Les Editions de Minuit, Collection "double", 187 pages
Robert Linhart describes his experience of an "établi" in the Citroën 2CV car Choisy assembly plant. The "établissment" is the immersion movement of leftist intellectuals in the working class in the wake of May 68.
A little bit skeptical, I start the book: These intellectuals who slum at the plant may have a simplistic, idealized and -frankly speaking- childish view of the proletariat world. I also fear the dogmatic rehashed, used, speech slogan-speeches.
From the first pages, we are reassured that Robert Linhart's approach seems sincere, lucid and above all humble . No sense of superiority or arrogance from the Ecole Normale graduate. Therfore, a little ashamed, I must admit that stereotypes and prejudices were mostly on my side.
Never succumbing to the temptation of his own staging, Robert Linhart describes his experience of the world of the assembly: fraternity, fights but also doubts, defeats against the relentless repression of the organization (several times a parallel is drawn with the world of prison). The parts dealing with author's sincerity are very touching indeed.
The brutality and cynicism of a system focused exclusively on profit. Humiliation and blackmail exerted on workmen intentionally weakened, especially the immigrant population. The mindlessness caused by the line work. All this seems to produce a certain fatalism among workers, even resignation.
But renoucement is never complete and the most crushed men often retain a capacity of rebellion in them. And this is the message of hope of the book.
Thus, when the Director requires the "recovery" - the workers must daily give three quarters of an hour of work to recover the production volume lost during the May 68 strikes - the discontent broke out. An opportunity for Robert who, helped by some fellows , tries to organize a stop of the production line. But how to engage men and women so oppressed? Respect for dignity is the simple rallying creed in all the languages of proletarian Babel. Successfully... until the outbreak of repression.
Throughout the description of his courageous experience of struggle and resistance, Robert Linhart portays tenderly some characters who engaged with him or who simply crossed his journey: Georges, Stepan, Pavel, Christian, Primo, Ali (whose memory of the great black dog gives a sickening example of colonization), Mouloud, Sadok, Simon, Jojo...
A reminder that the mass of workers is composed of individual fates :
The bourgeois always think they have a monopoly of personal routes. What a farce! They have the monopoly of public speech, that's all. They spread. Others live their story with intensity, but in silence
Read also : Florence Aubenas in "Le Quai de Ouistreham" (Editions de l' Olivier) is echoing "L'établi" a testimony-immersion in the most dominated labour class of France, for decades later on crisis background.
A little bit skeptical, I start the book: These intellectuals who slum at the plant may have a simplistic, idealized and -frankly speaking- childish view of the proletariat world. I also fear the dogmatic rehashed, used, speech slogan-speeches.
From the first pages, we are reassured that Robert Linhart's approach seems sincere, lucid and above all humble . No sense of superiority or arrogance from the Ecole Normale graduate. Therfore, a little ashamed, I must admit that stereotypes and prejudices were mostly on my side.
Never succumbing to the temptation of his own staging, Robert Linhart describes his experience of the world of the assembly: fraternity, fights but also doubts, defeats against the relentless repression of the organization (several times a parallel is drawn with the world of prison). The parts dealing with author's sincerity are very touching indeed.
The brutality and cynicism of a system focused exclusively on profit. Humiliation and blackmail exerted on workmen intentionally weakened, especially the immigrant population. The mindlessness caused by the line work. All this seems to produce a certain fatalism among workers, even resignation.
But renoucement is never complete and the most crushed men often retain a capacity of rebellion in them. And this is the message of hope of the book.
Thus, when the Director requires the "recovery" - the workers must daily give three quarters of an hour of work to recover the production volume lost during the May 68 strikes - the discontent broke out. An opportunity for Robert who, helped by some fellows , tries to organize a stop of the production line. But how to engage men and women so oppressed? Respect for dignity is the simple rallying creed in all the languages of proletarian Babel. Successfully... until the outbreak of repression.
Throughout the description of his courageous experience of struggle and resistance, Robert Linhart portays tenderly some characters who engaged with him or who simply crossed his journey: Georges, Stepan, Pavel, Christian, Primo, Ali (whose memory of the great black dog gives a sickening example of colonization), Mouloud, Sadok, Simon, Jojo...
A reminder that the mass of workers is composed of individual fates :
The bourgeois always think they have a monopoly of personal routes. What a farce! They have the monopoly of public speech, that's all. They spread. Others live their story with intensity, but in silence
Read also : Florence Aubenas in "Le Quai de Ouistreham" (Editions de l' Olivier) is echoing "L'établi" a testimony-immersion in the most dominated labour class of France, for decades later on crisis background.
Please excuse my English, correct it and feel free to post any comment, thanks :-)
