Philippe Texier

in Léo Matarasso, Seminario del 6 dicembre 2008, Cedetim, Parigi

To evoke Léo is both simple and difficult. Simple, because he was a warm and attentive friend, difficult because he was a complex and multiple man. Of course, he was above all the man of the struggle for the liberation of peoples, the father of the Algiers Declaration, which was so dear to his heart, but he was also, as Georges Kiejman said, the lawyer, the specialist in press law, in literary and artistic property, the friend of writers, painters, artists, journalists. His office in the rue de Tournon, which he shared with Georges, was more than a place of work, it was a place of culture and struggle.
Léo was also a history book, because he had been involved in all the struggles of decolonization and independence: Viet Nam (they called it “Indochina” at the time), Algeria, and so many others. He was inexhaustible on the subject, when he evoked the defense of the FLN fighters, the presence of other French lawyers in the field, his meetings with the great leaders of the Third World, in Asia, in Africa or elsewhere. Some of us thought that we should collect these memories, interview him and transcribe this historical memory. We did not do it and it is a pity. His modesty prevented him from writing about himself, and yet he had so much to say!
Consistent with his commitments, a lifelong communist activist, he knew how to leave the communist party when his convictions required it. The struggle for the rights of the people, in all its forms, was however his fixed point, his ideal, and current events show us how right he was.
The International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples (we used to say “LIDLIP”) was dissolved a few months ago. Does this mean that this theme is no longer relevant? Certainly not. It is more alive than ever. Perhaps it is a certain form of militancy that has passed. For a long time, the French section of the League rested on Léo’s shoulders, then it ceased to meet, then to exist, like many other leagues, which often functioned on the energy of one person or of a small nucleus. At the international level, we knew the time when four general secretaries, among whom Jean-Marie Gaubert, another tireless militant for the rights of the peoples, tried to keep the league alive, especially in Geneva, thanks to the vigilant action of Verena Graf, constantly solicited by the liberation movements who counted on us, on the league, the only NGO able to bring their word to the UN. It was very difficult to tell them that the league was dissolved, because the national leagues had dissolved themselves. But, let us be convinced, this struggle continues under other forms and we are not absent from it.
To conclude on the Algiers Declaration, I was rereading, with Léo in mind, sections III, IV and V on economic and social rights, the right to culture, the right to the environment and to natural resources: we are clearly in the midst of a very topical situation. The Algiers Declaration of 4 July 1976 is largely as topical as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 1948, whose 60th anniversary is currently being celebrated. The unanimous adoption of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on 10 December 2008 in New York, is a new illustration of this; this adoption was at the heart of ELEC’s struggles in recent years and we took part in it.
I am strongly convinced that if the leagues, national or international, have progressively ceased to exist, it is not at all because the Algiers Declaration is no longer relevant, but undoubtedly for various conjunctural reasons related in particular to the disappearance of characters having the strength of conviction and of gathering of a Léo Matarasso. The spirit of the Declaration and Léo’s shared struggle for the liberation of peoples remain present, even if they are expressed elsewhere, or in other forms, or with other generations. While we all regret that Léo’s enormous work of reflection and struggle could not be written down, we know that it remains in our memories and in our present actions. Léo was so active that he did not take the time to stop. He remains for us an example.

Texier, Philippe

in:

<strong>Léo Matarasso,
Seminario del 6 dicembre 2008, Cedetim, Parigi
Milano, maggio 2009</strong>