(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL dossier spécial sur
l'éducation populaire - When the hostels were subversive (fr, it, pt)
[machine translation]
Today Hostels (AJ) are little more than a form of cool hotel ... but there was a time when
the "hostelling" was a cultural movement against-full, which formed the politically Tens
of thousands of young people. ----------- The first hostels were born in Germany in the
1900s, in the wake of Wandervögel, a youth movement against-cultural very focused on
hiking and back to nature. ---- The concept is imported from this side of the Rhine by
Marc Sangnier, who in 1929 founded the first youth hostel (AJ) ... of Christian
inspiration. Following him, many others are emerging. In 1933, secular AJ are emerging,
sponsored by the CGT and the League of Education Daniel Guerin is one of the facilitators.
---- With 40 hours and holiday pay obtained in 1936, thousands of people join the
movement, and soon qualify as "hostellers," which testifies to the awareness of belonging
to a separate movement. In AJ, there are both women and men, gender diversity - bold for
its time - being the rule, except in the dorms. The hostellers animate a strong and
fraternal community life around self-managed activities, debates and conferences,
convivial and cultural moments - dance, theater, film ...
The principles used are: democracy, secularism, diversity, internationalism, anti-racism,
collective work for the benefit of all. This ideal, undermined the Occupation, resurfaced
with force to the Liberation. AJ are then real popular education places, steeped in
libertarian spirit and a breeding ground for objections from left to Stalinism, including
Trotskyism and anarchism. Nature and culture, entertainment and politics mingle happily.
Gil Devillard activist to the FA and the CNT, and one of the leaders of the great strike
of 1947, Renault-Billancourt, was a frequent hostelling. It is in this movement that was
initiated at the Karman method of practicing clandestine abortions.[1]
The hostelling movement, lively, however arouses envy. By the late 1940s, a
manager-paternalistic pole it is day, supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, hurry
to this discipline too independent youth. A self-managing-militant pole opposes the
"normalization" would induce the professionalization of management, and hopes that the AJ
remain under control-using and users. It is on this line is founded the Independent
Movement hostels (MIAJ) in 1951 to perpetuate the libertarian spirit of hostelling until
the 1970s.
Adeline (AL northeast Paris)
[1] Notice of Gil Devillard in the anarchist of Maitron, 2014.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Quand-les-auberges-de-jeunesse
