Groupe Union Défense

Groupe Union Défense
	Celtic cross
Formation	1968
Dissolved	26 June 2024; 14 months ago
Type	Students' union
Purpose	Far-right student activism
Location	Panthéon-Assas University, France;
Secessions	Social Bastion

Groupe Union Défense (originally named Groupe Union Droit), better known as GUD, was a French far-right students' union formed in the 1960s. After a period of inactivity it relaunched in 2022.^[2]^[3]^[4]

The GUD was based in Panthéon-Assas University,^[5]^[6]^[7] a law school in Paris.

On 26 June 2024, the French government ordered the dissolution of the GUD.^[1]

Ideology

Formed as far-right, anti-communist youth organization, in the mid-1980s, the GUD turned toward support of the Third Position movements and "national revolutionary" theories,^[8] as well as embracing anti-Zionism, anti-Americanism and support for Hafez al-Assad.^[9]

Culture

GUD took as symbol the Celtic cross and the comic black rats (rats noirs).^[10]^[11]

Some music groups of Rock identitaire français had connections with GUD.^[12]^[13]^[14]

History

GUD was founded in December 1968 under the name Union Droit at Panthéon-Assas University^[9] by Alain Robert (homme politique) [fr], Gérard Longuet,^[15] Gérard Ecorcheville and some members of the political movement Occident. In its early period, it was a reactionary bourgeois student movement, and some of its early members went on to become mainstream conservative politicians, including Gérard Longuet, Hervé Novelli and Alain Madelin.^[9]^[16]

Members of the GUD participated in the 1969 founding of Ordre Nouveau.^[17]

During the 1970s and early 1980s, linked to the Parti des forces nouvelles (PFN), the GUD published the satiric monthly Alternative.^[17] Members in this period included Alain Orsoni, a Corsican nationalist linked to organised crime and suspected of the murder of Marie-Jeanne Bozzi.^[9]

On 9 May 1994 GUD member Sébastien Deyzieu [fr] died after clashes between nationalists and riot police.^[18]^[19] Following these event, some French nationalist groups formed an umbrella organization Comité du 9-Mai (C9M) and holds^{[clarification needed]} yearly a commemorative marches in Paris on May 9.^[20]^[21]

In 1998, the Group united itself with Jeune Résistance and the Union des cercles résistance, offshoots of Nouvelle Résistance group, under the name Unité Radicale, but it was dissolved^[22]^[23] after Maxime Brunerie's failed assassination attempt on president Jacques Chirac.^[24]

In 2004, the GUD reformed under the name Rassemblement étudiant de droite [fr]. Its publication was Le Dissident.^[25]

In 2017 members of the GUD squatted a building in Lyon and founded political movement Social Bastion.^[26]^[27]^[28]

In late 2022, graffiti appeared in educational institutions in Paris (including the École Normale Supérieure) saying "GUD is back"; a video was released on Ouest Casual [fr], a Telegram channel used by the far right, commemorating some Greek neo-Nazis; and the GUD slogan “Europe, Youth, Revolution” appeared on stickers in Paris and chants at a right-wing demonstration in Lyon. Its activists were reported to be drawn from far-right trade union La Cocarde Étudiante, the ultra-right group the Zouaves, traditionalist Catholics from Versailles, and football hooligans.^[9]

Members

Successive leaders of the GUD were: Alain Robert, Jack Marchal, Jean-François Santacroce, Serge Rep, Philippe Cuignache, Charles-Henri Varaut, Frédéric Chatillon, William Bonnefoy, Benoît Fleury.

Military volunteers

Some GUD members have fought in Lebanese Civil War with the Kataeb Party^[29] in 1976, Croatian War of Independence^[30] in the 1990s and in Burma during Karen conflict.^[31] In 1985 member of the GUD Jean-Philippe Courrèges was killed in action fighting for the Karen National Liberation Army.^[32]

GUD members have had links with the Department for Protection and Security, which is the security organization of the far-right political party National Front.^[33]

Former member of the GUD Alain Orsoni was member of the FLNC.^[34]

