Daniel Guérin

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Daniel Guérin (born May 19, 1904 in Paris , † April 14, 1988 in Suresnes (near Paris)) was a French anarchist and author. He was best known for his book L'Anarchisme (1965) and a four-volume anthology on anarchism, Ni Dieu ni Maître (1970).

Live and act

Daniel Guérin came from an “ upper-class , capitalist ” family, with whom he had a highly ambivalent relationship from childhood . On the one hand, he rebelled against the meticulous control with which his tutors wanted to rule his life; on the other hand he valued the " Dreyfusian " liberalism, the irreligious attitude and the enlightened sophistication of his parents. His father's “discreet homosexuality ”, however, had a formative influence both on his own sex life and on his theoretical interests, with sexual liberation and its role in social liberation, radically conceived as anarchy , always remaining central. Guérin married in 1934, had a daughter in 1936 and - in order not to endanger his political involvement in the libertarian left - did not come out as a homosexual until the end of the 1960s.

Already at a young age, Guérin was politically active for the anarcho-syndicalist magazine La Révolution prolétarienne by Pierre Monatte . In 1926 he broke with his family and went abroad for a long time. From 1927 to 1929 he lived in Lebanon , then from 1929 to 1930 in French Indochina, where he developed into an opponent of colonialism. In 1932 he joined the Confédération générale du travail (CGT), a syndicalist union. In the mid-1930s he was active in Marceau Pivert 's organization Gauche Révolutionnaire ("Revolutionary Left"), a current of the SFIO . After his expulsion from the SFIO, he became one of the leaders of the new Parti Socialiste Ouvrier et Paysan (PSOP - “Socialist Workers and Peasants Party”) and was close to Trotskyism for some time .

Guérin toured Germany shortly before and shortly after Hitler came to power (January 30, 1933) for two months each. His book Fascisme et grand capital, first published in 1936, emerged from his observations and further studies . Italy / Allemagne .

Exactly on September 1, 1939, the day the Second World War began , Guérin arrived in Oslo, where he was working on behalf of the Front ouvrier international (FOI) . When the Wehrmacht occupied Norway in April 1940 , he was arrested and was only able to return to France in early 1942.

From late 1946 to early 1949 Guérin stayed in various parts of the United States of America . A result of his experiences and studies there was the two-volume work Où va le peuple américain?

Guérin had been a free-spirited and independent leftist since the 1920s (first anarcho-syndicalist, then a socialist (SFIO), then a party leader of the PSOP, later an anarchist again) and remained so until the end of his life. Of course, he welcomed the events and consequences of the Paris May 1968 , which enabled him to come out , and was then active in the gay movement.

Fonts (selection)

  • Fascisme and grand capital. Italy - Allemagne. Paris, Gallimard, 1936
  • Anarchism. Concept and practice. Frankfurt / M .: Suhrkamp 1967 (French orig. 1965); 13th edition 1988 ISBN 3-518-10240-0
  • Essai on the revolution of sexual aprés Reich et Kinsey. Paris: Belfond 1969
  • Pour un marxisme libertaire. Paris: Laffont, 1969
  • The American Labor Movement 1867–1967. Frankfurt / M .: Suhrkamp 1970 (French orig. 1968)
  • Ni Dieu ni Maître. Anthologie de L'anarchisme. 4 vols. Paris: Maspero 1970
    • No Gods, No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism. Translated from the French by Paul Sharkey. 2005 ( partial online view )
  • Introduction to the history of American monopoly capital. Berlin: Wagenbach 1972 ISBN 3-8031-1037-8
  • Anarchism and marxism. Frankfurt / M .: Verlag Freie Gesellschaft 1975 ISBN 3-88215-028-9
  • Class struggle in France 1793–1795. Frankfurt / M .: Suhrkamp 1979 ISBN 3-518-07528-4 (French orig. 1946)
  • Rosa Luxemburg et la spontanéité révolutionnaire. Paris: Spartacus 1982
  • The brown plague. Frankfurt / M .: Sendler 1983, ISBN 3-88048-063-8 (French orig. 1969)
  • Homosexualité et révolution. Saint-Denis: Le Vent du ch'min 1983
  • À la recherche d'un communisme libertaire. Paris: Les Amis de Spartacus 1984 ISBN 2-902963-11-4
Autobiographical writings
  • Front populaire, révolution manquée. Paris: Maspero 1970 (approx. 1930–1939)
  • Autobiography de jeunesse. D'une dissidence sexual au socialisme. Paris: Pierre Belfond 1971 (until about 1930)
  • Le feu you sang. Autobiography politique et charnelle. Paris: Bernard Grasset 1977 ISBN 2-246-00443-8 (from approx. 1939)

Footnotes

  1. ^ Daniel Guérin: Le feu du sang. Paris: Grasset 1977, p. 11ff
  2. ↑ Extract from the English edition: Fascism and Big Business (1938)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Guérin, Daniel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French anarchist and author
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1988
Place of death Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine) near Paris