The CNR Programme — National Council of the Resistance

L'Esprit du Temps publishes this new edition of the Programme of the National Council of the Resistance (CNR), adopted clandestinely and unanimously in Paris in 1944 under full German occupation.

Faced with current egotisms and powerful oligarchies, let us draw inspiration from the truths of yesterday in order to organise today's citizens' resistance movements.

This new edition is accompanied by a historical overview of the Resistance, the CNR and its programme. The text by Stéphane Hessel, « Truths of yesterday, resistances of today», one of his last writings composed shortly before his death, is a kind of political testament summarising his thinking and his proposals for a better world, drawing on this fundamental text: the Programme of the National Council of the Resistance.

« In metropolitan France, before 27 May, there were acts of resistance; afterwards, there was the Resistance. [...] The Americans can no longer doubt the legitimacy of de Gaulle. France becomes a fully-fledged allied country and, as such, will be present at the capitulation of the Nazi armies on 8 May 1945. Furthermore, the Allies must abandon their plan to administer France themselves as it is progressively liberated. And, because there was the CNR and de Gaulle, France will be, at the creation of the United Nations, one of the five great powers to hold a permanent seat on the Security Council. »
Robert Chambeiron

At a time when its achievements are often threatened, sometimes praised only to be better betrayed, this reissue and its appendices will allow the reader to appreciate their full force and power. So as not to forget and to better defend « those happy days».

This collective, introductory and law-generating text is the fruit of the work and reflections of the members of the National Council of the Resistance. The latter directed and coordinated the movements of the French interior Resistance during the Second World War, across all political tendencies. Its programme, adopted in March 1944, sets out the resistance actions to be carried out in occupied France and draws up the list of «measures to be applied from the liberation of the territory », a list of social and economic reforms. Its authors were inspired by principles of social renewal and very often followed communist philosophical principles.

Preface by Stéphane Hessel

Historical dossier by Jean-Marie Mongin