Early Activities
Hue was born at Cormeilles-en-Parisis, Val-d'Oise in 1946. His family professed Communist beliefs, and Hue, as a child, sold issues of the Party newspaper, L'Humanité. He studied at the technical school in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, sang in a rock band called Les Rapaces under the alias Willy Barton, and practiced judo (winning an intercollegiate medal and receiving a black belt nidan).
Age sixteen (1962), he entered the youth section of the PCF, and then the Party itself. After studying in Paris and becoming an orderly, he was employed in a psychiatrical institution in Argenteuil.
Close to Georges Marchais, Hue climbed the steps in the Party hierarchy, being also elected mayor of Montigny-lès-Cormeilles in 1977. He was to be reelected for all possible terms, until 2001. In February 1981, he was brought briefly under the spotlight, by starting a campaign against a family of immigrants, whom he had accused of selling drugs (a "charge" that was based mainly on hearsay). This seemed strange to the public opinion in France, as Hue had been (and was to remain) a strict follower of the Party lines.
In 1987, Hue joined the Party's Central Committee and, in 1990, its Politburo. At that time, he presided the National association of Communist elects. In 1994, while still largely unknown, Hue was appointed successor by Georges Marchais. Hue changed renamed the office of Secretary General "National Secretary" in an effort to refresh the party's image. He did become quite well known only a few hours later, when he uttered a famous lapsus linguae: I'm not nobody's pawn.
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