Sébastien Faure

Sébastien Faure (born January 6, 1858 in Saint-Étienne, Loire, France; died July 14, 1942 in Royan, Charente-Maritime, France) was a French anarchist,freethought and secularist activist and a principal proponent of synthesis anarchism.

Before becoming a free-thinker, Faure was a seminarist. He engaged in politics as a socialist before turning to anarchism in 1888.

In 1894, he was prosecuted in "The Trial of the thirty" ("Procès des trente"), but was acquitted. In 1895, he cofounded "Le Libertaire" with Louise Michel, taking the name of the earlier journal by Joseph Déjacque. At the time of the Dreyfus affair, he was one of the leading supporters of Alfred Dreyfus. In 1904, he created a libertarian school called "La Ruche" (The Hive) close to Rambouillet. In 1916, he launched the periodical "Ce qu'il faut dire". Faure also co-founded (with Voline) the Synthesis, or also known as synthesis anarchism which was an influential form of conveiving anarchist federations.

In 1918, he was imprisoned for organizing an illegal meeting. He is recognized for his pedagogy and his qualities as a speaker, and is the author of several books:

He was also the founder of the Anarchist encyclopedia, as well as the namesake of the Sébastien Faure Century, the French-speaking contingent of the Durruti Column during the civil war in Spain.

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