Fifty years ago, the Lip struggle left its mark. The "confiscation" of
the stock of watches on June 13, the restarting of production on June 18by strikers in this watch factory in Besançon triggered popularenthusiasm in the summer of 1973. ---- The demonstration of June 29September 1973, bringing together 100,000 people in support of the Lips,will be the high point. "No to layoffs, no to dismantling": the strikerswon their case (for a time) at the beginning of 1974. This articleproposes to return to some salient features of a struggle emblematic ofthe years of worker insubordination [1]."Initially, the objective was simply to guarantee a "survival wage" foreveryone[...]; being made clear that it was neither self-management nora worker cooperative, doomed to failure under a capitalist regime"[2].It was the Lips themselves who spoke thus in July 1973 in an appealprinted in 150,000 copies. For the 1,200 employees of the Palentefactory, it is a question of finding a buyer who will ensure everyone'sjobs in Besançon. However, as the Luxembourger Yvon Bourdet says: "thefact remains that we remain on the surface of the event when we repeatthat with Lip it was less about self-management than self-defense"[3].For what? Because if indeed the Lips do not see themselves as thestarting point of a socialist revolution - the only one capable ofbringing about generalized self-management[4]- there are many aspects oftheir struggle which relate to it.Lip is self-management?First in its organization: the Sovereign General Assemblies - highlyrepresentative with an average of 450 participants; the commissions heldand run by the strikers; the articulation of all this with the unionsections - and in particular that of the CFDT, which has long beencommitted to self-organization and which has promoted these practicessince 1968 - and the Action Committee. The power truly belongs to theworkers of Lip.Then by restarting production and breaking up the factory framework:working without bosses has a name and it is very difficult not to attachthat of self-management to it. Lip also inspires many other "productive"strikes and the imagination of self-management is then influential.Thus, the workers at the Cousseau textile factory in Cerizay, inDeux-Sèvres, financed their strike the same summer by making their ownPIL, Popular Invented Locally, blouses - an explicit reference to Lip.They also distinguish themselves by creating songs. One of themproclaims: "Without leaders and without bosses, long live the workers /without leaders and without bosses, long live self-management".A feminist struggle?If half of the workforce at the Palente site is female, nearly 77% of OSpositions (specialized workers) - the least qualified, the most poorlypaid and with the harshest working conditions - are occupied by women.If we subtract from Lip's workforce those of executives, generallyabsent from the struggle, women are even the majority in the action.We also see it in the demonstrations, during the General Assemblies, inthe commissions, where, from all generations, they are present and active.However, when the weekly Politique Hebdo (of an extreme leftsensibility) wanted to highlight the strike in its edition of June 28,1973, it ran the headline: "Lip, it's them." The photograph illustratingthe cover, taken during an AGM, shows eleven Lips attending... nine ofwhom are women. Are these questions of representation absent from theconcerns of the time? The women of Lip see clearly that their uniondelegates, the "leaders" are men - with the notable exception of NoëlleDartevelle of the CGT. Monique Piton, secretary and striker, said itbluntly to the camera of videographer Carole Roussopoulos [5], as earlyas August 1973: she would like people to say "them and them" whentalking about the Lips. Feminist activists come to Lip, participate andcontribute to the exchanges and awareness of those who are fighting.But it is above all, the action committee, through its more flexiblestructure, less subject to traditional hierarchies and "habits", whichwill allow the women of Lip to take a greater place in the movement:Fatima Demougeot, Alice Carpena , Monique Piton... there forge theassurance of their right to fight and decide.At the end of the struggle, a women's group was born in the factory. In1975 he published - with the support of the PSU section of Besançon - abrochure, Lip au feminine, which denounced the patriarchal flaws of thestruggle. It will be widely distributed and translated into severallanguages. The Women's group will no less have to assert itself againstmale trade unionists who have difficulty understanding what they see,without much surprise, as a "division". However, he keeps his distancefrom the organized feminist movement and sociologist Lucie Cros believesthat it would be "more accurate to speak of Lip's women's group as'silent feminism'"[6].Leftists: like fish in water?In what opposes the CGT and CFDT sections of the factory there is roomleft for "leftists". The CGT fiercely opposes this, while the CFDT - andparticularly Charles Piaget - believes not only that leftists can talkwell to the strikers, but also tell them interesting things! However,there is no presence of a far-left group in the heart of the factory[7].A few dazzling establishment experiences at most. In Besançon there is asection of the Communist League, another of the Revolution! (a splitfrom the League). Revolution ! set itself the objective of "speaking" tothe action committee.The Communist League puts its Fourth International networks to work. TheMaoists, like those of the Proletarian Left, are lost: of course theysupport the movement, but it was launched and deployed with so muchaudacity without the assistance of any vanguard is an unfathomablemystery in their eyes. The activists of the Anarchist RevolutionaryOrganization, the ORA, swear by sovereign