Contenu du sommaire : Varia

The Five Eras of Témoignage chrétien Heir to the legacy of the Courrier français du Témoignage chrétien, born in secrecy in 1943, the weekly newspaper Témoignage chrétien became more radical at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. First, the paper opposed the Algerian War, then as early as 1962, it endorsed The Second Vatican Council and the cause of laity. A second radical turn occurred during 1967-1968, when the paper adopted the Palestinian cause, joined the Union de la gauche (Union of the Left) and participated in intra-ecclesial debates. Combined with the ageing and lack of renewal of its readership, this new form of radicalisation ultimately diminished the paper's audience and threatened its existence, even before the 1996 “coup d'État” against Georges Montaron, who had headed the paper since 1955.

The French Republic, Strikes and Amnesty (1905-1914): A Political Attempt to Regulate Social Conflicts in France. Confronted with violent social conflicts at the end of 19th century, French radicals implemented a policy that combined repression, clemency and reforms and which led to the systematic use of amnesty. Based on the long republican tradition of clemency, amnesty measures aimed to solidify the structure of “republican civilisation” by establishing the limits of what was permissible and what was not. Often acting in response to electoral issues, amnesty can be understood as a pedagogical means that strove to save the world of labour from the temptation of Socialism. Nevertheless, the debates which accompanied the use of amnesty revealed the elite's persistent fear of the people at a time when the working class was becoming more influential and more organised.

From the Factory to the French Council of State: The Election of Josephine Pencalet in Douarnenez (1925). The election of Josephine Pencalet to the Douarnenez city council in 1925 allows us to investigate one of the paradoxes of French political parties and institutions with regard to women. Following instructions from Moscow, the Communist Party had several female candidates run for municipal office in 1925, thus adopting a posture of defiance towards existing institutions, political parties and feminist organisations. While women still lacked political rights, the voters of this Breton port city, marked by strong socio-political conflict, elected a 38 year-old female worker to represent them. This election and its subsequent cancellation reflect inherent tensions behind the strategic uses of women in politics, both at the local and national level.

Resistance or Collaboration? The French Automobile Industry during the Second World War: The Case of Ford SAF. Following the Liberation of France in 1944, François Lehideux was accused having collaborated with the Germans. Under Lehideux's leadership, during the occupation the French automobile industry had worked almost exclusively for Germany. In his defence, Lehideux claimed that the industry had sabotaged the German war effort by deliberately under-producing. Although some historians have corroborated Lehideux's claim, the phenomenon of under-production has received little critical scrutiny so far. Examining the wartime activities of the Ford SAF automobile company, this article argues that it is plausible that the company produced less than it could have for the Germans, particularly during 1943-1944. Just as importantly, however, it argues that this under-production did not constitute a form of resistance, as Ford SAF was not motivated by a desire to undermine Germany's war effort.

Letters from French Correspondents to the BBC (1940-1943): A Penumbra of Resistance? This article examines a collection of letters addressed to the BBC by correspondents in France in the hopes of contributing to the debate about the extent and scope of the French Resistance. It argues that there was a “grey area” between public opinion and the organised underground Resistance which sought to symbolically rebuild the national community and to engage in dialogue with London regarding the behaviour of the Allies, loyalty to Pétain or de Gaulle, and the persecution of Jews. These correspondents were rarely young men of military age, who might have been thinking of resisting militarily, but rather tended to be veterans, women and young people.

The Retreat of the Senegalese Tirailleurs of the First French Army in 1944: Strategic Mistake, Political Compromise or Colonial Conservatism? In the fall of 1944, more than fifteen thousand colonial troops from the Senegalese Tirailleurs were withdrawn from the front lines of the First French Army fighting in the region of Belfort, and then transferred to Southern France. This operation, seen by many at the time as an attempt to “blanchir” (whiten) the French Army, was in fact neither a simple act of replacement nor an overwintering operation. It would appear that this troop rotation was above all the result of a complex decision-making process which combined military considerations influenced by martial races theory with the political need to integrate fighters coming from the French Resistance into the regular army.

France's Hungarian Policy Between 1967 and 1973 Between 1967 and 1973, French foreign policy employed several Soviet satellites to promote détente in Europe. In this context, Poland and Romania were particularly useful contacts. Hungary, however, also managed to attract French attention, in spite of a tense past between the two countries. In fact, the domestic reforms implemented by Hungary's Communist leadership and their moderate stance towards the Prague Spring set Hungary apart from most of the other “popular democracies”. Nevertheless, as Hungary was unable to assert itself on the international stage like Romania, Franco-Hungarian relations did not radically change until the advent of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).

We, the Latin-American People, Who Have Neither Canons nor Battleships”: Revolutionary Mexican Elites Facing the Great War. This article explores the important links between two closely interconnected events that have traditionally been analysed separately by historians: the First World War and the Mexican Revolution. In April 1917, revolutionary Mexico faced the possibility of going to war, shortly after the proclamation of its new Constitution. Like other Latin American nations, the country saw a “war of the minds” play out between neutralists and defenders of the Entente Powers or the Central Powers. This article analyses the contradictory positions held by various revolutionary elites during the Great War, including the President of the Republic, members of the Constituent Congress, the press, public intellectuals and student movements.

Resistance Against or Negotiation with Japan: The Origins of the Nanjing Nationalist Government (January 1938-April 1939). The Nanjing puppet government founded in 1940 by Wang Jingwei at the centre of the Japanese-occupied territory was the result of a long process of negotiations secretly carried out since the beginning of the war. Quick to denounce the treachery of the collaborators and the hypocrisy of the Japanese, Chinese historians have long studied this process through a teleological lens. However, if one examines the period from the beginning of the negotiations for peace in January 1938 up until Wang Jingwei departed for the occupied zone in April 1939, it becomes apparent that the establishment of this government was less the conclusion of a coherent plan than the result of a series of choices made in the uncertain context of the war's early years.