The origins of the modern anarchist movement lie in the events of the
French Revolution, which the historian
Thomas Carlyle characterized as the "open violent Rebellion, and Victory, of disimprisoned
Anarchy against corrupt worn-out
Authority". Immediately following the
storming of the Bastille, the
communes of France began to organize themselves into systems of local
self-government, maintaining their independence from the State and organizing unity between communes through
federalist principles.
Direct democracy was implemented in the local districts of each commune, with citizens coming together in
general assemblies to decide on matters without any need for
representation. When the
National Constituent Assembly attempted to pass a law concerning the governance of the communes, the districts instantly rejected it as it had been constituted without their sanction, causing the scheme to be abandoned by its proponents. In particular, the
sans-culottes of the
Paris Commune were denounced as "anarchists" by the
Girondins. The Girondin
Jacques Pierre Brissot spoke at length about the need for the extermination of the "anarchists", a group that did not form any political grouping in the
National Convention, but nevertheless were active participants in the revolution and vocal opponents of the nascent
bourgeoisie. The
Enragés were among the defenders of the
sans-culottes and expressed a form of
proto-socialism that advocated for the transformation of France into a directly democratic "Commune of Communes", a call later taken up by the 19th century French anarchist movement. The
Enragés attacked the bourgeoisie and the representational composition of the National Convention, which they opposed in favor of the
sectional assemblies. The conflict between the Paris Commune and the National Convention escalated into a "third revolution", as an insurrection was openly championed by the
Enragés led by
Jean-François Varlet, who desired to overthrow the convention and establish direct democracy throughout France. However, this attempted "revolution of anarchy" was defeated by the Girondins, partly due to a lack of support from the
Jacobin Club and the
National Guard. Nevertheless, the continuing escalation of the conflict and increasing radicalization culminated in the
Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, during which the Girondins were purged from the Convention and the
Montagnards took control, centralizing power in the hands of the
Committee of Public Safety and leaving the direct democratic ambitions of the
sans-culottes and
Enragés completely unfulfilled. With the beginning of the
Reign of Terror, the
Enragés underwent a campaign of repression by the committee, although the government also attempted to make some economic concessions in order to not alienate the
sans-culottes. The
Enragés leader
Jacques Roux committed suicide after being called to trial by the
Revolutionary Tribunal and by 1794 the
Enragés had all but disappeared from public view. The Committee subsequently began to move against sectional democracy and undertook a vast
bureaucratization of the state machinery, converting elected positions into ones appointed by the state and transferring power from the hands of the sectional assemblies into those of the government. The power of the
sans-culottes began to wane as the Terror intensified, with the
Hébertists and
Dantonists also being suppressed. Eventually, the
fall of Maximilien Robespierre brought an end to the Terror and the
Thermidorian Reaction began to rollback many of the revolutionary changes that had taken place. The lasted vestiges of revolutionary anarchism were expressed by the
Conspiracy of the Equals, which advocated for the overthrow of the
Directory and its replacement with a
communist society. In his
Manifesto of the Equals (1796), the proto-anarchist thinker
Sylvain Maréchal demanded "the communal enjoyment of the fruits of the earth" and looked forward to the disappearance of "the revolting distinction of rich and poor, of great and small, of masters and valets, of governors and governed." The Conspiracy's attempt to overthrow the Directory failed and its leader
François-Noël Babeuf was executed by
guillotine, but their ideas carried on into the 19th century. Following the
Napoleonic Wars and the
restoration of monarchy, socialist and anarchist ideas inspired by the
Enragés and
Equals began to replace republican ideals, setting up a new framework for French radicalism that began to reach an apex during the time of the
July Monarchy.
