The Queen of All

“12: Testament of a ‘man of the left’

El Moudjahid, No. 21, 1 April 1958

Paul Rivet, deceased last March 21, could be considered a prototype of the French ‘left.’ After having been a founder of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, he became the first elected official of the Front populaire in 1935. A friend of President Ho Chi Minh during the Vietnam war, he had a clear-sighted attitude and worked hard at re-establishing peace.

However, faced with the Algerian revolution, Paul Rivet was to throw all the weight of his name, of his reputation as a man of the ‘left,’ as a ‘democrat’ and as an ‘anticolonialist,’ on the scales along with Soustelle, Mollet and Pineau. At the request of these latter, he went, in 1956-1957, to all the South American republics and then to corridors of the UN to plead in favour of the French government’s cause, that is to say, of that colonial war and massacre christened ‘pacification.’

In his last interview, which Gilles Martinet conducted and was posthumously published in France-Observateur on 27 March, Paul Rivet, expressing his disillusionment, could not hide the sense of shame that his role in service of Mollet and Pineau had left him with. ‘In their name,’ he said, ‘I made promises to the South American governments that were never – and I saw it too late – meant to be kept. … I’ve hooked delegates in the corridors of the UN like prostitutes accost clients on the street.’ What this highlights is the degree of degradation to which French policy has reduced the elite of this country! Was Paul Rivet, who was disappointed and eve disgusted at his actions, then to provide his mea culpa and try to make up for his ‘errors?’ Alas, no.

Why did he not join the party of those who vigorously denounce colonialist policy? Because, according to him, ‘[this party] contains too many men who sell the west’s, Europe’s, France’s, traditions too cheaply … We must be proud of what Europe has brought to the world, of what white man – yes, white man – has done for culture and for civilization.’ And he added, ‘I’ve never been able to accept that people show so much eagerness to approve any oldl stupidity whatsoever, simply as the person who proffers it is wearing a burnous or his head is covered with a turban …’ Chauvinism and racism – this is the spiritual heritage that Paul Rivet is leaving behind, a ‘man of the left’ if there ever was one!

Some explain the retrograde positions of these men of the left in France through a so-called ignorance of the colonial problems or by the difficulties encountered in practical action. Paul Rivet’s testament – and this case is of interest to us because it is typica – manifestly shows that the left’s ideology itself is in question. Because they are ‘left’ annd ‘antifascist’ at home, the French consider they are entitled to lead other people’s lives, to give lessons in democracy, even by dint of bombs. This ideologuy, however different from the ideology of the ‘ultras,’ aims no less at dominating and suffocating our Nation. It thus calls, on our part, for more vigilance and severity.”

Jonathan Labillois. Still Dancing. 2014.