Faisceau
Encyclopedia
Le Faisceau was a short-lived French
Fascist
political party
. It was founded on November 11, 1925 as a far right league by Georges Valois
. It was preceded by its newspaper, Le Nouveau Siècle - founded as a weekly on February 26, it became a daily after the party's creation.
, Eugène Mathon, Henri Massis and Xavier Vallat
, but after the foundation of the party it was the object of bitter attacks from the Action Française
, who considered it a potential rival, and most well-known names were intimidated. Barrès and Mathon were among those who remained.
The Faisceau had borrowed its name from the Italian
Fasci
and the National Fascist Party
(PNF), and also adopted their paramilitary
style - with uniform
s, staged ceremonies and parade
s; it also expressed admiration for Benito Mussolini
. Even extensive investigations by the French police failed to reveal any links, official or unofficial with the PNF and Italy. Many of its ideas were ones already established in the French far right
milieu, deriving mostly from the work of Maurice Barrès
. Valois claimed that Barrès' Le Cocarde had been the first Fascist newspaper.
es, rather than the existing "bourgeois
" state or the Marxist
proletarian state
) with a strong, authoritarian leader
. Thus, its stated aims included a coup d'état
and a dictatorship
, although it never took any concrete steps towards achieving these ends. Nor was it clear who the dictator was to be - Valois himself did not indicate a willingness to occupy the position, and Maxime Weygand
may have been the preferred candidate of some members of the Faisceau.
The Faisceau ran into serious problems almost as soon as it was founded. Valois - a former anarcho-syndicalist who had converted to Orléanism
and joined the Action Française (leaving the group after the World War I
) - and the industrialists
who financed the party, such as Eugène Mathon (the owner of a large textile firm) and the perfume manufacturer François Coty
all claimed to favour Corporatism
as the basis for economic organisation. Nonetheless, it soon became clear that they had rather different ideas about what the term meant. For Valois, it arguably meant a form of Producerism
, with an economy to be run by the producers (everyone involved in manufacturing
goods), whereas Mathon interpreted it as an amended laissez-faire
Capitalism
, where businessmen like himself should be in charge, with no interference by the state.
These differences led to Mathon and Coty leaving shortly after the foundation of the party, placing it in a precarious financial situation, made worse by the commercial failure of Le Nouveau Siècle following the Action Française's attacks.
was not his main enemy; he stated that Fascism had "exactly the same object as Socialism", even if he viewed the latter as flawed in its means of achieving that end.
The party tried to place itself above the Left-Right division
, but this particular outlook turned out to be a source of further problems. Most of its militants came from the right, particularly the far right (this serves to explain the Action Française's hostility: many Action Française militants joined Faisceau, being disillusioned with the lack of dynamism maintained by Charles Maurras
, the group's acute Roman Catholic
and Orléanist
conservatism
, and its primary functioning as a literary society
). It worked hard to recruit people from the left, with some success: notably, Marcel Delagrange, former French Communist Party
(PCF) mayor of Périgueux
, and the anarcho-syndicalist (and future Vichy Régime
minister) Hubert Lagardelle
.
These minor victories were never proportionate to the effort invested by the Faisceau, and the group failed to expand at the left's expense, while becoming the enemy of the right - unlike in Italy, the latter was strong and confident enough not to rely on Fascists against the left.
The Faisceau's aims were indeed radical, but its actions did not live up to them. The party did form paramilitary
"Légions" - but they usually functioned as self-defence against attacks by the Action Française's Camelots du Roi. They rarely clashed with police forces, and their only major engagement with the PCF was at the party's meeting in Rheims on June 27, 1926. Those who had joined hoping for revolution
ary action began to leave, and, by the end of 1926, the party was losing militants fast - a decline was hastened by the formation of a right-wing government under Raymond Poincaré
, and the stabilisation of the franc
.
The Faisceau ceased to exist in 1928. Valois himself, whose politics were becoming more left-wing, was excluded from the party, the remains of which founded the Parti Fasciste Révolutionnaire.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
. It was founded on November 11, 1925 as a far right league by Georges Valois
Georges Valois
Georges Valois was a French journalist and politician.-Life and career:Born in a working-class and peasant family, Georges Valois went to Singapore at the age of 17, returning to Paris in 1898. In his early years he was an Anarcho-syndicalist...
