Alain Geismar

Alain Geismar (born July 17, 1939, in Paris 16th arrondissement) is a French politician, physicist, and Honorary Inspector General of Education.

Biography

Geismar was born in Paris, to an Alsatian Jewish family. As a pupil of the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly, he was the fourth future leader of the Union of Communist Students with André Senik. While Sénik remained "orthodox", Geismar was already mocking Stalin. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Geismar demonstrated against the Soviets.

Geismar married Sylvie Wieviorka, deputy mayor of the Parti Socialiste (PS) of the 2nd arrondissement of Paris after divorcing Rédith Estenne with whom he had two sons, François (b. 1965), and Pierre (1973-2006).

Academic background

A former student of the École nationale supérieure des mines de Nancy (class of 1959), he is a civil engineer with a doctorate in solid-state physics. In 1963, he became an assistant at the Jussieu Campus. He was a lecturer at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris.

Political background

Geismar began by campaigning for the Unified Socialist Students (ESU) while he was at the National School of Mines in Nancy and became a national leader of this group, under the direction of Jean Poperen, his former history professor at Janson. In 1965, he became deputy secretary-general of the National Union of Higher Education (SNESup), representing the opposition to the orthodoxy of the French Communist Party (PCF) and the so-called "leftist" tendency. He left the Unified Socialist Party (Parti socialiste unifié, PSU) in 1966. At the end of 1967, he was elected secretary-general of SNESup on the basis of a motion "For a small cultural revolution at the University."

From May 2, 1968, he was one of the leaders of May 68 alongside Jacques Sauvageot (vice-president of the National Union of Students of France ) and Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Mouvement du 22 Mars) and joined the Movement of 22 March on May 8.

After 1968, he led a Maoist organization alongside Benny Lévy, the Gauche prolétarienne (GP). On October 22, 1970, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for reconstituting the dissolved movement. He was imprisoned in Fresnes prison.

On June 18, 1976, he signed the Appel du 18 joint manifesto for 'the total decriminalization' of cannabis.

In 1984, the president of the IT Agency (ADI), Charlie Garrigues, appointed him deputy director-general. Alain Geismar was in charge of ADI's actions in the field of education. He had computers installed in the prisons to prepare prisoners for civilian life. It was returned to its original administration when the establishment was abolished in 1987.

In 1986, he joined the PS. On October 16, 1990, he was appointed Inspector-General of National Education. Deputy Director of André Laignel's cabinet in the Michel Rocard government (2), in May 1991 he entered the cabinet of Lionel Jospin, then Minister of State, Minister of National Education (Édith Cresson government). In 1992, he joined the office of Jean Glavany, the Secretary of State for Technical Education.

From 2001 until his retirement in July 2004, he was an adviser to the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, in charge of education, universities, and research.

Works

• The student revolt: the organizers speak (with Jacques Sauvageot and Daniel Cohn-Bendit ), presentation by Hervé Bourges, Éditions du Seuil, collection "The immediate history", 1968, 128 p.
• Towards the Civil War (with Serge July and Erlyn Morane), Éditions et publications premiers, collection Stratégies, Denoël, 1969, 440 p.
• Why we are fighting. Statement by Alain Geismar at his trial (20, 21 and 22 October 1970), Paris, Maspero, 1970, 28 p.
• Minutes from Alain Geismar's trial, preface by Jean-Paul Sartre, Paris, France, Éditions Libres-Hallier, Documents L'Idiot international, 1970, 219 p.
• The Terrorist Gear, Paris, France, Fayard, 1981, 184 p.
• My May 1968, Perrin, 2008