French National-Collectivist Party Parti français national-collectiviste | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Other name | French National Communist Party[1] |
| President | Pierre Clémenti |
| Founded | 1934; 91 years ago (1934)[2] |
| Banned | September 1944; 81 years ago (1944-09) |
| Split from | Francistes |
| Headquarters | |
| Newspaper | Le Pays Libre! |
| Women's wing | French Women |
| Youth wings |
|
| Membership | approx. 32,000 (claimed)[3] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Syncretic |
| National affiliation | Groupe Collaboration (1942) |
| Colours | Blue White Red |
| Party flag | |
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TheFrench National-Collectivist Party (French:Parti français national-collectiviste, PFNC), originally known as theFrench National Communist Party (Parti français national communiste), was a minor political group active in theFrench Third Republic and reestablished inoccupied France. In both incarnations, its leader was the sports journalistPierre Clémenti. It espoused a "national communist" platform noted for its similarities withfascism, and popularizedracial antisemitism. The group was also noted for its agitation in support ofpan-European nationalism andrattachism, maintaining contacts in bothNazi Germany andWallonia.
Always a minor movement within theFrench far-right, it was initially a dissident wing ofHenry Coston'sFrancistes. Temporarily re-absorbed by that party in 1934, it reemerged following Coston's personal row with Clémenti. Its activity was interrupted in 1936, though it returned to incite industrial workers against thePopular Front government. Clémenti was the subject of interrogations during the clampdown onLa Cagoule, and briefly jailed in early 1939 for spreading racial hatred. Again imprisoned during thePhony War, he fought against Germany in theBattle of France, but immediately after offered tocollaborate with the occupiers. The PFNC was allowed to recruit and organize, but had to drop all references to national communism, including in its name.
Although minor, the PFNC had a combative stance on the pluralist scene of French fascism and collaboration. Strongly opposed to theFrench Popular Party, it had a working relationship with theNational Popular Rally. Its rattachist campaigns also made it an adversary of theRexist Party inoccupied Belgium. With several other French parties, the PFNC helped organize theLegion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism, which fought on theEastern Front against theSoviet Union. This activity consumed Clémenti, leaving his party in disarray. The PFNC absorbedRobert Hersant'sJeune Front, but thereafter was exposed to power struggles between Hersant and other party militants, involving the German authorities as arbiters.
Centered onLyon after 1941, the PFNC was only formally active during theLiberation of Paris, when it was officially proscribed. Facing adeath penalty, Clémenti evaded capture for several years, and was eventually pardoned. He attempted to infuse his ideas into theEuropean Freedom Union, which he briefly led in the late 1960s. The ideological legacy was also embraced by the newspaperSocialisme Européen, put out by Clémenti's godson Pierre Vial.
The National Communist Party was one of the groups emerging from thepolitical crisis of February 6, 1934: its first reported gathering was on February 7 atPlace de la Concorde,[4] although some sources see its foundation date as April 7, 1934.[5] Its creator was the youngCorsican Clémenti, at the time still a sports columnist for theRadical-Party press.[6] His involvement with militantFrench nationalism had already been attested by that moment: in 1932, Clémenti sat on the leadership board of the National League of French Youth, established by Jean Conart.[7] In August 1933, he assistedHenry Coston in creating theFrancistes party[7] (itself a dissidence of theMouvement Franciste).[8] Coston and his followers advocated racialsupremacism for those of "French blood" and maintained ample contacts with theNazi Party, which were facilitated byGeorges de Pottere.[7] As seen by journalist René Dunan, Coston was the PFNC's true founder.[9]