AGs and the self-management ofstruggles as a prelude to that of society: Lip ticks all the boxes.Everyone sells watches in support of the strikers and distributesLip-Unité, their newspaper. There are certainly skeptics (or even more):Lutte Ouvrière and the Lambertist Trotskyists of the AJS-OCI keep theirdistance from this "self-management" seen as a sham of the reformists,but it is difficult to ignore such struggle.Libération, a young daily newspaper which has just started to appear,run by Maoists and anarchists, takes up the cause of the Lips. Theweekly Politique Hebdo, already cited, likewise. And on September 29 inBesançon, almost a third of the demonstration was made up of far-leftprocessions: at least 30,000 people.An organization and a "group" are distinguished. First of all, there isthe PSU, the party of Charles Piaget and Roland Vittot, the two mostprominent CFDT delegates. A small party of 10,000 members, the previousyear it adopted a self-managing and revolutionary orientation backed bya strategy based on worker control. Lip is the perfect expression forits activists who work tirelessly to popularize the struggle. Especiallysince the PSU section of Besançon - for which Charles Piaget was acandidate in the legislative elections of March 1973 - is wellestablished, with nearly a hundred active and active members.And then there is the Cahiers de Mai group. This publication, born in1968 and dedicated to workers' speech, without any particular partisanlink, is based on an activist group of which this is the maininvestment[8]. Several of its members, including one of its founders,Daniel Anselme, come to live in Besançon. The Cahiers de Mai groupliterally made itself available to the Lips, notably helping to createLip-Unité - an invaluable tool in the struggle[9]; also in the making ofthe film of the strikers. This role of "accomplice" of autonomousworkers' action is certainly the one that the Lips will have understoodand appreciated the most.Radicalized strikers?It is difficult to talk about the radicalization of the Lips as thewhole period lends itself to it. The violence was not, however, the mostnoticed, unlike the French Joint strike the previous year [10]. She isthere though. When the CRS invaded the Palente factory occupied by thestrikers on August 14 and dislodged them, the response was immediate.Certainly there is a demonstration of solidarity in town, but alsoclashes around the factory in which Lips take part.The question of the "military" takeover of the factory will also beraised in far-left circles during the preparation of the September 29march... but without this scenario being retained by the Lips. Not that"violence" is a problem, but it is a question of measuring what appearsto be both possible, sufficiently legitimate and acceptable to maintainpopular support.The radicalism of the Lips can in reality be measured by the breachopened by their struggle, which challenges the capitalist order to thepoint of drawing a "new legality"[11]: working-class, popular,democratic... and giving as a perspective a world that would change inthis way. basic, "since we tell you that it's possible"[12].Théo RoumierChronologyApril 17, 1973: filing for bankruptcy of the Lip company. In AG, areduction in pace is decided.June 5: the factory is occupied by sequestered workers. Discovery of amassive layoff plan. During the night, "sheltering" of the stock of watches.June 18: restart of production under the control of strikers.July 27: 200 Lips participate in the Larzac gathering.August 2: first workers' pay.August 14: the CRS invade the factory.August 20: start of negotiations with Giraud, the government emissary.September 29: National demonstration of 100,000 people in Besançon.December 24: last worker's pay (the sixth).October 12: the Lip AGM overwhelmingly rejects the Giraud plan,supported by the CGT, but not by the CFDT and the Action Committee.January 30, 1974: an agreement is reached and signed in Dôle: all of theLips will be rehired gradually until the end of the year.To validate[1]For a summary story: "40 years ago: Lip, Lip, Lip, hurray!»,Libertarian Alternative n°229, June 2013 and Charles Piaget, We make, wesell, we pay ourselves. Lip 1973, Syllepsis, 2021.[2]"Lip in struggle is addressed to all workers", July 1973 - reproducedin the anthology Lip vivera! 50 years later, what the Lip struggle tellsus, Syllepse, 2023.[3]Yvon Bourdet, "The Lip conflict. We make, we sell, we pay ourselves",Socialist Critique, theoretical review of the PSU, n°17 of March 1974 -online on Gallica.[4]Self-management and revolution. Charles Piaget, interventions, 1974,éditions du Croquant, 2022[5]Carole Roussopoulos, Monique - Lip I, 25-minute documentary shortfilm, 1973 - available from the Simone de Beauvoir audiovisual center.[6]Lucie Cros, "Emancipatory practices struggling with gender and classnorms. The case of the Lip women's group", Cahiers du Genre n°70,October 2021 - online on the Cairn portal.[7]Anouar Khaled, "Lip, the action of the extreme left", Politique Hebdon°100 of October 25, 1973 - article reproduced in the anthology Lipvivera!, op.cit.[8]The complete collection of Cahiers de Mai (1968-1974) can beconsulted on the website archivesentreprises.org.[9]Guillaume Gourgues, Georges Ubbiali (dir.), Lip-Unité (1973-1974).Writing while struggling: the Lip workers and their newspaper, Syllepse,2023.[10]"1972: At the French Joint, Breton anger", Libertarian Alternativen°327, May 2022.[11]"The new legality", editorial of Guerre de classes, libertariancommunist newspaper, n°6, October 1973 - available on the websitearchivesentreprises.org.[12]Chris Marker, Since we tell you it's possible, medium-lengthdocumentary, 47 minutes, 1973.https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?1973-Lip-vers-une-nouvelle-legalite_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten