Has the working class disappeared today?
A History of the European Working Class - Episode 2

- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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This episode of A HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS traces the evolution of the working class from their early development in Great Britain to their increasingly central role in the politics of 19th century Europe. The expansion of the system and emergence of Belgium as a new industrial heartland also led to the growth of slums and alternative forms of working class culture. In France, the filmmakers trace the increasingly militant role of workers in the uprisings of the 19th century: The July 1830 Uprising, 1848 Revolution and the rapid rise and violent suppression of the 1871 Paris Commune. Along the way, we are introduced to the radical utopian thinkers that influenced working class politics: Étienne Cabet, Louis Auguste Blanqui, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Joseph Fourier.
“Stan Neumann weaves the common thread of a tragic and largely forgotten European epic. Without any condescension, he delivers a fascinating, poignant portrait of those who make our industrial society go round.” —Libération
“This is the sort of history you don’t usually find in schools.” —Oregon Arts Watch
“With historical interest, intense archive footage, a wealth of personal accounts (workers, historians, philosophers, etc.) and integrated animation sequences as informative as they are entertaining, A History of the European Working Class is poised to become a classic. It’s like a passionate political, social and economic history lesson where the facts (struggling working conditions, employer-worker relations) also leave room for emotion.” —Le Monde
“A History of the European Working Class offers an extremely welcome trip into the past we can use to face the labor struggles of the future with a determined, informed eye.” —L’Humanité
“A work of impressive rigor.” —Télérama
“Delivers a dazzling reinterpretation of three hundred years of history. This documentary series reveals just how much our contemporary societies have been molded by the history of workers.” —Lemediaplus.com
“An engaged and essential documentary series.” —L’Usine Nouvelle
“Divided into four parts, A History of the European Working Class is masterful and passionate.” —La Libre.be
“A remarkable documentary TV series... extremely well researched... smart, must-see series more than worth your time.” —FulvueDrive-in.com
Citation
Main credits
Neumann, Stan (film director)
Neumann, Stan (screenwriter)
Laemlé, Camille (film producer)
Lalou, Serge (film producer)
Lavilliers, Bernard (narrator)
Other credits
Cinematography, Ned Burgess, Katell Djian; animation, Joris Clerté; editing, Louise Decelle, Catherine Gouze; original music, Philippe Miller.
Distributor subjects
Western Europe; Globalization; Labor Studies; Business EthicsKeywords
WEBVTT
00:00:04.167 --> 00:00:06.918
[upbeat music]
00:01:04.042 --> 00:01:05.292
Throughout the 18th century,
00:01:05.292 --> 00:01:07.375
Great Britain
experienced economic,
00:01:07.375 --> 00:01:09.959
industrial and social revolution
00:01:09.959 --> 00:01:12.000
as had never been seen before.
00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:14.042
It invented new
means of production,
00:01:14.042 --> 00:01:16.667
new machines, and a
new class of workers
00:01:16.667 --> 00:01:19.959
to serve these machines
and their owners.
00:01:21.999 --> 00:01:23.834
Exploited, underpaid,
00:01:23.834 --> 00:01:25.999
deprived of the
freedom of association,
00:01:25.999 --> 00:01:28.250
the right to strike,
and the right to vote,
00:01:28.250 --> 00:01:30.709
hundreds of thousands
of these women and men
00:01:30.709 --> 00:01:32.999
possessed nothing but the
strength of their arms
00:01:32.999 --> 00:01:37.918
and the desire to be fully
recognized as human beings.
00:01:48.584 --> 00:01:51.375
The fields of
Waterloo in Belgium.
00:01:51.834 --> 00:01:54.834
In 1815 it was here that
great Britain and its allies
00:01:54.834 --> 00:01:57.999
triumphed over the
Empire of Napoleon.
00:01:59.584 --> 00:02:01.042
Great Britain was at this time
00:02:01.042 --> 00:02:03.250
the world\'s leading
industrial power,
00:02:03.250 --> 00:02:06.334
and Belgium was its
European bridgehead.
