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

2.1.2.2 A moral company ?

« That is what makes run the militants ? ». Several authors answered this question by affirming that the militancy would be, above all, one « moral company »^410(*). Caroline Guillot could notice, during a study devoted to the League of the Humans right, that it was the case for the humane militancy^411(*). Stanislas Varennes also accounts for associative engagement, by the presence of a moral requirement^412(*). The militants would be motivated by the defense of a cause to which they would be devoted. What within Attac happenhappens ? One can a priori make credit with the militants of this same moral requirement. The engagement of the members seems to be located at further from their personal concerns. The fight counters the economic inequalities, the claim of the full employment, the fight against the ecological disasters related to the financial interests, the refusal of a marchandisation of education; all these claims seem to express the same moral requirement. The claim of the cancellation of the debt of the Third World countries is emblematic of moral size, if it is not humane, on which is founded association^413(*).

However in the analysis of the speeches of surveyed, the vocabulary related to « the humanitarian » very seldom appears. Little of inquired evokes, in the reasons for their engagement, an altruistic goal. François and Thomas are both to refer during maintenance with certain goals « humanitarians ». The claims carried by Attac would concern according to Thomas « survival of humanity ». He proposes the sincerity and the satisfying of his engagement. However these two inquired are characterized by two common specificities compared to the whole of the people interviewed. First of all, they are two professional militants who already adhered to the LCR^414(*). But especially, Thomas and François have specific biographical courses which led them to face strong economic and social inequalities. Thomas is of Italian origin. His parents resulting from a popular medium, his/her father was a tapestry maker painter and his/her mother housewife, has immigrant in France in 1959. Thomas continued technical studies in the course of is until 1978, date on which it was engaged with the Nerpick factory where it still currently works. François is Iranian, it has immigrant in France with his parents in 1984. François did not know misery personally since his/her father was a professor. However, it evokes the memory of a shantytown which was next to its dwelling. These two inquired were confronted with a more difficult condition social, they are consequently more sensitive to the problems of exclusion or poverty, which could explain their speech « humanitarian ».

Isabelle also considers that her engagement with Attac raise of the humanitarian. According to it, the claim of the cancellation of the debt of the poor countries indicates that association takes part in the humane field. However, Lionel does not have the same perception of its engagement. Its support for this claim does not testify, according to him, of one « altruism » and it does not concern one « moral dimension ». It explains why it acts before very for him fighting against « surrounding hypocrisy », that it allots, according to us, with the political leaders but also with the whole of the company. The others inquired do not evoke about their engagement the cancellation of the debt. One can suppose that this claim on their premises does not meet a very great echo. This assumption would be confirmed by the study undertaken by Thomas Marty on the Toulouse militants since among « priority topics of reflection of Attac », it « cancellation of the debt of the poor countries » appears only in ninth position (5,8%)^415(*).

How to give an account of this disproportion between the importance which attaches the national direction^416(*) to this claim and the weak role that it occupies on the level of the members ? One can wonder, like it makes Stanislas Varennes about the humanistic speech of the militants^417(*), if the militants adhered to association because it defended this claim or if they integrated this idea after having adhered to Attac ? One can suppose that if this idea is defended by association, it is above all by a will of the leaders to register it like a priority of the movement. By supporting the cancellation of the debt, as of the creation of Attac, the founders perhaps wished to widen the range of association. Snow highlighted the processes by which an organization develops a mobilizing ideology. According to him, an organization can seek to extend its supports while incorporating for its claims of the topics which it then endeavors ideologically to connect to its initial concern^418(*). The fastening of the cancellation of the debt to the initial claim of Attac (the fight against the financial markets) would have made it possible to produce new sympathies with respect to association. Adhesion with Attac would thus concern perhaps only slightly a moral engagement. This conclusion thus brings to wonder about the nature of the claims defended by the militants. The claims can they be identified with the promotion of certain values, in the continuation of the new social movements or, contrary, summarize they with the defense of a whole of material and catégoriels interests ?

