A-Infos (en) France, Monde Libertaire - IDEAS AND STRUGGLES: The True Story of a Young Man Who Went to Paris to Make a Revolution (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

A Grand Publishing Adventure ---- A discreet man, René Lefeuvre, yet a 
key figure in the social and political struggles of a significant part 
of the 20th century in France. He founded the journal Masses, and also 
the Spartacus publishing house and Cahiers. Having passed away in 1988, 
he wanted his writings to endure and created the Friends of Spartacus 
association in 1979. Daniel Guerrier, its last president, whom we 
interviewed on our program "Au fil des pages" on Radio Libertaire, is 
co-organizing the transfer of the collection with our friends at 
Syllepse publishers. They are the ones reissuing titles such as Idealism 
and Materialism in the Conception of History by Jean Jaurès, The 
Kronstadt Commune by Ida Mett, and Class War in Spain by Camillo 
Berneri... Visit their website. A follower of Rosa Luxemburg's ideas and 
a member of the left wing of the SFIO (French Section of the Workers' 
International), René Lefeuvre, through his publications, brought 
together numerous thinkers from various left-wing currents, from the 
most moderate to the most radical. He certainly deserved a biography 
written by Denis Heudré and published by Syllepse.

René Lefeuvre was born on August 20, 1902, in Livré-sur-Changeon, into a 
family of stonemasons. His aspiration? To leave for the capital, the 
Paris of ideas and revolutions. He became involved in the Revolutionary 
Left, a component of the SFIO, alongside Marceau Pivert, Daniel Guérin, 
and Colette Audry. He participated in the campaign for Victor Serge's 
release. Founded in 1936, Spartacus publishers publicly supported 
Republican Spain by publishing "To the Rescue of Spain" by Jean Prader.

A prisoner during World War II, he resumed his activist and publishing 
activities in the postwar atmosphere. In 1946, he opposed Stalinism by 
publishing *Communist Politics: Line and Turning Points*. The Stalinist 
dictatorship and its crimes were known, but the communists refused to 
acknowledge it. As early as 1948, he denounced the situation in Algeria 
by publishing *Algeria in a Dead End* by Sylvain Wisner, a work with 
prescient content.

He settled in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, with his books. "His library is a 
kind of intellectual cocoon where he draws inspiration, turns of phrase, 
a wealth of material for reflection. This attachment is well known to 
all lovers of words, and sometimes borders on addiction."

After 1968, he was able to openly express his homosexuality; the 
Homosexual Front for Revolutionary Action and the journal *Arcadie* gave 
voice to the movement. The Spartacus notebooks helped to disseminate a 
different kind of socialism than that of the Stalinists. Early on, he 
became concerned about the Holocaust denial perpetrated by the La 
Vieille Taupe bookstore. His work publishing texts from various currents 
within the socialist movement extended to more recent struggles, such as 
the evolution of Poland and the Solidarity trade union, with Charles 
Reeve's *Solidarity in Chains: For an Interpretation of the Struggles in 
Poland*.

After his death, his writings were preserved. His archives were thus 
housed at La Contemporaine (formerly the BDIC) in Nanterre. And as 
mentioned above, Syllepse continues the publishing work begun in 1936. 
"There is no doubt that, at his level as a publisher, by contributing to 
the political and societal debates of that era,[René Lefeuvre]attempted 
to broaden minds."

* Denis Heudré
The True Story of a Little Guy Who Came to Paris to Make a Revolution
Ed. Syllepse, 2026

https://monde-libertaire.net/?articlen=8918
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