them .'with all its might". Not by opportunism but by
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deep conviction. 1 3
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Anti- Americanism has always been in France a value shared for
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different reasons by most of the politicalforces. From Gaullists to
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Communists via the extreme right and extreme left, America finds
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itself accused of not being a true historical nation, of taking
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without understanding the principals of the Lumieres14 and the
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universal values of the French Revolution, and of wanting to dominate
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the whole of the planet. The collapse of communism and the Gulf War
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have revived this feeling. As Daeninckx noted in his enquiry.. there
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are strong convergences with nationalist-revolutionaries on anti-
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Americanism, the exaltation of nationalism, a radical critique of
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social democracy and the rejection of liberalism.
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It is thus certain that a current of national-bolshevism
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exists in France, fighting the consumer society, America,
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"international Zionism" and social democracy, but it is nothing
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new. Previously, in the 1970s, the organisation Lutte du Peuple,
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founded from a split in Ordre Nouveau, called on the spirit of
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national-bolshevism and used "a vocabulary copied exactly from that of
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the extra-parliamentary left, notably in its critique of capitalism
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and the bourgeoisie".l5 Today, the movement Nouvelle Resistance16 is
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the political expression of this cent and auempts to "implement a
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strategic line" for the "anti-system front" . The friendships of
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Nouvelle Resistance with different groups which call on the spirit of
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national-bolshevism in varyinc degrees in Russia are there to prove
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it. In their magazine Lutte du Peuple, theyoften make mention of
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different groups and alliances with themselves. The "hatred" of the
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West, and Yeltsin who is "selling off" Russia to the profit of
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capitalism, serve to spearhead a rapprochement between former
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communists and conservatives. One can cite Alexander Dugin (deputy
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leader of the National Bolshevik Front), one of the correspondents of
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Nouvelle Resistance in Russe, who congratulates himself on the
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"current Russian revolution where respectively the neo-communist
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nationalists represent the left wing and the neo-monarchists represent
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the right wing". This was also seen by Jean Thiriart17 and Michael
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Schneider (editor of the magazine Nationalisme et Republique l8)
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during a trip in August 1992 of which the objective was to make links
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with the opposition to Yeltsin. At the beginning of 1992, Alain de
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Benoist praised the birth of the magazine Dien (Today) which,
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following the example of Krisis in France, introduced "non-conformism
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and radicalism in the red-brown world and has as a slogan the search
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for a Russian and national third way". Regarding the anti-semitism of
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this magazine, it is necessary, according to de Benoist, to not
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exaggerate the content of it. One can also find this type of discourse
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in the former official communist publications. On demonstrations it is
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not unusual to see red flags and Tsarist flags side by side. Today,
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the opposition is structured, supported not least by the army. Stalin
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has been rehabilitated and one can seen in the different publications
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of the extreme right (Lutte du Peuple, and the Italian magazine Orion)
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articles that refer to the "little father of the people".
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Following the example of Jean-Paul Cruse, the French Com
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munist Party has often developed a clear anti- Americanism . The great
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American devil on the one hand, the great Soviet brother on the
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other... The "communist collective of media workers" (The French
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communist Party) complained in a communique of 8 July 1993 about the
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witch hunt being made acainst one of its members (Marc Cohen) and
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which aimed "to block all political debate linking the question of
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nationalsovereicnty against American hegemony, and the historic values
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of the international workers' movement". It is well known that
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countries in eastern Europe have ardently defended these values.The
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red-brown rapprochement is a remake from the 1930s. Let us remember J
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acques Doriot, the national-populist who split from the Communist
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Party in order to found the Parti Populaire Frangais and went on to
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become a nazi collaborator. As at this time, there is today a cent
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inside the heart of the French communist Party which promotes a
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nationalist and populist discourse.
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Those who put so much effort into denouncing the convergence between reds and
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browns often forget the ideological wanderings of their own circle. Through the
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magazine Krisis many contacts have been established between intellectuals of
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the new right and those of the left. During the summer of 1988, Krisis, edited
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by Alain de Benoist, broke the intellectual isolation of the new right and
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established its ideologicalhegemony. Leftist thinkers were as much involved
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as the ideologues of GRECE. The beginning of this exercise was marked by
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manipulation, then the magazine published articles that had already appeared
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elsewhere, without the permission of the authors. B ut Roger Garaudy (also
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involved with Nationalisme et Republique), J ean -Michel Palmier, Andre
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Comte-Sponville, J ean-Frangois Kahn, Regis Debray, Jacques Domenach,Jacques
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Julliard, Bernard Langlois or even Claude Karenooh (who pretends to be a
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libertarian) 19 all work unremiuingly with de Benoist,
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and have participated without batting an eyelid at the magazine. Alain Decaux,
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former minister of the socialist Government, doesn't feel in the least
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bothered about siding with people like Jean Mabire, Jean- Jacques Mourreau and
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Pierre Vial, all three of whom who have passed through GRECE to the Front
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National.
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The ideological confusion due to a loss of political landmarks and
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referential marks on the left has - permiued the appearance of such
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contacts and placed it in that of reactionary ideolocy. In France
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today, the task of the left and indeed the anti-fascist movement must
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be to make a clear separation of the two ideologies of ationalism and
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bolshevism, and to expose those members of the left who seek to make
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alliances with the extreme right. A new political discourse of the
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left needs to be created to take up this challenge. Otherwise, our
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next f|hrer might be wearing a red shirt.
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Notes
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1 - The Soviets betrayed by the Bolsheviks, Rudolph Rocker.
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2. The first was founded by Jean-Edern Hallier. Le Choc is a monthly
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fascist magazine.
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3. A new right think tank led by Alain de Benoist, who is linked to
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all the key fascists in France.
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4. S teuckers is a multi -lingual lecturer and has played the role,
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since the departure of Guillaume de Faye in 1986, of deputy leader of
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the new right on the intellectual plain. He edits the magazine
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Vouloir.
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5. Robert Steuckers, Vouloir, no. 52-53, February-March 1989.
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6. Elements pour une culture europeenne, winter 1 992, no 7 5.
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7 . Elements pour une culture europeenne, spring l992, no 74.
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8. Rene Monzat, a leftwing investigative journalist who was present
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in the room, was the only one to speak out against this and was put in
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his place by Francette Lazare.
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9. Limonov has been since May 1993 the president of the
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National-Bolshevik Front in Moscow.
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10. A magazine for the r adical and national right in France.
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11. The hardline right wing interior minister in - the current French
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government.
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12. Socialist Minister for the army during the Gulf War , he was
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nevertheless opposed to this war , he resigned and left the Socialist
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Party. Afterw ards, he made a campaign against the Maastricht
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Treaty. Known for his nationalism and fervent patriotism.
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13. A propos d'un article publie par L'Idiot International",
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communique of the SNJ-CGT, 25 June 1993.
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14. The Lumieres were the key French thinkers and philosophers
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before the revolution, such as Voltaire,
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Montesqueiu and Rousseau.
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15. A radical nationalist right wing group in France.
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16. The main Third Position group in France today.
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17. A Belgian fascist and wartime collaborator who adapted
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nationalism- bolshevism during the 50s and 60s into a philosophy which
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he called national- community Europeanism.
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18, No longer published today, Nationalisme et Republique attempted
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to be a magazine of critical support for
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]ean-Marie Le Pen and the Front National, Towards the end it evolved towards
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a position very close to
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Nouvelle Resistance,
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19. All key intellectuals on the French left.
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**********************************************
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from REFLEX via HumeursNoires@lifl.fr
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***********************************************
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