The SAC (french: Service d'Action Civique; or ''Civic Action Service''), officially created in January 1960, was a

Gaullist Gaullism (french: link=no, Gaullisme) is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic. De Gaulle withd ...

militia founded by

Jacques Foccart Jacques Foccart (31 August 1913 – 19 March 1997) was a French businessman and politician, best known as a chief adviser to President of France, French presidents on African affairs. He was also a co-founder of the Gaullist Party, Gaullist Servi ...

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...

's chief adviser for African matters, and , a former Resistant and official director of the group. Important members included

Charles Pasqua Charles Victor Pasqua (18 April 192729 June 2015) was a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's ''cohabitation'' government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government o ...

, part of the

movement and known as

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...

's mentor, Etienne Léandri, a friend of Pasqua, or

Christian Fouchet Christian Fouchet (17 November 1911 – 11 August 1974) was a French politician. Biography He was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Yvelines. He was a graduate of the Ecole des sciences politiques. After Marshal Petain's request for an armistic ...

. The predecessor of the SAC was the service of order of the Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF) Gaullist party. The SAC was dissolved in 1982 under

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

's government, after a particularly gruesome multiple murder triggered by internal rivalries.

Foundation during the Algerian War

The SAC was officially created as a 1901 law association on 4 January 1960, in the proclaimed aim of providing unconditional support to de Gaulle's policy. It was then officially directed by Pierre Debizet, a former Resistant, but its real leader was

, in charge of the African policy of France for several decades. The SAC recruited among the Gaullist movement, but also in the

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

. Etienne Léandri, a friend of Charles Pasqua, was thus a former Collaborationist, reconverted in

illegal drug trade The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through ...

and protected by the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

for his

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

activities. Others famous gangsters of the time who were SAC members include or Christian David ("''le beau Serge''"). Some of these criminals had taken part in the Resistance during the war, and even been deported, thus creating lasting links with future politicians, while others had been collaborationists. The SAC always was independent from the Gaullist party itself, directly reporting to General de Gaulle through Foccart. The Parliamentary report published in 1982 talked of "God without the clergy" ("'"). After de Gaulle's change of policy concerning the

Algerian War The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...

(1954-1962) and his subsequent support of Algerian independence, many SAC members, supporters or outright activists of "French Algeria" resigned. Pierre Debizet, official director of the SAC, was replaced by , a bodyguard of de Gaulle. General de Gaulle then sent the SAC against the

Organisation armée secrète The ''Organisation Armée Secrète'' (OAS, "Secret Armed Organisation") was a far-right French dissident paramilitary organisation during the Algerian War. The OAS carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in an att ...

(OAS) terrorist group which launched a campaign of bombings and assassinations to try to block the implementation of the March 1962

Evian agreements Evian ( , ; , stylized as evian) is a French company that bottles and commercialises mineral water from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. It produces over 2 billion plastic bottles per year. Today, Evia ...

on a cease-fire with the National Liberation Front (FLN).

1960s: May 1968 and the "disappearance" of Mehdi Ben Barka

After this period, which saw the longtime Gaullists quit the organisation, the SAC began to recruit more and more from underworld groups. It then became involved in all sorts of shady moves and covert actions for the Gaullist party. It has been suspected of participating in 1965 in the "disappearance" in Paris of

Mehdi Ben Barka use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = ...

, leader of the Moroccan opposition to

King Hassan II Hassan II ( ar, الحسن الثاني, translit=al-Ḥasan aṯ-ṯhānī;), with the prefix "Mulay" before his enthronement 9 July 1929 – 23 July 1999) was the List of rulers of Morocco, King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999. H ...

and of the

Tricontinental Conference The Tricontinental Conference was a gathering of countries that focused on anti-colonial and anti-imperial issues during the Cold War era, specifically those related to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The conference was held from 3rd to 16 Jan ...

. Furthermore, and

Ali Bourequat Ali Bourequat is a successful Moroccan/Tunisian businessman who was secretly arrested and incarcerated for years by the Moroccan government in the infamous secret prison Tazmamart.Alain Brossat, Jean-Louis Déotte, ''La mort dissoute: dispariti ...

, "disappeared" under Hassan II, have accused the SAC of financing itself by drug trade with Morocco. During

May 1968 The following events occurred in May 1968: May 1, 1968 (Wednesday) *CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, was formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. *RAF Strike Co ...

, SAC members, disguised as

ambulance An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...

crew, took demonstrators to their headquarters, rue de Solférino, where they were beaten up. They then prepared the Gaullist counter-demonstration which assured de Gaulle of the support of (parts of) the

French people The French people (french: Français) are an ethnic group and nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially the nati ...

