Franc-Tireur (movement)

History

The movement was founded in Lyon in November 1940 under the name "France Liberté" with the goal of countering Vichy propaganda. Its first members were Antoine Avinin of the left-Catholic Young Republic League, the former city councillor Auguste Pinton, and the ex-Communists Élie Péju and Jean-Jacques Soudeille of the Radical Party. The movement gained traction when the leadership was assumed in spring 1941 by Jean-Pierre Lévy, a demobilised artillery lieutenant and a refugee Alsatian businessmen with extensive middle-class contacts in the south. It was renamed "Franc-Tireur" (after the irregulars of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870–71) in December 1941 on the proposal of Jean-Jacques Soudeille.

Franc-Tireur was also the name of the movement's principal clandestine newspaper, which continued publishing issues from December 1941 to 1957 by which point the editorial team had changed several times.

Under the guidance of Jean Moulin, the movement merged in early 1943 with the left-wing Libération-sud and the right-wing Combat to form the non-communist Resistance bloc Mouvements Unis de la Résistance (MUR).