A contemporary piece inRegards had it that the PFNC was one of the vehicles for "French fascism", alongsideSolidarité Française andCroix-de-Feu, and, like these, only existed because of the February crisis. "Numerically insignificant", Clémenti's organization was seen byRegards as copying the Nazis.[10] Historian Hans Werner Neulen argues that, "despite its name", the new group was modeled onFalangism andItalian fascism.[11] According to scholar Miklós Horváth, the PFNC "was a near-perfect 'anti-party', in that it was almost entirely defined by its opposition to other persons or ideologies"; it was antisemitic, anti-Masonic, anti-capitalist, and anti-communist.[12] The PFNC platform included what Clémenti called a "heroic concept of social life", with references tosocial justice and with a role reserved for trade unions, but all within atotalitarian state; the PFNC advocateddirigisme andeconomic nationalism, promising to clamp down oncapital flight.[4] In his notes on the subject, Clémenti suggested that a "state protective of man's labor" was his social and economic ideal, arguing that theGreat Depression could be tackled once "the worker and the owner [are united] against their common enemy: the capitalist." He viewed this project as capable of uprooting bothMarxism andeconomic liberalism.[13] He announced that his mission was to "regenerate the better elements of the working class."[14]
Dunan made mention of the "totalitarian methods" proposed by Clémenti, viewing them as a derivative ofNazism.[9]Regards highlighted anti-communism as the leading component of all "French fascist" ideology, viewing all federated groups as united by an invisible thread and a shared belief in the "red peril".[10] Contrarily, researcher Jacques Leclercq sees the PFNC as distinguished by itsracial antisemitism, which took "one of the most violent" forms.[15] The final point in the PFNC platform was a promise to expelFrench Jews and other "foreigners".[4] Clémenti'sFrench nationalism also manifested itself asrattachism: thepartition of Belgium along ethnic borders and the creation ofla plus grande France ("Greater France").[16] Beginning in 1934, he had direct contacts in the right-wing of theWalloon Movement, includingJules Mahieu andJuste Wasterlain.[17] TheSûreté suspected that his friends inWallonia also included arms traffickers, as the PFNC had reportedly tried to arm itself with automatic rifles purchased inLiège in 1934.[18]
The PFNC organ wasLe Pays Libre! ("The Free Country!"), with its editorial offices in Paris, atChamps-Élysées, 28.[19] It "distinguished itself with violent attacks on both the Muscovite [communist] ideal and the grand capitalist oligarchies."[20] The party logo showed four converging arrowheads over a diamond and a circle, with theFrench national colors.[21] Originally, it viewed itself as a youth organization, participating in the "Estates General of Youth" clubs alongside theJeunesses Patriotes, theLigue d'Action Universitaire Républicaine et Socialiste, and theLibre République des Jeunes.[22] The PFNC organization eventually formed a youth paramilitary force known as "French Guards" (Gardes Françaises).[21]
Scholar Dietrich Orlow notes that the PFNC was viewed as a potential ally by some agents ofNazi Germany, though even these observers "saw little future for [its] influence".[23] Dunan recounts that Clémenti was a frequent guest as Nazi Party rallies, and had befriended its chief propagandist,Julius Streicher.[9] In July–August 1934, the PFNC was effectively absorbed by Coston's movement; Clémenti took over as theFrancistes president.[24] The entire movement fell apart once Clémenti seduced Coston's estranged wife,[25] meaning that the National Communists were again an independent group. In this early period, the reestablished party could only field the minimum number required for registration, leading the group to dissolve itself in 1936.[12]Le Pays Libre! was also closed down a year later.[15]
Some evidence suggest that during late 1936 and early 1937 the PFNC remained active in opposition to thePopular Front government, which it identified as a "Jewish" cartel.[26] Peak agitation in support of rattachism was reached by the party in October 1936, with Clémenti openly calling for a military attack on Belgium. His article, published in support of the Walloon fascistLéon Degrelle (deemed apersona non grata on French territory), was described by French authorities as a tense moment inBelgium–France relations.[27] The party was especially critical of the pro-government trade union federation, orGeneral Confederation of Labor, inciting workers to rebel against it.[26] However, the PFNC also had a consuming rivalry withJacques Doriot's far-right organization, calledFrench Popular Party (PPF). Clémenti described Doriot as an agent of the Jews and a covert, unrepentant Marxist.[5]