. After the June 1968 legislative election, the SAC expelled from the Youth Centres ("''Maisons des Jeunes''") various movements and associations, including the

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

s and the so-called "Katangais". Continuing this "policy of order", the SAC created in 1969 the right-wing students' union ''

Union Nationale Inter-universitaire Union Nationale Interuniversitaire (UNI) or "Inter-University Union" is the largest French right-wing union of university students, created in February 1969 to promote freedom of expression in reaction to the student crisis of May 68 and to supp ...

'' (UNI) in 1969 to counter the "leftist subversion" in the students' movement. Until 1976, the SAC supported the UNI in daily organisation, while many UNI members were also SAC members. Double membership of most activists continued after 1976, but the two organisations had distinct leadership. Jacques Foccart called back Pierre Debizet to the head of the SAC during May 1968. Foccart excluded

in the beginning of 1969, suspecting him of trying to take control of the militia. Furthermore, Pierre Debizet decided to change the membership card, which looked too much like a police card, and requested from each member an extract of his judicial record. Despite this cleaning-up of the organisation in 1968-69, SAC members have had problems with the

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

between 1968 and 1981 for various reasons, including: "

assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

(''coups et blessures volontaires''), illegal possession of fire-arms,

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

aggravated assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

, money

counterfeit To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

ing,

pimp Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

ing,

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and of ...

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...

holdup Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

, abuse of trust (''abus de confiance'' - i.e.

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...

s like during the Besançon courthouse attack,

robberies Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

and handling, being a member of a criminal organisation (''association de malfaiteurs''), degradation of vehicles, use of stolen

cheque A cheque, or check (American English; see spelling differences) is a document that orders a bank (or credit union) to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The pers ...

s, outrage to

public morality Public morality refers to moral and ethical standards enforced in a society, by law or police work or social pressure, and applied to public life, to the content of the media, and to conduct in public places. A famous remark of Mrs Patrick Ca ...

(''outrage aux bonnes mœurs'')." Some SAC members have upheld a theory of the "two SAC" to defend themselves, alleging the coexistence, under the same appellation, of on one hand a group of staunchly right-wing Gaullist activists, often recruiting honourable persons (a magistrate, a certain number of workers' activists often linked to " yellow trade-unions" such as the CGSI, the CFT or the

CSL CSL as an abbreviation may stand for: Places * Coordinated Science Laboratory, at the University of Illinois * Liège Space Center (Centre spatial de Liège), at the University of Liege in Belgium * Central Science Laboratory, a former UK DEFRA ...

), and on the other hand individuals located at the cross-roads between

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

activities, organized crime and

far right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

movements, used for the most shady actions. In the 1970s, journalist Patrice Chairoff published in ''

Libération ''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France's ...

'' left-wing newspaper, founded by

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

and others, a plan of the SAC envisioning the internment of leftists in stadiums. The document was attributed to the Marseillese , a lieutenant of Charles Pasqua who claimed it was a forgery. One of the main roles of the SAC, although not well known, was the internal

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...

of the Gaullist party. The

departmental ''Departmental'' is a 1980 Australian TV movie based on a play by Mervyn Rutherford. It was part of the ABC's Australian Theatre Festival.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p43 Reviews were poor ...

responsible of the SAC was a ''de jure'' member of the departmental committee of the

Union des Démocrates pour la République The Union for the Defence of the Republic (french: Union pour la défense de la République), after 1968 renamed Union of Democrats for the Republic (french: Union des Démocrates pour la République), commonly abbreviated UDR, was a Gaullist po ...

(UNR), then of the

(UDR) and

Rally for the Republic The Rally for the Republic (french: Rassemblement pour la République ; RPR ), was a Gaullist and conservative political party in France. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR), it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 a ...

(RPR) (successive incarnations of the Gaullist party), even though he was often not an adherent of the Gaullist party. It is through this tight network covering France that Jacques Foccart was very well informed. On many times, the notes communicated to Pierre Debizet by his departmental responsibles permitted to push out of the Gaullist party elected (or not) officials of the party suspected of some illegal activities, before having the

French justice In France, career judges are considered civil servants exercising one of the sovereign powers of the state, so French citizens are eligible for judgeship, but not citizens of the other EU countries. France's independent court system enjoys speci ...

take care of it. According to Daniele Ganser (2005), the SAC had

as president in 1975. He later was twice prime minister before being elected president in 1995.

