Fernand Desprès
| Fernand Désiré Alfred Després | |
|---|---|
Després in 1922
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| Born |
13 April 1879 Ouzouer-le-Marché, Loir-et-Cher, France |
| Died | 14 February 1949 (aged 69) Algiers, Algeria |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Shoemaker and journalist. |
Fernand Désiré Alfred Desprès (or Després depending on the source) (13 April 1879 – 14 February 1949) was a French shoemaker, anarchist, journalist and later a Communist activist. As a young man he was a close friend of the poet Gaston Couté.
Fernand Désiré Alfred Després was born in Ouzouer-le-Marché, Loir-et-Cher on 13 April 1879. He was born in the hamlet of Mauvelles. While young he spent holidays with a friend of the father of the future poet Gaston Couté. He and Gaston Couté formed a friendship that would last after they had moved to Paris. Després went with Couté and his parents to Mauves, and Couté went with Després to Beauce. Després found work as a shoemaker with Constant Marie, known as Père La Purge, an anarchist theoretician. He met the young anarchist Miguel Almereyda (Eugène Bonaventure Vigo) around 1896 and would be godfather to his son, the future filmmaker Jean Vigo.
In 1899 Després began to contribute to the Journal du Peuple, edited by Sébastien Faure. In 1901 he and Almereyda were charged in a case involving manufacture of explosives, but his charge was dismissed. In 1901 he became a full-time journalist. He contributed to the journal L’Homme that year, then to Libertaire, La Guerre sociale and La Bataille syndicaliste. He occasionally wrote violent articles for L'Humanité. He also wrote for the Les Cahiers de l’Université Populaire, an anarchist journal, in 1906 and 1907. He was charged with forgery in 1909, but the charge was dismissed.
In 1911 Després was on vacation in Chandry, Ouzouer-le-Marché when he heard of the death of Gaston Couté. Without access to notes, he wrote a leading article on Couté for a special edition of La Guerre Sociale entirely from memory. He later wrote other articles on Couté in the Vie Ouvrière (1911), the Journal du Peuple, the Bataille Syndicaliste and in Humanité (1924).
From 1912 Després devoted himself to the trade union struggle. He became one of the leading writers using the pseudonym "A. Desbois". He was registered in Carnet B before World War I (1914–18). He was a militant pacifist in 1915 with Romain Rolland, Marcelle Capy, Pierre Monatte and others. In August 1915 he and Marcelle Capy resigned from the La Bataille syndicaliste because the paper had adopted the union sacrée position and would not let him write in defense of his friend Romain Rolland. Després contributed to the anarchist journal L’École de la Fédération between 1915 and 1919.
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