Draft:Insurgency in Corsica (1959-1976)

The Insurgency in Corsica was a small to mid-scale insurgency on the island of Corsica in opposition to French authority. The Corsican armed groups were mostly autonomist or separatist, and were mostly led by far-left organizations, such as the Muvimentu di 29 Nuvembri (29 November Movement, M29N) and the Fronte Paesanu Corsu per Liberazione (Corsican Peasant Front for Liberation, FPCL), although centrist and right-wing groups existed in smaller numbers. The violence would gradually reach a larger scale until the formation of the Fronte di Liberazione Naziunale di a Corsica (National Liberation Front of Corsica, FLNC), beginning the much larger Corsican conflict.

Insurgency in Corsica
ARC militants before the Aleria standoff.
Date 4 October 1959-5 May 1976 Location Corsica Result See aftermath
Belligerents
France Italy	Muvimentu di 29 Nuvembri(1959-1963) Comitatu Corsu Per l’Indipendenza(1961-1963) Unione Corsa - L’Avvene(1964-1966) Cumitatu di Studenti per a Difesa è Interessi di a Corsica(1964-1966) Fronte Regiunalista Corsa(1966-1973) Azzione Regiunalista Corsa(1967-1976) Fronte Paesanu Corsu per Liberazione(1973-1976) Ghjustizia Paolina(1974-1976) Other small groups

Background

Corsicans have, for most of their history under French rule, felt alienated from the French mainland due to geography, language, and customs. From the introduction of French rule, Corsican government institutions had largely been run by small, local families of politicians called “clans”. The early French governments tolerated the clans, preferring to leave Corsica’s governance to the Corsicans. French officials in Corsica like the prefect were sidelined on the island, and the goal of the prefect was to stay out of Corsican politics most of the time, only providing insight or guidelines to the French government in Paris. Under Napoleon III, The French cabinet had begun a policy of appointing a Corsican deputy minister, and for most of the French Third Republic that minister was Emmanuel Arène. Known to the locals as “u re Manuele” (the king Emmanuel), who attempted to create a system of clanism where Corsican politicians would be more open to French authority. Regardless of his attempt, real power in Corsica remained with the local Conseil Général and the mayors, who often acted in their own interests and were hostile, sometimes even physically violent, to French authorities such as the prefect and the deputies.

By the 1900s, Corsica was slowly being brought into the sphere of metropolitan France. Large migrations, industrialization, and government subsidies allowed short-term economic growth in Corsica, causing many locals to adopt pro-French sentiment. This was strengthened by the tragedies of World War I, which allowed Corsica and mainland France to share a sense of solidarity and pride due to the men from Corsica who fought in the war. After the war, many Corsicans became worried over the growing threat of Mussolini’s Italian Irredentism, as Corsica was included in the claims of many Italian irredentists. In December 1938, Violent protests broke out across the island between Italian irredentists and pro-French Corsicans. In Bastia, tens of thousands of Corsicans met and swore the now infamous Oath of Bastia, where they declared: “Before the world, with all our soul, on our glories, on our graves, on our cradles, we swear to live and die French”. After the outbreak of World War II, many Corsicans saw the war with Germany on the mainland as mostly irrelevant, fearing a possible Italian invasion more than a German one. Many Corsicans, despite the wish to remain French, largely still didn’t feel connection to mainland France due to a separate linguistic, historical, and cultural identity. Upon the fall of France in 1940, the new Vichy government made defending Corsica from the Italian threat a priority. Despite the insistence of French unity by Corsican citizens, many were only supportive of a French government to reject Italian sovereignty. Corsican prefect Paul Balley claimed: “a Corsican who claims to be French is demonstrating not so much loyalty to France as rejection of Italy”.

In November 1942, German and Italian soldiers violently dismantled Vichy France, and Corsica came under Italian administration. A widespread Corsican resistance movement soon popped up, led mostly locally until the introduction of the National Front to the island. General Charles de Gaulle sent Corsican Fred Scamaroni to unify the maquis under his leadership, but he was captured by Italian police and tortured until he commited suicide on 19 March 1943. After the fall of Mussolini, many Italian soldiers joined the Corsican resistance and drove the Germans out of Corsica along with an allied invasion force. The invasion of Italy and the Corsican National Front being largely local and separate from the mainland one caused many Corsicans to redefine their relationship with France. By January 1943, reports began to reach Laval that support for a French government in Corsica had “drained away”. Corsica was the first department of France to be liberated, yet the French government maintained that Calvados was the first, demonstrating to many Corsicans the supposed indifference of the French towards Corsica.

