Tract original pour la Journée internationale de la résistance à la dictature et à la guerre

Original leaflet for the Journée internationale de la résistance à la dictature et à la guerre [International Day of Resistance to Dictatorship and War], held on 30 April 1949, at the grand amphitheatre of the Sorbonne and then at the Vélodrome d'Hiver, with the list of participants and speakers on verso. Some minor edge tears, one horizontal and one vertical fold.

Rare leaflet calling for participation in a major peace conference organized by the Rassemblement Démocratique Révolutionnaire, led by former Surrealist and ex-Communist militant Georges Altman. Albert Camus is listed as the first participant, alongside Jean-Paul Sartre—though the latter did not attend, his address was read. The event featured speeches by prominent figures including the American writer Richard Wright and the sociologist Merleau-Ponty. Ten thousand people responded to the organizers' call.

This historic day of debates was secretly funded by the CIA in response to the famous peace congress organized by the Communist Party, for which Picasso had designed his celebrated dove.

"Albert Camus and Claude Bourdet also spoke at two of the most important events organized by the R.D.R. [...] Initially held at the Sorbonne as a series of lectures, the second day took place on 30 April 1949. Albert Camus, André Breton and Claude Bourdet were joined by Pierre Emmanuel, Carlo Levi, Bertrand Russell and Sidney Hook. In the evening, a rally was held at the Vél d'Hiv', featuring not only R.D.R. figures but also leaders of the non-Communist left, including Marceau Pivert, Edouard Depreux and Raymond Badiou, as well as Garry Davis, a former U.S. Air Force pilot who had declared himself a 'world citizen' and enjoyed considerable fame at the time." (Bastien Amiel, "Le Rassemblement Démocratique Révolutionnaire : acteurs et conjoncture d'une insoluble équation")

The verso of the leaflet states:

"Representatives of the major workers' organizations and all democratic movements from around the world, writers, scholars, artists, and free men from every country will gather on this day to affirm the determination for unity and action against war of all those who, rejecting the exploitation and oppression of man by man, do not separate the struggle for peace from the preservation and flourishing of all freedoms."