UN RENOUVEAU DE LA PARTICIPATION ASSOCIATIVE ? L'engagement et le militantisme au sein du comité Attac Isère

With

rles, August 25, 2001, 11h00. Julie is attentive, it scrupulously notes on a book the demonstration of the professor. All appears clear to him. The events are connected in a logical way : the monetary system of Bretton Woods, the fluctuation of the currencies, the stock exchange speculation, the crisis of the debt of the countries of the South, the capital flight towards the tax havens. Jean-Marie Harribey, professor of economic and social sciences at the Bordeaux-Iv university, endeavors to explain in a teaching way the international financial mechanisms leading to a capitalism « stock-broker ». In spite of what one could believe Julie is not coed in economic sciences, it is a welfare officer. She attends the second summer school of Association for the tax on the financial transactions (Attac) which proposes with its militants a cycle of teaching devoted to the world economy and baptized « Against the influence of finance, an economy with human purpose ». During four days, 700 militants, gathered with the Palate of the congresses of Arles, will daily attend six hours of courses followed by specialized workshops and directed work. Environment is being studied. Julie wishes above all « réapproprier » the economic topics of which assumed during too a long time them « experts ». In the immense room, transformed for the occasion into amphitheater, the ideas fuse : « Not, universalization is not an inescapable fact. One can resist ! », « The world is not goods ! », « The rights of the people take precedence over the economic profit », « Another world is possible ».

Association however is not anchored in the world of the ideas. The formation is only one of multiple dimensions of the militancy. Attac, as recalled by unceasingly Bernard Cassen, his president, is « a popular movement of education turned towards the action ». Julie estimates that its economic formation constitutes during logic of the actions which it carries out on the ground. Because these apprentices economists are militants of « in bottom » above all. They represent the 230 local committees of association which essaimés themselves on all the French territory since June 1998, date of the launching of Attac. Julie came besides to Arles with ten militants the committee Attac Isere. During the previous months, the committee with multiplied the initiatives : conferences, distributions of leaflets, demonstrations local. The militants isérois also were to protest their dissatisfaction in Genoa in July, at the time of the top of G8. Julie was not afraid to accompany them in spite of foreseeable violences which caused a death and six hundred wounded. She belongs to faithful which answered present as of the launching of association. Julie then did not hesitate to engage. « awakening » of the misdeeds of the economy brought to militate in favor of the tax of the movements of capital, the cancellation of the debt of the Third World or of the dismantling of the tax havens. Julie is however not professional militancy. After its fifteen years of trade unionism in CFDT, it is presented in the form of a one disappointed of engagement. Its refusal of the compromises, its mistrust with respect to the political parties then found a loophole in the associative form of Attac, « less constraining and more flexible ». Less than one year after its Julie adhesion returned her chart of the CFDT, of which it judges the secretary, Nicole Notat, too « compromised ». Contrary, Attac represents for it a regrouping of citizens decided to exert one « countervailing power » on the decisions of the government^1(*).

At the beginning, a leading article

A leading article published in the diplomatic World in December 1997 would be at the origin of Attac^2(*). In this article, heading « To disarm the markets », Igniacio Ramonet, the director of monthly magazine, showed the stock exchange speculators to be responsible for the economic crises. In conclusion, it proposed with its readers, the idea of a tax on the movements of capital called Tobin tax: «Why not create, on the planetary scale, the not-governmental organization of Action for a Tobin tax of assistance to the Attac citizens. As connection with the trade unions, associations with cultural, social or ecological purpose, it could act like a formidable civic special interest group near the governments to push them to claim, finally, implementation the effective of this world tax of solidarity. »^3(*). This proposal was then taken again by other media and it accepted the support of many individuals and varied organizations (associations, trade unions, newspapers), all loans to support this initiative.

A first meeting took place in Paris on March 16, 1998 with the invitation of the Diplomatic World and an agreement was elaborate between the participants. The project of a charter making it possible to the founder members to adopt a platform of common claims was considered on this occasion. It was a question of constituting the Attac movement which took the following definition : «Association for the Tax on the Financial Transactions for the Assistance with the Citizens». The General meeting constitutive of June 3, during which the statutes of association were deposited, allowed to elect a provisional Board of directors in which the founder members sit in a permanent way. Moreover, Bernard Cassen, general manager of the Diplomatic World, were elected president of association and Ignacio Ramonet, the initiator of Attac became honorary president.

The structures of operation of association were then installation. The Office chaired by Bernard Cassen ensured the management of association. The scientific Council chaired by Rene Passet, professor highly skilled at the university Paris I, was established. Its role is to produce a whole of documents which can be used of base and reference to the claims of the movement. The creation of « committees Attac » a local development of association allowed. In December 1998, statutes standard were worked out for the local committees and a charter of the relationship between these committees and national association was made up.

Association is then launched, it will know a very fast progression. First of all, the number of members knew an exceptional growth : in August 1998, Attac accommodates its thousandths member, in June 1999, the threshold of the 10.000 members is crossed. Association exceeds the 20.000 members in February 2000. In August 2001, association asserted the figure of 38.000 members^4(*). National meetings took place between the members. The first meeting (October 17, 1998) and the first sitted ones (General meeting of October 23-24, 1999) proceeded in Ciotat (Rhone delta). The General meeting of the year 2000 take place with St Brieuc (Coast-in Armor) in October. Two summer schools were organized, the first in the city of Ciotat (August 23-26, 2000) and the second in Arles (August 24-28, 2001)^5(*).

In parallel the national direction of Attac multiplied the initiatives. It launched in December 1998 a petition for the tax on the financial transactions which collected 110 000 signatures and that a delegation of Attac gave to Laurent Fabius, then president of the French National Assembly, in autumn 1999. In November 1999 at the time of the top of OMC in Seattle, a whole of unit demonstrations were organized in all France, generally on the initiative of the local committees. They gathered 70 000 people, including 20 000 in Paris. Lastly, of many works were published by Attac. They make it possible to diffuse work of the scientific Council of association, but also to present association at the not-members.

* ¹ This account is founded on a whole of real facts. Only some modifications were made.

* ² The presentation which is made association here corresponds deliberately to the way in which the national direction gives an account of it. It is initially a question of delimiting which «  presentation of oneself  » is made by the leaders of association in order to be able to adopt little by little during our research a more critical glance. Cf, Cassen (Bernard) under the responsibility of, All on Attac, Paris, Thousand and One Nights, 2000, p.127.

* ³ Ramonet (Igniacio) «  To disarm the markets  », The Diplomatic World, December 1997, p 1. Cf, annexe10, p.26.

* ⁴ Cf, Losson (Christophe), «  Flies of the stage coach of Attac  », Release, 27/08/2001, p. 9.

* ⁵ One can note besides in the choice of the cities which were used as place of organization of the general Assemblies a will to decentralize those Ci. The national direction of Attac underlines in a recurring way its wish to establish a geographical balance between Paris and the other local committees.