DOI: 10.1515/tfd-2017-0013

THE FEDERALIST DEBATE Year XXX, N° 2, July 2017

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The Pro-European and Federalist Positions of the and the Foundation of the UEF Jean-Francis Billion

This article is for a large part a summary German historian, Walter Lipgens, specialist of a lecture at a symposium held at the of European integration, describes as Universities of Assisi and Perugia in 20131. “principally inspired by the ideas of the anti- This research followed a previous publication republican French milieux before the war with for a symposium at the University of Pavia marked tendencies towards authoritarianism on an almost unknown aspect of the French and antisemitism”3. He stresses that French Resistance, the clandestine founding in society was much divided between the occupied Lyons of the French Committee two wars, he recalls the proposals from the for the European Federation (CFFE)2, and it right-center of Aristide Briand to create will be followed by a more specific research the conditions of a real European entente connected with the Gaullist “Free ” going as far as a project of federal union related press or other French publications and established that the socialist left led by published in exile or out of the metropolitan Léon Blum had an analogous inspiration. territory during WWII. He denounces that at the extremes the What are the conditions or the reasons for the radical right often refused any action against beginning of the French Resistance and the Hitler, and on the other hand the communist progressive affirmation of a clandestine press? party (PC) outlawed since the signing of the Why is the Resistance far from spontaneous Germano-Sovietic Pact presented the future movement after the lightning victory of war as an“enterprise of capitalist brigands”to Germany in June 1940 and why does it appear share the territories and profits, with the risk first in the North where the Nazi occupation of a massacre between the popular classes. induces a first form of “patriotic” opposition Lipgens, then, adds that a certain number while it is rather late coming in the South-zone of intellectuals, sometimes connected with where the army of occupation is less present the Christian Personalism (for example the and where the majority of the population Catholic writer Jacques Maritain, the Director seems to be satisfied, until the autumn of 1941 of the Revue Esprit, Emmanuel Mounier, the with the apparent autonomy of the Maréchal Swiss writer Denis de Rougemont, the non- Petain’s regime? conformist Alexandre Marc …) considered before 1940 that the causes of the new war The context between the two wars. were due to the errors and severity of the The National Assembly at Vichy gives Petain Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 and the later the full powers on July 10th, 1940, 569 votes weaknesses of the Society of Nations, not for 80 against, to institute a new constitution universal and unable to have its decisions and realize a “National Revolution” that the applied and respected.These authors proposed 7

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as “objectives of war” the future creation of known what was hidden by the official press”, European governmental institutions able to and he adds that it was only from 1941 that take decisions and if necessary to enforce real were put in circulation that them without the agreement of the national intended to be monthly papers as organs of governments: the United States of Europe the more and more numerous Movements being seen as only competent in particular for with large networks of diffusion and well- defense and foreign policy. Blum, himself, in equipped printing presses. If Valmy and Petites the socialist daily The Populaire of October 14th ailes did not last long, for the North zone 1939 published an article in which he made Libération, La Voix du Nord et du Pas de Calais clear “the aims of war”which will remain those and Defense de la France, or for the South of the socialists. “We always back this way zone Libération-Sud, Franc-Tireur and to the same formula, the same conclusion: managed to survive until the “Libération”. the independence of the nations within a He also explains that all the Movements federated and disarmed Europe. Such are our were not structured around a . 'aims of war', and it means that such are for Some groups preferred editing only tracts, us the conditions of the peace”. But other brochures or short pamphlets and sometimes intellectuals, for example Albert Camus and simple internal bulletins or circulars. He his friend Pascal Pia, take their own position underlines that it is but progressively that from Algiers in 1939, for federal solutions; new titles will be added to the simple press they were close to “libertaires” and pacifist of the early days: “Their circulation will be milieux, both are going to become members of more limited but the political range will be the Combat movement and will be among the greater; other publications, thicker and better founders of the CFFE. written because written more carefully, are consecrated to the preparation of the future; These antecedents allow us to touch with one they include detailed studies on the situation finger the basic and central themes of the pro- of pre-war France and on the problems of the European articles of the clandestine press and present. These subjects are evoked mostly to of the immigrated French press... and even situate and back up their points of view on indeed the positions of a number of exiled the future. Such are... Les Cahiers de libération, authors. La Revue libre, Les Lettres Françaises. Thanks to these political reviews one passed from the The beginnings of the Resistance doctrine built up for the and the progressive development of to programs for its future Renovation. the clandestine press. The French major historian of the Resistance, It is only from the autumn of 1941 that Henri Michel quotes the first roneo-typed or significant clandestine groups appeared and printed bulletins under titles which appeared Lipgens reminds us that before there had with some regularity in in 1940 such as been “except in Alsace, three or four tracts or Pantagruel, En captivité, Resistance, L’Université pamphlet with little influence published by libre, and La France au combat and he confirms a few isolated men and often immediately that in the South-zone the awakening came confiscated by the French police”. Lipgens later “and it took the meeting at Montoire is also, and it is worth mentioning, the between Petain and Hitler (October 1940), for first European historian who stressed the weakening of the opinion”. He writes that the importance for the non-communist the first task of these bulletins was “to make Resistance of the debate on the future peace,

