In the middle of war they imagine the aftermath, peace while organizing the Resistance and its scattered impulses.
They have different and even opposing beliefs, but they have one essential thing in common, Resistance (with a capital letter). They build a program “who fights and who plans”. They borrow the title from an American song “Happy Days” which brilliantly sums up their project: HAPPY DAYS.
On May 27, 1943, in Paris, Jean Moulin brought together for the first time the “CNR” which led, on March 15, 1944, to a program that would lead to the largest cycle of economic and social reforms since the French Revolution. Conquests that have always been threatened ever since, always taken back and always to be defended.
But how does this kind of “common program” could have been adopted by representatives of such different and even opposing political tendencies and social circles? This is because, above all, they have a common enemy and above all they have a “common place”, France.
This year the program of the National Council of the Resistance celebrates its 80th anniversary. An anniversary not too celebrated in the country of Macron but nevertheless, an event which brought, according to a certain General de Gaulle, “changes of immense significance” : Social Security for all, retirement for older workers, public services, among others. Things that seem normal to us today, and of which we do not know the history, but which were obtained through a hard struggle, while the country was totally in ruins at the Liberation.
Today, in Macron’s country, the seventh largest economic power in the world, we could no longer ensure solidarity for all. Tireless propaganda has been putting this into our heads as evidence for years. A doxa, something that goes without saying, that cannot be discussed.
It is this same doxa that the CNR resistance fighters have victoriously exposed. From 1943, after the victory at Stalingrad, they understood that the tide had turned and that the war would end. But then what to do? What world do we want? It is this sequel that they imagine. Rather than digging into what separates them, they look for what they have in common, which is the key to their success. In particular, they manage, together, to wish “the establishment of a true economic and social democracy, involving the ousting of the great economic and financial feudalists from the direction of the economy. »
Without doubt the strongest and clearest sentence in this program.
The “feudalities” targeted were big business, which had mainly collaborated with the Vichy regime, and often with the Nazi occupiers. In short, those who had always
“preferred Hitler to the Popular Front”. These big bosses to whom de Gaulle – again – would have said, upon receiving them at the Liberation: “I haven’t seen any of you gentlemen in London… Well, after all, you’re not in prison. »
Later, concerning employers, he will give his definition of the CNPF
: “A pressure group serving private and powerful interests which used and abused the weakness of the State”.
This is what could sum up these 80 years, it is the program of revenge of big collabo employers, methodically by all means, think tanks, lobbies, polls, media… Privatization, relocation, destruction of the working force, they have not stopped waging this war. And there, they obviously accuse you of conspiracy. Except that one of them, Denis Kessler, spills the beans to the magazine Challenges
in October 2007:“Today it is about getting out of 1945 and methodically undoing the program of the National Council of the Resistance”
.
At the time, he was number 2 at MEDEF, deputy to Baron Antoine Seillière, boss of Wendel, heir to the master of the Forges. Today these “economic and financial feudalities”
hold the rudder of the world. Here they are perfectly compatible with the extreme right of Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour. Capitalism has always been fascist-compatible.
For a long time the fat capitalist has been the enemy of the skinny worker. During the sometimes violent social struggles, the employers let go and lost some feathers. But with the RN he no longer risks anything, on the contrary. The RN is the ally and protector of the capitalist, his brave watchdog. To the angry populace who approach the palace with pitchforks and scythes, he explains that the suffering of the people – which of course he shares – does not come from this good master but from this foreigner over there, this deceitful and Islamist metic who comes to take the bread from your mouth and veil and rape your daughters. And so here we go from social opposition to racial opposition, from class contempt to racial contempt. It must be said that for years the results of social struggles have been very meager. From the yellow vests to the huge demonstrations against pension reform, nothing has been conceded, not the slightest crumb. We conclude that the social struggle leads nowhere, it is a dead end. And we slide towards another adversity, the oldest in the world, that of the scapegoat, that of the strange stranger
as the cause of our misfortunes, the threat of the great replacement, today the Arab, tomorrow the Jew again, like yesterday the Rital, the Polak, the Espingouin, the Gypsy…
By blocking all avenues of social protest, Macron, the president of the rich, favors the extreme right for the greatest happiness of his world.
But there is also the limited effect of vaccines. It was with millions of deaths and unspeakable crimes from the Holocaust in Hiroshima that the vaccine was produced ” Never again “.
But 80 years later, it loses its effectiveness.
20 years ago, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the CNR program, the ATTAC association brought together some of the actors in this adventure, with Giv Anquetil we were to meet them.
All of them are gone today, but they are there.
This rebroadcast is a tribute and aims to be a reminder.
Daniel Mermet
Maurice Kriegel Valrimont
(1914-2006) MP. PCF. Resistant
Jean-Pierre Vernant
(1914-2007) Historian, Anthropologist
PCF activist. Resistant
Marc Ferro
(1924-2021) Historian. Teacher
Philippe de Charte
1919-2014. Politician. Resistant
Stéphane Hessel
1917-2013 Diplomat. Writer. Resistant]
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