This Saint-Ouen club, in Seine-Saint-Denis, has just been bought by an American pension fund, 777 Partners. Its supporters fear the erasure of this symbol of popular football.
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The Union of the left is also done in football. More precisely around the defense of the Red Star, Saint-Ouen club (Seine-Saint-Denis) evolving in National (3 e division), which has just been bought by an American pension fund , 777 Partners. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the new ecological and social popular union, Benoît Hamon, former socialist candidate for the 2017 presidential election, the boss of the PCF, Fabien Roussel, as well as his comrades Stéphane Pitigne, deputy of Seine-Saint- Denis, and Marie-George Buffet, former Minister of Sports in the Government of Lionel Jospin, Olivier Besancenot, of the new anti-capitalist party, but also authors like Virginie Despents, trade unionists, associations, former players or journalists have thus Signed a forum, published in Le Monde, denouncing the buyout of the club born in 1897.
“For us, the Red Star is a common good that cannot be sacrificed on the altar of profit. We call all the supporters of the Red Star and lovers of the round ball through the country to block the sale And to mobilize to make this fight a national fight against football business and defend another vision of football, “we can read in this text initiated by the Red Star Bauer collective and the Red Star Fans.
The Red Star holds a special place in the French football landscape and for the left. Founded by Jules Rimet – initiator of the World Cup, which will be the leader of the French Football Federation and the International Federation (FIFA) – the club is one of the oldest in the country. When it was created, we are far from the workers’ ideal and popular claimed today. His name (“Red Star” in English) has blurred origins. It is not, in any case, a reference to the revolutionary or communist movement.
an anti -fascist worker tradition
Jules Rimet is, it is true, a social Catholic, and the club is founded in the chic districts of the capital. But he will quickly move in the north suburbs in 1909. The left will begin to take an interest in this somewhat special club, which has never shone in the championship, but which won several French cups (1921, 1922, 1923, 1928, 1942).
“There are two periods of rapprochement with the left. First in the interwar period, period during which the club, anchored in the red suburbs with a workers’ culture, is associated with this imagination , notes Mickaël Correia, journalist and author of a popular football story (La Découverte, 2018), signatory of the text. Then there was a revival in the early 2000s when supporters highlight the figure of Rino Della Negra . We go to a more libertarian and anti-fascist left. “Rino Della Negra, son of Italian immigrants and former player of the club, will be among the French-headlines and supporters-Immigrate-the FTP-Moi, of the Resistants Communists – During the Occupation. He was shot at Mont Valérien in 1944, with the group led by Missak Manouchian. The ultras of the Red Star baptized their platform by the name of the resistant, to show their attachment to this anti -fascist worker tradition.
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