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

1.3 The place of Attac within the anti-mondialiste network

The majority of associations and the trade unions which founded association appeared during the Nineties, at the time of a scission with moderate and traditional organizations. Attac was born from the emergence of an associative and trade-union radicality^320(*). It is all the more necessary to know the principal actors of this social dynamics^321(*). That these organizations profit from considerable importance in the statutes.

1.3.1 A diversified associative network

There exists within Attac a network of associations very diversified. One can distinguish among those two kinds. First of all, those which are centered on the claim of social rights. One can qualify them movements « protesters ». They are characterized by a mode of action not-legalist, a very important recourse to the media. These associations cover a unit with very broad sets of themes : the defense of the unemployeds and precarious with AC ! , the fight for housing with the DAL, supports it with « without-papers » with Rights in front ! They are organizations which are, above all, turned towards the action. Other associations which took part in the foundation of Attac connect with think-thanks, i.e. think tanks. Among those the Friends of the Diplomatic World appear, Raison To act or the Copernic foundation. These associations are not turned specifically towards the action but are characterized sometimes by their standpoint. For example, Bourdieu had publicly supported the movements of strike which took place in 1995. It was also at the origin of proclamation « For States General of the social movement » launched in April 2000^322(*).

1.3.1.1 Associations protesters

Associations are represented very little within the national turnover of Attac. Indeed they occupy, among the 18 places reserved to the founder members, four seats^323(*). They however constitute about half of the founder members (18 out of 46). Moreover, associations present at the turnover are not those which one could qualify protesters since it is about Aitec (International association technicians, experts and researchers) or the FFMJC (French Federation of the Houses of Young people and Culture). Only association resulting from the social conflicts of the Nineties is that of Rights in front ! Vincent Spain, his president, is regarded besides as a person much more radical than the national direction of Attac. He resigned of the turnover after having run up on several occasions with Bernard Cassen.

At the local level, actions were regularly carried out with these associations. Those Ci were facilitated by the contacts which the militants between them maintain. For example, Thomas militated of 1993 to 1995 within AC !. He thus knows very well the contacts with which he can organize a unit action. However, one can note that always it is not a question of real actions which are carried out together but that is limited sometimes to a unit call. For example, the committee of the DAL in Grenoble, after having known a strong dynamism, is one today « cockle vacuum » which gathers two or three militants. The participation of the DAL and the signature of the leaflet remain however a had aim. The field of sympathies is some widened.

* ³²⁰ Denis Pingaud, in his work left of the left, described them «  tribes of the radical left  ». The author describes these tribes: «  They are proclaimed 100% on the left but do not like Lionel Jospin [...] Their ranks and file of a union and associative are solid, their electoral influence continues. Inventive and obstinate they continue in other forms the combat of the generation of May 68. Their endurance counters the winds and tides of liberalism forces the respect of part of the people of left. They are the tribes of the radical left, in other words left of the left.  » It distinguishes four groups which have each one a respective territory  : associations which appeared since 1990 and which have a mode of action protester and radical (agitators), the trade unions dissenting which were born from the scission with the traditional power stations, ' think tanks ' which occupy a role of counter-evaluation in the mobilizations antilibérales (scientists) and political formations of extreme left.  Pingaud (Denis), op.cit, p. 9.

* ³²¹ The table in appendix presents the principal organizations which are founders of Attac. We privileged most recent, who testify, according to us, of the social radicality from which association results. One will privilege here the place of these organizations in Attac. Cf, appendix n°6, p. 14.

* ³²² In a platform published in the World, Bourdieu declared «  It [the proclamation] mark the beginning of a vast collective work [...] aiming at defining the principles of a true political alternative to the néo-liberal policy which tends to be essential in all the countries, sometimes under the aegis of social the democracy, and to invent the organisational and institutional means necessary to impose the implementation of it [...] It is important to gather, initially on the European scale, the collectives concerned, trade unions, associations and ONG of fight for the basic rights, in an organized network, whose form is to be invented, which is able to cumulate the forces, to orchestrate the objectives, and to work out joint projects  ». Bourdieu (Pierre), «  For States General of the European social movement  », The World, April 2000.

* ³²³ Julien Lusson, with the title of Aitec, Richard Dethyre, for Apeis and Vincent Spain as a representative of Rights fronts  ! are members of the A.C.