The PFNC was again registered in June 1937, when Clémenti went on record with the claim that it was neither fascist nor anti-fascist. He argued that anti-fascism meant either an ill-advised attack on the Italian government, thus setting France on a collision course with a "friendly nation"; or an attack on "generic ideas", which Clémenti identified as shared by both Italian fascists and theFrench Communist Party.[28] In September 1937, following bombing attacks by members ofLa Cagoule, he was interrogated by police. Clémenti stated his sympathy for the group, while criticizing its methods; he also argued that the attacks were in fact staged by aTrotskyist cell ofSimca employees.[29] During the far-right rally of February 1938, the PFNC deposed a wreath commemorating its "precursors, the martyrs of February 6, 1934".[30]
Following theMunich Agreement and its revelations about Nazi ambitions, Clémenti was placed under surveillance. He thus entered a police file on "defeatist" campaigners, also featuring Nazi apologists (Louis Darquier de Pellepoix,Léon Daudet) and far-left pacifists (Marceau Pivert).[31] However, Dunan claims that, despite customs and warning signs, thePolice Prefecture still had no detailed file on the PFNC leader in 1939.[9] In June of that year, the party headquarters onBoulevard de Sébastopol, 87 were ultimately raided by police. This followed the passage of laws against racial hatred and foreign propaganda.[32] A simultaneous raid descended upon the antisemitic magazineLe Porc-épic, which was located in the same building asLe Pays Libre!.[9]
In August, Clémenti was found guilty of distributing anti-Jewish tracts, which he claimed were in fact authored by the staff writers ofLe Porc-épic. Reporting on the sentencing, the leftist newspaperLe Populaire described the PFNC as "outrageously fascist".[33] The presiding judge invoked the memory of Jews "who died for France" in World War I, noting that Clémenti had sullied it. The punishment meted, however, was minimal, as Clémenti had "promised not to start over".[34] In the wake of sentencing, the PFNC submitted an open letter to the press, correcting the record by noting that Clémenti had been cleared of charges relating to Nazi propaganda. This text argued that the party's antisemitism was not the same asNazi racial politics, but a set of original "methods [...] for the defense of the nation, the family, and the race."[35]
Shortly after theNazi invasion of Poland, as France began preparing for war, Clémenti issued public threats againstÉdouard Daladier, theCouncil President. He faced trial for this and was ordered to pay over 4,000French francs in damages.[36] During thePhony War of September 1939, he was imprisoned for another three months, but ultimately managed to persuade government that he was still loyal, and fought with distinction in theBattle of France.[37] Shortly after thesurrender of June 1940, Clémenti became one of the first voluntary Nazi collaborators inoccupied France.[38] His party was restored later in the summer of 1940, with the same acronym—which now stood for "French National-Collectivist Party". The name-change was done at the behest of Clémenti's German overseers,[39] but only made legal on September 10, 1940, when the PFNC inaugurated its new headquarters at Rue de l'Arcade, 20, in the8th arrondissement of Paris.[40]
Clémenti informed the international press that his group stood for "the purification of the French race, the fight against Jewry and Freemasonry."[41] The National-Collectivists also opened new affiliate bodies. A "Special Guard", with its own uniforms and rallying cries, was created from the party elite.[42] In late August 1940, the French Guards, styled "group of anti-Jewish action of the French National-Collectivist Party", announced that they were also creating female youth chapters.[43] The Guards were led by Charles Lefebvre; by then, the party had also annexedRobert Hersant's youth party, theJeune Front, which maintained a separate existence within the "anti-Jewish and anti-Masonic movement".[44] According to one account inMagyar Nemzet,Jeune Front was in fact the name adopted by an alliance between the PFNC and "several movements with similar tendencies".[41] By 1941, the PFNC as a whole had a female section, called "French Women" (Femmes Françaises).[19][42]
The usage of armbands with the "inverted arrow-cross" was nominally covered by a ban on political insignia, but PFNC members struggled to prove that they qualified as an exception.[41] This interval witnessed the first tensions between party cadres and the occupation authorities: in August, the French Guards attacked youth hostels and Jewish-owned businesses along the Champs-Élysées, forcing the Germans to intervene as peacekeepers.[45] By January 1941, German authorities had recognized the PNFC as one of five officially collaborationist parties, with a right to organize in occupied territory and with duties in persuading the regime ofVichy France to also embrace full collaboration.[46]Le Pays Libre! reopened in February 1941, and remained in print to August 1944.[47] It and the PFNC were joined by a new cadre, Jacques Dursort, who in April 1941 began publishing articles targeting French Jews, and openly discussing theircoming extermination; one of these asked: "Jews, would it take pogroms for you to understand?"[48]
