Robert François

Born in La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) on September 17, 1919, he joined the libertarian movement as a teenager. At 18, he was sterilized by the companions of Bordeaux (Bartosek affair). He learned at this time the profession of hairdresser. At the Liberation, Robert François established contacts with the anarchist nuclei of the cities of his department and organized numerous conferences at L'Oratoire, both from the Anarchist Federation (FA), and from the Libre Pensée or the publishing group of the newspaper Ce qu ' 'you have to saypublished by Louis Louvet and Simone Larcher. Then he went to Paris and joined the Anarchist Federation. After practicing as a hairdresser, he learned conjuring and, under the name of Mystag, became a talented illusionist, putting his knowledge in this field at the service of reason and denouncing the impostures and the methods of the mages and other fakirs. pretending to "transcendental gifts". In the fall of 1952, François was a member with Pierre-Valentin Berthier, among others, of the Philosocial Research Center which, every Saturday, organized debates in the hall of learned societies (Conferences for the Defense of Man). He collaborated with Le Libertaire, L'Entente anarchiste,and participates in the reconstruction of the FA around Maurice Joyeux after the split of 1953. He contributes to the organization of several galas and meetings for various libertarian or close organizations and in particular to a magic gala for the benefit of the newspaper Liberté of Louis Lecoin . Following the exclusion of the Anarchist Federation of Maurice Laisant, he was appointed secretary for external relations of the Union of Anarchists at its founding congress on November 17-18, 1979. He inspired Patrick Pecherot the character of Corback, a fakir undertaker, in his novel Belleville-Barcelona, and appears at the beginning of the film Daguerreotypes(1976) by Agnes Varda. Robert François, who was also a member of La Libre Pensée, the Rationalist Union, the Pacifist Union, the Friends of Han Ryner and the Distributive Self-Management Movement, died on August 22, 1988 in Puy-du-Lac (Charente -Maritime) in an automobile accident. (From Dictionary of Anarchist Militants .)