Georges Fontenis Papers 1945-1975 (-2010)1945-1975

International Institute of Social History Cruquiusweg 31 1019 AT Amsterdam The Netherlands

hdl:10622/ARCH00422

Table of contents

Georges Fontenis Papers...... 3 Context...... 3 Content and Structure...... 3 Access and Use...... 4 Allied Material...... 4 Provisional list...... 5

International Institute of Social History 2 Georges Fontenis Papers 1945-1975 (-2010)1945-1975

Georges Fontenis Papers

Collection ID ARCH00422 Creator Fontenis, Georges Period 1945-1975 (-2010)1945-1975 Period (bulk) 1945-1975 Extent 0.75 m. Language list English Language of Material French

Context

Biographical Note Born in Paris 1920, died in Tours, France 2010; teacher; anarchist; during the Second World War active in the underground trade unionist movement; from 1945 member of the Fédération Anarchiste (FA), founded in the same year; general secretary of the FA 1946-1948, 1950-1953 and director of its weekly Le Libertaire ; founded and led the Organisation-pensée-bataille (OPB), a small secret group within the FA which quickly gained control over its membership in several regions; author of Manifeste du communisme libertaire advocating a synthesis between anarchism and some elements of Marxism, adopted by the FA at its Paris congress in 1953, which led to a change of name into Fédération Communiste Libertaire (FCL); the FCL existed until 1957 and took part in elections; Fontenis was again its leader until 1956; because of his agitation against the Algerian War imprisoned in 1957; from 1958 member of the editorial staff of La Voie Communiste ; in 1969, while living in Tours, Fontenis, together with Daniel Guérin, succeeded in re-aligning several old and new anarchist groups in the Mouvement Communiste Libertaire (MCL); in 1971 a part of the MCL merged with the Organisation Révolutionnaire Anarchiste (ORA) into the Organisation Communiste Libertaire (OCL); Fontenis' publications include `L'Autre communisme, histoire subversive du mouvement libertaire' 1990; died in Tours on the 9th August 2010 at the age of 90.

Acquisition Papers donated to the IISH by Georges Fontenis in 1992, see Annual Report IISH 1992, p. 58.

Content and Structure

Content Membership cards 1947-1955; correspondence (mostly incoming letters) with Lorenzo de Athos 1950-1951, Jean Boucher 1945-1947, Guy Bourgeois 1968-1969, Henri Bouyé 1950, 1969, André Breton 1951-1952, Rémy Dugne 1949-1954, Louis Estève 1951-1954, Robert François 1952-1954, Daniel Guérin 1970-1983, Robert Joulin 1951, 1956-1957, 1968, Louis Lecoin 1949, 1951, Marcel Lepoil 1946-1947, René Lustre 1951-1954, Saïl Mohamed 1952-1953, François Munoz 1952, 1958, Serge Ninn and Giliane Berneri 1947-1953, Marcel Pennetier 1945-1948, Fernand Robert 1946-1954, Michel Tanforti 1954-1955, Louis Vandendriessche 1963-1964 and others; correspondence with the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) in exile 1950-1951, the Internationale Communiste Libertaire (ICL), the Groupes Anarchistes d'Action Prolétarienne (GAAP) and anarchist groups in Italy, Germany, Spain and Switzerland 1954-1958; files concerning the FA 1947-1953, the FCL 1953-1956, the OPB 1952-1953, the Parti Communiste Français (PCF) 1958-1972, the Gérard Spitzer affair 1960, the Action Communiste 1957-1958, La

International Institute of Social History 3 Georges Fontenis Papers 1945-1975 (-2010)1945-1975

Voie Communiste 1959-1963, the Comité d'Initiative pour un Mouvement Révolutionnaire (CIMR) 1968-1969, the MCL 1970-1971, the ORA 1968-1971 and the OCL 1971-1975; some documentation on antimilitarism, the LIP factory in Besançon and education 1970-1973 and n.d.; pamphlets, leaflets and other printed material on the May-June events in Paris, Tours and Macon 1968.

Processing Information Provisional list made by Henk Hondius in 1992.

Subjects

Geographic Names France Spain

Persons Breton, André Dugne, Remy Guérin, Daniel Joulin, Robert Pennetier, Marcel

Organizations Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) in exile Groupes Anarchistes d'Action Prolétarienne (GAAP) Internationale Communiste Libertaire (ICL)

Themes Anarchist movements Exiles/Political refugees

Material Type Archival material

Access and Use

Access Not restricted

Preferred Citation Georges Fontenis Papers, inventory number ..., International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam

Allied Material

International Institute of Social History 4 Georges Fontenis Papers 1945-1975 (-2010)1945-1975

Related Material See also the Fonds d'archives communistes libertaires (FACL) in the Musée de l'Histoire vivante in Montreuil, France.

Provisional list

1 Letters from (and incidentally correspondence with) various persons. 1945–1987 ; personal documents, mostly membership cards. 1947–1955. 1945-1987 1 box 2 Various documents, including statutes and correspondence. 1947-1972. 1 box Official documents of the FA/FCL . 1947–1956 ; printed materials of the FA. 1951–1954 ; statutes and minutes of meetings of the OPB. 1952–1953 and n.d. ; correspondence with the Internationale Communiste Libertaire (ICL) , the Groupes Anarchistes d'Action Prolétarienne (GAAP) and other sister organizations in Italy, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. 1954–1958 ; address lists of the Action Communiste. 1957–1958 and n.d. ; texts and other documents against the Parti Communiste Français (PCF) and Leninism in general. 1958–1965, 1970–1972 ; file on the Gérard Spitzer question. 1960. 3 Documents concerning : the Comité d'Initiative pour un mouvement révolutionnair (CIMR) : report of the Conseil National 14–15 December 1968, and Bulletins de Revue. 1968–1969 ; MCL : official documents, texts, Groupe MCL Tours. 1970– 1971. 1968-1971. 1 box 4 Documents concerning : ORA. 1968–1971 ; OCL : texts, Conferences nationaux and OCL Tours. 1971–1975 and n.d. 1968-1971. 1 box. 5 Documents concerning: La Voie Communiste (Paris). [1959]–1963 ; texts AOA/ CAOP (i.e. Cercle Anarchiste Ouvrier et Paysan ). n.d. Plateform du Comité d'Action Révolutionnaire de Tours (CAR) . 1968 ; attempts to a re-alignment of the remnants of the FCL, the CAR de Tours and the Mouvement Révolutionnaire (MR) . 1968–1969 ; the Groupe MCL Tours. 1970 ; the Comité d'Action-Cheminots de Tours. 1970 . Various files concerning 'Education Permanente', antimilitarisme, the LIP Watch-factory Besançon and other subjects. 1971–1973 and n.d. Press clippings. 1949–1973. 1 box 6 Pamphlets, leaflets and tracts. c. 1960–1973, 1985.; Some regional anarchist and other leftist French periodicals. Various years.; Periodicals of anarchist and Maoist groups. 1968.; Autobiographical data. [1992]. 1960-1973, 1985, 1992 1 box NB. Contains also ' Georges Fontenis, Comunista Libertario (1920-2010). Una Figura Internazionale del Comunismo Libertario ci ha Lasciato'.

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