WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, UCL AL #338 - Culture, Read: Philippe Artières, "The mine on trial, Fouquières-lès-Lens, 1970" (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On the sidelines of the great dates in history, this episode recalls the

existence of these modest people, these families struck by the long succession of
mining tragedies that have crossed the labor movement. This singular time of
February 1970 bears the mark of a reversal of violence: the victims speak, dare.
---- 1970, in Fouquières-les-Lens, on February 4, an explosion in the mine caused
the death of sixteen miners. Three days after the tragedy, the funeral took
place. Once again, once too many! The workers' memory was still and always
struck, with all the ritual of the mining disasters which encumber these bereaved
families with suffering. But, at the heart of this shared pain, a remarkable fact
was about to occur. Young Maoist militants threw Molotov cocktails at the offices
of the management of the mine, directly attacking the expression of the bosses.

Throughout 1970, a long mobilization brought together miners, trade unions,
Maoist militants from the Proletarian Left, intellectuals, artists, engineers and
doctors... An unknown or insufficiently highlighted episode, this unifying
movement was the harbinger of new forms of struggle. A popular tribunal was held
in Lens on December 10, under the authority of Jean-Paul Sartre. Engineers from
the École des Mines, relying on their knowledge, helped to denounce the working
conditions of miners. The School of Mines was occupied.

This book is superbly embellished with many archives, newspaper clippings,
tracts, photos, posters, and even the minutes of the trial. All these documents
contribute to restore all the sensitivity related to the dramaturgy of the event.
Philippe Artières well deserves this title of contemporary historian, explorer of
the daily life of the proletariat, ignored by history, the great history of the
haves and the powerful. A book to read certainly, a remarkable work of edition.

Dominica (UCL Angers)

Philippe Artières, The mine on trial, Fouquières-lès-Lens 1970, Anamosa, March
2023, 256 pages, 26 euros.

ttps://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Philippe-Artieres-La-mine-en-proces-Fouquieres-les-Lens
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