From political radicalization to the defense of human rights in Paris. Two connected trajectories of militant reconversion (Envar El Kadri and François Gèze, 1968-1983)

ABSTRACT

The article analyzes the militant trajectories of the Argentinean Envar El Kadri and the Frenchman François Gèze as case studies of the connections that emerged during the radicalization of broad sectors of the international left around 1968 and the outpouring of support for the defense of human rights at the beginning of the 1980s. As late as 1975, both actors shared an anti-imperialist discourse and support for revolutionary movements, but in a few years, both El Kadri and Gèze positioned themselves clearly in support of the defense of human rights, repudiating the Argentine dictatorship. From a perspective of connected stories, this paper argues that the change from supporting revolutionary violence to a strict international humanitarian denunciation was not exclusively a Latin American phenomenon. On the contrary, it was a process of global political transformation that had particularities in different regions.

Keywords:
trajectories; connected history; militant reconversion; revolution; human rights