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and the place of Germany. Though in 1941- At least two other attempts took place under 42 many French men would think of Europe the influence of the socialist movements. as an idea monopolized by the Nazi type Jean Rous, a former secretary of Trotski in collaborationists, even though the Hitlerian Norway, had broken off with him and joined “New Order” was only a perversion of the the “Pivertistes” in 1939; in the autumn of ideal of European unity, Lipgens could write 1940, he founded with a few friends the that “Combat, the biggest and stronger group Movement National Révolutionnaire (MNR), its of Resistance in the South non-occupied zone publication La Revolution Française published before 1942, had inscribed the European idea three issues (sept 1940 to January 1941) and in its program even before 1942, together with has been classified among the first titles of the group at Toulouse Libérer et Fédérer”. the Resistance, after some initial hesitation. However, it was as early as June 1940 that Following the banning of the MNR by Vichy some groups timidly included the European and a short sojourn in jail, Rous joined Libérer dimension in their reflection. We may et Fédérer in Lyons. Pierre Rimbert and some give some examples. The “Front ouvrier comrades, sometimes coming from Socialism international contre la guerre” (International or Trotskism, with the ex key member of the Workers Front against War) distributed by PC and the Komintern André Ferrat, had in tracts a call to“German Workers and Soldiers” the 1930’s founded a dissident Marxist and in their own language, reminding them of anti-Stalinist group and Review: Que faire? At the proletarian solidarity and asking them to the end of 1940, Rimbert created in Paris the go back home; the FOI, a left wing socialist clandestine Notre Révolution, which became movement, had been founded in 1938 by the Notre Combat and finally Libertés, and it would British Independent Labour Party, the Italian become a weekly after the Liberation. Rimbert Maximalist , the French “Parti wrote a manifesto “Our Position” in October socialiste ouvrier et paysan” (PSOP, Workers 1940, of which I will quote the last lines: “Liberty and Farmers Socialist Party), a scission of the of the peoples to dispose of themselves,… to socialist Section Française de l’Internationale take advantage of the social crisis provoked Ouvrière (SFIO, French Section of the Worker’s by the present war, to overthrow the capitalist International) led by Marceau Pivert and other regime, to take over the power and collectivize small groups, mostly based in Europe. In the means of production, to insure the peace October 1940, some members of the North- of- forever by the abolition of frontiers and the France SFIO Federation founded“L’Homme constitution of a Federation of free peoples”. libre”(The Free Man,“Bulletin of working class Even before the creation of the MNR and information”); as early as November they Notre Révolution, a meeting of some of their wrote: “Peace cannot last only by the United future leaders took place at the end of 1940 at States of Europe freed from the chauvinism Toulouse. Victor Fay, a friend of Rimbert and of a minority of the rich and wealthy”. The Ferrat, remembers in his Memoirs:“I arrive at same month, Lipgens quotes the first copy of Toulouse where I am to meet my comrades of another bulletin, Pantagruel, published by the Que faire? (…) around Zacsas (…) and André Alsatian Raymond Deiss, who writes that“the Hauriou, a law-teacher, we are all together enemy is not the German people but Nazism, to react against the climate of dejection and Racism, the attacks against the Jews, the rallying to Pétain”; he says that a “small Churches and the Rights of man; (…) on the movement has been agreed on, Libérer et day of victory, France will have to be the first Fédérer around Gilbert Zacsas, Rimbert, to hold out her hand to the Germans”. Pierre Lochac and Rous to be established in

