Georges Valois

Georges Valois
Valois in 1925
Born	Alfred-Georges Gressent (1878-10-07)7 October 1878 Paris,France
Died	February 1945(1945-02-00)(aged 66) Bergen-Belsen concentration camp,Nazi Germany
Cause of death	Typhus
Nationality	French
Citizenship	French
Occupation(s)	Journalist and Politician

Georges Valois(real nameAlfred-Georges Gressent;7 October 1878 – February 1945) was aFrenchjournalistandnational syndicalistpolitician.He was a member of theFrench Resistanceand died in theBergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Life and career

Born in a working-class and peasant family inParis,Georges Valois went to Singapore at the age of 17, returning to Paris in 1898.In his early years, he was ananarcho-syndicalist.He found work as a secretary atL'Humanité Nouvellewhere he metGeorges Sorel.Later, after a stay inImperial Russia(1903), he worked as secretary atArmand Colinpublishing house.

After having written his first book,L'Homme Qui Vient(The Coming Man), he met thenationalistandmonarchistwriterCharles Maurrasand became a member of hisAction Française,where he continued to follow the workers' movement. As his employment would have been compromised by an involvement in thefar-rightmonarchist league, he took thepseudonymof Georges Valois.

In 1911, he created theCercle Proudhon,anational syndicalistgroup, and took direction of the publishing house of theAction française,theNouvelle librairie nationale,in 1912.TheCerclemixed Sorel's influence with theintegralismfavoured byCharles Maurrasand was overtlyanti-Semitic.According to the historianZeev Sternhell,thatideologywas the prefiguration ofItalian fascism.

In 1925, Valois founded the weeklyLe Nouveau Siècle(The New Century), which was seen by Maurras as a potential rival.As a result, he lost his job atLa Nouvelle librairie nationale.The rupture with Maurras became even more serious after his creation the same year of theFaisceauleague.

His long-term collaboratorJacques Arthuyswas one of the leaders of the new league.It was 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 LagardelleandMarcel Bucard), it disappeared in 1928, when Valois had already been excluded from the party. The middle class may have withdrawn its support because of its lack of confidence in fascism as a plausible solution for France or because it considered, following a trend established by theRoman Catholic Church(which in 1926excommunicatedtheAction française), that the best solution was to infiltrate theThird Republic's institutions.

Valois lost financial support, theFaisceauwas dissolved, he founded theRepublican Syndicalist Party(PRS). Jacques Arthuys was also a leader of the party.During the secondCartel des gauches(Left-wing Coalition), the party published theCahiers bleus(1928–1932), which hosted essays by widely-different personalities, includingMarcel Déat(a futureneo-socialistwho had been excluded from theFrench Section of the Workers' International(SFIO) who would later be acollaborationist),Bertrand de Jouvenel(co-founder of theMont Pelerin Society,aliberalorganisation that still exists),Pierre Mendès France(one of the young guards, orjeunes loups,of theRadical-Socialist Partywho would becomeFrench Prime Ministerduring theFourth Republic), andEdouard Berth.

After the6 February 1934 crisis,Valois foundedLe Nouvel Age( "The New Era" ), which he presented as aleft-wingreview, along with theCahiers bleus.However,Le Nouvel Agepromoted a post-capitalisteconomy using acorporatisteconomy.In 1935, he attempted to join the SFIO, but was turned down although he was backed byMarceau Pivert.

Valois took part in theFrench ResistanceduringVichy France.DuringWorld War II,he moved nearLyon,where he launched a culturalco-operativeproject.

Valois was finally arrested by theNazison 18 May 1944, and died in February 1945 oftyphusat the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Works

• La Monarchie et la classe ouvrière,1914
• L'Économie Nouvelle,1919
• La révolution nationale,1924
• L'État syndical et la représentation corporative, les semaines économiques et la campagne pour les états généraux 1920-1924,1927
• 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

See also

• Faisceauleague
• 6 February 1934 crisis

Further reading

• Yves Guchet,Georges Valois,L'Harmattan,2001,ISBN2-7475-1214-2
• Jean-Louis Loubet del Bayle,Les non-conformistes des années 1930,Points Histoire, Seuil, 2001,ISBN2-02-048701-2
• Zeev Sternhell,La droite révolutionnaire,Points Histoire, Seuil, 1978,ISBN2-02-006694-7(The Birth of Fascist Ideology,with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri, published by Princeton University Press, 1989, 1994 (ISBN0-691-03289-0) (ISBN0-691-04486-4)
• Zeev Sternhell,Neither Right nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France,Princeton Univ. Press, CaliforniaISBN0-691-00629-6

External links

• Inventaire Georges Valois
• Allen Douglas,From Fascism to Libertarian Communism,University of California Press, 1993.