From the Second Republic to the Jura Federation , the first self-identified anarchist
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) was the first philosopher to label himself an "anarchist." Proudhon opposed government privilege that protects
capitalist, banking and land interests, and the accumulation or acquisition of property (and any form of
coercion that led to it) which he believed hampers competition and keeps wealth in the hands of the few. Proudhon favoured a right of individuals to retain the product of their labor as their own property, but believed that any property beyond that which an individual produced and could possess was illegitimate. Thus, he saw private property as both essential to liberty and a road to tyranny, the former when it resulted from labor and was required for labor and the latter when it resulted in exploitation (profit, interest, rent, tax). He generally called the former "possession" and the latter "property." For large-scale industry, he supported workers associations to replace wage labour and opposed the ownership of land. Proudhon maintained that those who labor should retain the entirety of what they produce, and that
monopolies on credit and land are the forces that prohibit such. He advocated an economic system that included private property as possession and exchange market but without profit, which he called
mutualism. It is Proudhon's philosophy that was explicitly rejected by
Joseph Déjacque in the inception of
anarchist-communism, with the latter asserting directly to Proudhon in a letter that "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature." An early anarchist communist was
Joseph Déjacque, the first person to describe himself as "
libertaire". Unlike
Proudhon, he argued that, "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature." According to the anarchist historian
Max Nettlau, the first use of the term libertarian communism was in November 1880, when a French anarchist congress employed it to more clearly identify its doctrines. The French anarchist journalist
Sébastien Faure, later founder and editor of the four-volume
Anarchist Encyclopedia, started the weekly paper
Le Libertaire (
The Libertarian) in 1895. Déjacque was a major critic of Proudhon. Déjacque thought that "the Proudhonist version of
Ricardian socialism, centred on the reward of labour power and the problem of exchange value. In his polemic with Proudhon on women's emancipation, Déjacque urged Proudhon to push on 'as far as the abolition of the contract, the abolition not only of the sword and of capital, but of property and authority in all their forms,' and refuted the commercial and wages logic of the demand for a 'fair reward' for 'labour' (labour power). Déjacque asked: 'Am I thus... right to want, as with the system of contracts, to measure out to each — according to their accidental capacity to produce — what they are entitled to?' The answer given by Déjacque to this question is unambiguous: 'it is not the product of his or her labour that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature.'"...For Déjacque, on the other hand, the communal state of affairs — the phalanstery 'without any hierarchy, without any authority' except that of the 'statistics book' — corresponded to 'natural exchange,' i.e. to the 'unlimited freedom of all production and consumption; the abolition of any sign of agricultural, individual, artistic or scientific property; the destruction of any individual holding of the products of work; the demonarchisation and the demonetarisation of manual and intellectual capital as well as capital in instruments, commerce and buildings. After the creation of the
First International, or International Workingmen's Association (IWA) in London in 1864,
Mikhail Bakunin made his first tentative of creation an
anti-authoritarian revolutionary organization, the "International Revolutionary Brotherhood" ("Fraternité internationale révolutionnaire") or the Alliance ("l'Alliance"). He renewed this in 1868, creating the "International Brothers" ("Frères internationaux") or "Alliance for Democratic Socialism". Bakunin and other
federalists were excluded by
Karl Marx from the IWA at the
Hague Congress of 1872, and formed in Switzerland the
Jura Federation, which met the next year at the 1872
Saint-Imier Congress, where was created the
Anarchist St. Imier International (1872–1877).
