Jeune Garde Antifasciste

Last updated
Jeune Garde
FormationJanuary 1, 2018;6 years ago (2018-01-01)
Purpose Anti-fascism
Region served
France
Official language
French
Affiliations New Popular Front

The Jeune Garde is a French anti-fascist organisation. [1] [2]

Contents

History

The Jeune Garde was founded in January 2018 in Lyon. [3] In 2019, a Strasbourg section was founded and in 2020, a section in Paris was founded. [4] In 2021, local sections in Lille and Montpellier were founded. [5] The group uses the Three Arrows as its logo, basing itself off the logo of the French Section of the Workers' International of the first half of the 20th century. [6]

In September 2021, members of the far-right Zouaves Paris group assaulted Raphaël Arnault, the Jeune Garde's Lyon spokesperson, as he disembarked from a train arriving in Paris. [7] In late-November 2021, Jeune Garde demonstrators clashed with members of the Collectif Némésis, an Identitarian advocacy group that self-describes as feminist, after members of Némésis attempted to join a protest march against sexual violence in Paris organised by the Collectif NousToutes. [8] In December 2021, National Assembly deputy Alexis Corbière and regional councillor Raquel Garrido filed a case with the police against two supporters of far-right politician Éric Zemmour after the Jeune Garde published a video online of the two Zemmour supporters at a firing range doing target practice while talking about several politicians that they would hunt, including Cobière and Garrido. [9]

In February 2022, an anti-fascist conference in Strasbourg that the group attended was attacked by members of the neo-Nazi Strasbourg Offender hooligan group. [10] In May 2022, Arnault resigned as spokesperson for the Lyon section to run in the 2022 French legislative election against the candidate of the New Ecological and Social People's Union. [11] [12]

According to Europe 1, the group was involved in around ten clashes with the far-right in Lyon in 2023. [13]

In June 2024, ahead of the 2024 French legislative election, it joined the New Popular Front alliance in an effort to contrast the rising french far-right. Arnault was named La France Insoumise's candidate as part of the Front for Vaucluse's 1st constituency. [14]

Goals

In March 2018, the group published a statement describing their aims as re-invigorating the anti-fascist movement in the city, saying that pre-existing movements were too isolated from society and treated fascist groups as if they existed in a vacuum, neglecting the necessity of struggles against capitalism and racism and other forms of oppression. [15] Arnault has stated that increasing collaboration between different left-wing movements is a key objective for the group. [16]

Maya Valka, spokesperson for the Paris section, has stated that the group aims to develop a more day-to-day struggle against fascism, and not just an anti-fascism that responds to emergency situations. [17] Valka has also stated that group aims to develop and international and class-focused feminism, saying that feminism and anti-fascism go hand-in-hand. [18]

Criticism

The Jeune Garde has been criticised by some anti-fascists for not doing enough to centre anti-racism in its movement. [19] The group has also been accused of promoting violence, with Arnault being designated with 3 Fiche S by French authorities. [14]

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References

  1. ↑ "À Lyon rugissent les antifas". Les Jours. March 6, 2022.
  2. ↑ "L'antifascisme, un renouveau par la jeunesse". Le Monde.fr. October 26, 2021 – via Le Monde.
  3. ↑ Allenou, Marie (November 1, 2021). "(Vidéo) "À Lyon, ça fait onze ans qu'on subit ces violences de l'extrême-droite", Raphaël Arnault, porte-parole de la Jeune garde". Lyon Capitale.
  4. ↑ Vetter, Thibault (January 25, 2022). "Services d'ordre, tractage, réseaux sociaux : la riposte des antifas locaux contre l'extrême-droite".
  5. ↑ Bernard, Guillaume (December 15, 2021). "Jeune Garde : « notre antifascisme n'a pas de feuille de route préétablie »".
  6. ↑ "La Jeune garde antifasciste". Les Jours.
  7. ↑ "Le leader d'un groupe antifasciste lyonnais tabassé à la sortie d'un train à Paris". actu.fr. 9 September 2021.
  8. ↑ "Marche #NousToutes à Paris : des heurts éclatent entre les féministes du collectif Némésis et des «antifascistes»". LEFIGARO. November 21, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Une enquête ouverte pour « menaces de mort » après la plainte d'Alexis Corbière et Raquel Garrido". Le Monde.fr. December 22, 2021 – via Le Monde.
  10. ↑ "Strasbourg : un collectif antifasciste attaqué par un groupuscule d'extrême-droite au cours d'une table ronde". France 3 Grand Est. 26 February 2022.
  11. ↑ Dejean, Mathieu. "Raphaël Arnault, l'antifa qui veut être député". Mediapart.
  12. ↑ Faure, Anthony (May 13, 2022). "Législatives : le porte-parole de la Jeune Garde candidat à Lyon ?". Lyon Capitale.
  13. ↑ Marty, Jean-Baptiste (18 June 2024). "Législatives 2024 : qu'est-ce que La Jeune garde, groupuscule antifa fondé par Raphaël Arnault ?". Europe 1. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  14. 1 2 Bartoli, Eloïse (16 June 2024). "Législatives 2024 : qui est Raphaël Arnault, ce militant antifa fiché S dont l'investiture par LFI fait polémique ?". Le Parisien. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  15. ↑ "Présentation de la Jeune Garde Lyon". rebellyon.info. 24 March 2018.
  16. ↑ "Ces jeunes qui popularisent l'antifascisme". 29 September 2021.
  17. ↑ vendredi (9 October 2020). "Paris : Jeune Garde, un nouveau groupe antifa parisien" [Paris: Jeune Garde, a new Parisian antifa group]. La Horde (in French).
  18. ↑ Daphné Deschamps (29 September 2021). "Maya : « Donner à voir un féminisme antifasciste »" [Maya: "Showing an anti-fascist feminism"]. Politis (in French).
  19. ↑ "Lyon. Insultes islamophobes, transphobes et violences : les antifascistes se déchirent". actu.fr. 14 June 2021.

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