Serge Livrozet, anarchist, safecracker and writer

Born on 21st October 1939 at Toulon in southern France Serge Raymond Livrozet worked variously as an accountant, safe cracker and writer.

From a poor family, he began work as a plumber at the age of thirteen.

From 1965 to 1968 he practised safe cracking whilst dedicating himself to writing. He stated in a 2017 documentary directed by Nicolas Drolc, La mort se mérite (Death is deserved) that “The only way out of my social condition was to take money where I considered there was too much.” He took part in the events of May 1968.

In 1972 he gave up safe cracking and was involved in active militancy and was one of the founders of the Comité d’action des prisonniers – Prisoners’ Action Committee (CAP) alongside Michel Foucault and Jacques Lesage de la Haye. He was imprisoned several times and took part in the first political demands of prisoners, above all at the printshop of Melun prison where with other prisoners he published a leaflet calling for a non-violent strike by prisoners. He also was involved in the foundation of the radical daily newspaper Libération.

With the CAP he organised the first demonstration against the death penalty in 1976. This gathered together 10,000 people at Paris.

He joined the French CNT and the Groupe Berneri of the Fédération Anarchiste at the start of the 1990s.

He was the author of fifteen novels and essays, including De la prison à la révolte (From Prison to Revolt) and Lettre d'amour à l'enfant que je n'aurai pas (Love letter to the child I won’t have) and appeared in the film in L'emploi du Temps (The timetable, in 2001.
In the 1980s, hewas in the news, being suspected of having managed a Parisian printing press for counterfeit banknotes, in what then seemed to be the biggest counterfeiting case in history. He was imprisoned for ten months during which he wrote L'empreinte (The footprint) denouncing the campaign of persecution against him, before being finally acquitted.
In the film La mort se mérite he stated “Each time I found myself confronted with any power whatsoever, prison, judicial, economic, hospital or even religious, I found myself confronted with people who wanted to take over my mind. Society needs to have control over brains… A guy like me, I’m embarrassing because I don’t fit into any mould.”

Serge Livrozet died on 19th November 2022 at la Gaude near Nice as the result of a brain tumour and heart trouble.

Nick Heath