Nation, Region, and Locality within Popular Front Cultural Mobilization

As fascism rose in Europe, Popular Front activists in France mustered cultural practices to unite the French people against the radical right. Mobilized antifascists hoped to establish France as a bulwark against fascist encroachment by imbuing the population with antifascist values. Cultural engagement could strengthen the public’s connection to a shared national community and increase their common resistance. This paper will examine the dynamics among nation, region, and city as activists throughout France worked to build an antifascist movement using cultural means.

Cultural decentralization, conceived in the 1930s as equalizing cultural resources throughout the national territory, brought into conversation the local, regional, and national levels, each with its own methods and priorities. The Popular Front, a leftwing alliance and grassroots campaign, emphasized mobilizing a national movement and reaching a democratic audience. Popular Front cultural figures wanted to foster national unity by extending their antifascist message to every citizen. National leaders in Paris exported antifascist cultural material to communities outside of Paris as a way to draw them into the national project of creating a unified French people.

Engendering a national cultural movement was complicated by local mobilization already taking place in many cities. Local activists produced antifascist cultural activity that expressed local concerns. They appreciated attention and funding from national Popular Front members, but their primary goal was valorizing local cultural heritage, not the celebration of national antifascist values. Local figures who strengthened regional cultural activity interacted with the cultural movement in ways contrary to the expectations of Parisians, even as national figures celebrated French regional heritage as a seedbed of national cultural tradition and strength. Revitalizing cultural life outside Paris and celebrating regional cultural traditions contributed to nationwide Popular Front grassroots momentum, yet fostered disagreement about the goals of decentralization and the methods of creating an antifascist movement.