Despite a more favorable political climate, the party remained an exceedingly minor force in French wartime politics and society. Horváth suggests that Clémenti could only gather at most 2,000 affiliates, even though, in chronological terms, his was "the first incarnation of French fascism".[49] Neulen gives the PFNC membership as 800, well below the PPF's 22,000.[50] As Leclercq notes, most members were recruited from the French working class.[42] Clémenti boasted that the reborn PFNC had 32,000 members—though, as noted by historian David Littlejohn, "this was almost certainly a gross overestimate."[51] Despite arguing that Germany and France were now equal allies within "Socialist Europe" and theAxis powers, Clémenti paid his homages to the subordinate government of Vichy; he himself declared war on the United Kingdom "in a private capacity".[52] In mid 1941, he was a founding member and leading activist of theLegion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism (LVF), which became the main focus of his activity as a collaborator.[12] His party was one of the five movements represented on the LVF steering committee, submitting to control byMarcel Déat'sNational Popular Rally (RNP).[20] In its communique of July 8, 1941, the PFNC welcomed the creation of the LVF and offered to party squads, "eventually including the French Women", to fight for Vichy in places such asFrench West Africa andMandatory Syria.[19]
In late 1941 the PFNC established itself in Vichy-governed territory, atLyon, where it endured a steady decline.[53] National-Collectivist paramilitaries continued to be active in Paris. RNP and PFNC squads were patrolling the streets in August 1941, shortly after theFrench Resistance had tried but failed to assassinate Déat.[54] Clémenti was still present in the occupied zone and, in March 1942, was briefly detained inFresnes Prison. This was a literal enforcement of his 1939 fine, unusual since, at the time, Daladier had been captured by Vichy and was facing charges for treason in the "Riom Trial".[36] From August or September, Clémenti was entirely absent from France, fighting alongside the LVF on the Eastern Front.[55] A commentator for theFeuille d'Avis de Neuchatel et du Vignoble Neuchâtelois noted the similarity between Clémenti and his enemy Doriot, in that they both had "the originality of leaving chiefdom in their own movement and sign up for the Legion".[56] Academic J. G. Shields also draws this parallel, suggesting that most other collaborators "contented themselves with 'defending Western civilisation' by being part of the LVF's organisational apparatus in Paris".[57] By 1943, both the PFNC and the RNP were supplying cadres for theMilice, which was created by Vichy to fight the "internal war" against anti-fascists.[56] The party was nevertheless riddled with "internecine quarrels [which] drove most of its supporters away."[45] Hersant was actively pursuing a takeover of the PFNC; this attempt created tensions and violence, and caused Clémenti to view German occupation with less enthusiasm than before.[15]
The party's advocacy for a Greater France was also frustrated by Germany and Vichy. Clémenti asked that the Germans allow rattachism to happen, suggesting that this grant would seal a lasting Franco–German alliance.[58] He remains the only French collaborator to state a specific territorial claim on Belgium, and as such found himself "in direct conflict" with Degrelle'sRexist Party, which stood forBelgian nationalism under German tutelage.[45] In October 1941, Vichy leaderPhilippe Pétain disavowed Walloon separatism, which had also been subject to attacks by Rexists such asPaul Colin.[59] Colin's newspaperCassandre depicted the PFNC as a subsidiary of theAction Française, and alleged that Clémenti took his pay fromHenry du Moulin de Labarthète.[60] Also in October 1941, theGerman authorities in Belgium clamped down on the rattachist Walloons after observing their contacts with the PFNC.[61]
Le Pays Libre! survived Clémenti's departure, but also moved to Lyon before or during theGerman takeover of Vichy France.[60] Its editor, Eric Labat, was noted for his earlier support of theSpanish Nationalists.[62] He became the PFNC spokesman, reporting that the party had no intention of fusing with other collaborationist bodies so as to form a one-party state. As Labat explained, the PFNC had "suffered to maintain its doctrine", and expected to eventually emerge as France's legitimate single-party.[63] Such ambitions were contrasted by outside verdicts: already in November 1941, frustrated German authorities reported that the PFNC and the similarly endowedLe Feu had become "phantom parties".[64] The name of French Guards was casually taken over by its PPF rivals, and applied to Doriot's own street fighters' units.[65] According to Littlejohn, this appropriation took place in September 1942, and suggested that the PFNC had wholly disintegrated by that moment in time.[21]
