Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l'Antisémitisme

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The Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l'Antisémitisme ( LICRA , German : International League Against Racism and Antisemitism) or earlier LICA (Ligue internationale Contre l'Antisémitisme) is an international non-governmental organization dedicated to the fight against racism and anti-Semitism . It was founded in France in 1927 , where it is still active today and has great political influence.

Organization and action

The league works in France in nine commissions. For example, she publicly criticizes the press for what she thinks is racist or anti-Semitic newspaper articles, radio or television reports and also takes legal action against journalists and publications with its own legal commission.

It organizes legal and psychological support for victims of racist attacks and is also very active politically. She works mainly to criminalize anti-Semitic and racist attacks in France and since 1972 has also been allowed to represent victims of such attacks as a joint plaintiff in court. In 2000 she sued B. against the US Internet platform Yahoo in Paris, because they had tolerated Nazi souvenirs to be auctioned online. However, displaying or wearing them is illegal in France (also at the initiative of the league). LICRA was successful in its lawsuit in the French court.

LICRA has been called on several times by the government in France as an advisor and mediator on discrimination issues and its representatives have been on several human rights commissions of the French government. The league also has a historical department (Commission Mémoire, Histoire et Droits de l'Homme, founded in 1986) which provides expertise and provides information in schools. In this context they support z. B. the work of the couple Serge and Beate Klarsfeld and was involved in the trial of Klaus Barbie . It also has a sports commission, the French representation of FARE (Football against Racism). She is also committed to peace and against nationalist tendencies.

There are branches of LICRA in Belgium , Germany , Austria , Switzerland (founded in 1971 in Geneva ), Luxembourg , Portugal , Québec in Canada and the Republic of the Congo . The league is supported by the work of numerous volunteers. Since 1932 it has published its own magazine in France, “Le Droit de Vivre” (The Right to Live), which is distributed to all members.

President was Bernard Lecache (1895–1961) from 1927 to 1969 , then Jean-Pierre Bloch (1905–1999) until 1993 , followed by the socialist politician Pierre Aidenbaum (* 1942) and from 1999 by MEP Patrick Gaubert (* 1948). Under him, the league has expanded its scope of work considerably, for example on issues of citizenship, discrimination in the workplace, and youth from neglected backgrounds. The lawyer Alain Jakubowicz (* 1953) was President from 2010 to 2017.

history

The league was formed in Paris in 1927 when journalist and active socialist Bernard Lecache organized support for Scholom Schwartzbard , who on May 25, 1926 shot the Ukrainian politician Symon Petljura (Petlura), whom he had for persecution of Jews ( pogroms ) in his homeland of Ukraine responsible, who also fell victim to his family. Lecache himself was the son of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine and was supposed to report on the trial on behalf of his newspaper “Le Quotidien”. Schwartzbard was represented by the well-known lawyer, Henri Torrés , whom Lecache had arranged for him, and acquitted in October 1927. The "Ligue contre les Pogromes" then became the "Ligue internationale contre l'antisémitisme" (LICA) in 1928. It was founded by influential figures such as Victor Basch (co-founder of the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme ), the physicists Paul Langevin and Albert Einstein , the feminist and anarchist journalist Séverine , Léon Blum , the Comtesse de Noailles , the writers Edmond Fleg , Joseph Kessel , Romain Rolland and Maxim Gorki supported. Many of the supporters were former activists in the Dreyfus affair . In 1931 it already had 10,000 members across France. In 1932, the league was given its current name, which was only officially expressed in its 33rd National Congress in 1979, as an expression of its renewed determination to take action against all forms of racism. In the 1930s, the league was involved in the fight against the flare-up of anti-Semitism in France and its colonies (Algeria) and campaigned for refugees from Nazi Germany and against the trivialization of the Nazi regime in France.

A LICA office is occupied by the Rassemblement national populaire collaboration party (April 1941)

After the Germans occupied France in World War II, it was banned by the Vichy regime and had to go underground. She helped numerous Jews to flee abroad, obtained false passports and hiding places in the provinces. Many members, such as Bernard Lecache, Jean-Pierre Bloch or Joséphine Baker , were in the Resistance , some like Gaston Bergery or Jean-Marie Balestre supported the Vichy regime.

Honorary members

literature

  • Jean-Pierre Allali, Richard Séréro: Contre le racisme, les combats de la LICRA , 2002
  • Patrick Gaubert: Combattre l'obscurantisme , 2007

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ He was ousted from the Communist Party in 1923 because he refused to give up his Masonic membership, but remained stuck with communist ideals
  2. ^ Simon Epstein Les Dreyfusards sous l'occupation , Albin Michel 2001
  3. ↑ Paradoxical Biographies - Confused political page changes in France in the 30s ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 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. by Alexander Emanuely , Context XXI, 7/2002 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.contextxxi.at
  4. ↑ Simon Epstein Un paradoxe français. Antiracistes dans la Collaboration, antisémites dans la Résistance , Albin Michel, 2008