CNR Program

The National Council of the Resistance (CNR), founded in May 1943 at the behest of General de Gaulle, brought together all the Resistance movements, from the Republican right to the Communists. The goal was to unify the various factions of the domestic Resistance under the authority of the Gaullist foreign Resistance forces.

Jean Moulin, the first president of the CNR, chosen by de Gaulle, was arrested by the Gestapo on June 21, 1943. He died the following month after being tortured. Georges Bidault became the second president.

The CNR’s program, *Les jours heureux*, adopted unanimously, was published on March 15, 1944, after a long process and several drafts. Although it received little attention upon its release, this program came into its own during the years 1944–45. It called for “measures designed to establish, as soon as the territory was liberated, a more just social order.”

The first section expresses his determination to “defeat Nazi Germany” and emphasizes the importance of immediate military action, including the establishment of patriotic militias in towns and villages.

The second part outlines democratic measures:

— Restoration of universal suffrage.

— Freedom of thought, conscience, and expression.

— Freedom of assembly and demonstration.

— Equality before the law.

It is in the economic and social spheres that the influence of communist values is most evident:

— A return to national control over major means of production, all energy sources, and major banks.

— Worker participation and union rights.

— Promoting workers within the company.

— Wage increases.

— A comprehensive social security program that includes, among other things, health care, job security, social assistance, the right to work, labor law, and expanded pension benefits.

The CNR calls for “the extension of political, social, and economic rights to indigenous and colonial populations” and does not overlook culture or education for all, encouraging the rise of an elite based on merit rather than birth.

Furthermore, the measures to be implemented promote the elimination of all forms of discrimination against Jews, the restitution of their property, respect for human dignity, and social justice for all.

The influence of the speeches by numerous members of the Resistance and the debates in the Provisional Consultative Assembly—which convened in Algiers starting in 1943 and then in Paris after the Liberation—led to the adoption of ordinances embodying the ideas of the CNR’s program.

Differences of opinion among the various factions within the Council explain, among other things, the absence of direct references to secularism or women’s suffrage.