Anarchist participation in the Paris Commune In 1870
Mikhail Bakunin led a failed uprising in
Lyon on the principles later exemplified by the
Paris Commune, calling for a general uprising in response to the collapse of the French government during the
Franco-Prussian War, seeking to transform an imperialist conflict into social revolution. In his
Letters to A Frenchman on the Present Crisis, he argued for a revolutionary alliance between the working class and the peasantry and set forth his formulation of what was later to become known as
propaganda of the deed. Anarchist historian
George Woodcock reports that "The annual Congress of the International had not taken place in 1870 owing to the outbreak of the Paris Commune, and in 1871 the General Council called only a special conference in London. One delegate was able to attend from Spain and none from Italy, while a technical excuse - that they had split away from the Fédération Romande - was used to avoid inviting Bakunin's Swiss supporters. Thus only a tiny minority of anarchists was present, and the General Council's resolutions passed almost unanimously. Most of them were clearly directed against Bakunin and his followers." In 1872, the conflict climaxed with a final split between the two groups at the
Hague Congress, where Bakunin and
James Guillaume were expelled from the International and its headquarters were transferred to New York. In response, the federalist sections formed their own International at the St. Imier Congress, adopting a revolutionary anarchist program. anarchist
communard The
Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 (more formally, from March 28) to May 28, 1871. The Commune was the result of an uprising in Paris after France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War. Anarchists participated actively in the establishment of the Paris Commune. They included
Louise Michel, the Reclus brothers, and
Eugène Varlin (the latter murdered in the repression afterwards). As for the reforms initiated by the Commune, such as the re-opening of workplaces as co-operatives, anarchists can see their ideas of associated labour beginning to be realised...Moreover, the Commune's ideas on federation obviously reflected the influence of
Proudhon on French radical ideas. Indeed, the Commune's vision of a communal France based on a federation of delegates bound by imperative mandates issued by their electors and subject to recall at any moment echoes Bakunin's and Proudhon's ideas (Proudhon, like Bakunin, had argued in favour of the "implementation of the binding mandate" in 1848...and for federation of communes). Thus both economically and politically the Paris Commune was heavily influenced by anarchist ideas.". George Woodcock manifests that "a notable contribution to the activities of the Commune and particularly to the organization of public services was made by members of various anarchist factions, including the mutualists Courbet, Longuet, and Vermorel, the
libertarian collectivists Varlin, Malon, and Lefrangais, and the bakuninists Elie and
Élisée Reclus and Louise Michel." Reportedly, Michel told the court, "Since it seems that every heart that beats for freedom has no right to anything but a little slug of lead, I demand my share. If you let me live, I shall never cease to cry for vengeance." Following the 1871
Paris Commune, the anarchist movement, as the whole of the
workers' movement, was decapitated and deeply affected for years.
The propaganda of the deed period and exile to Britain Parts of the anarchist movement, based in Switzerland, started theorizing
propaganda of the deed. From the late 1880s to 1895, a series of attacks by self-declared anarchists brought anarchism into the public eye and generated a wave of anxieties. The most infamous of these deeds were the bombs of
Ravachol,
Emile Henry, and
Auguste Vaillant, and the assassination of the President of the Republic
Sadi Carnot by
Caserio. After
Auguste Vaillant's bomb in the Chamber of Deputies, the "
Opportunist Republicans" voted in 1893 the first
anti-terrorist laws, which were quickly denounced as
lois scélérates ("villainous laws"). These laws severely restricted
freedom of expression. The first one condemned apology of any felony or crime as a felony itself, permitting widespread
censorship of the press. The second one allowed to condemn any person directly or indirectly involved in a
propaganda of the deed act, even if no killing was effectively carried on. The last one condemned any person or newspaper using anarchist
propaganda (and, by extension, socialist libertarians present or former members of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA)): "1. Either by provocation or by apology... [anyone who has] encouraged one or several persons in committing either a stealing, or the crimes of murder, looting or arson...; 2. Or has addressed a provocation to military from the Army or the Navy, in the aim of diverting them from their military duties and the obedience due to their chiefs... will be deferred before courts and punished by a prison sentence of three months to two years. Thus,
free speech and encouraging propaganda of the deed or
antimilitarism was severely restricted. Some people were condemned to prison for rejoicing at the 1894 assassination of French president
Sadi Carnot by the Italian anarchist
Caserio. The term of
lois scélérates ("villainous laws") has since entered popular language to design any harsh or injust laws, in particular anti-terrorism legislation which often broadly represses the whole of the social movements. The United Kingdom quickly became the last haven for political refugees, in particular anarchists, who were all conflated with the few who had engaged in bombings. Already, the First International had been founded in London in 1871, where
Karl Marx had taken refuge nearly twenty years before. In the 1890s, the UK became a nest for anarchist colonies expelled from the continent, in particular between 1892 and 1895, which marked the height of the repression, with the "
Trial of the Thirty" taking place in 1894.
