Occitan Struggle (

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language Occitan (; o ...

: ''Lucha Occitana'', LO) was an

political group created in 1971 from the ''Comitat Occitans d'Estudis e d'Accion''. It was mainly composed of intellectuals, students and agricultural unionists. The group had a

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor. ...

, autonomist, and Occitan nationalist ideology, and was headquartered in Toulouse. The group primarily desired the complete decolonization of

Occitania Occitania ( oc, Occitània , , or ) is the historical region in Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe where the Occitan language, Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes still used as a second language. This ...

, and appealed to the Occitan working class, which they thought would contribute to the destruction of the capitalist

French state Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...

. In 1972, LO signed the

Brest Charter The Brest Charter was a document signed by several European far-left separatist groups in February 1974, in Brest, Brittany, France.Cullen 151 The Charter advocated for a Europe of independent socialist states and affirmed “the right of the oppr ...

. Lucha Occitana published the newspapers ''Païs Occitan-Lucha Occitana'' in Toulouse and ''Occitània Passat e Present'' in

Antibes Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of ...

. LO conducted an analysis of the

situation. They opposed the separatist views of the Occitan Nationalist Party. Instead, their core beliefs were: * The existence of an Occitan identity that was culturally and linguistically different from that of the French identity. The group was resistant to French cultural hegemony and acculturation. * Capitalist and

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 a ...

exploitation was present in

, pursuing the liquidation of the Occitan national minority. * The

increasingly oppresses the

lower classes. * The class struggle in Occitania reflects greater aspirations than those of the rest of the French hexagon. LO never had more than 500 militants. The group gained prominence thanks to demonstrations against the expropriations of

Larzac The Larzac, also known as the Causse of Larzac (French: ''Causse du Larzac''), is a limestone karst plateau in the south of the Massif Central, France, situated between Millau (in the département of l'Aveyron) and Lodève (in the départem ...

. In 1974 Lucha Occitana underwent an internal crisis and fragmented into numerous factions.

References

External links

* {{cite book, first=Jean-Pierre , last=Albert, title=Nueva antropología de las sociedades mediterráneas: viejas culturas, nuevas visiones, url={{google books , plainurl=y , id=mTISjj58NX0C, year=2001, publisher=Icaria Editorial, isbn=978-84-7426-508-8 Occitan language Socialist parties in France Political parties of minorities Secessionist organizations in Europe Occitan nationalism Left-wing nationalist parties