Political resistance was not merely the reserve of mass instances of political protest but also included notable acts of an individual nature.  In a nation of tens of millions of people, just how effective can the actions of political protest of one individual be, however?  A great example is seen in the person of Emilie Carles and how the curriculum she taught to her students differed from that mandated by the state.  Her opposition approach is an indirect one that strikes at the ideological underpinnings of the state; the enemies to be struck down include “the jingoistic France […] that is never wrong” or “the Little General’s mythic image” (Carles, 228).  Her memoir, however, readily points out the limits of such efforts on her part, since she had to make “every effort to remain within the framework of the permissible in class” (Carles, 228).  Her efforts manage to transcend these limits, however, not only because she was a teacher who had the opportunity of many years in which to shape young minds but also because her individual acts of resistance provided a blueprint for others to follow.  In how many instances does the reader of Carles’ book find her assigned to a remote peasant community as the sole representative of education for the youth?  What power an individual so placed can exercise!

One is also drawn to the imaginative approach of Emile Zola, whose individual act of writing his incendiary J’accuse (1897) – an action he calls “ a revolutionary means to hasten the revelation of truth and justice” (Zola, 53) – contributed significantly to the bringing into the public spotlight such socio-political issues as anti-Semitism and individual human rights..  In fact, his act of political protest was two-fold in nature, not only protesting the rampant anti-Semitism of the day but doing so through the socially taboo method of outright libel and slander!  Another intriguing thing about Zola’s method was the target: the army had already been the instrument of the bloody repression of two insurrections within living memory but now found in itself impotent in the face of Zola’s moral attack.  This was one “insurrection” the army could not suppress by dint of arms and found its only recourse in the apparatus of justice and law it had supposedly been subverting.  Fascinating now many ironies abound in this little episode surrounding one author and his pen!

            After all is said and done, how should one characterize the historical manifestations of political protest in modern France?  Although doomed for a time to largely repeat the bloodshed that was a major legacy of the French Revolution, those who engaged in mass as well as individual acts of political resistance soon had a whole repertoire of methods – non-violent and passive as well as violent and insurrectionary – in which to do so.  In a last minute rumination about the motives behind a politician’s actions, Carles states that they “do nothing but repeat the same words, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” and goes on to utter the reflective thought: “With people repeating those words since 1789, we should certainly find out what they really mean someday” (Carles, 253).  After an analysis of the history of political resistance in France, one certainly finds out what these words mean to many different groups of people and can find a common thread underneath their various “faces”.  With so many different perceptions of the meaning of the phrase, political resistance will continue for a long time yet, for the realization of an ideal can be a slippery thing.

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Not content with the outcome, a French novelist, Emile Zola, published an open letter which was titled ‘J’Accuse’ it appeared on the front page of the newspaper Aurore. In the letter the judges were accused of being under the thumb and in the pay of the military. More than 200,000 copies were sold on that day alone. One month later and Zola was jailed for libel charges but managed to make an escape to England. However, out of the scandal a national division which verged on being a perilous one had emerged. On one side were the nationalists and members of the catholic Church which were in support of the military. The other side saw the republicans, socialists and advocates of religious freedom were all united in support of Dreyfus.

In 1898, Major Hubert Henry, the man that claimed to have discovered the original letter that implicated Dreyfus committed suicide, but not before admitting that he had forged much of that damning evidence against the artillery officer. Soon after this Esterhazy fled from France and the French military were forced to give a new court martial to Dreyfus. Even with the new evidence they still found him guilty in another show trial and this time his life sentence was reduced to 10 years. A new administration was in power in France and it overturned the decision and gave a pardon to Dreyfus. In 1906 the supreme court of appeal in France overturned his conviction. The debacle of this case helped to bring about a greater liberalization within France and also greatly reduced the power of the military, it also witnessed a formal separation between the church and the state.

In September, 1894, a French cleaning woman at the German Embassy, Marie Bastian, who was also employed as a spy by French Counter-Intelligence retrieved a bordereau (a list) from the waste-paper basket of General Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen, the German military attache. It appeared to indicate the willingness of a French artillery officer in the General Staff to sell secrets to the Germans for a price, and it was signed D. Suspicion immediately fell upon the Jew, Dreyfus the German from Alsace. 

In October, 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus was arrested for spying and charged with treason. He had never been popular amongst his colleagues. He was distant, aloof, and didn’t mix. He was also personally wealthy which caused great resentment. There were many only too willing to believe that the arrogant Dreyfus must be guilty, even though the evidence against him was flimsy and circumstantial. Indeed, experts could not even agree that the bordereau had been written in his hand. Even so, in December, 1894, Dreyfus was found guilty by a Military Tribunal, and on 5 January, 1895, after a humiliating public ordeal when he was stripped of his rank, he was transported to serve a life sentence on the penal colony at Devil’s Island in French Guyana. As far as the French Army was concerned that was that.  Except it wasn’t.

