He barely missed May Day, but Claude Beaugrand (1949-2025) wasn't there
this year, having reached the end of a journey that led this libertarian
communist railway worker from May '68 to solidarity with Ukraine. When
you ran into him-at protests, at the La Brèche bookstore, or at the Noir
et Rouge book fairs-Claude would grab your sleeve and unfailingly engage
you in conversation about the social movement, the CGT, SUD-Rail, the
UCL, etc. He would start the conversation in an eminently serious tone,
his eyes narrowed, full of compunction. But the marble would soon crack.
With little or no transition, he was buzzing, delivering jubilant
remarks, tit for tat, wide-eyed, delighted to share laughter and
anecdotes, often gleaned from the history of the labor movement, of
which he was a passionate fan. At the 1st Federal Congress of SUD-Rail
in 1996, he distinguished himself with an analysis of the Hamburg
dockers' strike of... 1896-1897, as long and off-topic as it was
fascinating and knowledgeable. But he had other ways of impressing the
audience. Like during that impromptu soccer game at the 2015 congress of
Alternative Libertaire (AL), where, at over 60 years old, he showed off
to even the younger generation! On the side of the "Rail enchaîné"
A young worker at Citroën in May 1968, Claude Beaugrand joined the
Anarchist Revolutionary Organization (ORA) the following year. Highly
committed, he was editor of the ORA's newspaper, Front libertaire, from
1972 to 1976, as well as the newsletter Portugal Libertario (1973-1974),
published by immigrant workers.
Having joined the SNCF, he became an activist in the CFDT and
participated, along with Henri Célié and Serge Torrano, in the
publication of the libertarian communist newsletter Le Rail enchaîné,
from 1973 to 1976. That year, during the split that saw the exclusion of
the UTCL tendency and the transformation of the ORA into the OCL, Claude
and Serge opted for the OCL. They remained there until its dislocation
to the Paris region in the early 1980s.
A CFDT union member in Paris-Austerlitz, Claude Beaugrand actively
participated in strikes, including those of 1986 and 1995, and joined
SUD-Rail the following year. At the time, he readily contributed his two
cents to AL's public meetings. From 2007 onward, while still declaring
himself a libertarian, he participated in the creation of the NPA. He
broke away from it in the early 2010s and rejoined AL.
Claude Beaugrand at the inauguration of the FACL in 2017.
The death of his old accomplice Serge Torrano in 2015 deeply affected
him: "End of an era," he said, which prompted him to bid farewell to
activism. He nevertheless joined UCL for a short time in 2019.
In solidarity with the Ukrainian people, he joined the Koltchenko
Committee in 2014, the libertarian trade unionist from Crimea imprisoned
for five years in Russia. In 2022, following Putin's invasion, he joined
the European Network of Solidarity with Ukraine, never missing a meeting.
We will fondly remember this lover of culture and poetry who, in the
course of a conversation, was capable of reciting verses from
Lamartine's Lake - that, too, was Claude Beaugrand!
Guillaume (UCL Montreuil), Laurent (UCL Aveyron), Christian (UCL
Banlieue sud-est)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Necrologie-Volubile-et-exalte-Claude-Beaugrand-s-en-est-alle
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
this year, having reached the end of a journey that led this libertarian
communist railway worker from May '68 to solidarity with Ukraine. When
you ran into him-at protests, at the La Brèche bookstore, or at the Noir
et Rouge book fairs-Claude would grab your sleeve and unfailingly engage
you in conversation about the social movement, the CGT, SUD-Rail, the
UCL, etc. He would start the conversation in an eminently serious tone,
his eyes narrowed, full of compunction. But the marble would soon crack.
With little or no transition, he was buzzing, delivering jubilant
remarks, tit for tat, wide-eyed, delighted to share laughter and
anecdotes, often gleaned from the history of the labor movement, of
which he was a passionate fan. At the 1st Federal Congress of SUD-Rail
in 1996, he distinguished himself with an analysis of the Hamburg
dockers' strike of... 1896-1897, as long and off-topic as it was
fascinating and knowledgeable. But he had other ways of impressing the
audience. Like during that impromptu soccer game at the 2015 congress of
Alternative Libertaire (AL), where, at over 60 years old, he showed off
to even the younger generation! On the side of the "Rail enchaîné"
A young worker at Citroën in May 1968, Claude Beaugrand joined the
Anarchist Revolutionary Organization (ORA) the following year. Highly
committed, he was editor of the ORA's newspaper, Front libertaire, from
1972 to 1976, as well as the newsletter Portugal Libertario (1973-1974),
published by immigrant workers.
Having joined the SNCF, he became an activist in the CFDT and
participated, along with Henri Célié and Serge Torrano, in the
publication of the libertarian communist newsletter Le Rail enchaîné,
from 1973 to 1976. That year, during the split that saw the exclusion of
the UTCL tendency and the transformation of the ORA into the OCL, Claude
and Serge opted for the OCL. They remained there until its dislocation
to the Paris region in the early 1980s.
A CFDT union member in Paris-Austerlitz, Claude Beaugrand actively
participated in strikes, including those of 1986 and 1995, and joined
SUD-Rail the following year. At the time, he readily contributed his two
cents to AL's public meetings. From 2007 onward, while still declaring
himself a libertarian, he participated in the creation of the NPA. He
broke away from it in the early 2010s and rejoined AL.
Claude Beaugrand at the inauguration of the FACL in 2017.
The death of his old accomplice Serge Torrano in 2015 deeply affected
him: "End of an era," he said, which prompted him to bid farewell to
activism. He nevertheless joined UCL for a short time in 2019.
In solidarity with the Ukrainian people, he joined the Koltchenko
Committee in 2014, the libertarian trade unionist from Crimea imprisoned
for five years in Russia. In 2022, following Putin's invasion, he joined
the European Network of Solidarity with Ukraine, never missing a meeting.
We will fondly remember this lover of culture and poetry who, in the
course of a conversation, was capable of reciting verses from
Lamartine's Lake - that, too, was Claude Beaugrand!
Guillaume (UCL Montreuil), Laurent (UCL Aveyron), Christian (UCL
Banlieue sud-est)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Necrologie-Volubile-et-exalte-Claude-Beaugrand-s-en-est-alle
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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