Claude Alphandéry, hero of the Resistance and pioneer of the social and solidarity economy, died at the age of 101

This figure in the social and solidarity economy notably founded France Active in 1988, an association supporting the creation of committed businesses.

Claude Alphandéry bows out. This resistance fighter from the start “passed away peacefully last night, surrounded by his family” at the age of 101, AFP learned on Tuesday March 26 from consistent sources. NOTBorn in Paris on November 27, 1922, to a father who was a general treasurer and paymaster and a mother who was president of a real estate company, he embodied a key figure in the social and solidarity economy.

The young man was barely 20 years old when he joined the Lyon resistance, abandoning the comfortable benches of his khâgne for the maquis. He distinguished himself there and in 1944 became president of the Drôme liberation committee. An experience that marked him forever. “For a son of a bourgeois, to be able to deploy yourself like this is extraordinary”he declared in 1974 to the newspaper Dawn.

Once the war was over, the “son of a bourgeois” who has his PCF card nevertheless found his community: he first flew to the French embassy in Moscow, before resuming his studies and joining the ENA in 1947. Upon leaving the school, he was appointed civil administrator at the Ministry of Finance, then head of the economic budgets office, before moving on to a consultant position with the UN.

A precursor of the social and solidarity economy

Supporter of François Mitterrand in 1974 and benefactor of the PS, he brought his convictions to public policies and invested in what would become the social and solidarity economy, convinced that it constitutes the solution to unbridled liberalism and capitalism. . It is in this logic that Claude Alphandéry created France Active in 1988, an association supporting the creation of committed businesses, then led the National Committee for Integration through Activity at its creation in 1991. economic, which takes care of unemployed young people.

“Today, the resistance has moved to the economic front.he said at the dawn of his 100th birthday, in a column published by The Obs. The old resistance fighter adorned with decorations – Croix de Guerre, Medal of the Resistance, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor – called on civil society to commit to an economy “more social, more inclusive and more sustainable”through the creation of local clubs.