The beautiful Nantes Congress in 1957

By François Perdrial

From Tuesday, April 16 to Saturday, April 20, 1957, the 13th ICEM Congress was held in Nantes, France. 1957 was also the thirtieth year of meetings of the French national Freinet movement, which had met nationally for the first time in 1927. For the first time, the national ICEM Congress was joined by the first international congress of school cooperatives, attended by a hundred children delegates from school cooperatives who discussed their rights, duties, and needs. The Livet and Clemenceau High Schools, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Natural History Museum, and the Graslin Opera-Theater hosted the event, in addition to offering exhibition and work spaces to the various committees.

In the technological edition of L'Éducateur No. 21 on April 20, 1957, just as the Nantes Congress was concluding, Célestin Freinet titled a seven-page article with the phrase: "Le beau congrès de Nantes" ("The beautiful Nantes Congress"). Indeed, this congress witnessed some very important events that would mark the history of the Freinet movement. First of all, it was one of the largest in terms of participants, with between 800 and 1,000 people. It was a great secular event, with a parade on Thursday, April 18 of 1,000 children and 1,000 adults with bagadou and folk groups through the city, demonstrating, as Freinet said, "this secular solidarity in the Chouan country." It was the first international meeting of young school cooperators.

The congress adopted the Children's Charter. It witnessed a remarkable exhibition of children's art in the Fine Arts Room of the Clemenceau High School and, especially, in the Museum of Fine Arts of Nantes, where a "Children's House" was created in the courtyard. It also witnessed the birth of the International Federation of Modern School Movements, whose board of directors included Célestin Freinet (France), Lucienne Mawet (Belgium), Philippe Perrenoud (Switzerland), and Giuseppe Tamagnini (Italy).

Freinet's Inaugural Speech

In his inaugural speech at the FIMEM, Célestin Freinet declared: "The delegations from the USSR, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and East Germany were unable to obtain the necessary visas in time and, much to our regret, did not participate in our congress. In addition to the mentioned countries, we have received greetings from Morocco, Cameroon, Réunion, Italy, San Marino, Republican Spain, Uruguay, and Vietnam. The number of countries interested in our work and having Modern School groups is already so large that the foreign representatives gathered in Nantes have decided to create an international organization to harmonize existing relations. [...] And it is because we now have such a wealth of international support that the creation of the International Federation of Modern School Movements seems natural and indispensable."

Birth of FIMEM

Since it was a congress for young cooperators, they usually attended accompanied by their teachers, so the presence of foreign delegations was very important. Despite the slight improvement in East-West relations after Stalin's death and Khrushchev's rise to power, delegations from Eastern European countries were unable to attend because they had not obtained visas. Had they attended, it would have been the first time since 1945. Absent were representatives from the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and the GDR. But it would be more accurate to say that, as relations between Freinet and the French Communist Party were very conflicted at that time, the failure to obtain visas was more due to the general Communist apparatus than to the usual administrative complications. Nevertheless, these countries sent their greetings.

At the inaugural session on Tuesday, April 16, the leaders of the Belgian, Swiss, Dutch, Yugoslav, Tunisian, and Mexican movements were present on the platform. Lucienne Mawet (Belgium) presented the draft constitution of FIMEM at the closing session of the ICEM Congress, which was unanimously approved on Friday, April 19, 1957, the official day of FIMEM's birth. This motion, numbered 2, was unanimously adopted and created FIMEM (see the full text at the end of this article).

The birth of FIMEM involved the following 15 national groups in alphabetical order (as they were known at the time): West Germany, Belgium, Cuba, France, Greece, Holland, Italy, Morocco, Mexico, New Zealand, San Marino, Switzerland, Tunisia, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia. The FIMEM constitution lists five French overseas colonies or territories (not independent in 1957): Cameroon, Madagascar, Réunion, Senegal, and Tahiti. It is not surprising that Algeria was not included, as French institutions considered Algeria a French department. Many Algerian teachers were present at this congress. In addition to the 20 founding groups and organizations, representatives from Republican Spain, Vietnam, England, Poland, and a Russian student attended the congress.

Interventions by individuals mentioned during the Congress: Denise Croisé (Belgium) presented the Éducation Populaire movement, revitalized and in contact with the Belgian Flemish movement led by Messens, the Swiss comrade spoke, the Tunisian comrade Chabaane greeted the birth of FIMEM, M. Verslhuis from the Netherlands, the Australian delegate spoke, the Yugoslav comrade thanked in Esperanto, M. Diop from Senegal, Miss Bonfil Y Castro from Mexico presented MEEM and spoke about the remarkable work of Redondo, M. Legrand, UNESCO delegate, said: "This congress has, in my opinion, fostered something very important, the creation of FIMEM."

Absent: Those mentioned as absent, having sent telegrams or letters: comrades from West and East Germany, Poland, Hungary, China, Portugal, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Spain, Montanari from San Marino, Russian comrades, Giuseppe Tamagnini (Italy) wrote a letter in which he says: "Since the birth of our organization (the MCE), this is the first time we have missed your congress," H. Almendros, former founder of the Spanish Typographic Cooperative in school now in Cuba, and Juliàn B. Caparrós Morata (Canary Islands) sent this message:

"We, educators of eternal Spain, who today suffer the rigors of dogmatism that kills all true pedagogy, are with you, educators of free France, on the occasion of this 13th National Congress of Modern School, wishing you the greatest success. Our best regards." Those announced in previous articles and who might be present at the congress: a group from Hamburg (West Germany), a working group of teachers from Zagreb (Croatia), a teacher from Sofia (Bulgaria), Mr. Alexandre Nagy, a teacher from Budapest (Hungary), five Polish worker-teachers, Mr. Borel, a teacher from Neuchâtel (Switzerland).

Recovered by Andi Honegger from the bulletin of the "Amis de Freinet," No. 87, August 2007, page 51.

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