Lagant, Christian 1926- 1978 aka Christian Lag aka Christian Lague

”An exemplary comrade….intransigent militant..demanding but warm, sensitive but a passionate political debater” André Bernard

Christian Lagant passed through the surrealist movement and activity within the radical youth hostels movement the Auberges de Jeunesses before becoming a member of a group of the Fédération Anarchiste (FA) in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. A talented writer and artist, he contributed articles and drawings to the FA paper Le Libertaire. With the split in the FA in 1953, he remained with the Fédération Communiste Libertaire (FCL) and took an active part in it commissions and within its North Paris group. Whilst he was a strong defender of an efficient anarchist organisation and had no problem with the Fédération Communiste Libertaire becoming a class struggle organisation, he was disturbed by the methods used by a group of a dozen around Georges Fontenis, organised within the Organisation Pensée Bataille (OPB). He felt that the struggle for an efficient class struggle organisation should be conducted in an open and transparent way. He fell out with Fontenis over the orientation of the FCL and left soon after the expulsion of the Kronstadt group of Paris, and after the decision by the organisation to participate in the elections of January 1956. In 1955, he was one of the founders of the Groupes Anarchistes d'Action Révolutionnaires (GAAR) and took an active part in editing its magazine Noir et Rouge over a period of fifteen years. He was also one of the delegates of the GAAR at an international meeting of the short-lived Commission Internationale Anarchiste in London on 25th July-1st August 1958.When the majority of the GAAR decided to go into the Federation Anarchiste in 1960, as the tendency Union des Groupes Anarchistes Communistes, Christian was one of the minority who rejected this move and was one of the new team, made up of old members like him supplemented by some newcomers, to publish Noir et Rouge, starting up again in 1961 and continuing up until 1970. Relations with the UGAC remained fraternal and Noir et Rouge jointly published a pamphlet jointly with them. Noir et Rouge’s high quality in terms of theoretical development and historical analysis had an important influence on the wider anarchist movement, and was one of the many influences on the events of 1968.Christian wrote a balance sheet of the experience of Noir et Rouge in number 46 of the magazine, the last one that appeared in June 1970.

He took his own life on the 12th December 1978, not wishing to live any longer in a society that in his view had returned to “normality” after the period of unrest that had its climax in May-June 1968.

By Nick Heath.

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