Publishing, the Rules of the Trade

Le Refus

Maurice Maschino, Maspero, 1960, Maison des Passages

François Maspero wanted to ‘give to all militants, the documents and the political texts they need and are not given, or not enough.’ The Algerian War made that necessity more urgent but it also increased the risks that had to be taken. An independent mind and the will to transmit information, often fervently, are combined with support for the struggles for emancipation in the Third World. Bans and seizures (13 in all), police raids, attacks… tried to break this foyer of resistance. After the Algerian War, Editions Maspero was on the edge of the abyss and police and legal persecution continued long afterwards. François Maspero made a space of freedom and creativity for far-left ideas of the 1960s and 1970s, sometimes running against those who handed out lessons in his own camp.