The non-conformists of the 1930s were groups and individuals during the inter-war period in Interwar France that were seeking new solutions to face the political, economical and social crisis. The name was coined in 1969 by the historian Jean-Louis Loubet del Bayle to describe a movement which revolved around Emmanuel Mounier's personalism. They attempted to find a "third alternative" between socialism and capitalism, and opposed both liberalism/parliamentarism/democracy and fascism.
Main currents
Three main currents of non-conformists may be distinguished:
The review Esprit, founded in 1931 by Emmanuel Mounier and which was the main mouthpiece of personalism.
The Ordre nouveau group, created by Alexandre Marc and influenced by Robert Aron and Arnaud Dandieu's works. Charles de Gaulle would have some contacts with them between the end of 1934 and the beginning of 1935. Jean Coutrot, who became during the Popular Front vice-president of the Committee of Scientific Organisation of Labour of the Minister Charles Spinasse, participated in the technical reunions of Ordre nouveau.
The Jeune Droite that gathered young intellectuals who had more or less broken with the monarchist Action Française, including Jean de Fabrègues, Jean-Pierre Maxence, Thierry Maulnier, Maurice Blanchot, as well as the journals Les Cahiers, Réaction pour l'ordre, La Revue française or La Revue du Siècle.
These young intellectuals all considered that France was confronted by a "civilisation crisis" and opposed, despite their differences, what Mounier called the "established disorder". The latter was represented by capitalism, individualism, economic liberalism and materialism. Opposed both to Fascism and to Communism, they aimed at creating the conditions of a "spiritual revolution" which would simultaneously transform Man and things. They called for a "New Order", beyond individualism and collectivism, oriented towards a "federalist," "communautary and personalist" organisation of social relations. The Non-Conformists were influenced both by French socialism, in particular by Proudhonism and by Social Catholicism, which permeated Esprit and the Jeune Droite. They inherited from both currents a form of scepticism towards politics, which explains some anti-statism stances, and renewed interest in social and economical transformations. Foreign influences were more restricted, and were limited to the discovery of the "precursors of existentialism" and contacts between Ordre nouveau and several members of the German Conservative Revolutionary movement. They were in favor of decentralization, underscored the importance of intermediary bodies, and opposed finance capitalism. The movement was close to liberalism in the attention given to civil society and in its distrust of the state; but it also criticized liberal individualism and its negligence of "intermediate bodies". They were characterized by the will to find a "Third Way" between Socialism and Capitalism, individualism and collectivism, idealism and materialism and the left–right distinction in politics. After the February 6, 1934 riots organized by far-right leagues, the Non-Conformists split toward various directions. Bertrand de Jouvenel made the link between the Non-Conformists and the supporters of planisme, a new economical theory invented by the BelgianHenri de Man, as well as with the technocraticGroupe X-Crise. They influenced both Vichy's Révolution nationale and political programs of the Resistance In November 1941, René Vincent, in charge of Vichycensorship services, created the journal Idées which gathered the Non-Conformists who supported Marshal Philippe Pétain's regime.
Post-war legacy
After World War II, many of these Non-Conformists became activists of European federalist movements. The founder of Ordre nouveau, Alexandre Marc, became in 1946 the first secretary of the Union of European Federalists. He would then create the Centre International de Formation Européenne in 1954, which lives on to this day. Breaking with part of its legacy, Esprit involved itself in New Left movements and would also influence in the 1970s the "Second Left", gathered around the Unified Socialist Party. After May '68, some environmentalist movements renewed with this "spirit of the 1930s". They have also influenced Christian Democracy. Abroad, the Non-Conformists found an audience in Quebec between the 1930s to the 1970s or among Eastern European dissidents, and would also influence Catholic circles in the second half of the 20th century.
