Ernest Tanrez

Ernest "Ernestan" Tanrez (15 July 1898 – 17 February 1954) was a theoretician of Libertarian socialism and an important figure in Belgian anarchism.

Biography "Ernestan" Tanrez was born at Ghent in East Flanders into a middle-class family. His mother was Flemish while his father was from the francophone southern half of Belgium (Wallonia). His paternal grand parents were of Franco-Spanish ancestry. A natural autodidact, he found opportunities to build for himself a solid base of cultural knowledge during this period.

Deeply affected by the horrors of the First World War, Tanrez began to frequent avant-garde circles and to participate actively in the Anarchist Movement. In June 1921, using the pen name by which he would subsequently become known, "Ernestan", he began to write for the Belgian libertarian press, starting with the "Bulletin libertaire", the principle periodical of the Brussels anarcho-libertarian community. The publication gave the address of its editorial office as the "Café du cygne", centrally located in Brussels' iconic "Grand-Place" / "Grote Markt" / "Main Square". The manager of the "Café du cygne" at this time was none other than Ernest Tanrez. He also became a regular contributor to Camille Mattart's "L’Emancipateur", a (mostly) monthly magazine which employed a sub-title to define itself as an "Organe communiste-anarchiste Révolutionnaire" ("anarcho-communist revolutionary organ"). His articles appeared frequently, both in the magazine's first series, which ran from July 1921 till December 1925, and of the second series, which was produced between May 1928 and November 1936. He also wrote for "Combat", a relatively short-lived journal produced at Flémalle and Brussels between 1925 and 1928. "Combat" was also published by Camille Mattart, in this case as a joint production with "Hem Day" (as Marcel Dieu was known to readers). As his reputation among students of anarcho-libertarianism grew through the 1920s, essays and other articles by "Ermestan" were increasingly to be found in international journals such as "Le Libertaire" published, by this time, in France, and "Le Combat syndicaliste". Another issue to which he returned increasingly, as the number of political exiles escaping from Fascist Italy and other persecution hotspots increased during the 1920s and 1930s, was the need to broaden asylum rights. In 1937 he teamed up with Léo Campion to launch the journal "Rébellion" in support of the ill-fated Spanish Revolution. Two editions were produced in Brussels in May and August 1937, to be followed by a successor publication "L’Espagne Nouvelle", printed at intervals between 1937 and 1939 using production facilities at Nîmes made available by the fellow antifascist André Prudhommeaux.

After the war ended, he became a contributor to "Pensée et Action", which reverted to the editorial control of Marcel Dieu after 1945. Tanrez was later involved in its expansion and relaunch as "Les Cahiers de Pensée et Action". He also published political pamphlets of his own.

Throughout the period covered by Ernestan's career there were close links between Freemasonry and the Anarchist movement in Belgium. Both Marcel Dieu and Léo Campion were long-standing free masons. Tanrez was initiated into the "Action et Solidarité no 2" lodge of the Grand Orient of Belgium at Brussels in 1948. Three years later he became "Frère Orateur" of his lodge.