Editor: I. Mallikarjuna Sharma Volume 11: 15-31 March 2015 No. 5-6

40 They are one of us (l’Humanité editorial on 8 January 2015) (2015) 1 LAW
THEY ARE ONE OF US
[The editorial board of l’Humanité ♠ is deeply shocked by
the odious attack that decimated Charlie Hebdo’s team in
Paris yesterday {7 January 2015} morning. Most of the cartoons
published by l’Humanité are by Charlie’s cartoonists. We
followed the same path in work, and in friendship.]
They are one of us. A long companionship has
grown, over the years, between the teams of Charlie
Hebdo and of l’Humanité. Its conductor was CHARB,
communist, insolent, and a rigorous professional, who
obtained from his crew of rebels the delivery, flawless
and on time, of the cartoon that enlivens our daily’s last
page. Jul, Luz, Babouze, and Charb himself never
missed the weekly appointments, nor did Coco and
Besse, who draw for l’Humanité Dimanche. On the eve
of the Fête de l’Humanité, one year, Charlie’s editorial
team took over the entire iconography of the next day’s
issue, spreading over the pages an invigorating and
harmless insolence, and their priceless creations that
clarified, in a few strokes, the day’s events.
Charb was even one day’s editor-in-chief for
l’Humanité. He arrived, accompanied by the policemen
who assured his security. The director of Charlie
shouldered by two policemen! The paradox was merely
apparent, since a relation of mutual trust had been
established between the anti-conformist rebel and his
two shadows. The three of them knew that they were
targeted. Char had decided not to be guided by fear, not to
engage in self-censorship, nor to be ruled by the the law of
the most stupid and most brutal. Charb also provided
discreet help to this daily paper, advising young
correspondents who were making a start as cartoonists,
for one entire Saturday at l’Humanité’s offices in Saint-
Denis, and by putting pressure on radio and television
channels, to which he was invited, to give l’Humanité,
the newspaper founded by Jean Jaurès, its due place
beside the other dailies cited — with varying degrees of
success. It was he who recommended to us two young
cartoonists, Coco and Besse, full of talent and inspiration
— thus breaking with the idea that drawing cartoons is a
man’s job.
Over an extended period, the impertinence of Charlie
was well attuned to the rebellious fiber of l’Humanité.
We should also mention Siné and Tignous who
enlivened l’Humanité Dimanche. To revive memories of
the work we shared is also to unwind a reel of friendships that
only death could, and did, terminate.
♠ Daily newspaper, formerly [of] the French Communist
Party (PCF). The paper is now independent, although it
maintains close links to the PCF. Edited excerpts - IMS.
l’Humanité could not have done without
Wolinsky, Charb, and Tignous
They were one of us, and we have raised our glasses
together more than once. …...Georges Wolinsky for such
a long time brightened the front page of l’Humanité! In
two sketches and three words he would untangle a
situation, reveal an hypocrisy, ridicule the powerful. In
fabulous osmosis with the people, readers who cut out
his cartoons in order to glue them on their handbills.
l’Humanité could not have done without Wolinsky.
The cartoonist had found there a new space of liberty,
and perhaps of usefulness. But also friends, like René
Andrieu, Roland Leroy, José Fort, who shared memories
of joint travels, cultural passions, and the same appetites
for life. … Georges …… evoked the possibility to make
cartoons for l’Humanité from time to time: to reclaim a new
space of liberty, as a gesture of friendship, not untinged with
nostalgia. They were so much of us that the emotion that
overcame the editorial team at the announcement of the
slaughter was deeper than the shock upon a major and
traumatic event. Each of us here felt it as a personal and
intimate wound. For many of us, brotherhood is not
merely rooted in ideas.
This personal history, which I refuse to let slip into
the past, was not without friction, digs, fits of anger.
Newspaper cartooning is a demanding and effective
mode of journalism, often more demanding than writing
editorials or long analytic pieces. Consequently, this
space of liberty is particularly menaced by tyrants and
fanatics. At times the scratching of their claws irritated
some readers: "... But laughter, even if it had a bitter
taste, overcame good manners and reticence. The
difficulties for the papers, those which Charlie encounter,
as well as those facing l’Humanité, had brought the two
teams closer together. My last exchange with Charb was
last Monday. He had sent us seven drawings made
during the holidays, for a special issue opposing the Loi
Macron that will be published on 15 January, distributed
with l’Humanité Dimanche. We hoped also that he
would draw a cartoon for the cover. He didn’t have time.
We will publish his preliminary sketches, in form of an
homage. Charb never hid his political views and commitments, a
scrupulous militant communist, and unbridled cartoonist, able…
His newspaper had taken deep roots in the cultural
soil of several entire generations, with a series of cult
front page images – those … on the front pages of this
newspaper & those we let slip by – by way of thumbing its
nose at ambient drowsiness and in eternel contradiction with
ready-made ideas. In this, they are one of us, but they are part of
everybody in this country. [http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/
spip.php?article2618]
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Law Animated World, 15-31 March 2015 40