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

1.3.2.2 Relations without ambiguities ?

The critics coming from the local committees and the members isérois were very badly accepted by the leaders of Attac Isere. It is in order to avoid any suspicion, which they post a certain distance in the relations that they maintain with the national. The militants isérois insist, during talks, on their independence and the little of bonds which the committee maintains with the national persons in charge. At the time of the national Assemblies, three mails were sent to Cassen but they remained unanswered, specifies Luc^169(*). No member of the turnover never came to meet the local persons in charge. The committee, adds Thomas, was always independent of the national at the time of the organization of gatherings like that of the Blue Hour^170(*), where the speaker had been contacted directly within the scientific Council without passing by the means of the national. The militants post a certain pride as for this independence. Thomas makes a point of specifying that when it exerted the function of president, it is not « ever brought closer physically » of the leaders in order to be able to preserve his « freedom of word ». Lastly, its declarations always took place « in clearness and in front of everyone ». In the same way, the current president affirms that it does not have « no the contact moreover » that the official documents which are transmitted to him. Inquired testify to a fear to be shown of collaboration with the national. Contrary, Thomas shows certain persons in charge for committee to have too much approached the direction and to have been done turned over like « crepes ». The militants isérois present their interventions as being « satisfied » and they are defended never not to have sought to take the place of the leaders. Luc fears that the militants isérois are not taken for « separatists ». Thomas, whereas he was still the president of the committee, had expressed himself at the time of AG of St Brieuc to specify that its intention was not to seize the power but to be made hear as a local committee.

F.E : If not with the national, which contacts do you have?

Luc: One tried during one year to send a certain number of messages to them to which one received no answer, therefore one gave up. I currently do not have any contact with the national, except within the framework of the national conference of the local committees where by definition one tries to send something in their saying what one asks, but one forever have answer thus that stops there. With Sylvie Derrien, it responsible for the coordination of the local committees, I do not have a problem but it does not call us except when there is a problem to treat. It sends documents which are intended for everyone, like convocations to the CNCL. It makes its job, it is an employee but there is not a contact moreover. Me what I regret, it is that each time one writes in Cassen, one did not have only one answer.

Thomas: There is always, when I say it is to us Attac Isere, fact alone and it is our great merit to defend our opinions compared to them [national leaders] but also to defend the topics of Attac. One manages, until the Blue Hour one had ever asked of assistance of the national, all the contacts with share Rene Passet, one managed to have all our speakers and one asked forever so that they unroll us the red carpet to bring us our speakers to such hour or such hour is one dealt with all. On the other hand one succeeded in being made pay the train tickets and one had there right, there was a participation of the national on top. Then for the next trick at the Blue Hour that will change because it will be necessary that one pays and one will ask for subsidies. For the speakers one passed by the scientific Council for Rene Passet, if not for the remainder one contacted them on the right on the left. For Susan George or Vincent Spain one contacted them at the end of a conference.

F.E : There are members of the national office who already came to Attac Isere?

Thomas: Not! Not! Not... Not... Not yet. One had, I believe to send a letter to Cassen for him to say to come, I remember more. Not there is nobody who came, perhaps that it will have to be done. But as from the moment when mail is sent, I think that if they had answered. There was not an answer, one made three mails. It is for that which one wondered whether it is the fact of not agreeing on topics at the national level but it is a problem of democracy within association.

Thomas: Me I am wary of all that is institution, personality is thus I never approached Cassen physically or of Tartakowsky or people like that, I always wanted to keep my freedom of word [...] But I think that I am whatever one of sincere and whatever one of just. I did not benefit from the situation of president to place itself near them. I never challenged them directly, I never discussed with them in a corner, me I always speak in clearness and in front of everyone. Whereas there are others which were turned over like crepes and which, two years ago, were critical and large mouths and which six months after, one found them by treating us like irresponsible, the and immature ones...

Luc : One tries to be a solution to arrive, without calling into national question it, because one does not want to break Attac, it is nevertheless currently the only tool which one knows who allows to brawl from this point of view there, one really does not want to break it [...] It is what they fear at the national level and it is what we fear if one sets up this coordination of the local committees, one fears being taken for separatists whereas it is not at all the case.

Thomas: Maintaining with the passing I think that they were afraid that one foute shit with the General meeting, whereas one was really not there for that and I spoke in this direction, by saying that one was not with fouteurs of shit [...] That I was not there for foutre in the air Attac and that it did not take place to fear to us an unspecified takeover, compared to that [...] They were afraid them, the office especially, Cassen, Tarta and Khalfa, they were afraid of that but it was a fear which was not founded [...] And Cassen, Tarta, Khalfa perhaps in less measurement because it is recognized syndicalement, have fears that there is a physical takeover in the direction where there are people who hustle them and whom one puts of others at their place. Me I have anything of it has to beat. I have anything with foutre of it to show myself in Attac and to take part, to make me foam at Cassen... And you know it I could have done it several times.

The relation of opposition which characterizes the committee isérois with respect to the national direction takes part, according to Jacques Ion, in a questioning of the traditional modes of organizations which appear too rigid. The working procedure would have become a priority. The participation of the members and the legitimacy of the representatives would incarnate the new concerns of the militants. These evolutions represent the emergence of new values within engagement (the participation, legitimacy). To give an account of it, it is possible to put in bond, like does it Alain Lancelot, the rise of the associative movements with the crisis of legitimacy of the traditional political organizations^171(*). Consequently, according to Domenica Mehl, « the political place of the associative movement is defined initially in hollow [...] [Associations] are used then as substitute with the deficiency of the representative institutions »^172(*). Association would be equipped with the values which are missing with the traditional groupings. The attachment with the associative mode would be one of the vectors of engagement.

* ¹⁶⁹ The committee isérois forwarded a first mail in November 1999 to Bernard Cassen, about the statute of the deputies who are adherent of Attac. Cf, Guillot (Nicole), Reinisch (Raymond), «  With the attention of Bernard Cassen  », 11/1999, appendix n°15, p. 33. A second mail, voted within the turnover, was addressed to Cassen in February 2000 to express the dissension of the committee with the call of Morsang and the adhesion of the local authorities. Cf, turnover of Attac Isere, «  With the attention of Bernard Cassen  », 02/2000, appendix n°18, p. 37. Moreover, one file, which summarized the debates and the standpoint within the committee, had been sent in June 2000. Lastly, a proposal «  of opening of a debate  » was sent to Casse, by the turnover isérois to ask a reflection on the working procedure of association. Cf, turnover of Attac Isere, «  Ask for opening of a debate  », 20/07/2000, appendix n°20, p. 39. The four mails remained unanswered.

* ¹⁷⁰   «  Blue hour  » is a room of spectacle located on the commune of St Martin d' Hères. The term indicates within association one weekend of conferences which had been organized by the committee the 30/09 and the 1/10/2000.

* ¹⁷¹ «  Devalued in the center by the political system, whose parties and institutions constitute the engine of it, the legitimate action takes refuge in the margins  : with the periphery and in the specialized movements  ». Lancelot (Alain), «  Political S.O.S  », Express train, 10/11/1989, p. 11. City in Varennes (Stanislas), associative militancy  : to take part differently, op.cit.

* ¹⁷² Mehl (Domenica), «  Culture and association  », Sociology of work, n°1, 01/1982, p. 27. City in Varennes (Stanislas), associative militancy  : to take part differently, op.cit.