Louise Michel, a.k.a. "the Red Virgin",
Émile Pouget and
Charles Malato were the most famous of the many anonymous anarchists,
deserters or simple criminals who had fled France and other European countries. Many of them returned to France after President
Félix Faure's
amnesty in February 1895. A few hundred persons related to the anarchist movement would however remain in the UK between 1880 and 1914. The right of asylum was a British tradition since the
Reformation in the 16th century. However, it would progressively be eroded, and the French immigrants were met with hostility. Several hate campaigns would be issued in the British press in the 1890s against these French exiles, relayed by riots and a "restrictionist" party which advocated the end of liberality concerning freedom of movement, and hostility towards French and international activists.
1895–1914 Le Libertaire, a newspaper created by
Sébastien Faure, one of the leading supporters of
Alfred Dreyfus, and
Louise Michel, alias "The Red Virgin", published its first issue on November 16, 1895. The
Confédération générale du travail (CGT) trade-union was created in the same year, from the fusion of the various "
Bourses du Travail" (
Fernand Pelloutier), the unions and the industries' federations. Dominated by
anarcho-syndicalists, the CGT adopted the
Charte d'Amiens in 1906, a year after the unification of the other socialist tendencies in the
SFIO party (French Section of the
Second International) led by
Jean Jaurès and
Jules Guesde. Only eight French delegates attended the
International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam in August 1907. According to historian
Jean Maitron, the anarchist movement in France was divided into those who rejected the sole idea of organisation, and were therefore opposed to the very idea of an international organisation, and those who put all their hopes in
syndicalism, and thus "were occupied elsewhere". Only eight French anarchists assisted the Congress, among whom
Benoît Broutchoux,
Pierre Monatte and
René de Marmande. However, at the approach of the
1910 legislative election, an Anti-Parliamentary Committee was set up and, instead of dissolving itself afterwards, became permanent under the name of Alliance communiste anarchiste (Communist Anarchist Alliance). The new organisation excluded any permanent members. Although this new group also faced opposition from certain anarchists (including
Jean Grave), it was quickly replaced by a new organization, the
Fédération communiste (Communist Federation). The Communist Federation was founded in June 1911 with 400 members, all from the Parisian region.
Autonomie Individuelle was an individualist anarchist publication that ran from 1887 to 1888. It was edited by Jean-Baptiste Louiche, Charles Schæffer and Georges Deherme. Later, this tradition continued with such intellectuals as
Albert Libertad,
André Lorulot,
Émile Armand,
Victor Serge,
Zo d'Axa and
Rirette Maîtrejean, who developed theory in the main individualist anarchist journal in France, ''
L'Anarchie in 1905. Outside this journal, Han Ryner wrote Petit Manuel individualiste
(1903). Later appeared the journal L'En-Dehors'' created by Zo d'Axa in 1891. French individualist circles had a strong sense of personal libertarianism and experimentation.
Naturism and
free love contents started to have an influence in individualist anarchist circles and from there it expanded to the rest of anarchism also appearing in Spanish individualist anarchist groups. Anarchist naturism was promoted by
Henri Zisly,
Émile Gravelle and
Georges Butaud. Butaud was an individualist "partisan of the
milieux libres, publisher of "Flambeau" ("an enemy of authority") in 1901 in Vienna. Most of his energies were devoted to creating anarchist colonies (communautés expérimentales) in which he participated in several. "In this sense, the theoretical positions and the vital experiences of french individualism are deeply iconoclastic and scandalous, even within libertarian circles. The call of nudist
naturism, the strong defence of birth control methods, the idea of "
unions of egoists" with the sole justification of sexual practices, that will try to put in practice, not without difficulties, will establish a way of thought and action, and will result in sympathy within some, and a strong rejection within others."
