Stephane Hessel - Time for Outrage!

Time for Outrage!

Ninety-three years. Im nearing the last stage. The end cannot be far off. How lucky I am to be able to draw on the foundation of my political life: the Resistance and the National Council of the Resistances program from sixty-six years ago. It is thanks to Jean Moulin that all the elements of occupied France-all the movements, the parties, the unions-came together within the framework of the National Council to proclaim their allegiance to Fighting France and to the only leader it recognized, Gen. Charles de Gaulle. I was in London, where I had joined de Gaulle in March 1941, when I learned that the council had put the finishing touches on its program and adopted it on March 15, 1944: a collection of principles and values for Free France that still provides the foundation of our countrys modern democracy.

We need these principles and values more than ever today. It is up to us, to all of us together, to ensure that our society remains one to be proud of: not this society of undocumented workers and deportations, of being suspicious of immigrants; not this society where our retirement and the other gains of social security are being called into question; not this society where the media are in the hands of the rich. These are all things that we would refuse to countenance if we were the true heirs of the National Council of the Resistance.

After 1945, after that horrific tragedy, the forces in the National Council of the Resistance achieved an ambitious resurrection for France . Let us remember that this was when the social safety net that the Resistance called for was created: A comprehensive social security plan, to guarantee all citizens a means of livelihood in every case where they are unable to get it by working; and retirement that allows older workers to end their lives with dignity. Sources of energy-electricity, gas, coal-were nationalized, along with the large banks, in accordance again with what the program advocated: returning to the nation the major means of production that have been monopolized, the fruits of common labor, the sources of energy, mineral riches, insurance companies, and big banks; and establishing a true economic and social democracy, which entails removing large-scale economic and financial feudalism from the management of the economy. The general interest had to be given precedence over particular special interests, and a fair division of the wealth created by the world of labor over the power of money. The Resistance proposed a rational organization of the economy to guarantee that individual interests be subordinated to the public interest, one free of a dictatorship of established professionals in the image of the fascist state. The Provisional Government of the French Republic (1944-46) assumed the task of realizing this ideal.

Genuine democracy needs a free press. The Resistance knew this, and it demanded the freedom and honor of the press and its independence from the state and the forces of money and foreign influence. Again, these goals were carried forward, thanks to the press laws enacted after 1944. But they are at risk today.

The Resistance called for the practical opportunity for every French child to have access to the most advanced education, without discrimination-but the reforms proposed in 2008 run counter to this plan. Young teachers have refused to implement these reforms up to now, and I support their actions. They have seen their salaries reduced in retaliation. They got angry, they disobeyed, they decided that these reforms diverged too far from the ideal of education in a democratic republic, were too deeply beholden to a society of money and failed to develop the creative and critical spirit sufficiently.

All of these social rights at the core of the program of the Resistance are today under attack.