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

Gaullist Gaullism ( ) 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 withdrew French forces from t ...

militia founded by Jacques Foccart,

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

's chief adviser for African matters, and , a former Resistant and official director of the group. Important members included Charles Pasqua, 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. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...

's mentor, Etienne Léandri, a friend of Pasqua, Robert Pandraud or Christian Fouchet. 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 Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former First ...

'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 Jacques Foccart, 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 is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

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

illegal drug trade The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of drug prohibition, prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibitionism, prohibit trade, exce ...

and protected by the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

for his

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...

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) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

(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 Army Organisation") was a far-right dissident French paramilitary and terrorist organisation during the Algerian War, founded in 1961 by Raoul Salan, Pierre Lagaillarde and Jean-Jacques S ...

(OAS) terrorist group which launched a campaign of bombings and assassinations to try to block the implementation of the March 1962 Evian agreements 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, leader of the Moroccan opposition to King Hassan II and of the Tricontinental Conference. Furthermore, and Ali Bourequat, "disappeared" under Hassan II, have accused the SAC of financing itself by drug trade with Morocco. During May 1968, SAC members, disguised as

ambulance An ambulance is a medically-equipped vehicle used to transport 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 ...

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 French people () are a nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common Culture of France, French culture, History of France, history, and French language, language, identified with the country of France. The French people, esp ...

. 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 Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

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'' (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 Charles Pasqua 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, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

between 1968 and 1981 for various reasons, including: "

assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...

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

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

aggravated assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result ...

, money

counterfeit A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...

ing,

pimp Procuring, pimping, 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" ...

ing,

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

arson Arson is the act 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, watercr ...

blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

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

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

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 mechan ...

s like during the Besançon courthouse attack, robberies and handling, being a member of a criminal organisation (''association de malfaiteurs''), degradation of vehicles, use of stolen

cheque A cheque (or check in American English) is a document that orders a bank, building society, 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 person writing ...

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. Public morality often means reg ...

(''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), 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. It can be described as t ...

activities, organized crime and

far right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...

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

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 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...

'' left-wing newspaper, founded by

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

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. Chairoff was the pseudonym of Dominique Calzi, a far-right activist and criminal, who had been a member of the SAC until quitting in 1971. 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 ...

of the Gaullist party. The departmental responsible of the SAC was a ''de jure'' member of the departmental committee of the Union des Démocrates pour la République (UNR), then of the Union des Démocrates pour la République (UDR) and

Rally for the Republic The Rally for the Republic ( ; 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 and presented itself as the heir of Gaul ...

(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 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 (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

in May 1981, troubled by local rivalries within his organisation. Jacques Massié, a police inspector and the local leader of the SAC, was accused by those who later would assassinate him of corruption — and worse, of contacts with the left. 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 ( ; , ; ; "the Mouths of the Rhône") is a Departments of France, department in southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var (department), Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the sout ...

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". His murderers were arrested a few weeks later. 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 (PS). That election was the first victory of the left-wing since the 1958 establishment of the Fifth Republic by De Gaulle. The new 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 repr ...

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, Charles Pasqua, 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 ( ; UDF) was a centre-right political party in France. The UDF was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over ...

(UDF) members, former SAC activists and even some members of far-right movements such as the " Parti des forces nouvelles" (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 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 Statistic ...

firm VHP Security, which had as

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

KO International Company, charged of the personal security of

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (20 June 1928 – 7 January 2025), commonly known as Jean-Marie Le Pen (), was a French politician, lawyer and activist. He founded the far-right National Front (now National Rally) party and served as the party's presi ...

, 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 in the Yugoslav Wars, war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to tr ...

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 (; ) is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organisation of the SFIO, ''de facto'', and thereafter of the French Communist Party (PCF), and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, would not exist." History ...

'', 10 December 2005

References

{{reflist, 2

In popular culture

* Films ** The Day of the Jackal 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 manga magazine '' Monthly Sunday Gene-X'' since April 2002, with its chapters collected in ...

(2002), featured prominently in the arc "L'homme sombre"

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.