Illegalism Illegalism is an anarchist philosophy that developed primarily in France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland during the early 1900s as an outgrowth of Stirner's individualist anarchism. Illegalists usually did not seek moral basis for their actions, recognizing only the reality of "might" rather than "right"; for the most part, illegal acts were done simply to satisfy personal desires, not for some greater ideal, although some committed crimes as a form of
Propaganda of the deed. Influenced by theorist Max Stirner's
egoism as well as
Proudhon (his view that
Property is theft!),
Clément Duval and
Marius Jacob proposed the theory of la
reprise individuelle (Eng:
individual reclamation) which justified robbery on the rich and personal direct action against exploiters and the system., in what is known as
propaganda of the deed. France's
Bonnot Gang was the most famous group to embrace illegalism.
From World War I to World War II After the war, the
CGT became more reformist, and anarchists progressively drifted out. Formerly dominated by the anarcho-syndicalists, the CGT split into a non-communist section and a communist
Confédération générale du travail unitaire (CGTU) after the 1920
Tours Congress which marked the creation of the
French Communist Party (PCF). A new weekly series of the
Libertaire was edited, and the anarchists announced the imminent creation of an Anarchist Federation. A
Union Anarchiste (UA) group was constituted in November 1919 against the
Bolsheviks, and the first daily issue of the
Libertaire got out on December 4, 1923. Russian exiles, among them
Nestor Makhno and
Piotr Arshinov, founded in Paris the review
Dielo Truda (Дело Труда,
The Cause of Labour) in 1925. Makhno co-wrote and co-published
The Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists, which put forward ideas on how anarchists should organize based on the experiences of
revolutionary Ukraine and the defeat at the hand of the Bolsheviks. The document was initially rejected by most anarchists, but today has a wide following. It remains controversial to this day, some (including, at the time of publication,
Volin and
Malatesta) viewing its implications as too rigid and hierarchical.
Platformism, as Makhno's position came to be known, advocated ideological unity, tactical unity, collective action and discipline, and federalism. Five hundred people attended Makhno's 1934 funeral at the
Père Lachaise Cemetery. In June 1926, "The Organisational Platform Project for a General Union of Anarchists", best known under the name "Archinov's Platform", was launched. Volin responded by publishing a
Synthesis project in his article "Le problème organisationnel et l'idée de synthèse" ("The Organisational Problem and the Idea of a Synthesis"). After the
Orléans Congress (July 12–14, 1926), the Anarchist Union (UA) transformed itself into the Communist Anarchist Union (UAC,
Union anarchiste communiste). The gap widened between proponents of Platformism and those who followed Volin's
synthesis anarchism. The Congress of the Fédération autonome du Bâtiment (November 13–14, 1926) in
Lyon, created the
CGT-SR (Confédération Générale du Travail-Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire) with help from members of the Spanish
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), which prompted the CGT's revolutionary syndicalists to join it.
Julien Toublet became the new trade-union's secretary.
