The programme of the National Council of the Resistance (French: programme du Conseil national de la Résistance), commonly abbreviated as CNR programme and originally titled Les Jours heureux par le CNR, is a French text unanimously adopted by the National Council of the Resistance on March 9 1944. This document, spanning fewer than ten pages, consists of two parts: an "immediate action plan," addressing the actions of the French Resistance in preparation for the Liberation of France, and "measures to be implemented upon the liberation of the territory," a government programme encompassing measures for post-war purges and long-term reforms, such as the restoration of universal suffrage, nationalizations, and the establishment of social security. The second part has garnered more historical attention, as most of its programmatic proposals shaped debates and general policy between the 1944 Liberation and early 1946. Unlike other government programmes, a distinctive feature of the CNR programme is its adoption by the full spectrum of political groups represented within the French Resistance.
Summary of the programme
Immediate action plan The first part, the "immediate action plan," begins with observations and emphasizes the necessity of armed struggle and recognition of Charles de Gaulle and the authority of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN):
through the intensification of the struggle led by the armed forces and the organizations formed by the masses, the true union of all patriotic forces can be achieved for the realization of national liberation, inseparable, as General de Gaulle stated, from the national insurrection, which... will be directed by the CNR under the authority of the CFLN. A significant portion of the text is dedicated to the creation of Departmental Committee of Liberation (CDLs). The roles of these committees are distinguished from those of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI), whose responsibilities are also defined.
Measures to be implemented upon liberation In the second part, "measures to be implemented upon the liberation of the territory," the programme first addresses "ensuring the punishment of traitors and the removal, in the realms of administration and professional life, of those who collaborated with the enemy or actively participated in the policies of collaborationist governments" and the confiscation of property belonging to traitors and black market profiteers.
Other measures Additional measures include:
Political reforms, such as the restoration of democracy, universal suffrage, and freedom of the press; Economic measures, inspired by planism, characterized by "the establishment of a true economic and social democracy, requiring the eviction of large economic and financial feudalisms from the direction of the economy", commonly referred to as nationalizations, and expressed in the text as "the return to the nation of major monopolized means of production, the fruit of collective labor, energy sources, subsoil wealth, insurance companies, and major banks"; Social measures, including significant wage adjustments, the restoration of independent trade unionism and shop stewards, and "a comprehensive social security plan, aimed at ensuring all citizens a means of subsistence in cases where they are unable to secure it through work, with management entrusted to representatives of the stakeholders and the State".
History of the programme's development The first part of the CNR programme has few precedents in French history, as it concerns the organization of an armed insurrection under foreign domination, a situation unprecedented in modern France. The second part, "reforms to be implemented upon liberation," aligns with the tradition of joint government programmes. The first such programme was the "Réunion de la Montagne" published in April 1849. Its preamble highlighted the role of programmes in democratic processes. Generally, right-wing factions, described as "empirical and conservative," were less inclined to develop programmes. Charles de Gaulle himself expressed doubts about the utility of political programmes when elected president of the Provisional Government of the French Republic. While the left-wing tradition was more open to government programmes, the only historical precedents before 1940 were those of 1849 and 1936.
1935–1936: Programme of the National Conference of the Popular Front From 1934, convergence within the left, initially in an anti-fascist perspective and later within the National Conference of the Popular Front, which united left-wing forces supporting the Popular Front, the establishment of a joint programme was not straightforward. The inclusion of nationalizations, often termed "socializations," was a demand of the socialists from the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), met with reluctance by French communists, as articulated by Maurice Thorez in a January 1935 article in L'Humanité: "The smallest action is worth more than twelve programmes (...) what Marx meant to convey, what Lenin and the Bolsheviks understood (...) is that what matters most is to act." During the adoption of a joint programme by the National Conference of the Popular Front, established on June 17, 1935, to prepare for victory in the 1936 legislative elections, the communists, supported by the radicals, favored a minimalist approach to nationalizations. The resulting compromise provided only for "the nationalization of war industries," and the term "nationalization" was avoided for the Bank of France, despite its impending nationalization. Léon Blum persisted until 1942, while imprisoned in Puy-de-Dôme, in advocating for a government programme, as evidenced by letters to his socialist friends and de Gaulle.
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