. It was preceded by its newspaper, Le Nouveau Siècle - founded as a weekly on February 26, it became a daily after the party's creation.
Creation
Contributors to Le Nouveau Siècle originally included Valois, Philippe BarrèsPhilippe Barrès
Philippe Barrès was a French journalist and the son of Maurice Barrès.He fought in World War I. He was a member of the short-lived Fascist party the Faisceau in the late 1920s. During the World War II he lived in the United States and wrote for French language journals...
, Eugène Mathon, Henri Massis and Xavier Vallat
Xavier Vallat
Xavier Vallat , French politician, was Commissioner-General for Jewish Questions in the wartime Vichy collaborationist government, and was sentenced after World War II to ten years in prison for his part in the persecution of French Jews.- Until World War II :Vallat was born in the department of...
, but after the foundation of the party it was the object of bitter attacks from the Action Française
Action Française
The Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...
, who considered it a potential rival, and most well-known names were intimidated. Barrès and Mathon were among those who remained.
The Faisceau had borrowed its name from the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Fasci
Fascio
Fascio, plural -sci /'faʃʃo, ʃi/ is an Italian word literally meaning "a bundle" or "a sheaf", and figuratively league, and which was used in the late 19th century to refer to political groups of many different orientations...
and the National Fascist Party
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
(PNF), and also adopted their paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
style - with uniform
Uniform
A uniform is a set of standard clothing worn by members of an organization while participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency services, security guards, in some workplaces and schools and by inmates...
s, staged ceremonies and parade
Parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind...
s; it also expressed admiration for Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
. Even extensive investigations by the French police failed to reveal any links, official or unofficial with the PNF and Italy. Many of its ideas were ones already established in the French far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
milieu, deriving mostly from the work of Maurice Barrès
Maurice Barrès
Maurice Barrès was a French novelist, journalist, and socialist politician and agitator known for his nationalist and antisemitic views....
. Valois claimed that Barrès' Le Cocarde had been the first Fascist newspaper.
Authoritarianism and Corporatism
They included a "national" state (i.e. for the benefit of all social classSocial class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
es, rather than the existing "bourgeois
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
" state or the Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
proletarian state
Dictatorship of the proletariat
In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a socialist state in which the proletariat, or the working class, have control of political power. The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the...
) with a strong, authoritarian leader
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
. Thus, its stated aims included a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
and a dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
, although it never took any concrete steps towards achieving these ends. Nor was it clear who the dictator was to be - Valois himself did not indicate a willingness to occupy the position, and Maxime Weygand
Maxime Weygand
Maxime Weygand was a French military commander in World War I and World War II.Weygand initially fought against the Germans during the invasion of France in 1940, but then surrendered to and collaborated with the Germans as part of the Vichy France regime.-Early years:Weygand was born in Brussels...
may have been the preferred candidate of some members of the Faisceau.
The Faisceau ran into serious problems almost as soon as it was founded. Valois - a former anarcho-syndicalist who had converted to Orléanism
Orléanist
The Orléanists were a French right-wing/center-right party which arose out of the French Revolution. It governed France 1830-1848 in the "July Monarchy" of king Louis Philippe. It is generally seen as a transitional period dominated by the bourgeoisie and the conservative Orleanist doctrine in...
and joined the Action Française (leaving the group after the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
) - and the industrialists
Business magnate
A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a capitalist, czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, oligarch, or industrialist, is an informal term used to refer to an entrepreneur who has reached prominence and derived a notable amount of wealth from a particular industry .-Etymology:The word magnate itself...
who financed the party, such as Eugène Mathon (the owner of a large textile firm) and the perfume manufacturer François Coty
François Coty
François Coty was a French perfume manufacturer, newspaper publisher, and founder of the fascist league Solidarité Française...
all claimed to favour Corporatism
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
as the basis for economic organisation. Nonetheless, it soon became clear that they had rather different ideas about what the term meant. For Valois, it arguably meant a form of Producerism
Producerism
Producerism, sometimes referred to as "producer radicalism," is a right-wing populist ideology which holds that the productive members of society are being exploited by parasitic elements at both the top and bottom of the social and economic structure....