In April, 1896, Lt Colonel Georges Picquart, who was well known to be virulently anti-Semitic, and had just been appointed Head of Army Intelligence, discovered that the bordereau had in fact been written by a French officer of Hungarian descent, Major Ferdinand Wilsan Esterhazy. Picquart was warned not to take his discovery any further, but he refused. He continued to delve further but his investigations were impeded at every opportunity by Major Hubert Henry, a friend of Esterhazy’s, whom it would emerge had forged documents to ensure that Dreyfus was found guilty. Unable to persuade Picquart to cease his investigations, in December, 1894, he was relieved of duty and sent to serve in Tunisia. But it was too late. The fact that new evidence had emerged that might exonerate Dreyfus had already been leaked to the press and it had sparked a national debate. 

Ferdinand Wilsan Esterhazy, was a dissolute man, a poor officer, and thoroughly untrustworthy. He was an inveterate liar, a drunk, and a rabid anti-Semite (though this didn’t prevent him from begging Jewish financiers for funds). He had squandered the family fortune in the brothels and gambling houses of Paris. He married for money and then proceeded to squander his wife’s dowry in the same way, they separated soon after. He blamed everyone else except himself for his problems. In particular, he blamed the French army for thwarting his ambitions. A fluent German speaker he was willing to sell his countries secrets for a price. Indeed, the more they paid the more secrets they could have. So willing was he to sell secrets that Panizzardi, the Italian Military Attache, with whom Schwartzkoppen was sharing the information, doubted that he was a French officer at all, and it had to be arranged for Esterhazy to parade himself before Panizzardi in full military regalia just to prove his validity.

In early 1897, Picquart presented his evidence to Dreyfus’s lawyers. Informed of this and to pre-empt any future proceedings against him, Esterhazy demanded a trial behind closed doors to clear his name. In the subsequent trial his superiors, including Hubert Henry who had procured the forged documents that had convicted Dreyfus, acquitted him of all charges and he was allowed to retire to England on a pension. When news of this leaked out riots occurred in Paris and the other major cities of France.

Following hot on the heels of previous controversies including the Boulanger Affair and the Panama Canal Scandal it seemed to some that the very existence of the French Republic itself was at stake. On 13 January, 1898, the famous novelist Emile Zola published his notorious J’Accuse, addressed directly to the President of France, in which he condemned the French Government and Military for their lies, their deceit, and their anti-Semitism. The investigation, he said, had been worse than a farce, it had been a deliberate cover up, and that Dreyfus’s conviction was the result of “the dirty Jew obssession that was the scourge of our time.” He also went onto name Major Esterhazy as the culprit and that the military had cleared him in order to save face. In response the Government tried to have him arrested for libelling the army but he fled to England before they could do so. J’Accuse caused a sensation.

Emile Zola’s, J’Accuse

French society, the political establishment, and the military itself, were now hopelessly split by pro and anti-Dreyfusards. The Catholic Church, Royalists, and the Right-Wing Press attacked those who tried to exonerate Dreyfus. It was all a part, they said, of a conspiracy by Jews, Freemasons, and Radicals to destroy the prestige of the French Army. But despite their best efforts it was becoming increasingly evident that a miscarriage of justice had occurred. In April, 1899, Dreyfus was granted a second court-martial. In the meantime, Hubert Henry committed suicide whilst under arrest for forging documents in the case. Despite this the court-martial, unable to admit to a cover up, again found Dreyfus guilty, though they accepted that there were mitigating circumstances and reduced his sentence to 10 years. France was again in tumult, would this ghastly affair ever end. In September, 1899, the French President Emile Loubet, personally intervened and granted Dreyfus a pardon. But it was only a pardon, he was not to be exonerated of all charges and restored to his previous rank in the army until 1906.

Alfred Dreyfus had suffered terribly during his time on Devil’s Island. During his 5 years incarceration he was kept in solitary confinement and almost lost the gift of speech. He would be chained to his bed each night. The searing heat and constant boredom drove him to distraction. He was frequently ill and all his teeth fell out. But at least now he was free, if still officially guilty.

Emile Zola, whose J’Accuse had done so much to bring the case of Alfred Dreyfus to international attention, died on 29 September, 1902, in his sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning due to a blocked chimney. A roofer later claimed that he had been ordered to stop the chimney. Given previous attempts on Zola’s life and the divisiveness of the Dreyfus case, his murder cannot be entirely discounted.

