Damn factory, sheet metal!!! How many times have I heard it in my
family, from relatives in the working world. A way of expressingfed-upness, a cry of rage after the death of a friend from the workshop,
the trying working conditions under the glass roofs in the middle of
summer heat when the foremen disconnected the safety systems so as not
to slow down the production rate. Jean-Pierre Levaray is republishing
his book Damn factory followed by After the catastrophe and Social plan
at Agone. Him, the libertarian activist, I had noted his intervention in
the book Write your life, become an author by Éliane Le Port, published
by EHESS in 2022. He explains: "There you go, I read, I read, I read,
and then by dint of reading, we write". He writes for himself, for
others. He speaks, he shows, he explains, he says everything, even if it
doesn't please. In his company near Rouen, we know that he writes, he is
known, he is monitored by the hierarchy. Why? Maybe because he describes
reality.
These workers experience tensions, know risks. So on the night shift, we
steal the boss's time. At night, it's friends, meals with Baaba's
couscous, Robert's accras, clandestine bars. As I read the pages, I
recognize this vocabulary. "All these little gestures, these little
moments stolen from the bosses are rarely laziness or laziness, it's
granting oneself time to take revenge on the boss's domination."
That's real life!
Always the demand, that of the recognition of dignity that precedes that
of salary. To be recognized!
And too often, accidents at work, deaths, severed fingers, electrocuted
guys, occupational diseases sometimes late, ignored by the bosses. A
shock at the time in the workshop and then you have to go back to work,
to the job, the next day, near the place where a factory buddy died the
day before.
At one point... It's too much!! The strength of the strike, the strength
to say no! The shutdown of the machines, "and, more than anything, the
silence, the calm. Imposing this calm." These strikes come without
warning. Yes, Jean-Pierre Levaray knows how to write to bring these
strong moments to life. "Saying no is jubilant. It's a way of finding a
little of yourself, a little of the pride you lost by accepting salaried
employment." I saw this pride in the eyes of my people assigned to the
assembly line, to the foundries when their arms are crossed.
Further on, we find these executives with a stern, contemptuous face who
take up the cause of the boss while they too are exploited and lulled by
illusions.
Jean-Pierre Levaray leaves nothing to be forgotten. Night work means
increased aging and reduced family life, stroke is sometimes at the end
of the road or cancer with chemicals. "The pace and working conditions
have a lot to do with it. There is the hardship and the dust, the
stress, the multiple changes in work schedule."
What other society?
This makes you think, and Jean-Pierre Levaray invites us to do so, to
another society where work would not be everything.
And then one day, September 21, 2001, the AZF disaster in Toulouse and
the list of victims. Jean-Pierre Levaray's factory is part of the same
group. So we worry. How to get back to work? And safety? These products
are so toxic that they are sent to Africa, Eastern Europe. Paradox,
blackmail: security and/or job retention? A great classic of the bosses!
Let's continue to make money, here or elsewhere...
The closure of workshops, factories is experienced in pain for the
workers. Because work is salary, it's life.
Anger is rumbling in the factories but the number of employees is
decreasing, the dismantling program is underway. The flight of the boss
of Total, Thierry Desmarets, in front of his employees is to be savored.
Very beautiful pages. How to approach the future? It is always the same
speech with each social plan and always the feeling of being cheated.
Discouragement wins over the most combative attracted by early
retirements and we can understand them. The time of farewell drinks, a
moment of human warmth and then?
I rarely write it, but here is a very beautiful and very fair book on
this working world that some ignore or worse, despise.
* Jean-Pierre Levaray
Putain d'usine
followed by Après la catastrophe and Plan social
Ed. Agone, 2024
https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8235
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