Groupe Union Droit
Encyclopedia
Groupe Union Défense or Groupe Unité Défense (originally named Groupe Union Droit), better known as GUD, is the name of a succession of violent French
far-right student
political groups. Regularly dissolved, it keeps surfacing under altered names. It was founded in 1968 under the name Union Droit at the university of Paris II Panthéon-Assas by Gérard Longuet
, Gérard Ecorcheville and Alain Robert, after the dissolving of the Fédération des étudiants nationalistes and some members of the group Occident. In 1970, it became the Groupe d'union et de défense in an attempt to extend its reach outward from Assas, which is a law university. GUD took as symbol the celtic cross
and the black rat, and participated in the 1969 founding of Ordre Nouveau
. In the mid-1980s, the GUD turned toward support of the Third Position
movements and "national revolutionary" theories related to neo-fascism
.
. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, members of the GUD came into association with UNI
, a right-wing student union http://www.chez.com/cuved/publi/uniexpo.htmhttp://cnud.ouvaton.org/article.php3?id_article=25, which has since severed the ties with the extremists.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, linked to the Parti des forces nouvelles
(PFN), the GUD published the satiric
monthly Alternative with the Front de la Jeunesse (youth organization of the PFN). Mainly for financial reasons, the GUD participated in 1974 and 1981 to the security of demonstrations and activists during the presidential campaign of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
, as well as of Edouard Balladur
's 1995 campaign
. In 1988, the group united itself with Jeune Résistance and the Union des cercles résistance, offshoots of Nouvelle Résistance
National Bolshevist
group, under the name Unité Radicale
, dissolved after Maxime Brunerie
's failed assassination attempt on president Jacques Chirac
. In 2004, the GUD reformed under the name Rassemblement des Etudiants de Droite (Rally of the right-wing students). Its publication is Le Dissident.
Personalities who have been part of the GUD include Claude Goasguen
, former vice-president of Liberal Democracy
(DL), a neoliberal party, and current member of the UMP
conservative party, Anne Méaux head of the PR firm Image 7, Michel Calzaroni director of the PR firm DGM Conseil as well as Basile de Koch.
s (see UNEF
). The GUD is also regularly censored by the head of the Assas university because of racist
hate speech
, in particular following provocations towards the Union des étudiants juifs de France
, the French Jewish Students Union.
in 1976, Croatia
in the 1990s or in Burma along with the Karens
. They have had links with French mercenaries and the Department of Protection-Security
, which is the security organization of the far-right Front national.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
far-right student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
political groups. Regularly dissolved, it keeps surfacing under altered names. It was founded in 1968 under the name Union Droit at the university of Paris II Panthéon-Assas by Gérard Longuet
Gérard Longuet
Gérard Longuet is a French conservative politician. On 27 February 2011, he became the new French Defense Minister.-Biography:...
, Gérard Ecorcheville and Alain Robert, after the dissolving of the Fédération des étudiants nationalistes and some members of the group Occident. In 1970, it became the Groupe d'union et de défense in an attempt to extend its reach outward from Assas, which is a law university. GUD took as symbol the celtic cross
Celtic cross
A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. In the Celtic Christian world it was combined with the Christian cross and this design was often used for high crosses – a free-standing cross made of stone and often richly decorated...
and the black rat, and participated in the 1969 founding of Ordre Nouveau
Ordre Nouveau (1960s)
Ordre Nouveau was a far-right movement created on December 15, 1969. The first president was the lawyer Jean-François Galvaire ....
. In the mid-1980s, the GUD turned toward support of the Third Position
Third Position
Third Position is a revolutionary nationalist political ideology that emphasizes its opposition to both communism and capitalism. Advocates of Third Position politics typically present themselves as "beyond left and right", instead claiming to syncretize radical ideas from both ends of the...
movements and "national revolutionary" theories related to neo-fascism
Neo-Fascism
Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...
.
History
The GUD is barely existent outside of University Paris II Panthéon-Assas, a renowned Law school in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, members of the GUD came into association with UNI
Union Nationale Inter-universitaire
Union Nationale Interuniversitaire or "Inter-University Union" is a French right-wing union of university students, created in February 1969 under the initiative of the Service d'Action Civique, a secret service used by the right-wing gaullist movement, in particular by Robert Pandraud, Charles...
, a right-wing student union http://www.chez.com/cuved/publi/uniexpo.htmhttp://cnud.ouvaton.org/article.php3?id_article=25, which has since severed the ties with the extremists.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, linked to the Parti des forces nouvelles
Parti des forces nouvelles
Parti des forces nouvelles or Party of New Forces was a French far right political party formed in November 1974 from the Comité faire front, a group of anti-Jean-Marie Le Pen dissidents who had split from the National Front .-Development:...
(PFN), the GUD published the satiric
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
monthly Alternative with the Front de la Jeunesse (youth organization of the PFN). Mainly for financial reasons, the GUD participated in 1974 and 1981 to the security of demonstrations and activists during the presidential campaign of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
, as well as of Edouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 29 March 1993 to 10 May 1995.-Biography:Balladur was born in İzmir, Turkey, to an Armenian Catholic family with five children and long-standing ties to France...