References

^ ^a ^b "Le GUD est officiellement dissous, annonce le gouvernement". Le Monde.fr.
^ Plottu, Pierre; Macé, Maxime (7 November 2022). "Des militants d'extrême droite réactivent le GUD à Paris". Libération (in French). Retrieved 13 December 2022.
^ B.Corson, Equipe (16 November 2022). "GUD, le retour d'une légende brune". POLITIS (in French). Retrieved 13 December 2022.
^ Macé, Maxime; Plottu, Pierre (25 March 2022). "Brève histoire du GUD, ce groupuscule fascisant dont a fait partie Loïk Le Priol". Libération (in French). Retrieved 13 December 2022.
^ ROCHETTE, Philippe. "L'université en Ile-de-France (4) Paris-II Assas, la longue marche vers le centre droit". Libération.
^ "Avec "Assas Patriote", l'extrême droite tente de reprendre pied à Paris-II Panthéon-Assas". June 8, 2015 – via Le Monde.
^ "Élections à Assas: le GUD tente de reprendre pied". Le Figaro. March 28, 2012.
^ "L'Odyssée des Rats noirs : voyage au coeur du GUD". February 6, 2010.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Blast le souffle de l’info (16 November 2022). "Extrême droite : les rats noirs de retour - Site d'information français d'actualités et d'investigation indépendant". Blast - Le souffle de l’info - Site d’information français d’actualités et d’investigation indépendant (in French). Retrieved 13 December 2022.
^ Thunder», Pete «Black (May 16, 2018). "El otro Mayo del 68: la contrarrevolución de la rata negra". Agente Provocador.
^ "LA RATA NEGRA, LA MASCOTA DEL NEOFASCISMO EUROPEO QUE SURGIÓ DE MAYO DE 1968". May 19, 2018.
^ Mathieu, Lilian (May 14, 2006). Balasinski, Justyne (ed.). Art et contestation. Presses universitaires de Rennes. pp. 121–136 – via OpenEdition Books.
^ Albertini, Dominique; Bouchet-Petersen, Jonathan. "GUD, Génération identitaire, Action française... leurs racines, leurs méthodes". Libération.
^ "REFLEXes | Le Rock Identitaire Français (5) Chapitre III : Les acteurs du RIF : les groupes".
^ Nicolas Lebourg, « Une ligne vraiment très droite », Politis, no 1143, semaine du 10 au 16 mars 2011, p. 8-9.
^ Henley, Jon (20 July 2002). "France's neo-Nazi breeding ground". the Guardian. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
^ ^a ^b "Groupe Union Défense (GUD)". www.france-politique.fr.
^ "L'extrême droite radicale tente une sortie sur le social, le 9 mai". April 13, 2010 – via Le Monde.
^ Jacques Leclercq, « Comité du 9-Mai », Droites conservatrices, nationales et ultras : Dictionnaire 2005-2010, L'Harmattan, p. 124.
^ "Commémoration Sébastien Deyzieu ( C9M )". April 10, 2009.
^ "C'était un 9 mai : mort de Sébastien Deyzieu". May 9, 2025.
^ Christophe Bourseiller, "Les risques de la spirale", in: Maxime Brunerie/Christian Rol, Une vie ordinaire, Paris: Denoël, 2011, 224 p., p. 8-15.
^ Henley, Jon (July 16, 2002). "Would-be assassin rooted in hard right" – via The Guardian.
^ Chirac escapes lone gunman's bullet, BBC
^ "Du côté obscur de la droite". Archived from the original on 2019-07-31. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
^ Mag, Lyon (May 29, 2017). "Lyon Mag". Lyon Mag.
^ Gastaldi, Daphné. "A Lyon, le GUD expulsé de son squat". Libération.
^ Coutand, Malia (May 30, 2017). "À Lyon, le GUD réquisitionne un bâtiment pour aider les Français". Lyon Capitale.
^ Not Only Syria? The Phenomenon of Foreign Fighters in a Comparative Perspective, p. 94
^ James Ciment World Terrorism: An Encyclopedia of Political Violence from Ancient Times to the Post-9/11 Era, p. 234.
^ "La Souris rattrapée par le Chat…tillon: quand LSD choisit finalement son camp". Archived from the original on 2020-10-27. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
^ "C'était un 4 octobre..." October 4, 2024.
^ Abel Mestre et Caroline Monnot, « Les réseaux du Front national », Sylvain Crépon, Alexandre Dézé, Nonna Mayer, Les Faux-semblants du Front national : sociologie d'un parti politique, Presses de Sciences PoP
^ "Alain Orsoni: seul face à sa peur". parismatch.com. November 24, 2012.

Bibliography

Frédéric Chatillon, Thomas Lagane et Jack Marchal (dir.), Les Rats maudits. Histoire des étudiants nationalistes 1965-1995, Éditions des Monts d'Arrée, 1995, ISBN 2-911387-00-7.
Roger Griffin, Net gains and GUD reactions: patterns of prejudice in a Neo-fascist groupuscule, Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 33, n°2, 1999, p. 31-50.
Collectif, Bêtes et méchants. – Petite histoire des jeunes fascistes français, Paris, Éditions Reflex, 2002, ISBN 2-914519-01-X.