Groupe Union Défense

French far-right students' union

Groupe Union Défense

Successor| Social Bastion
Formation| 1968 (1968)
Dissolved| 26 June 2024; 6 months ago (2024-06-26)[1]
Type| Far-right students' union
Location|

* Panthéon-Assas University

Groupe Union Défense (originally named Groupe Union Droit), better known as GUD, was a French far-right students' union formed in the 1960s. After a period of inactivity it relaunched in 2022.[2][3][4]

The GUD was based in Panthéon-Assas University,[5][6][7] a law school in Paris.

On 26 June 2024, the French government ordered the dissolution of the GUD.[8]

## Ideology

[edit]

Formed as far-right, anti-communist youth organization, in the mid-1980s, the GUD turned toward support of the Third Position movements and "national revolutionary" theories,[9] as well as embracing anti-Zionism, anti-Americanism and support for Hafez al-Assad.[10]

## Culture

[edit]

GUD took as symbol the Celtic cross and the comic black rats (rats noirs).[11][12]

Some music groups of Rock identitaire français had connections with GUD.[13][14][15]

## History

[edit]

Members of the GUD during demonstration in Paris in 2012

GUD was founded in December 1968 under the name Union Droit at Panthéon-Assas University[10] by Alain Robert (homme politique) [fr], Gérard Longuet,[16] Gérard Ecorcheville and some members of the political movement Occident. In its early period, it was a reactionary bourgeois student movement, and some of its early members went on to become mainstream conservative politicians, including Gérard Longuet, Hervé Novelli and Alain Madelin.[10][17]

Members of the GUD participated in the 1969 founding of Ordre Nouveau.[18]

During the 1970s and early 1980s, linked to the Parti des forces nouvelles (PFN), the GUD published the satiric monthly Alternative.[19] Members in this period included Alain Orsoni, a Corsican nationalist linked to organised crime and suspected of the murder of Marie-Jeanne Bozzi.[10]

On 9 May 1994 GUD member Sébastien Deyzieu [fr] died after clashes between nationalists and riot police.[20][21] Following these event, some French nationalist groups formed an umbrella organization Comité du 9-Mai (C9M) and holds[clarification needed] yearly a commemorative marches in Paris on May 9.[22][23]

In 1998, the Group united itself with Jeune Résistance and the Union des cercles résistance, offshoots of Nouvelle Résistance group, under the name Unité Radicale, but it was dissolved[24][25] after Maxime Brunerie's failed assassination attempt on president Jacques Chirac.[26]

In 2004, the GUD reformed under the name Rassemblement étudiant de droite [fr]. Its publication was Le Dissident.[27]

In 2017 members of the GUD squatted a building in Lyon and founded political movement Social Bastion.[28][29][30]

In late 2022, graffiti appeared in educational institutions in Paris (including the École Normale Supérieure) saying "GUD is back"; a video was released on Ouest Casual, a Telegram channel used by the far right, commemorating some Greek neo-Nazis; and the GUD slogan “Europe, Youth, Revolution” appeared on stickers in Paris and chants at a right-wing demonstration in Lyon. Its activists were reported to be drawn from far-right trade union La Cocarde Étudiante, the ultra-right group the Zouaves, traditionalist Catholics from Versailles, and football hooligans.[10]

## Members

[edit]

Successive leaders of the GUD were: Alain Robert, Jack Marchal, Jean-François Santacroce, Serge Rep, Philippe Cuignache, Charles-Henri Varaut, Frédéric Chatillon, William Bonnefoy, Benoît Fleury.

### Military volunteers

[edit]

Some GUD members have fought in Lebanese Civil War with the Kataeb Party[31] in 1976, Croatian War of Independence[32] in the 1990s and in Burma during Karen conflict.[33] In 1985 member of the GUD Jean-Philippe Courrèges was killed in action fighting for the Karen National Liberation Army.[34]

GUD members have had links with the Department for Protection and Security, which is the security organization of the far-right political party National Front.[35]

Former member of the GUD Alain Orsoni was member of the FLNC.[36]

## See also

[edit]