Corsicans under the Fourth Republic were largely loyal to Charles de Gaulle, seeing him as a force of unity. During the Algerian War, Corsicans supported the idea of a French Algeria and de Gaulle’s initiatives to maintain it. “Operation Corse”, an invasion of Corsica by soldiers attempting to reinstate de Gaulle into power, was supported by many Corsicans, and resistance to the landings were next to none. Despite this, de Gaulle’s administration during the Fifth Republic caused relations between Corsicans and France to sour greatly. De Gaulle’s opposition to regionalism and the establishment of a “strong state” caused Corsicans, who had been enjoyed Corsican self-government for the longest time, to feel betrayed by de Gaulle. funding for regional projects in Corsica dried up, and Corsicans felt that Corsica had become an oversight to the government in Paris. Policies of de Gaulle’s government led directly to the founding of the Muvimentu di 29 Nuvembri (November 29th Movement, M29N) in Ajaccio and Bastia on 4 October 1959.

Muvimentu di 29 Nuvembri and Rising Tensions

On 4 October, the M29N held two founding congresses in Ajaccio and Bastia. The name was chosen to harken back to the 29 November 1842 congress in the Conseil Général where Corsica was attached to mainland France officially. Another meeting was held on 29 November, where they declare support for full independence and “formally and categorically reject any idea of ​​autonomy or irredentism”. The M29N makes itself known through a series of actions regarding the threats from the French government to close the local Corsican railway line, the Trinichellu.

The M29N was a communist organization, but had minorities of socialist and radical views. Its leader, Achille de Susini, was famous for his communist views expressed in his weekly newspaper A Muvra, which became the press wing of the M29N. Other notable members included Albert Faracci, a communist who rallied support for the Algerian National Liberation Front, and his wife Ange-Marie Filippi-Codaccioni. Albert Faracci stated that the goal of the M29N was to “restart almost exactly what the National Front has done for the island”.

The Argentella Affair

In late December 1959, French officials began planning a move on nuclear strategy. Due to the conflict in Algeria, maintaining nuclear weapons testing sites in the Algerian sahara became difficult. Thus, in an effort to find a new nuclear weapons testing site, Prime Minister Michel Debré and French atomic energy minister Pierre Guillaumat began surveying areas around the Argentella mines, a Corsican mining system that has been abandoned since the 1930s. The project, dubbed “Project Vulcan”, was brought to the attention of the Corsican Conseil Général on 13 April 1960, when a delegation of nuclear scientists and Guillaumat went to Ajaccio to discuss it. François Giacobbi, president of the Conseil Général, issued a strongly-worded press release to the government in Paris in opposition to the proposed nuclear weapons site. However, Giacobbi and other Corsican officials declared support for a nuclear power plant in Corsica, citing modernization and clean energy. Despite this, de Gaulle’s ministers for colonial affairs, Jaques Foccart and Bernard Tricot, claimed Corsica would suffer “very little inconvenience” and that “new opportunities” would appear for the island, including economic development and job opportunities.

Corsican public opinion of the plan was extremely negative. On 29 April 1960, soon after the plans went public, a mass demonstration was held in Calvi, a town very close to the Argentella mines. According to French intelligence, nearly three-quarters of the population of the town demonstrated. In a passionate debate between Calvi’s municipal council and French officials, some left-wing Calvesi began to advocate for armed conflict to prevent the plan from being implemented. at the same time, “Provisional Committees” were being established by the M29N in Calvi, Ajaccio, Bastia, Corte, and Golo. These committees propelled left-wing sentiment and Corsican separatism into a political threat on the island. The Calvese Provisional Committee exercised so much authority that it replaced the departmental council’s authority in the area. Newspaper editor Fernand Poli stated, “If Mussolini wasted billions in vain for years to detach Corsica from France, how has Mr. Guillaumat almost achieved this in a few hours?”. In May 1960, the M29N threatened a “march on Argentella” to expel French nuclear scientists as well as strikes in airports, seaports, and commercial districts. In early June 1960, the project was declared suspended indefinitely, and no attempt to revive it has ever been made.

Ruins of the Argentella mines, the site of the planned nuclear testing site.

The end of the M29N

by the end of the Argentella affair, the M29N had become less of a clandestine organization and more of a government-approved regionalist activist group. The November 1960 congress of the M29N included the presence of almost every politician present on the island, including politicians representing Corsica on the national level. This, along with post-Argentella apathy of regionalism and separatism, caused most of the M29N’s demands to be ignored or changed, including independence and communism. The swift decline of the organization followed, and on 27 October 1963, the M29N was replaced by the Comitatu d’Azzione è Prumuzione di a Corsica (Comittee of Action and Promotion of Corsica, CAPCO), an apolitical activist group dedicated to making life on the island better for its citizens. After this change was appproved, Corso-Provençal Bastien Leccia was placed in charge of the organization. Former leader Achille de Susini resigned soon after, citing the decline of the organization and the changes within it. Despite these factors, the CAPCO was able to carry out important changes, including the occupation and closure of the Canari asbestos mine.