Cercle Proudhon

Proudhon Circle
Cercle Proudhon
Founded	December 16, 1911 (1911-12-16)
Dissolved	Unknown
Headquarters	Paris, France
Newspaper	Cahiers du cercle Proudhon
Ideology	National syndicalism Proto-fascism

Cercle Proudhon (Circle Proudhon) was a political group founded in France on December 16, 1911 by George Valois and Édouard Berth. The group was inspired by Georges Sorel and included French intellectuals like the French writer Pierre Drieu La Rochelle.

History

The first issue of Cahiers du cercle Proudhon appeared in January – February 1912 and included a Déclaration:

The founders – republicans, federalists, integral nationalists, and syndicalists – having resolved the political problem or dismissed it from their minds, are all enthusiastically in favour of an organisation of French society in accordance with principles taken from the French tradition which they find in Proudhon's works and in the contemporary syndicalist movement, and they are all completely in agreement on the following points:

Democracy is the greatest error of the past century. If one wishes to live, if one wishes to work, if one wishes in social life to possess the greatest human guarantees for production and culture, if one wishes to preserve and increase the moral, intellectual and material capital of civilisation, it is absolutely necessary to destroy all democratic institutions.

Berth and Valois had been brought together by Georges Sorel when he was planning a Nationalist and socialist-leaning journal La Cité française in 1910. This journal never appeared, except as heralded in a flyer entitled Déclaration de la Cité francaise signed by Sorel, Valois, Berth, Jean Variot, and Pierre Gilbert. However Variot quarrelled with Valois and went on to publish material with Sorel's support in L'Indépendence.

Controversy surrounds differing historical interpretations particularly following the publication of Neither Right nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France and The Birth of Fascist Ideology by Zeev Sternhell.

Many anarchists rejected the Cercle Proudhon interpretation of Proudhon's works. For example, American mutualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker argued that Cercle Proudhon purposely misrepresented Proudhon's views,

Democracy is an easy mark for this new party, and it finds its chief delight in pounding the philosopher of democracy, Rousseau. Now, nobody ever pounded Rousseau as effectively as Proudhon did, and in that fact the Cercle Proudhon finds its excuse. But it is not to be inferred that, because Proudhon destroyed Rousseau's theory of the social contract, he did not believe in the advisability of a social contract, or would uphold a monarchy in exacting an oath of allegiance (Proudhon and Royalism, 1913).

References

Allen Douglas. From Fascism to Libertarian Communism: George Valois Against the Third Republic. University of California Press (1993) ISBN 978-0-520-07678-5
Bernard Lanza. Georges Valois Du Cercle Proudhon au Nouvel Age,
Georges Navet. Le Cercle Proudhon, 1911-1914 : entre le syndicalisme révolutionnaire et l'Action Française. Paris : Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, 1987. (Les Travaux de l'Atelier Proudhon ; 6). ISBN 2-906096-05-9
Géraud Poumarède. Le Cercle Proudhon ou l'impossible synthèse. Mil neuf cent (1994) Volume 12 Issue 12 pp. 51–86
Jack J. Roth. "Revolution and Morale in Modern French Thought: Sorel and the Sorelians". French Historical Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Autumn, 1963), pp. 205–223
Zeev Sternhell. "Fascist Ideology", Fascism, A Reader's Guide, Analyses, Interpretations, Bibliography, edited by Walter Laqueur, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1976. pp 315–376.
Zeev Sternhell. Neither Right nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France, Princeton Univ. Press, California ISBN 0-691-00629-6
Zeev Sternhell. The Birth of Fascist Ideology, with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri, published by Princeton University Press, 1989, 1994 (ISBN 0-691-03289-0) (ISBN 0-691-04486-4)

Primary sources

Alain de Benoist (ed.) Cahiers du Cercle Proudhon. Avatar Editions (2007). ISBN 978-0-9555132-0-6
Cahiers du Cercle Proudhon (1 année 1912), Paris, Etienne Rivet, 1912.
Cahiers du Cercle Proudhon, Seven issues under the direction Henri Fortin, Paris, Etienne Rivet, 1912.
Charles Maurras. Lorsque Proudhon eut les cent ans. (1907).

Partial bibliography

Partial bibliography of Cahiers du Cercle Proudhon

DARVILLE Jean. PROUDHON. in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°1, janvier-février 1912
DARVILLE Jean/MAYREL Maurice. Analyses et critiques.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°3-4, mai-août 1912.
DARVILLE Jean.Satellites de la ploutocratie.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°5-6, fin 1912
GALLAND Pierre.PROUDHON et l'Ordre.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°1, janvier-février 1912
LAGRANGE Henri.PROUDHON et l'Ordre européen.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°2, mars-avril 1912.
LAGRANGE Henri.L’œuvre de SOREL et le Cercle PROUDHON. Précisions et prévisions.-in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°3/4, mai-août 1912 .
LES VIII.Les démocrates et PROUDHON.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°1, janvier-février 1912 .
MAIRE Gilbert.La philosophie de Georges SOREL.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°2, mars-avril 1912 .
MARAND René.Grandes rectifications soreliennes.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°3-4, mai-août 1912 .
MAYREL Maurice/ DARVILLE Jean.Analyses et critiques.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°3-4, mai-août 1912.
VALOIS Georges.Pourquoi nous rattachons nos travaux à l'esprit proudhonien.-in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°1, janvier-février 1912.
VALOIS Georges.Notre première année. Murmures et rumeurs dans la presse et dans le monde sur le cercle PROUDHON.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°3-4, mai-août 1912.
VALOIS Georges.SOREL et l'architecture sociale.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°3-4, mai-août 1912.
VALOIS Georges.L’Action Française, l'expérience POINCARÉ et le syndicalisme.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°5-6, fin 1912.
VALOIS Georges.La bourgeoisie capitaliste.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°5-6, fin 1912.
VALOIS Georges.La direction de l'œuvre proudhonienne et le cas HALÉVY.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°5-6, fin 1912.
VALOIS Georges.Notre deuxième année. Transformation des Cahiers.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°5-6, fin 1912 .
VINCENT Albert.Le bilan de la démocratie.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°2, mars-avril 1912.
VINCENT Albert.La famille chez PROUDHON et dans la démocratie.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°3-4, mai-août 1912 .
MAURRAS Charles.À Besançon.–in-Cahiers du Cercle PROUDHON, n°1, janvier-février 1912.

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