* History of far-right movements in France
* Federation of Nationalist Students
* Youth Front (Italy)
* Fronte universitario d'azione nazionale [it]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Le GUD est officiellement dissous, annonce le gouvernement". Le Monde.fr.
2. ^ Plottu, Pierre; Macé, Maxime (7 November 2022). "Des militants d'extrême droite réactivent le GUD à Paris". Libération (in French). Retrieved 13 December 2022.
3. ^ B.Corson, Equipe (16 November 2022). "GUD, le retour d'une légende brune". POLITIS (in French). Retrieved 13 December 2022.
4. ^ Macé, Maxime; Plottu, Pierre (25 March 2022). "Brève histoire du GUD, ce groupuscule fascisant dont a fait partie Loïk Le Priol". Libération (in French). Retrieved 13 December 2022.
5. ^ L'université en Ile-de-France (4) Paris-II Assas, la longue marche vers le centre droit
6. ^ Avec "Assas Patriote", l'extrême droite tente de reprendre pied à Paris-II Panthéon-Assas
7. ^ Élections à Assas: le GUD tente de reprendre pied
8. ^ "Le GUD est officiellement dissous, annonce le gouvernement". Le Monde.fr.
9. ^ L’Odyssée des Rats noirs : voyage au coeur du GUD
10. ^ a b c d e Blast le souffle de l’info (16 November 2022). "Extrême droite : les rats noirs de retour - Site d'information français d'actualités et d'investigation indépendant". Blast - Le souffle de l’info - Site d’information français d’actualités et d’investigation indépendant (in French). Retrieved 13 December 2022.
11. ^ El otro Mayo del 68: la contrarrevolución de la rata negra
12. ^ La rata negra mascota del neofascismo europeo
13. ^ Une musique groupusculaire : le rock identitaire français
14. ^ GUD, Génération identitaire, Action française... leurs racines, leurs méthodes
15. ^ Le Rock Identitaire Français (5) Chapitre III : Les acteurs du RIF : les groupes
16. ^ Nicolas Lebourg, « Une ligne vraiment très droite », Politis, no 1143, semaine du 10 au 16 mars 2011, p. 8-9.
17. ^ Henley, Jon (20 July 2002). "France's neo-Nazi breeding ground". the Guardian. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
18. ^ Dossier extrême droite radicale: Groupe Union Défense
19. ^ Dossier extrême droite radicale: Groupe Union Défense
20. ^ L'extrême droite radicale tente une sortie sur le social, le 9 mai
21. ^ Jacques Leclercq, « Comité du 9-Mai », Droites conservatrices, nationales et ultras : Dictionnaire 2005-2010, L'Harmattan, p. 124.
22. ^ Commemoration Sebastien deyzieu (C9M)
23. ^ Il y a 25 ans, Sébastien Deyzieu
24. ^ Christophe Bourseiller, "Les risques de la spirale", in: Maxime Brunerie/Christian Rol, Une vie ordinaire, Paris: Denoël, 2011, 224 p., p. 8-15.
25. ^ Would-be assassin rooted in hard right
26. ^ Chirac escapes lone gunman's bullet, BBC
27. ^ "Du côté obscur de la droite". Archived from the original on 2019-07-31. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
28. ^ Lyon: le Gud squatte un immeuble pour venir en aide aux Français dans le besoin
29. ^ A Lyon, le GUD expulsé de son squat
30. ^ À Lyon, le GUD réquisitionne un bâtiment pour aider les Français
31. ^ Not Only Syria? The Phenomenon of Foreign Fighters in a Comparative Perspective, p. 94
32. ^ James Ciment World Terrorism: An Encyclopedia of Political Violence from Ancient Times to the Post-9/11 Era, p. 234.
33. ^ "La Souris rattrapée par le Chat…tillon: quand LSD choisit finalement son camp". Archived from the original on 2020-10-27. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
34. ^ C’était un 4 octobre…
35. ^ Abel Mestre et Caroline Monnot, « Les réseaux du Front national », Sylvain Crépon, Alexandre Dézé, Nonna Mayer, Les Faux-semblants du Front national : sociologie d'un parti politique, Presses de Sciences PoP
36. ^ Alain Orsoni: seul face à sa peur

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Frédéric Chatillon, Thomas Lagane et Jack Marchal (dir.), Les Rats maudits. Histoire des étudiants nationalistes 1965-1995, Éditions des Monts d'Arrée, 1995, ISBN 2-911387-00-7.
* Roger Griffin, Net gains and GUD reactions: patterns of prejudice in a Neo-fascist groupuscule, Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 33, n°2, 1999, p. 31-50.
* Collectif, Bêtes et méchants. – Petite histoire des jeunes fascistes français, Paris, Éditions Reflex, 2002, ISBN 2-914519-01-X.

## External links

[edit]

* GUD - Histoire des étudiants nationalistes 1965-1995 (History of nationalist students 1965-1995)

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Far-right politics in France

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Active groups|

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Post-1945 people|

* Aliot
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Ideologies and movements|

* Boulangisme
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Active publications and media|

* Boulevard Voltaire
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Notable events|

* Dreyfus affair
* Franco-Prussian War (Revanchism)
* 6 February 1934 crisis
* Vichy France
* Algerian War (Algiers putsch of 1961)

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* France
* BnF data

Other|

* IdRef

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