Ten years later, Charlie Hebdo is still there. The causes of the tragedy too. As well as the determination of the members of the newspaper. The geopolitical situation has evolved, even worsened. Authoritarian regimes like Russia or China no longer hide their ambitions to fight democratic values ​​with the same fanaticism as Islamist terrorist organizations like Daesh or al-Qaeda. Democracy is an idea that seems increasingly contested by increasingly active hostile forces.

What could a weekly newspaper hope to do, at its modest level, to fight these hostile forces? First, survive. The day after the attack, we found ourselves with our backs to the wall: from the status of a commentator on current events, Charlie Hebdo abruptly went from being a political actor to a political actor. If Charlie collapsed and disappeared, the terrorists won. If Charlie managed to get back up, the terrorists failed. Continuing the newspaper meant proving that the ideas we had been fighting for for years, through texts and drawings, had not been just chatter, but the expression of our deep convictions. The attack was a moment of truth that would test the solidity of our ideas, despite the suffering and the difficulty of having to rebuild an editorial team that was always targeted by threats and denigrated by critics. Because an idea is real, lived experience, not just fine words that we declaim or scribble in an editorial.

What comforted us during these ten years were the people we met, in France or abroad, who told us: "Thank goodness you're here." We would answer them: "Thank goodness you're here, too." In ten years, Charlie Hebdo has become much more than a newspaper. Just read what this Iraqi said, interviewed by Inna in this issue: “The courage displayed by Charlie Hebdo reminds us all here of the essential role of secularism, as embodied by the French example.” Or this Turk: “The resilience of Charlie Hebdo fuels our struggle, in Turkey, where Internet censorship and media repression persist.” The fight that Charlie has been waging since 1970, since 1992 and since 2015, is that of those who, in order to be free, fight against all forms of enslavement, political, religious or economic.

Universal and timeless

A vast program, some will say ironically. But what is the point of creating a newspaper for any other purpose than that? That is what those who founded it and kept it alive for years had always wanted, many of whom paid with their lives. Today, Charlie Hebdo’s values, such as humor, satire, freedom of expression, ecology, secularism, feminism, to name but a few, have never been so called into question. Perhaps because it is democracy itself that is threatened by renewed obscurantist forces. Satire has a virtue that has helped us get through these tragic years: optimism. If we want to laugh, it is because we want to live. Laughter, irony, caricature are manifestations of optimism. Whatever happens, dramatic or happy, the desire to laugh will never disappear.

At the end of the year that has just ended, Charlie Hebdo produced, in collaboration with the Grand-Est Region, an issue entirely written and drawn by high school students. To the question “what is the Charlie spirit?”, we could answer this: it starts in middle school or high school, when we want to caricature our teachers and express things that revolt us. The Charlie spirit begins at the age when we realize that we are part of the world and we want to make it known, through provocative drawings or fiery texts. This desire is of all ages, all eras, all continents, all cultures. It is present everywhere on this planet, in Iran, Turkey, Nigeria, the United States, Mexico, as well as in your high school or middle school. The God caricature competition in which cartoonists of 28 different nationalities participated is a good example. Universal and timeless, like the pleasure of laughing and thinking, that's Charlie, and nothing more.

(SECRET LINK TO CHARLIE HEBDO)

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS SINS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME AMERICA.