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Paris, Lyons and Toulouse. Its objective was to point of departure of a reflection later shared give the Resistance a revolutionary purpose by most of the non-communist Resistance”. leading at the same time to the liberation of the country, the renovation of the institutions The summer of 1941 saw the creation of two and preventing the reconstitution of the other important movements: at Lyons, Libération days before the defeat”. It seems there was a Sud by Emmanuel d’Astier de la Vigerie, and in meeting at the end of June 1940 between the Paris, Défense de la France by Philippe Viannay future founders of the MNR, Notre Révolution, and Robert Salmon. In November Liberté Libérer et Féderer and with Hauriou, later in writes that “Europe is the continent where charge of the Combat larger movement and the population is the most numerous, it is the Journal and one of the authors of its Manifeste. smallest, and 28 nations are crammed in it. With I linger over these initiatives for many of their the international division of work (…) these originators are among those who wrote the borders have become unbearable. They must most advanced texts on the Europe of after be suppressed. But each people will keep its the war, some of them being also among language, its habits, its customs in the equality the founders and principal organizers of the of Peoples and races in a fully democratic way”. CFFE, or being engaged in various founding A few weeks later Liberté was to merge with the movements of the French Union of Federalists, organization of Frenay to create what was going the French section of the UEF when it will be to be the main movement of the Resistance: created in Paris at the end of 1946. Combat. At the same time, at Toulouse were held the first meetings to found Libérer et In November 1940 a Christian Democrat, Fédérer with the Italian exile Silvio Trentin and François de Menthon, creates the movement Zacsas, while at Lyons the Alsatian Jean-Pierre Liberté (singular) in the South-zone; Lévy started Franc-Tireur. meanwhile, Henry Frenay, the future founder As far as the socialist SFIO is concerned, at the of Combat (after the war he will be General end of 1941 Socialisme et liberté is published Secretary of the UEF), and his friend Bertie monthly in the North-Zone; progressively in Albrecht diffuse from Lyons their Bulletin close contact with Blum, who was in prison, d’information (the first only in 18 copies!). At and under the responsibility of Daniel Mayer, the beginning of 1941, following an agreement the socialists will be restructured within the of Frenay with the North group who publishes Comité d’Action Socialiste (CAS) in the North Les Petites ailes du Nord, they decide to publish Zone, then in the South-zone from May 1942, jointly Les Petites Ailes in both zones. Lipgens they will express themselves in Le Populaire quotes an interesting remark of Frenay: which is re-edited. “One spring evening in 1941, as I worked on the next number of the Petites Ailes, I found Having presented this framework, I am short myself writing ‘what we want is a federation of space to quote from this point extracts that of equal states, including a Germany cured the interested reader will be able to find very of its megalomania’. That idea was going to soon on the site of the Presse Federaliste (www. create some surprise among many of my pressefederaliste.eu) or in the Acts published friends, who could not imagine the Germany by Peter Lang with short commentaries. We against whom we fought to become an actor may write that these few texts come from of the future Europe on an equal footing with some fifteen clandestine reviews and papers the other States. But this short sentence about on different groups in both zones, but do not Europe written in the spring of 1941, was the constitute an exhaustive anthology.

