Léo Figuères

Léo Figuères 1990

Léopold Figuères (short: Léo Figuères) (born March 27, 1918 in Perpignan , Département Pyrénées-Orientales , France ; † August 1, 2011 ibid) was a French politician who belonged to the Communist Party of France ( Parti communiste français - PCF). During the Second World War he played a prominent role in the communist resistance (see Resistance ) against the German occupying power.

biography

Early years

Léo Figuères was born on March 27, 1918 in a long-established family of farmers in Perpignan. In 1922, when Figuères was just four years old, his family moved to Prades , where their father had found work. After completing the primary school (École primaire) and the secondary school (École primaire superieure) of Prades, he trained as a typographer from 1933 to 1935 and then worked in this profession in Perpignan. Although he grew up in a rather conservative family home, reading L'Humanité and experiences in the world of work resulted in his decision, at the early age of 14, first in 1932 with the communist youth organization of France (Jeunesses communistes), then in 1935 with the French Communist Party to join. He worked on the development and organization of the party, initially in the Languedoc and Var departments in the party's regional committees. From 1935 to 1937 he attended the International Lenin School in Moscow . After his return to France he was one of the founders of the L'Union de la Jeunesse Agricole de France (UJAF) (about: Association of French Agricultural Youth) and helped to form the French volunteer battalions of the International Brigades for the Spanish Republic . In 1938 he was drafted into the French army in Corsica.

World War II, Indochina and Algeria

In 1941 he met his future wife Lea Lamoureux, who like him was active in the Resistance . By resolution of October 10, 1944, he was sent to the Consultative Assembly with Pierre Gauthier as one of the six delegates of the United Armed Forces of Patriotic Youth (FUJP). After the liberation in 1946 he became general secretary of the Union of Young People of Republican France (UJRF), in which other communist youth organizations from the Resistance were represented.

During the Indochina War he was director of the Vanguard newspaper of the Communist Youth UJRF and in 1950 went to Vietnam as a journalist. He met the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh . He published stories and a book on the colonial war in which he called for the end of the war and the condemnation of those responsible. Towards the end of the war in Algeria, he took part as a leader in the demonstration against the Organization de l'armée secrète (OAS) in Paris on February 8, 1962. He was exposed to repression from the authorities.

mayor

Between 1959 and 1993 he was general advisor in the departments of Seine and Hauts-de-Seine, and Mayor of Malakoff from 1965 until he left in 1996. He was then honorary mayor. Leo Figueres devoted himself to writing various historical works about the revolutionary movement and the interests of the workers. He died on August 1, 2011 in Perpignan at the age of 93 and was buried in Los Masos, a village in the Pyrenees-Orientales .

Works

• Je reviens du Viet-Nam libre , foreword by Marcel Cachin , Éditions de la Jeunesse, Paris, 1950
• La Jeunesse et le Communisme , Éditions sociales, Paris, 1962
• Les Communistes, la Culture et les Intellectuels , Éditions sociales, Paris, 1963
• Le Gauchisme hier et aujourd'hui , Éditions des Cahiers du communisme, Paris, 1968
• Le Trotskisme, cet antiléninisme , "Notre Temps" collection, Éditions sociales, Paris, 1969
• Hô Chi Minh notre camarade , in collaboration with Charles Fourniau, Éditions sociales, Paris, 1970
• Jeunesse militante - Chronique d'un jeune communiste des années 30-50 , Éditions sociales, Paris, 1971
• Malakoff cent ans d'histoire , Messidor, Paris, 1983
• Passé et avenir d'une espérance - suite d'un itinéraire militant complété d'une réponse à François Furet , ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 1995
• Histoire des communistes français , ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 1996
• Georges Cogniot , matérialisme et humanisme , ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 1998
• October 1917 - la Révolution en débat , ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 1998
• La Campagne de Russie de M. Clémenceau , ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 1999
• Les Fureurs du XXe siècle , ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 2000
• Communiste, une aventure militante , ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 2001
• Communisme quel avenir? , en collaboration, ed. Le Temps des Cerises + La Revue Commune, Paris, 2002
• Et si nous reparlions de la Resistance ... , ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 2004
• Une longue marche - Regards sur le mouvement ouvrier et populaire en France de la Révolution à nos jours , ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 2007
• Capitalisme, socialisme (s), communisme - leçons d'une histoire et regards d'avenir , ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 2010
• De Trotsky aux trotskysmes - Eléments pour un débat , ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 2012
• Léo Figuères, un homme debout , introduction by Catherine Margaté, ouvrage collectif, ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Paris, 2013
• Je reviens du Vietnam libre , new edition, introduction by Alain Ruscio, ed. Le Temps des Cerises - collection Récits des Libertés, Montreuil, 2015
• Les Fureurs du XXe siècle , new edition, introduction by Jean Ortiz, ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Montreuil, 2016
• October 1917, la Révolution en débat: réflexion sur la révolution russe et ses suites , new edition, introduction by Christian Picquet, ed. Le Temps des Cerises, Montreuil, 2017

Web links

• Homepage of Léo Figuères
• Biography of Léo Figuères at the Assemblée Nationale (French National Assembly)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Parti communiste français, August 3, 2011: Disparition de Léo Figuères: message de Pierre Laurent ( Memento of the original of December 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.