00:02:08.417 --> 00:02:09.999
As a symbol of this partnership,
00:02:09.999 --> 00:02:14.751
crowning this pyramid is
a 26-tonne cast-iron lion,
00:02:14.751 --> 00:02:15.999
produced in a Belgian steelworks
00:02:15.999 --> 00:02:20.459
founded by an Englishman
in Seraing near to Liège.
00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:24.999
[upbeat music]
00:02:25.834 --> 00:02:28.167
At the beginning
of the 19th century
00:02:28.167 --> 00:02:29.999
Belgium was the only
European country
00:02:29.999 --> 00:02:33.375
to unreservedly adopt
the English model.
00:02:33.751 --> 00:02:36.417
The two countries had
economic liberalism in common,
00:02:36.417 --> 00:02:39.125
which favored the development
of large enterprises
00:02:39.125 --> 00:02:41.250
employing several
thousand workers,
00:02:41.250 --> 00:02:45.375
which in France and Germany
was still extremely rare.
00:02:47.876 --> 00:02:49.501
So it was that in a few decades,
00:02:49.501 --> 00:02:53.626
Belgium became the world\'s
second-largest economic power,
00:02:53.626 --> 00:02:55.334
just behind England.
00:02:55.792 --> 00:02:59.876
It was said that Belgium was
a paradise for capitalists,
00:02:59.876 --> 00:03:01.999
and a hell for workers.
00:03:04.250 --> 00:03:06.999
Seraing steelworks in 1840.
00:03:09.542 --> 00:03:12.501
The same steelworks a
century and a half later,
00:03:12.501 --> 00:03:16.334
filmed by Jean-Claude
Riga in the 1980s.
00:03:16.334 --> 00:03:19.999
[indistinct chatter]
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[fire blaze roaring]
00:03:48.792 --> 00:03:51.918
[metal clinging]
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The steelworks closed in 1990.
00:03:59.292 --> 00:04:00.334
All that remains today
00:04:00.334 --> 00:04:01.999
of one of Europe\'s
largest factories,
00:04:01.999 --> 00:04:06.250
is this rusting carcass which
no one knows what to do with,
00:04:06.250 --> 00:04:09.000
and the memories
of former workers.
00:04:12.959 --> 00:04:14.542
It\'s lively at the furnace.
00:04:14.542 --> 00:04:16.501
Loading is done from above.
00:04:17.083 --> 00:04:20.083
The raw material goes
into the high furnace.
00:04:20.083 --> 00:04:21.250
All sorts of reactions happen
00:04:21.250 --> 00:04:24.083
because of the gas
which is produced.
00:04:24.083 --> 00:04:24.918
And down below,
00:04:24.918 --> 00:04:27.999
either what is produced comes
out well or not so well.
00:04:28.834 --> 00:04:31.959
The ideal temperature
is 1,480 degrees.
00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:35.334
But sometimes, it would
fall below 1,400 degrees,
00:04:35.334 --> 00:04:38.292
which meant the material
didn\'t flow well.
00:04:39.459 --> 00:04:41.999
They were the most
difficult days.
00:04:44.626 --> 00:04:46.459
Yes, I remember once
when you came to Kessales
00:04:46.459 --> 00:04:47.751
because he was
transferred to Kessales
00:04:47.751 --> 00:04:49.334
to the cold of the
production line.
00:04:49.334 --> 00:04:51.417
He told me a bit about his work.
00:04:51.417 --> 00:04:52.999
You described the
high furnace to me
00:04:52.999 --> 00:04:54.999
as being like a stomach.
00:04:54.999 --> 00:04:56.918
It\'s like a stomach.
00:04:56.918 --> 00:04:57.999
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:04:57.999 --> 00:05:00.542
You judged it by
the noise it made.
00:05:00.542 --> 00:05:01.999
Yeah, you always
had to be attentive
00:05:01.999 --> 00:05:03.751
to the slightest sound.
00:05:05.584 --> 00:05:07.501
As soon as there was
a suspicious noise
00:05:07.501 --> 00:05:08.999
you had to react immediately,
00:05:08.999 --> 00:05:11.083
because it could quickly
turn into a catastrophe.