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The CFFE and the Federalist Conference resistants of various countries including of Paris in the spring of 1945 prior to two anti-nazi German women in exile. The the foundation of the supra-national UEF “Federalist Declaration of Geneva” was in December 1946. approved by the CFFE and by the Group The end of the hostilities and occupation are editing La Revue Libre (Franc-Tireur), then it coming near, together with the end of this was re-used in great part in the international article, but before I want to come back to the program of the local MLN. Spinelli, still CFFE, founded in June 1944 in Lyons under the banned from France as a former communist, German occupation, inside the Mouvement de went clandestinely to Lyons with his wife Libération Nationale (MLN) that progressively Ursula Hirschmann at the beginning of 1945 gathers all the principal non-communist to meet Ferrat and the group who revolved movements of the Resistance of the two zones. around him at Lyon libre, the local daily of the The initiative is due to Ferrat of Franc-Tireur, MLN. Their aim was to organize a federalist who as early as the end of 1942, probably at conference in Paris after the Liberation. The the head of a clandestine federalist committee, meeting is positive and Ferrat advises Spinelli tried to get in touch with the Italian anti- and Ursula to meet Camus, they go on to Paris fascist Altiero Spinelli with the intention to to meet Jacques Baumel, general secretary of organize a transnational federalist movement. the MLN, and Camus, both of them previous Deported to the Isle of Ventotene in the Gulf members of Combat and associated to CFFE of Naples after long years in prison, the former since its creation. The Federalist Conference of Communist Spinelli with the Liberal Ernesto Paris, convoked by Camus under the heading Rossi wrote the “Manifesto of Ventotene for of the CFFE, took place in March 1945 with a Free and United Europe”, which to this the presence of many French personalities day remains the best known of the Federalist and some foreign delegates. documents of the European Resistance. This At the same time, to return to a review text reached Rome clandestinely and was of the publications of the Resistance, the distributed from one prison to the next as CFFE at Lyons published the first of the early as 1941 (even before its first clandestine two issues of the Cahier de la Fédération edition prefaced by their socialist friend Européenne. The second published in Paris Eugenio Colorni in 1944); it seems that the will be used as the Acts of the Conference Manifesto was also known quite early by and published in August 1945 under the small groups outside Italy and particularly at aegis of the International Committee for the Lyons and Toulouse. At the beginning of 1944, European Federation (CIFE), created in Paris Ferrat finally succeeded in getting in touch to replace at this time the CFFE. One finds in via Switzerland with Spinelli and Rossi, who the summary well-known themes and names: went there after having founded the Italian “For a democratic European Union” from Movimento Federalista Europeo at Milan during the ex-leader of the PSOP Michel Collinet; the ephemeral regime of Admiral Badoglio and “The tasks of the French foreign politics” the return of the Germans. signed by A. Altier, one of the pseudonyms Ferrat and his friends, in this way, were of Spinelli; the “German Problem” by Altiero informed of the Federalist meetings in Geneva Spinelli; “Federalist Meditations the day after in the spring of 1944, with the complicity of San Francisco” on the creation of the United the federalist (and personalist) Jean-Marie Nations by the famous law professor Georges Soutou, member of the Representation of Scelle; “Europe Turns toward England” by the Gaullist “” in Geneva, with the Swiss François Bondy, one of the two

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international and clandestine contacts of the in the MLN or remain active in the press issued CFFE and an ancient of Que faire?; “Is the from clandestinity, even though some of them Federation anti-Soviet?” by Pierre Brizon, will progressively leave the federalist fight. the pseudonym of Lochac. This second and Finally, there is Francis Gerard, Secretary of last Cahier ends with a press review and the the CIFE, who a few months later, receiving the Resolution of the conference of Paris. unexpected visit of Henri Brugman, the Dutch Federalist and resistant, in his office of chief The first secretariats of the CIFE animated by editor of Libertés permitted to re-establish the Francis Gerard Kumleben, a German anti- contacts between the Federalists of different Nazi exiled at Paris in the 1930’s, is composed countries and envisage the foundation of the of various members of CFFE (Camus and the UEF at the Congress of Paris on the 15th and future high official Gaullist Baumel, Ferrat, 16th December of 1946. the future Christian Democrat Senator of A great number of newspapers of the non- the Rhône Maurice Guérin), Robert Verdier communist Resistance continued to be of the SFIO, the British labourist member of published, sometimes with new formulas and parliament John Hynd, Altiero Spinelli, Bondy sometimes under new titles. It was the case and the German anti-fascist Willi Eichler, of Combat, Défense de la France, Franc-Tireur, a refugee in London. Several of the French Libertés…, or even to-day La Voix du Nord or members still have important responsibilities Témoignage Chrétien.

Translated by Joseph Monchamp

1 Cf. J.-F. Billion, «Les revues de la Résistance française et l’Europe», pp. 359-396, in Communicating Europe – Journals and European Integration (1939-1979), eds. Daniele Pasquinicci, Daniela Preda and Luciano Tosi, Peter Lang, Bruxelles, 2013, p. 610. 2 Cf. J.-F. Billion, «Il Comité Français pour la Fédération Européenne: le radice, la fondazione i contatti», pp. 237-266, in, Altiero Spinelli il federalismo e la resistenza, eds. Cinzia Rognoni Vercelli, Paolo G. Fontana and Daniela Preda, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2012, p. 622. 3 Interested readers will find more information on quotations and sources in a next coming publication by UEF France on a symposium hold in Paris, 3 December 2016, at the occasion of the 70th Anniversary of UEF founding in 1946

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