, with an economy to be run by the producers (everyone involved in manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
goods), whereas Mathon interpreted it as an amended laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
Capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, where businessmen like himself should be in charge, with no interference by the state.
These differences led to Mathon and Coty leaving shortly after the foundation of the party, placing it in a precarious financial situation, made worse by the commercial failure of Le Nouveau Siècle following the Action Française's attacks.
Valois's version of fascism
Valois considered Fascism to be a revolt against "bourgeois rule", and as such it had much in common with Marxism - he described them as "brother enemies". The Faisceau never questioned the existence of private property, but Valois nonetheless felt that SocialismSocialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
was not his main enemy; he stated that Fascism had "exactly the same object as Socialism", even if he viewed the latter as flawed in its means of achieving that end.
The party tried to place itself above the Left-Right division
Left-Right politics
The left–right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions, political ideologies, or political parties along a one-dimensional political spectrum. The perspective of Left vs. Right is a binary interpretation of complex questions...
, but this particular outlook turned out to be a source of further problems. Most of its militants came from the right, particularly the far right (this serves to explain the Action Française's hostility: many Action Française militants joined Faisceau, being disillusioned with the lack of dynamism maintained by Charles Maurras
Charles Maurras
Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras was a French author, poet, and critic. He was a leader and principal thinker of Action Française, a political movement that was monarchist, anti-parliamentarist, and counter-revolutionary. Maurras' ideas greatly influenced National Catholicism and "nationalisme...
, the group's acute Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
and Orléanist
Orléanist
The Orléanists were a French right-wing/center-right party which arose out of the French Revolution. It governed France 1830-1848 in the "July Monarchy" of king Louis Philippe. It is generally seen as a transitional period dominated by the bourgeoisie and the conservative Orleanist doctrine in...
conservatism
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
, and its primary functioning as a literary society
Literary society
A literary society is a group of people interested in literature. In the modern sense, this refers to a society that wants to promote one genre of literature or a specific writer. Modern literary societies typically promote research about their chosen author or genre, publish newsletters, and hold...
). It worked hard to recruit people from the left, with some success: notably, Marcel Delagrange, former French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
(PCF) mayor of Périgueux
Périgueux
Périgueux is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.Périgueux is the prefecture of the department and the capital of the region...
, and the anarcho-syndicalist (and future Vichy Régime
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
minister) Hubert Lagardelle
Hubert Lagardelle
Hubert Lagardelle was a French syndicalist thinker, influenced by Proudhon and Georges Sorel. He gradually moved to the right and served as Minister of Labour in the Vichy regime under Pierre Laval from 1942 to 1943....
.
These minor victories were never proportionate to the effort invested by the Faisceau, and the group failed to expand at the left's expense, while becoming the enemy of the right - unlike in Italy, the latter was strong and confident enough not to rely on Fascists against the left.
The Faisceau's aims were indeed radical, but its actions did not live up to them. The party did form paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
"Légions" - but they usually functioned as self-defence against attacks by the Action Française's Camelots du Roi. They rarely clashed with police forces, and their only major engagement with the PCF was at the party's meeting in Rheims on June 27, 1926. Those who had joined hoping for revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
ary action began to leave, and, by the end of 1926, the party was losing militants fast - a decline was hastened by the formation of a right-wing government under Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Poincaré was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France on five separate occasions and as President of France from 1913 to 1920. Poincaré was a conservative leader primarily committed to political and social stability...
, and the stabilisation of the franc
Franc Poincaré
The Franc Poincaré is a unit of account that was used in the international regulation of liability. It is defined as 65.5 milligrams of gold of millesimal fineness .900...
.
The Faisceau ceased to exist in 1928. Valois himself, whose politics were becoming more left-wing, was excluded from the party, the remains of which founded the Parti Fasciste Révolutionnaire.