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Ban political parties

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
People cited Jules Monnerot, Simone Weil

Description

Manuscript of an article by André Breton written for Combat dated 20 April 1950.

This article appears to constitute a summit and closure of a series of articles given to Combat in the spring of 1950. Breton's position towards movements, schools and parties gradually became more radical, moving from an evident reticence to this genuinely revolutionary call for ‘a ban on political parties’. The context of the Fourth Republic at the time, when coalitions and ‘policy politicians’ dominated, should be taken into account in relation to the writer’s personal evolution. [André Breton Atelier website, 2005]

Handwritten manuscript signed, 20 April 1950.
- 2 handwritten pages in-4°, titled, dated and signed in green ink by Breton, and relating to the value or otherwise of the existence of political parties:
‘In the darkest days of 1940, when this country’s consciousness and morale was at its lowest ebb, even a brief analysis of events made the incompetence of political parties apparent...
‘The absurdity and scribbling resulting from party enrolment is incomparably more apparent today than ever...
‘Simone Weil’s statement “Note on the general suppression of political parties” gives a most decisive and definitive testimony on this subject...’
Numerous erasures and corrections. Published in Combat. [sale catalogue, 2003].

Bibliography

André Breton (Édition de Marguerite Bonnet avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier, Marie-Claire Dumas, Étienne-Alain Hubert et José Pierre), Alentours II, Œuvres complètes, tome III, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 1999, p. 1026 à 1028, notice p. 1445