Lucien Louis Guérineau

The son of a carpenter, Lucien Guérineau had been called under the flags from 1878 to 1882, following a poor draw. Upon his release, he worked as a cabinetmaker in Paris and began to campaign in the anarchist movement. First a member in 1884 of the group Le Drapeau noir, he collaborated with the newspaper Terre et Liberté (Paris, 18 issues from 25 October 1884 to 21 February 1885) published by Antoine Rieffel*; the police ransacked its seat of 3 rue Pelle (Rue Saint Sabin) and Rieffel was charged with “excitement with looting” and sentenced in March 1885 to two years in prison, 200 francs. Guérineau probably collaborated nextly at L’Audace (Paris, 3 issues from 7 to 21 March 1885) still located ruelle Pellé and whose printer manager was V. Leperchey. On 9 August 1885 he was sentenced to two months in prison for “violence and assault.”

In 1887, he was a member of the anarchist group of Montreuil with among others Penteuil, Hensy and Bligny. He was then part of the group Les Communistes des Amandiers which met rue du Repos and where he was particularly in charge of correspondence. It was he who was at the origin of the new name of this group: The anarchist communists of the Amandiers. In 1888, he was the founder of the Union of Trade Union of Carved Furniture and Cabinetmaking, in favor of the general strike and opposed to the Chamber of Trade Unions of Cabinetmaking, of moderate tendency. In 1891, he founded with about twenty comrades of the Faubourg Saint Antoine the newspaper Le Pot à colle (Bagnolet-Montreuil, 19 issues from May 1, 1891 to March 26, 1892), organ of cabinetmakers including several managers (E. Villaret, Bertrand) were prosecuted and convicted. In 1893, he participated as delegate of the metal polishing workers of Paris in the International Socialist Congress held in Zurich.

Following the anarchist attacks of 1894, he was accused of belonging to “an association of criminals” but was finally acquitted in August. He then went to London where he remained for several years, maintained a correspondence with Jean Grave* and became the correspondent of the New Times. In 1896 he participated in the London anarchist committee led by Errico Malatesta, who was tasked with supporting the anti-parliamentary position at the International Socialist Congress in London. Guérineau then became part of the French delegation to this congress, with a mandate from the Paris Metal Polisher Union. He then settled in Brussels, from where he collaborated on a new series of the Pot à Colle (Paris, 10 issues from 20 July 1898 to 11 February 1899) and from which he was expelled on 24 June 1899 for “participation in revolutionary unrest.”

Returning to Paris, he was part in 1899 of the collaborators of the Journal du Peuple (Paris, 299 issues from February 6 to December 3, 1899) daily founded by Sébastien Faure* during the Dreyfus affair of which he defended. Established a cabinetmaker, 6 rue Garreau (Paris 18), under the name "Guérineau & Aussel", he lived 55 rue du Pont Vert in Bagnolet in a pavilion that belonged to him. He probably collaborated in the last series of the Pot à Colle (Paris, 6 issues from May to December 1901) whose manager was Luis Protat.

On Sunday, February 19, 1905, he participated as a speaker with Malato* in the libertarian propaganda festival organized by the Union ouvrière de l’afondement with the assistance of Gaston Couté*, Paul Paillette*, Jehan Rictus and Father La Purge (Constant Marie*).

After the death of Pierre Martin* in August 1916, he was designated as one of his executors and attended several meetings of the group Les amis du Libertaire during the war. He also collaborated with the organ La Plèbe (Paris, 4 issues from April 13 to May 4, 1918) whose manager was Alignier and which had spoken in favor of the theses against the war adopted at Zimmerwald in August 1915. Opposing determined to war, he condemned the signatories of the Manifesto of 16 and in a letter to Max Nettalu*, dated October 17, 1919, wrote: “No, we never wanted war, I was of the clan of the too few comrades who always fought him... It is with difficulty that I live a part of the comrades of the New Times to make a chorus with the statists, Nettalu Fund, IISG).

After the war, he resumed his collaboration with several anarchist newspapers. In the Libertarian of which he was one of the administrators and a regular collaborator, under the title “Those below”, he evoked the constitution in 1887 of the union of men of sorrow “who certainly made some esclander in the world of the regulars” and he added “as today, the unskilled were revolutionaries” to whom it is necessary to make room in the unions, because “in the insurrectionary turmoil, they Libertairewill be He was at the same time occasional editor of the Revue Anarchiste (Paris, 35 issues from January 28, 1922 to August 10, 1925) published by S. Faure to whom he gave the article “International” published in the Anarchist Encyclopedia.

He also participated, either by writing or in person, in several congresses of the Anarchist Union (August 1923, November 1925, July 1926, etc.). At the congress held in Paris on 12-13 August 1923 he was appointed to the administration of Libertairethe daily Libertarian with, among others, Lucien Petit, Anseaume, S. Faure and P. The agreement*. In January 1924, he supported the creation of the group for the defence of revolutionaries imprisoned in Russia, whose secretary was Jacques Reclus*. On April 25, 1927, he was appointed as the representative of the Communist Anarchist Union on the board of directors of the Social Publishing Library. At the end of 1927, refusing the new statutes adopted at the congress held in Paris on 30 October-1 November, he left the Communist Anarchist Union and participated in the founding of the Federalist Union of Revolutionary Communist Anarchists (then Association of Anarchist Federalists) with among others Antignac*, Sébastien Faure and P. The agreement. He collaborated on the bulletin published by the AFA, Le Trait d’union libertaire (Paris, 4 issues and a supp. from January to April 1928) and was the correspondent to Bagnolet of his organ Voix Libertaire (Limoges, 1929-1939).

Guérineau also participated in the National Anarchist Congresses of Paris (19-21 April 1930) and Toulouse (17-18 October 1931). Secretary of the autonomous furniture union since 1925, he became the treasurer in March 1931. He then belonged to the CGTSR and collaborated until the Second World War on his organ Le Combat Syndicaliste (1926-1939) where in May and June 1937 he published part of his memoirs.

At the declaration of war in August 1939, Guérineau left Bagnolet to go to his family in Auvers-sur-Oise. It was there that he died a year later, on August 28, 1940.