Eventually, Labat also left to fight on the Eastern Front.[66] Various sources indicate that local cells of the party were still active to 1944. By December 1942, "Pierre T." of the PFNC and formerly of theCommunist Youth had been installed as head of theCompulsory Labor Service inCalvados, where he ran a deceptive recruitment drive.[67] Also then, the PFNC Calvados branch announced its affiliation to theGroupe Collaboration—although, for technical reasons, it was noticeably late in doing so.[68] Historian Etienne Dejonghe additionally informs that the first ever PFNC cells inNord andPas-de-Calais opened as late as September 1943.[69] The PFNC also had a section inCôte-d'Or. Its presence there was largely symbolic, and finally curbed by the Germans after a brawl between the party's Guards and a number of students atDijon University.[53]
Shortly after theLiberation of Paris, the PFNC and LVF were formally charged as "anti-national groups", and had their offices raided by theFrench Forces of the Interior.[70] Following thefull reconquest of France in 1944, Clémenti withdrew with other collaborators to safety in Germany;[71] he was then able to obtain asylum in Switzerland, where he continued to publish essays explaining his beliefs.[72] Also hunted by the Resistance, Labat escaped to Spain.[62] In December 1944,France's Provisional Government defined all members of the PFNC active after January 1, 1941 as guilty ofindignité nationale.[73] Dursort escaped scrutiny and passed himself off as a Resistance veteran, being enlisted by theRally of the French People.[48]
Clémenti's European nationalism was revised to include talk of an anti-communist alliance betweenSS veterans and the right-wing of French,German andItalian resistance movements. He also revised hisanti-Soviet stance, claiming that Russia would learn to shed Marxism in exchange for a "national socialism" of the "Third Way".[74] In 1951, he became co-founder and publicist for theNew European Order (NOE), which also includedGaston-Armand Amaudruz,René Binet,Pino Rauti,Fritz Rössler, andPaul van Tienen.[75] Researchers Jean-Yves Camus and Nicolas Lebourg conclude that Clémenti fitted well with the Europeanist trend ofneo-fascism: "Immediately after the collapse of the Axis powers, Fascist militants saw a united Europe as the justification for their previous positions and as the horizon of expectation that could legitimize their continued political struggle. In particular, [their] pro-Russian leanings [...] allowed them to claim that their plans for Europe could be a solution to theCold War."[52]
Clémenti was triedin absentia andsentenced to death, but was pardoned and allowed to return in the 1950s.[76] Noting that he was on probation by 1953, the Communist paperLa Défense alleged that theFourth Republic was using his skills as a propagandist for theSpecial Air Service, which was fighting thewar in Indochina.[77] Seven years later, a scandal ensued after Dursort's wartime activities were exposed to public scrutiny while he was serving on theParisian Council.[48][78] His party, theUnion for the New Republic, had forced him to resign by 1961.[78] Later in the 1960s, Clémenti reemerged as a figure on the French far-right, also taking upHolocaust denialism.[18] He managed to obtain absolute control over a far-right populist group calledEuropean Freedom Union (REL).[79] His hosting of readings from theMein Kampf and attempts to establish contacts with theNational Democratic Party of Germany sparked an exodus among REL members.[80] The PFNC tenets were again revived following theMay 1968 riots by a new generation of national communists and pan-European nationalists, including Clémenti's godson Pierre Vial, formerly affiliated withJeune Nation.[81] Clémenti became a co-founder ofOrdre Nouveau, a "revolutionary nationalist force" made up of former associates ofPierre Poujade with erstwhile conspirators inLa Cagoule andOrganisation Armée Secrète.[82] Expelled from NOE in 1971, he created a dissident journal,L'Action Européenne,[75] which he edited together withFrançois Duprat.[83] Vial helped put out the newspaperSocialisme Européen, itself a precursor of the radical think-tankGRECE.[81]
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