François : I started with the social inequalities by these two reasons, nevertheless, strong. I.e. to help of people of humanity, of the world, which is different, but really other of what one saw with the daily newspaper. And I think that I have found that in my engagement for ten years, it is a discussion thread [...] Beside on our premises, there was a waste ground and these grounds were transformed into shantytown and it is my first experiment with the social inequalities... My first strong meeting and progressively these things have flashes back later... Towards my quinze-seize years, that started to titillate me a little nevertheless... Not, indeed... They are strong images... To have to play foot with children who do not even have shoes and to crush the feet to them. That starts like that... To have a neighbor who fills the swimming pool and that of at side which does not have drinking water... It is that, the shantytown beside a residential district. Thus that, that marks.

Thomas : There are heaps of people whom it is necessary... if Attac manage well... It is necessary that these people-there position compared to all these topics there and after the political ground will be clarified compared to all these questions which are questions about the survival of humanity. One cannot today joke with the GMO, joke with the reheating of planet, joke with the debt of the Third World and so on... It is... It is really about the survival of the humanity or part of humanity [...] Me my combat it is elsewhere, I do not have anything with foutre of it to become famous inside Attac. I sincere and all that, that A was completely désarçonnés because they dealt with whatever one which was completely... I was not to say altruistic, one should not talk cock... But which makes it to advance the things, which is so that humanity tomorrow can see drinking water, to breathe of the respirable air, to look after itself and so on. Me it is for that, I do what I have to do.

Isabelle : There is the humane field which interested me a little bit, I made specific actions but I did not adhere on the long term. I have make a training course with International Handicap, I was a little in it, that allowed me to see how that functioned. But I am not very committed yet. Attac that appeared a good balance between all to me that can exist, because that touches at the same time with the economic field and at the same time with the humane field, because despite everything the goal also at the beginning was to cancel the debt of the poor countries.

Lionel : There are associations which I could find interesting like Amnesty International or the League of the Humans right but never that would not have come to me to the idea to adhere to it. There is a humanistic and sentimental aspect which is relatively foreign for me. The human suffering of course can move me but the human suffering only will not lead me to militate because I think that it will be always there. One can denounce it and it is important [...] For me if I do that I cannot speak about altruism, indeed it there with the debt of the Third World which I discovered in Attac. It is the aspect of the justice and the social hypocrisy which cause a revolt, i.e. the fact of holding another type of speech that the official speech, another glance. This glance can be regarded as altruist, for me it does not have there of a moral size. It is a question of saying the things closest to what I can perceive, in any case to try to get rid of a surrounding hypocrisy which me insupporte. Yes I think that it is the hypocrisy especially against which I fight.

* ⁴¹⁰ Becker (Howard), Outsiders. Sociological study of the deviance, Paris, ED Métaillé, 1985.

* ⁴¹¹Guillot (Caroline), militancy with the League of the Humans right  : a moral and political company, Grenoble, Memory IEP, Ihl (Olivier) under the responsibility of, 1998-1999.

* ⁴¹²Cf, Varennes (Stanislas), op.cit, p. 24.

* ⁴¹³ Gustave Massiah, member of the scientific Council of Attac, held a conference, at the time of the first summer school of Attac, about the cancellation of the debt of the Third World  : «  The question of the division does not concern only the various actors of the economy within the nation. It applies at least as much on the scale of planet  ». Massiah (Gustave), «  Adjustment structural with the respect of the human rights  », An economy with the service of the man, Paris, ED Thousand and One Nights, 2001, p.248.

* ⁴¹⁴ Engagement within the LCR does not correspond for as much to a humane engagement. However, the international problems occupy in this political party, at least in their speech, a rather important place. This explains why inquired having militated with the LCR referent more regularly with the concerns of order «  humanitarian  ».

* ⁴¹⁵ Marty (Thomas), op.cit, appendices, p. 12.

* ⁴¹⁶ The cancellation of the debt of the poor countries is a very recurring topic within the conferences organized by Attac. Besides many committees have a ' think tank ' set of themes which is dedicated to this claim.

* ⁴¹⁷ «  In fact, it arises a certain humanism, a certain altruism of the speech of these people; a speech to which it should be noted that it is very close to that of their organizations. Remain to know, and that is difficult, if they adhered to association because those Ci defended of the values to which they were very attached, or if it is the association which, once they returned there, impregnated these values. In fact, it seems that these two aspects are complementary  ». Varennes (Stanislas), op.cit, p. 24.

* ⁴¹⁸ Cf, Fillieule (Olivier), Sociology of the protest, Paris, Harmattan, 1993, p. 44.