Long live the revolution (french: Vive la révolution, VLR) was a French

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

group which appeared in 1968, led by

Roland Castro Roland Castro (born 16 October 1940) is a French architect and political activist. Biography Roland Castro was born on 16 October 1940 in Limoges. By the end of 1966 he was a member of the editorial committee of ''Melp!'', the École Normale Su ...

and Tiennot Grumbach and founded by 40 people, mostly from the Maoist UJC (ml) and the 22 March Movement of

Nanterre Nanterre (, ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris. It is located some northwest of the centre of Paris. In 2018, the commune had a population of 96,807. The eastern part of Nanterre, bordering ...

. Unlike many revolutionary Marxist-Leninist groups, VLR was distinguished by its festive and libertarian aspect.

History

Founded by Maoist dissidents from the Union of Marxist-Leninist Communist Youth (UJC (ml)) and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of France (PCMLF), Vive le Communisme (VLC) appeared in October 1968 in the University of Nanterre. In the

1969 French presidential election Presidential elections were held in France on 1 June 1969, with a second round on 15 June. They occurred due to the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle on 28 April 1969. De Gaulle had decided to consult the voters by 1969 French constitut ...

, VLC called for votes for the candidate of the Revolutionary Communist League, Alain Krivine. In July 1969, VLC changed its name to Vive la révolution (VLR). VLR dissolved itself in April 1971 but ''Tout!'' continued to appear until the July issue.

''Tout!''

In 1970-1971, VLR published ''Tout!'' ( en, All!), a

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in ...

newspaper with a spontaneist Maoist or even libertarian tendency, under the caption "Ce que nous voulons: tout", en, “What we want: everything”). With 50,000 copies printed, in 1971 the monthly was the most read and the most widely distributed in France among far-left journals.

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialist, existentialism (and Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter ...

was mentioned on the last page as being the publication director. With a few exceptions, no article was signed, except by initials or first names. The 17 issues published were distinguished by a dominant iconographic part and the abundant use of flat-bottomed "psychedelic" color inks - adopted from the British underground press such as Oz, which, along with '' Actuel'', was a unique case in the anti-commercial press of the time. Editorially, it had a very free and virulent tone. In particular, controversial themes for the time were discussed, including

radical feminism Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other ...

and

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

, as well as many references to the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Calif ...

Notable members

Among its leaders, there was the architect

, the gay militant writer

Guy Hocquenghem Guy Hocquenghem (; 10 December 1946 – 28 August 1988) was a French writer, philosopher, and queer theorist. Biography Hocquenghem was born in the suburbs of Paris and was educated at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux and the Ecole Normale Supér ...

, the feminist sociologists Nadja Ringart and Françoise Picq (who would participate in the creation of the MLF in 1970), the future diplomat

François Bujon de l'Estang François Bujon de l'Estang (born August 21, 1940) is a French diplomat who served as the Ambassador of the French Republic to the United States from 1995 until 2002. Early life and education Bujon de l'Estang graduated from Institut d'Études Po ...

, Marc Hatzfeld, the co-author of the '' Black Book of Communism'',

Stéphane Courtois Stéphane Courtois (born 25 November 1947) is a French historian and university professor, a director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), professor at the Catholic Institute of Higher Studies (ICES) in La ...

, and Jean-Paul Ribes, journalist and future president of the Support Committee for the Tibetan People. Among the occasional cartoonists, there are Georges Wolinski and Siné. In 1971, during the crackdown on a demonstration banned by the prefecture, one of the young VLR activists, Richard Deshayes, who was rescuing a demonstrator on the ground, was blinded and disfigured by a tear gas grenade fired by the special brigades of intervention. The photo of his bloodied face made the headlines of ''Tout!'' and was displayed around France on a poster.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{1968 protests 1968 establishments in France 1971 disestablishments in France Libertarian socialist parties Maoist organizations in France Political parties established in 1968 Political parties disestablished in 1971