Georges Valois
Encyclopedia
Georges Valois was a French
journalist and politician.
at the age of 17, returning to Paris
in 1898. In his early years he was an Anarcho-syndicalist
. He found work as a secretary at L'Humanité Nouvelle where he met Georges Sorel
. Later, after a stay in Imperial Russia (1903), Gressent worked as a secretary at Armand Colin
publishing house.
After having written his first book, L'Homme qui vient, he met the nationalist and monarchist writer Charles Maurras
and became a member of his Action Française
(AF) league, 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.
In 1911, he created the Cercle Proudhon
, a syndicalist
group, and took direction of the AF's publishing house, the Nouvelle librairie nationale, in 1912. The Cercle mixed Sorel's influence with the Integralism
favored by Charles Maurras
, and was overtly Antisemitical. According to historian Zeev Sternhell
, this ideology
was the prefiguration of Italian fascism
.
In 1925 he founded the weekly Le Nouveau Siècle (The New Century), seen by Maurras as a potential rival. As a result, he lost his job at the AF's publishing house, La Nouvelle librairie nationale. The rupture with Maurras became even more serious after his creation, the same year, of the Faisceau
league. The latter was the first overtly Fascist
party outside Italy
, 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, by which time Valois himself had already been excluded from the party. The middle-class may have withdrawn its support due to its lack of confidence in Fascism as a plausible solution for France, or because it considered, following a trend established by the Catholic Church
(which, in 1926, excommunicated
the AF), that the best solution was to infiltrate the republican institutions
.
Valois lost financial support, and after the dissolving of the Faisceau league in 1928, he founded the Republican Syndicalist Party
(PRS). During the Second Cartel des gauches
(Left-wing Coalition), this party published the Cahiers bleus (1928–1932), which hosted essays by widely different personalities, including Marcel Déat
(a future neo-socialist excluded from the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and then Collaborationist), Bertrand de Jouvenel
(co-founder of the Mont Pelerin Society
, a liberal
organisation that exists to this day), Pierre Mendès France (one of the young guards or jeunes loups of the Radical-Socialist Party, he was to become Prime Minister
of the Fourth Republic
), and Edouard Berth
.
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, which claimed to promote a post-Capitalist
economy, was nonetheless advertising itself as corporatist
. In 1935, he attempted to join the SFIO, but was turned down, although being backed by Marceau Pivert
.
He took part in the Resistance
during Vichy
. During the war
, he moved near Lyon
where he launched a cultural cooperative
project. Georges Valois was finally arrested by the Nazis on 18 May 1944, and died in February 1945 of typhus
at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
.
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...
journalist and politician.
Life and career
Born in a working-class and peasant family, Georges Valois went to SingaporeSingapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
at the age of 17, returning to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1898. In his early years he was an Anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
. He found work as a secretary at L'Humanité Nouvelle where he met Georges Sorel
Georges Sorel
Georges Eugène Sorel was a French philosopher and theorist of revolutionary syndicalism. His notion of the power of myth in people's lives inspired Marxists and Fascists. It is, together with his defense of violence, the contribution for which he is most often remembered. Oron J...
. Later, after a stay in Imperial Russia (1903), Gressent worked as a secretary at Armand Colin
Armand Colin
Armand Colin is a historically important French publishing house created in 1870 by Auguste Armand Colin. It quickly became the principal publisher in the world of education, including higher education, with works for students and faculty in the human sciences, economics and education...
publishing house.
After having written his first book, L'Homme qui vient, he met the nationalist and monarchist writer 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...
and became a member of his 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...
(AF) league, 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
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Georges Valois.
In 1911, he created the Cercle Proudhon
Cercle Proudhon
The Cercle Proudhon was a political group founded in France on December 16, 1911 by George Valois and Édouard Berth. It was to include such people as French writer Pierre Drieu La Rochelle.-History:...
, a syndicalist
Syndicalism
Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...
group, and took direction of the AF's publishing house, the Nouvelle librairie nationale, in 1912. The Cercle mixed Sorel's influence with the Integralism
Integralism
Integralism, or Integral nationalism, is an ideology according to which a nation is an organic unity. Integralism defends social differentiation and hierarchy with co-operation between social classes, transcending conflict between social and economic groups...
favored 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...
, and was overtly Antisemitical. According to historian Zeev Sternhell
Zeev Sternhell
Zeev Sternhell is an Israeli historian and one of the world's leading experts on Fascism. Sternhell headed the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and writes for Haaretz newspaper.-Biography:...
, this ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
was the prefiguration of Italian fascism
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
.
In 1925 he founded the weekly Le Nouveau Siècle (The New Century), seen by Maurras as a potential rival. As a result, he lost his job at the AF's publishing house, La Nouvelle librairie nationale. The rupture with Maurras became even more serious after his creation, the same year, of the Faisceau
Faisceau
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.-Creation:Contributors...
league. The latter was the first overtly 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...
party outside Italy
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...
