Sébastien Faure

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Sébastien Faure

Sébastien Faure was a French anarchist (January 6, 1858 (Saint-Etienne) - July 14, 1942 (Royan)).

1 Biography
2 Views
3 La Ruche
4 See also
5 External links and references

[edit] Biography

Before becoming a free-thinker, he was a seminarist. He engaged in politics and became a member of the socialist working party, but eventually turned to anarchism in 1888.

In 1894, he was prosecuted in "The Trial of the thirty" ("Procès des trente"), but was acquitted. In 1895, he cofounded "Le Libertaire" with Louise Michel, taking the name of the earlier journal by Joseph Déjacque. At the time of the Dreyfus affair, he was one of the leading supporters of Alfred Dreyfus. In 1904, he created a libertarian school called "La Ruche" (The Hive) close to Rambouillet. In 1916, he launched the periodical "Ce qu'il faut dire". Faure also co-founded (with Voline) the Synthesis.

In 1918, he was imprisoned for organizing an illegal meeting. He is recognized for his pedagogy and his qualities as a speaker, and is the author of several books:

The universal pain (1895)
My Communism (1921)
The Forces Of The Revolution (1921)
Religious imposture (1923)
Subversive remarks
Twelve Proofs of God's Inexistence (PDF) (1908)

He was also the founder of the Anarchist Encyclopaedia, as well as the namesake of the Sébastien Faure Century, the French-speaking contingent of the Durruti Column.

[edit] Views

Faure's view of pedadogy was that every single aspect of a human being had to be develop. Faure identified three aspects: physical, mental and moral. He thought that a man or a woman needed to be able to accomplish physical, manual tasks as well as to have a minimum of culture and think and be able to develop ideas. All this in a respectful, mutual, equal and free environnment.

[edit] La Ruche

Created in 1904, the source of capital for La Ruche (The Hive) at the beginning was the product of Faure's seminars. It became self-sufficient in three years' time. Its founding principles were similar to Proudhon's Permanent Education and Paul Robin's "good birth, good education and good social organisation."

The three main spheres of pedagogy were fulfilled through classes, work in the field and all the different activities necessary to ensure the self-sufficiency of the Hive. The moral values were implemented through respect of the child's autonomy, positive method, absence of ranking or any form of categorization (except some activities were reserved to particular groups of age), coeducation, and sexual education (all activities being mixed.)