1981 Auriol massacre and the dissolving of the SAC

Pierre Debizet, national leader of the SAC, arrived in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

in May 1981, troubled by local rivalries within his organisation. Jacques Massié, a police inspector and the local leader of the SAC, was accused of corruption — and worse, of contacts with the left — by those who later would assassinate him. He was in reality a competent police officer, who was to take the leadership of the SAC in the

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and large ...

with the support of Debizet. Some time afterward, Massié and all of his family were massacred on the night of July 18, 1981 in what is known as the "Auriol massacre". A few weeks later, his murderers were arrested. Pierre Debizet was interrogated by the police, but eventually released without charges. The five SAC members of the Auriol commando were sentenced on May 1, 1985 to between 15 years of prison and life-sentences; the mastermind behind inspector Massié's murder was never identified. The Auriol massacre took place soon after the 1981 election of

, candidate of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(PS). That election was the first victory of the left-wing since the 1958 establishment of the Fifth Republic by De Gaulle. The parliamentary majority set up a parliamentary investigative commission, in which the opposition refused to sit. That Commission did not request the dissolving of the SAC, which the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

nonetheless debated. The government disbanded the SAC in 1982,Décret n°82-670 du 3 août 1982
portant dissolution de l'association nommée « Service d'action civique » (SAC) using a law which allows disbanding combat groups and private militias.

Successors of the SAC

After the 1982 dissolving of the SAC,

, future Interior Minister, created the "''Solidarité et défense des libertés''" organisation ("Solidarity and Defense of Freedoms"), which gathered RPR and

Union for French Democracy The Union for French Democracy (french: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre to centre-right political party in France. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to c ...

(UDF) members, former SAC activists and even some members of far-right movements such as the "

Parti des forces nouvelles Parti des forces nouvelles (PFN) or Party of New Forces was a French far-right political party formed in November 1974 from the ''Comité faire front'', a group of anti-Jean-Marie Le Pen dissidents who had split from the National Front (FN). De ...

" (PFN, Party of the New Forces). This descendant of the SAC was quickly dissolved. After the 1982 bombing of the rue Marbœuf, it organised a demonstration during which activists of the Centre national des indépendants et paysans (CNIP) and of the PFN distinguished themselves. Furthermore, Pierre Debizet created the '' Mouvement initiative et liberté'' (MIL, Movement of Initiative and Freedom) after the May 1981 presidential election, but before the dissolving of the SAC in 1982. Rather than a resurgence of the SAC, it was thus more a parallel structure of the UNI estudiantine trade-union, which was supposed to assist SAC activists in finding more mainstream, professional activities, by entering the estudiantine movement. In the early 1980s, the SAC also had some front organisations, such as the

private security A private security company (PSC) is a business entity which provides armed or unarmed security services and expertise to clients in the private or public sectors. Overview Private security companies are defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Stat ...

firm VHP Security, which had as

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

KO International Company, charged of the personal security of

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. Le Pen graduated fro ...

, leader of the far-right '' National Front'' (FN).

Ante Gotovina Ante Gotovina (born 12 October 1955) is a Croatian retired lieutenant general and former French senior corporal who served in the Croatian War for Independence. He is noted for his primary role in the 1995 Operation Storm. In 2001, the Intern ...

, indicted by the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

on charges of war crimes, had worked for KO International Company.Le général croate Gotovina arrêté en Espagne
RFI, 8 December 2005 Le chauffeur de l’homme de la Question
''

L'Humanité ''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist." History and profile Pre-World Wa ...

'', 10 December 2005

References

{{reflist, 2

In popular culture

* Films **

The Day of the Jackal ''The Day of the Jackal'' (1971) is a political thriller novel by English author Frederick Forsyth about a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS, a French dissident paramilitary organisation, to kill Charles de Gaulle, the Presid ...

directed by Fred Zinnemann (1973) *
Le Juge Fayard dit ''Le Shérif''
directed by Yves Boisset (1977) *
J'ai vu tuer Ben Barka
directed by Serge Le Péron (2005) *
L'Affaire Ben Barka
directed by Jean-Pierre Sinapi (2007) * Manga **

Black Lagoon ''Black Lagoon'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rei Hiroe. It has been published in Shogakukan's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Monthly Sunday Gene-X'' since April 2002, with its chapters coll ...

(2002), featured prominently in "The Hunt" arc

Bibliography

*Report from the Parliamentary Commission on the SAC, Editions Alain Moreau, 1982 *François Audigier, ''Histoire du SAC, la part d'ombre du gaullisme'', Stock, 2003 *Alex Panzani, ''La tuerie d'Auriol'', J'ai lu, Crimes et enquètes. *Benjamin Biale, "Le service d'action civique : 1958-1968.", Mémoire IEP Aix-en-Provence 1997 *Pierre Péan ''L'Homme de l'ombre: éléments d'enquête autour de Jacques Foccart, l'homme le plus mystérieux et le plus puissant de la Ve République'', Fayard, 1990.