Georges Gustave Gillet

French militant syndicalist, anti-militarist and anarchist propagandist.

Georges Gillet was, before the First World War, one of the most active anarchist militants in the Artesian capital. In March 1910, he published the first issue of the Artésian Awakening (Arras, 60 issues from March 27, 1910 to April 30, 1911) whose managers were in turn Marie Coquide, Poirier, Boisleux and Eugène Fallot. In September 1910 a meeting was to be held to merge the three revolutionary titles of the region – L’Action Syndicale (Lens), Le Réveil Artésien and Le Combat (Tourcoing) – but did not succeed, each title continuing its publication. On 21 May of the following year, the newspaper took the title of Le Grand Soir (Arras, at least 170 issues from May 20, 1911 to August 1914).

Gillet was also active in the trade union field: it was he who led the strike of the railway workers of October 1910 in the Arrage region. He then collaborated with the revolutionary trade unionist weekly of the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, L’Avant Garde (Lens, at least 44 issues from October 5, 1913 to August 2, 1914), whose manager was François Henry.

On 9 February 1914, he was one of the organizers of a conference held in Arras, at the Café du Commerce, by Sébastien Faure* for the benefit of the La Ruche school.

His status as editor-manager of the Grand Soir earned him multiple convictions in court: for “insults to the army” (1910), “provocation of the military to disobedience” (1911), etc. But it was the articles written following the Sarajevo attack that caused Gillet his most serious troubles, and Albert Andrieux*, the manager of the newspaper Germinal d’Amiens (Somme). The two libertarian newspapers, out of the same press, used to publish certain articles simultaneously; this was the case of those, published in August 1914, who dealt with the assassination of the Archduke of Austria who had just set fire to the European powder magazine. Gillet and Andrieux were arrested and charged with “advocating the murder for the purpose of anarchist propaganda”; after the civil judicial authority was set off, the two anarchists were tried by a military court in September 1914.

On 21 February 1915 he attended a meeting held at L. Bonnery*, at the initiative of E. Armand*, attended by about twenty companions, including Henri Zisly*, Mauricius* and his companion, Favier* and Emile Renaud. The purpose of the meeting was to resume contacts and decide on the attitude to be taken in the face of war.

Georges Gillet died on 22 December 1951 in Crévecœur-le-Grand (Oise).