Last modified: 2016-05-01 by ivan sache
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![[Movement flag]](../images/f/fr}oeufr.gif)
Standard of L'Œuvre française - Image by Ivan Sache, 26 June 2011
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L'Œuvre française (The French work) is an ultranationalist movement, founded on 6 February 1968 by Pierre Sidos. According to its registration, published on 2 March 1968 in the French official gazette, its aim is "To group the French who want the set up a state that would be nationalist, traditional in its principles and modern in its institutions".
Pierre Sidos (b. 1927) is still the mentor of the group. The son of a
high-rank officer of the French Militia shot in 1946, Sidos founded, together with his brothers Jacques and François, Jeune Nation (Young Nation), a movement forbidden in 1958 and recreated the next year as the Parti nationaliste (Nationalist Party), forbidden the same year. Member of the Mouvement populaire du 13 Mai (MP-13, 13 May People's Movement) supporting French Algeria, Sidos was
subsequently jailed for his support to the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS, Organization of the Secrete Army), a more successful successor of the MP-13. Sidos founded L'Œuvre française after his expelling from Occident, a movement founded in April 1964.
Sidos' motto is "Nationalism is an ethics". The statements available
on the movement's website unambiguously express the orientation of the movement (for instance, "A 100%-French can be only physically Indo-European, politically Gallo-Roman and spiritually Greco-Latin"), as well as the numerous references to Maurras, Bardèche, Brasillach, Coston, Carrel and other rabid anti-semitic theoreticians who supported Pétain's État français. Rejecting all kind of "compromission" with democracy for the sake of "intransigent
nationalism", L'Œuvre française has remained quite marginal in the political debate, in spite of attempts of rapprochement with extreme-right parties accepting the electoral system; the movement called to vote for Jean-Marie Le Pen in the 2007 presidential election.
L'Œuvre française, while aiming at suppressing the French Republic for a monarchy, recognizes the French national flag. Article 20 (and last) of the movement's charter (text), adopted during the 7th Congress held on 30 September - 1 October 2000 in Fontainebleau says: "The French flag made of three colors, blue, white, red, in their traditional placement, shall be imposed as the only official emblem of France in its historic role and civilizing mission".
Ivan Sache, 26 June 2011
The standard is "made of a square panel of 1 m x 1 m, showing on both sides the arms of L'Œuvre française, covering the whole panel and without any writing. The standard is tied to a 2.10 m staff made of dark-colored wood, topped by a ball of the same material, of 4 cm in diameter. Two tricolor ribbons of 1 m on length on 6 cm in width are tied to the base of the ball. During informal stop, the standard shall be borne with the staff on soil, on the bearer's right. During formal stop and when marching, the standard shall be borne vertically on the body's right side, hold only by the right hand at the head's height, the left arm remaining stretched out".
[Movement's website].
The use of a similar design as the fuselage marking by the Air Force of the Dominican Republic is a mere coincidence.
Ivan Sache, 26 June 2011
The Celtic Cross is the emblem of L'Œuvre française. Quoting the movement's website:
It units the crown and the cross, associating them with the traditional national colors of France. The stylized Celtic Cross was introduced in politics after the Second World War by Pierre Sidos. The name of "Celtic Cross" applied to the symbolic design made of a circle and a cross (the cross' branches going beyond the circle's border) comes from the current use of such monuments in old Breton cemeteries, and, mostly, in Irish cemeteries and everywhere in the Irish countryside. Much long ago, the crossed circle symbol was used by the Celts and other Europeans of the time, as one of the representations of the sun, the main visible origin of life, warmth, day, light, authority and everything radiating.
Aesthetic considerations on the Celtic Cross of L'Œuvre française impose that all its parts are of equal length, the ends being of square shape. The Celtic Cross of L'Œuvre française is white. This whiteness is yet another distinctive mark. However, the yellow color, being associated with the sun, can also be used for decorative purpose.
The well-known relation of the Celtic Cross with the activities of nationalist opinion inspired by Pierre Sidos, without discontinuity from Jeune Nation to L'Œuvre française cannot justify a legal protection of the use of the symbol; accordingly, it was not possible to prevent its abusive use by individuals or political groups, in France or abroad, being sometimes an unfortunate source of confusion for the public.
The resemblance, partially necessary, of the Celtic Cross with any other of the some 40 existing heraldic crosses is sometimes emphasized by opponents to the French modern nationalism as a matter of polemic, in order to discredit it by excessive hotchpotch with other specific crosses, used in politics, and inspiring today some reluctance. The modern French, referring to their Gaul ancestors, can rightfully consider the Celtic Cross as their oldest national emblem, without fearing any kind of comparison.
The cross "inspiring today some reluctance" must be the swastika, as used by the German Third Reich.
Ivan Sache, 26 June 2011
![[Movement flag]](../images/f/fr}oeuqq.gif)
Four-Quartered flag - Image by Ivan Sache, 26 June 2011
The Four-Quartered flag is used "as the emblem of the
Secretariat in the central siege of L'Œuvre française. Quarterly shield, 1. Tierced per pale azure argent and gules (blue, white, red, placed vertically), 2. and 3. Argent (white), 4. See the description
of the arms of L'Œuvre française, which are said to be counter-quarterly when considering the whole shield. White, the main color, is the symbol of authority".
[Movement website]
This flag was shown on photos taken during the Nationalist Congress
(Congrès nationaliste, website no longer available).
Ivan Sache, 26 June 2011
The Triple Ensign is made of three square flags,
"placed, borne or hoisted side-by-side in the order of the colors,
that is blue on the viewer's left".
[Movement's website]
Ivan Sache, 26 June 2011