's 1995 campaign
French presidential election, 1995
Presidential elections took place in France on 23 April and 7 May 1995, to elect the fifth president of the Fifth Republic.The incumbent Socialist president, François Mitterrand, did not stand for a third term. He was 78, had cancer, and his party had lost the previous legislative election in a...
. In 1988, the group united itself with Jeune Résistance and the Union des cercles résistance, offshoots of Nouvelle Résistance
Nouvelle Résistance
Nouvelle Résistance was a French far right group created in August 1991 by Christian Bouchet as an offshoot of Troisième Voie , which was headed by Bouchet. Dissolved in 1997, NR described themselves as "national revolutionary" and part of the National Bolshevism and Third Position movement...
National Bolshevist
National Bolshevism
National Bolshevism is a political movement that claims to combine elements of nationalism and Bolshevism. It is often anti-capitalist in tone, and sympathetic towards certain nationalist forms of communism and socialism...
group, under the name Unité Radicale
Unité Radicale
Unité Radicale was a French far-right political group close to the Third Position and National Bolshevism thesis. It was founded in June 1998 from the merger of Groupe Union Défense and Nouvelle Résistance/Jeune Résistance/Union des Cercles Résistance, issued from Nouvelle Résistance, and dissolved...
, dissolved after Maxime Brunerie
Maxime Brunerie
Maxime Brunerie is a man who attempted to assassinate French President Jacques Chirac on July 14, 2002 in Paris, during the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Élysées....
's failed assassination attempt on president Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
. In 2004, the GUD reformed under the name Rassemblement des Etudiants de Droite (Rally of the right-wing students). Its publication is Le Dissident.
Personalities who have been part of the GUD include Claude Goasguen
Claude Goasguen
Claude Goasguen is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the city of Paris, and is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement.-Biography:...
, former vice-president of Liberal Democracy
Liberal Democracy (France)
Liberal Democracy was a French political party that advocated conservative liberalism and liberal conservatism, headed by Alain Madelin. The party replaced in 1997 the Republican Party, which was the classical liberal component of the Union for French Democracy .It became independent in 1998,...
(DL), a neoliberal party, and current member of the UMP
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
conservative party, Anne Méaux head of the PR firm Image 7, Michel Calzaroni director of the PR firm DGM Conseil as well as Basile de Koch.
Hate speech & violence
GUD has in the past engaged in various criminal activities, ranging from defacing property with slogans to beating political opponents with baseball batBaseball bat
A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the game of baseball to hit the ball after the ball is thrown by the pitcher. It is no more than 2.75 inches in diameter at the thickest part and no more than 42 inches in length. It typically weighs no more than 33 ounces , but it...
s (see UNEF
Union nationale des étudiants de france
The National Union of Students of France is the main national students' union in France....
). The GUD is also regularly censored by the head of the Assas university because of racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
hate speech
Hate speech
Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
, in particular following provocations towards the Union des étudiants juifs de France
Union des étudiants juifs de France
The Union des étudiants juifs de France is a French organization whose aim is to assist French Jewish students....
, the French Jewish Students Union.
Mercenaries
Some GUD members have fought in LebanonLebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
in 1976, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
in the 1990s or in Burma along with the Karens
Karen people
The Karen or Kayin people , are a Sino-Tibetan language speaking ethnic group which resides primarily in southern and southeastern Burma . The Karen make up approximately 7 percent of the total Burmese population of approximately 50 million people...
. They have had links with French mercenaries and the Department of Protection-Security
Department of Protection-Security
Department for Protection and Security or Département Protection et Sécurité is the "security" branch of the National Front political party of France, which depends directly from the FN's president and is now led by Eric Staelens....
, which is the security organization of the far-right Front national.
Leaders
Successive leaders of the GUD were: Jack Marchal, Jean-François Santacroce, Serge Rep, Philippe Cuignache, Charles-Henri Varaut, Frédéric Chatillon, William Bonnefoy, Benoît Fleury (from 1995 to 2000; now a professor at the law school of the University of Poitiers).Literature
- Frédéric Chatillon, Thomas Lagane et Jack Marchal (dir.), Les Rats maudits. Histoire des étudiants nationalistes 1965-1995, Éditions des Monts d'Arrée, 1995, ISBN 2-911387-00-7.
- Roger GriffinRoger GriffinRoger D. Griffin is a British academic political theorist at Oxford Brookes University, England. His recent efforts have focused on a definition and examination of fascism...
: “Net gains and GUD reactions: patterns of prejudice in a Neo-fascist groupuscule” in Patterns of PrejudicePatterns of PrejudicePatterns of Prejudice is a journal published by Routledge.Its aims and scope, in part as given by Taylor & Francis, are as follows:...
, vol. 33, n°2, 1999, p. 31-50. - Collectif, Bêtes et méchants. – Petite histoire des jeunes fascistes français, Paris, Éditions Reflex, 2002, ISBN 2-914519-01-X.
External links
- Timeline
- The hardcore of the French right, The Guardian, Saturday July 20, 2002.
- France's neo-Nazi breeding ground, The Guardian, Saturday July 20, 2002 C'est quoi le GUD ? 20 Minutes, Monday February 11, 2008. Groupe Union Défense (GUD) in REFLEXes, 22 février 2009.