, assisted by major entrepreneurs in their fight against the agitation of the 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). After some initial success (it was joined by such extremist figures as 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....
and Marcel Bucard
Marcel Bucard
Marcel Bucard was a French Fascist politician.Early career=...
), it disappeared in 1928, by which time Valois himself had already been excluded from the party. The middle-class may have withdrawn its support due to its lack of confidence in Fascism as a plausible solution for France, or because it considered, following a trend established by the Catholic Church
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...
(which, in 1926, excommunicated
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
the AF), that the best solution was to infiltrate the republican institutions
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
.
Valois lost financial support, and after the dissolving of the Faisceau league in 1928, he founded the Republican Syndicalist Party
Republican Syndicalist Party
The Republican Syndicalist Party was a French political party founded on June 10, 1928 by Georges Valois following the dissolution of the fascist Faisceau party. The PRS counted among its members Charles Albert, a former anarchist who had turned neo-Jacobin, Jacques Arthuys, Hubert Bourguin and...
(PRS). During the Second Cartel des gauches
Cartel des Gauches
The Cartel des gauches was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers' International after World War I , which lasted until the end of the Popular Front . The Cartel des gauches twice won general elections, in 1924 and...
(Left-wing Coalition), this party published the Cahiers bleus (1928–1932), which hosted essays by widely different personalities, including Marcel Déat
Marcel Déat
Marcel Déat was a French Socialist until 1933, when he initiated a spin-off from the French Section of the Workers' International along with other right-wing 'Neosocialists'. He then founded the collaborationist National Popular Rally during the Vichy regime...
(a future neo-socialist excluded from the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and then Collaborationist), Bertrand de Jouvenel
Bertrand de Jouvenel
Bertrand de Jouvenel des Ursins, usually known only as Bertrand de Jouvenel was a French philosopher, political economist, and futurist.-Life:...
(co-founder of the Mont Pelerin Society
Mont Pelerin Society
The Mont Pelerin Society is an international organization composed of economists , philosophers, historians, intellectuals, business leaders, and others who favour classical liberalism...
, a liberal
Liberalism and radicalism in France
Liberalism and radicalism in France do not form the same type of ideology. In fact, the main line of conflict in France during the 19th century was between monarchist opponents of the Republic and supporters of the Republic...
organisation that exists to this day), Pierre Mendès France (one of the young guards or jeunes loups of the Radical-Socialist Party, he was to become Prime Minister
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
of the Fourth Republic
French Fourth Republic
The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems...
), and Edouard Berth
Édouard Berth
Édouard Berth was a major theorist of French syndicalism. Berth tried to unify the metaphysics of Marx and Bergson through his articulation of revolutionary self-organization of the proletariat....
.
After the 6 February 1934 crisis
6 February 1934 crisis
The 6 February 1934 crisis refers to an anti-parliamentarist street demonstration in Paris organized by far-right leagues that culminated in a riot on the Place de la Concorde, near the seat of the French National Assembly...
, 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, which claimed to promote a post-Capitalist
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...
economy, was nonetheless advertising itself as corporatist
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...
. In 1935, he attempted to join the SFIO, but was turned down, although being backed by Marceau Pivert
Marceau Pivert
Marceau Pivert was a French schoolteacher, trade unionist, Socialist militant and journalist. He was an alumnus of the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud.-In the Socialist Party:...
.
He took part in the Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
during Vichy
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...
. During the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he moved near Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
where he launched a cultural cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
project. Georges Valois was finally arrested by the Nazis on 18 May 1944, and died in February 1945 of typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
.
Works
- Basile ou la politique de la calomnie, 1927
- L'Homme contre l'argent, 1928
- Un Nouvel âge de l'humanité, 1929
- Finances italiennes, 1930
- Économique, 1931
- Guerre ou révolution, 1931
- Journée d'Europe, 1932
- 1917-1941 : fin du bolchevisme, conséquences européennes de l'événement, 1941
- L'Homme devant l'éternel (published posthumously), 1947
Further reading
- Yves Guchet, Georges Valois, L'Harmattan, 2001, ISBN 2-7475-1214-2
- Jean-Louis Loubet del Bayle, Les non-conformistes des années 1930, Points Histoire, Seuil, 2001, ISBN 2-02-048701-2
- Zeev SternhellZeev SternhellZeev Sternhell is an Israeli historian and one of the world's leading experts on Fascism. Sternhell headed the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and writes for Haaretz newspaper.-Biography:...
, La droite révolutionnaire, Points Histoire, Seuil, 1978, ISBN 2-02-006694-7 (The Birth of Fascist Ideology, with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri, published by Princeton University Press, 1989, 1994 (ISBN 0-691-03289-0) (ISBN 0-691-04486-4) - Zeev Sternhell, Neither Right nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France, Princeton Univ. Press, California ISBN 0-691-00629-6