Ferdinand Esterhazy, died on 21 May, 1923, in Harpenden, England. He continued to exclaim his innocence and blame Dreyfus, and the on-going Jewish conspiracy. He continued to write for anti-Semitic journals and newspapers up until his death.

Alfred Dreyfus, was restored to his old position in the army in 1906. He went on to to serve in World War One where he was promoted to Lt Colonel and was awarded the Legion d’honneur. He died in Paris on 12 July, 1935.  

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In 1993, gruesome photographs of a 16-year-old Somali boy Shidane Arone being beaten to his death shocked the Canadian public and the world in what became known as the Somalia Affair. The crime, which was committed by two Canadian soldiers participating in the United Nations peacekeeping efforts in Somalia, revealed serious problems in discipline and leadership among the ranks of the Canadian Airborne regiment that went beyond the pair involved. The government decision to cut short its inquiry and persistent allegations of cover-up to protect senior officers resulted in the dissolution of the regiment, extensively damaging the morale and international reputation of Canadian Armed Forces.

Dreyfus Affair

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The Dreyfus Affair was a scandal that deeply divided French society at the end of the 19th century. It involved a Jewish army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, who in 1894 was convicted of treason for selling military secrets to Germany and sentenced to life imprisonment in Devil’s Island, a penal colony off French Guiana. Four years later, the military courts acquitted French Major Ferdinand Esterhazy despite new evidences proving that he had carried out the crime for which Dreyfus was imprisoned. In a campaign to sway public opinion in Dreyfus’ favor, Emile Zola published an open letter entitled “J’accuse,” accusing the highest levels of the French Army of obstruction of justice and anti-Semitism. The case against Dreyfus collapsed when Esterhazy eventually confessed to falsifying the evidence against him. Dreyfus was pardoned by President of the Republic but it was not until 1906 that he was fully exonerated of all charges and reinstated in the army.

The Holocaust

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In his quest for a racially pure nation populated by his idea of blond blue-eyed master race, German leader Adolf Hitler, who took power in 1933 under the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, set about to systematically exterminate the Jewish population, first in Germany and then across Europe. Other groups that who did not fit his vision were also eliminated: the disabled, homosexuals, political opponents, various religious groups, and so called “racial aliens”-Blacks, Gypsies and Slavs. Concentration camps brutally ran by the Schutzstaffel (SS), the Nazi elite paramilitary force, were set up for this very purpose, in what came to be called the Holocaust. By the end of the World War II (1939 – 1945), it was estimated that at least 11 million perished, including 6 million Jews and 2 million Gentile Poles.

My Lai Massacre

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My Lai Massacre was a mass murder incident that occurred on March 16, 1968 at the height of Vietnam War (1960 – 1975). On orders, US Army forces executed around 500 unarmed citizens of My Lai and My Khe hamlets in South Vietnam, including women and children, suspecting them to be Viet Cong members or sympathizers. Some victims were raped and tortured, while some bodies were discovered to be badly disfigured. All charges subsequently brought against 26 US soldiers for their crimes at My Lai were dropped except for Lieutenant William Calley who was initially sentenced to life imprisonment but would serve only 4 ½ months in a military prison upon the controversial intervention of President Nixon to have his sentence adjusted. The scandal did much to foment anti-war sentiments that demanded immediate withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam.

Iran-Contra Affair

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The Iran-Contra affair was an American political scandal in the 1980s that somehow threatened Ronald Reagan’s presidency. It was revealed in 1986 that the administration entered into illegal negotiations for arms sales to Iran in return for American hostages being held by Islamic groups in Beirut, with profits being channeled to fund anti-Sandinista and Anti-Marxist forces or Contras in Nicaragua. President Reagan and his vice-president George H. W. Bush denied all knowledge of the affair. As a result of the exposé, Reagan fired Oliver North, a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Marines who conjured up the plan, while some members of his staff were forced to resign.

Beslan School Hostage Crisis

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On September 1, 2004, a group of about 30 armed, camouflaged and masked multinational terrorists, demanding full withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya and recognition of its independence, broke into School Number One (SNO) in the Russian town of Beslan in North Ossetia and took more than 1,200 hostages, including some 800 children, gathering them in the school’s gymnasium, where they mined with wire explosives. On the third day, following the breakdown of negotiations and a series of explosions that set the building ablaze, the Russian security forces, in a contentious move, stormed the facilities with tanks, rockets and heavy weaponry, leading to a chaotic battle with the hostage takers. The siege ended with at least 370 deaths, half were children, and a couple of hundreds reported wounded or missing. The attack was met with condemnation in the strongest possible terms from the international community.

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