In the Overseas National Archives, in Aix-en-Provence, Roland Crosdiscovers traces of a namesake who bears his father's first name. Somedocuments tell him that "Louis Cros, known as "Minel", registrationnumber no. 8157, born in Lacaune (Tarn) on October 7, 1832, had beensentenced to forced labor by the Assize Court of Aude on February 23,1857. for burglary, that his status as a repeat offender "giving himselfover to idleness and vagrancy" had automatically led him, in hiscapacity as irrecoverable, to the colonial penal colony of Guyana andthat he had died there on November 6, 1867 ". Haunted for several yearsby the journey of this ordinary convict, he decided to take inspirationfrom it to create the ninety black and white plates of an engravednovel, without words.Unable to get hired, Louis Cros found himself on the street, condemnedto begging which, however, did not allow him to survive. After aburglary, he is stupidly arrested in the act for shoplifting and sent toprison.Daily life in the penal colony is illustrated here with documentaryprecision: the organization of forced labor and the places ofpunishment. During their free time, prisoners often indulge inactivities which, through a judicious mise en abyme, in some waycomplete the story of their lives, by illustrating it in turn in asymbolic way: on their own bodies with improvised tattoos, on the wallsof their cell with vengeful or libidinous graffiti.Little by little, the birds which fly over the first scenes areallegorically replaced by rats and spiders which observe theconfinement. Roland Cros uses in his images a whole learned grammarwhich guides the reader's gaze. Its framing, for example, underlines thepermanent exclusion from society of the poorest: in the face of thosewho are integrated without being much richer, in the face of justice, inthe face of the arbitrariness of the penitentiary system.With great knowledge of images and narration, Roland Cros retraces thejourney of this namesake whom he rescued from anonymity to recount thefate that struck all his peers. It shows how forced labor is adisproportionate punishment, applied by a society above all concernedwith getting rid of its undesirables, and from which we rarely return,confronted with merciless class justice with those it wishes to exclude.Ernest London, The Armourer-LibrarianRoland Cros, The incorrigible, itinerary of an ordinary convict,editions L'Echappée, 2023, 192 pages, 22 euros.https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Roland-Cros-L-incorrigible-itineraire-d-un-bagnard-ordinaire_________________________________________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
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