Le Libertaire became again a weekly newspaper in 1926. At the Orléans Congress of October 31 and November 1, 1927, the UAC became
Platformist. The minority of those who followed Volin split and create the
Association des fédéralistes anarchistes (AFA) which diffused the Trait d'union libertaire then La Voix Libertaire. Some Synthesists later rejoined the UAC (in 1930), which took the initiative of a Congress in 1934 to unite the anarchist movement on the basis of
anti-fascism. The Congress took place on 20 and 21 May 1934, following the
February 6, 1934, far right riots in Paris. All of the left-wing feared a fascist coup d'état, and the anarchists were at the spearhead of the anti-fascist movement. The AFA dissolved itself the same year, and joined the new group, promptly renamed Union anarchiste. However, a
Fédération communiste libertaire later created itself after a new split in the UA. Anarchists then participated in the
general strikes during the
Popular Front (1936–1938) which led to the
Matignon Accords (40 hours week, etc.) Headed by
Léon Blum, the Popular Front did not intervene in the
Spanish Civil War, because of the
Radicals' presence in the government. Thus, Blum blocked the Brigades from crossing the borders and sent ambulances to the
Spanish Republicans, while
Adolf Hitler and
Benito Mussolini were sending men and weapons to
Francisco Franco. In the same way, Blum refused to boycott the
1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, and to support the
People's Olympiad in Barcelona. Some anarchists became members of
International Antifascist Solidarity (Solidarité internationale antifasciste), which helped volunteers illegally cross the border, while others went to Spain and joined the
Durruti Column's French-speaking contingent,
The Sébastien Faure Century. A
Fédération anarchiste de langue française (FAF) developed from a split in the UA, and denounce the collusion between the French anarchists with the Popular Front, as well as criticizing the
CNT–
FAI's participation to the Republican government in Spain. The FAF edited
Terre libre, in which Volin collaborated. Before World War II, there are two organizations, the Union anarchiste (UA), which had as its newspaper
Le Libertaire, and the Fédération anarchiste française (FAF) which had the
Terre libre newspaper. However, to the contrary of the French Communist Party (PCF) which had organized a clandestine network before the war –
Édouard Daladier's government even had made it illegal after the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact – the anarchist groups lacked any clandestine infrastructure in 1940. Hence, as all other parties apart from the PCF, they quickly became completely disorganized during and after the
Battle of France.
Under Vichy After
Operation Barbarossa and the
Allies' landing in North Africa, Marshal
Philippe Pétain, head of the new "French State" (
Vichy regime) which had replaced the
French Third Republic, saw "the bad wind approaching." ("le mauvais vent s'approcher"). The
Resistance began to start organizing itself in 1942–1943. Meanwhile, the
French police, under the orders of
René Bousquet and his second in command,
Jean Leguay, systematically added to the list of targets designed by the
Gestapo (
communists,
freemasons,
Jews, and
anarchists.) On 19 July 1943, a clandestine meeting of anarchist activists took place in
Toulouse; they spoke of the Fédération internationale syndicaliste révolutionnaire. On January 15, 1944, the new
Fédération Anarchiste decided on a charter approved in
Agen on October 29–30, 1944. Decision was taken to publish clandestinely
Le Libertaire as to maintain relations; its first issue was published in December 1944. After the Liberation, the newspaper again became a bi-weekly, and on October 6–7, 1945, the Assises du mouvement libertaire were held.
The Fourth Republic (1945–1958) The
Fédération Anarchiste (FA) was founded in Paris on December 2, 1945, and elected
Georges Fontenis as its first secretary the next year. It was composed of a majority of activists from the former FA (which supported Volin's
Synthesis) and some members of the former Union anarchiste, which supported the CNT-FAI support to the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War, as well as some young Resistants. A youth organization of the FA (the Jeunesses libertaires) was also created. Apart from some
individualist anarchists grouped behind
Émile Armand, who published ''
L'Unique and L'
EnDehors, and some pacifists (Louvet and Maille who published A contre-courant
), the French anarchists were thus united in the FA. Furthermore, a confederate structure was created to coordinate publications with Louvet and Ce qu'il faut dire'' newspaper, the anarcho-syndicalist minority of the reunited CGT (gathered into the
Fédération syndicaliste française (FSF), they represented the 'Action syndicaliste' current inside the CGT), and
Le Libertaire newspaper. The FSF finally transformed itself into the actual
Confédération nationale du travail (CNT) on 6 December 1946, adopting the Paris charter and publishing
Le Combat Syndicaliste. The Confédération nationale du travail (CNT, or National Confederation of Labour) was founded in 1946 by Spanish anarcho-syndicalists in exile with former members of the CGT-SR. The anarchists started the 1947 insurrectionary strikes at the
Renault factories, crushed by Interior Minister socialist
Jules Moch, whom created for the occasion the
Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) riot-police. Because of the CNT's inner divisions, some FA activists decided to participate to the creation of the reformist
CGT-FO, issued from a split within the communist dominated CGT. The FA participated to the International Anarchist Congress of
Puteaux in 1949, which gathered structured organizations as well as autonomous groups and individuals (from Germany, USA, Bolivia, Cuba, Argentina, Peru and elsewhere). Some communist anarchists organized themselves early in 1950 in a fraction, named Organisation pensée bataille (OPB) which had as aim to impose a single political stance and centralize the organization. The GAAP (Groupes anarchistes d'action prolétarienne) were created on February 24–25, 1951, in Italy by former members of the FAI excluded at the congress of Ancône. The same year, the FA decides, on a proposition from the Louise Michel group animated by
Maurice Joyeux, to substitute individual vote to the group vote. The adopted positions gain federalist status, but are not imposed to individuals. Individualists opposed to this motion failed to block it. "Haute fréquence", a
surrealist manifest was published in
Le Libertaire on July 6, 1951. Some surrealists started working with the FA. Furthermore, the Mouvement indépendant des auberges de jeunesse (MIAJ, Independent Movement of Youth Hostels) was created at the end of 1951. In 1950 a clandestine group formed within the FA called Organisation Pensée Bataille (OPB) led by George Fontenis. The OPB pushed for a move which saw the FA change its name into the Fédération communiste libertaire (FCL) after the 1953 Congress in Paris, while an article in
Le Libertaire indicated the end of the cooperation with the French
Surrealist Group led by
André Breton. The FCL regrouped between 130 and 160 activists. The new decision-making process was founded on
unanimity: each person has a right of veto on the orientations of the federation. The FCL published the same year the
Manifeste du communisme libertaire. The FCL published its 'workers' program' in 1954, which was heavily inspired by the CGT's revendications. The
Libertarian Communist International (ICL), which groups the Italian GAAP, the Spanish Ruta and the
North African Libertarian Movement (MLNA), was founded to replace the
Anarchist International, deemed too reformist. The first issue of the monthly
Monde libertaire, the news organ of the FA which would be published until 1977, came out in October 1954. Several groups quit the FCL in December 1955, disagreeing with the decision to present "revolutionary candidates" to the legislative elections. On August 15–20, 1954, the Ve intercontinental plenum of the CNT took place. A group called Entente anarchiste appeared which was formed of militants who didn't like the new ideological orientation that the OPB was giving the FCL seeing it was authoritarian and almost marxist. The FCL lasted until 1956 just after it participated in state legislative elections with 10 candidates. This move alienated some members of the FCL and thus produced the end of the organization. In 1952 Breton wrote "It was in the black mirror of anarchism that surrealism first recognised itself." "Breton was consistent in his support for the
francophone Anarchist Federation and he continued to offer his solidarity after the
Platformists around Fontenis transformed the
Fédération Anarchiste into the Federation Communiste Libertaire. He was one of the few intellectuals who continued to offer his support to the FCL during the Algerian war when the FCL suffered severe repression and was forced underground. He sheltered Fontenis whilst he was in hiding. He refused to take sides on the splits in the French anarchist movement and both he and Peret expressed solidarity as well with the new Fédération Anarchiste set up by the synthesist anarchists and worked in the Antifascist Committees of the 60s alongside the Fédération Anarchiste." The contemporary movement is divided into multiple groups. The
social anarchists of FA run
a radio station, a weekly periodical, and a bookshop network.
Alternative Libertaire is a smaller organization. ==List of French libertarian organisations==