- Georges Valois
Georges Valois (real name Alfred-Georges Gressent; 1878–1945) 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 toParis in 1898 [http://centre-histoire.sciences-po.fr/archives/fonds/georges_valois.html Biographical notice] on theSciences-Po website ("Centre d'histoire de Sciences Po - Georges Valois (Alfred-Georges Gressent) fr icon] . In his early years he was an Anarcho-syndicalist. He found work as a secretary at "L'Humanité Nouvelle " where he metGeorges Sorel . Later, after a stay inImperial Russia (1903), Gressent worked as a secretary atArmand Colin publishing house.After having written his first book, "L'Homme qui vient", he met the
nationalist and monarchist writerCharles 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 thepseudonym 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 byCharles Maurras , and was overtly Antisemitical. According to historianZeev Sternhell , thisideology was the prefiguration ofItalian fascism .In 1925 he founded the weekly "Le Nouveau Siècle" (The New Century), seen as Maurras as a potential rival . Henceforth, 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 outsideItaly , assisted by major entrepreneurs in their fight against the agitation of theFrench Communist Party (PCF). After some initial success (it was joined by such extremist figures asHubert Lagardelle andMarcel 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 The middle-class may have withdrawn its support due to its lack of confidence in Fascism as a plausible solution for France, or because it considered, following a trend established by the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 SecondCartel des gauches (Left-wing Coalition), this party published the "Cahiers bleus" (1928-1932), which hosted essays by widely different personalities, includingMarcel Déat (a futureneo-socialist excluded from theSFIO and thenCollaborationist ),Bertrand de Jouvenel (co-founder of theMont Pelerin Society , a liberal organisation which exists to this day),Pierre Mendès France (one of the young guards or "jeunes loups" of theRadical-Socialist Party , he was to become Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic), andEdouard Berth .After the
6 February 1934 crisis , Valois founded "Le Nouvel Age" (The New Era), which he presented as aleft-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 Socialist "Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière " (SFIO, French Section of the Second International), but was turned down, although being backed byMarceau Pivert .He completed his turn back to the left-wing by taking part in the Resistance during Vichy. During the war, he moved near
Lyon where he launched a culturalcooperative project . Georges Valois was finally arrested by theNazis on 18 May, 1944, and died in February 1945 oftyphus atBergen-Belsen concentration camp .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), 1947References
ee also
*"
Faisceau " league
*6 February 1934 crisis 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 Sternhell , "La droite révolutionnaire", Points Histoire, Seuil, 1978, ISBN 2-02-006694-7 ("The Birth of Fascist Ideology", withMario Sznajder andMaia 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 0-691-00629-6External links
* [http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/5870.html From Fascism to Libertarian Communism]
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