00:05:11.083 --> 00:05:12.292
It wasn\'t always a laugh,
00:05:12.292 --> 00:05:14.999
but my best memories
come from there.
00:05:17.792 --> 00:05:20.959
But the heat isn\'t the
same thing as the cold.
00:05:20.959 --> 00:05:22.709
Heat is much more homelike.
00:05:22.709 --> 00:05:23.999
There\'s something about
the heat which is,
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well, for me, having worked
in both heat and cold.
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The heat, there\'s no contest.
00:05:29.792 --> 00:05:30.999
If it all started
up again tomorrow,
00:05:30.999 --> 00:05:33.709
and they asked workers to
go back to work in the heat,
00:05:33.709 --> 00:05:34.709
they\'d jump at the chance,
00:05:34.709 --> 00:05:36.709
they\'d run and grab their
tools to work in the heat.
00:05:36.709 --> 00:05:38.792
Most people find it
much more friendly.
00:05:38.792 --> 00:05:39.751
I don\'t know how to put it.
00:05:39.751 --> 00:05:40.999
It\'s more homelike.
00:05:40.999 --> 00:05:42.999
That said, there was
always tension as well.
00:05:42.999 --> 00:05:45.501
It wasn\'t always a bed of
roses in the heat, far from it.
00:05:45.501 --> 00:05:47.751
But there was something,
a sort of helpfulness
00:05:47.751 --> 00:05:48.834
which was different.
00:05:48.834 --> 00:05:51.792
There was more of a team
spirit, I would say.
00:05:51.792 --> 00:05:52.792
True, but in the cold
00:05:52.792 --> 00:05:55.959
you always have to keep a
careful eye on the belt.
00:05:56.501 --> 00:05:58.375
It\'s completely different.
00:05:59.501 --> 00:06:02.209
I think that people are
a bit more isolated.
00:06:02.209 --> 00:06:04.999
They\'re in cabins
along the line.
00:06:04.999 --> 00:06:05.709
Whereas we were-
00:06:05.709 --> 00:06:06.459
We had to work together.
00:06:06.459 --> 00:06:08.834
We had to work
together in the heat.
00:06:08.834 --> 00:06:13.125
And now, well, Mr.
Mittal\'s last restructuring
00:06:13.125 --> 00:06:15.918
found that there were
still too many of us.
00:06:15.918 --> 00:06:18.584
So people had to be laid off.
00:06:18.584 --> 00:06:19.751
So I was,
00:06:22.999 --> 00:06:27.584
I was shown the door after
30 years as a steelworker.
00:06:31.999 --> 00:06:33.334
And now?
00:06:33.334 --> 00:06:35.999
Now, I\'ve found a new job.
00:06:35.999 --> 00:06:38.918
I\'ve converted to
logistics and transport.
00:06:39.999 --> 00:06:40.959
At 53 that\'s not bad,
00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:44.918
because there are a lot of
youngsters who can\'t find work.
00:06:46.042 --> 00:06:48.667
So I count myself lucky.
00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:53.999
[upbeat music]
00:06:54.667 --> 00:06:56.459
Back to the past.
00:06:56.459 --> 00:07:00.000
Workers at the same
company in 1886.
00:07:01.334 --> 00:07:05.459
They can\'t speak, so we don\'t
know what they are thinking.
00:07:05.459 --> 00:07:07.542
But none of them are smiling.
00:07:08.792 --> 00:07:11.000
We see the weariness of age.
00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:13.959
The weariness of
children, apprentices,
00:07:13.959 --> 00:07:16.250
and that of an old man
who has no other choice
00:07:16.250 --> 00:07:17.584
but to keep working,
00:07:17.584 --> 00:07:20.667
because there is no
retirement for workers.
00:07:22.167 --> 00:07:25.999
20 years earlier still, 1868.
00:07:25.999 --> 00:07:28.042
Workers at the same foundry.
00:07:29.042 --> 00:07:30.417
An extraordinary
portrait gallery,
00:07:30.417 --> 00:07:33.959
dreamt up by the directors to
show off the company\'s wealth
00:07:33.959 --> 00:07:36.250
in terms of human material.
00:07:41.542 --> 00:07:44.000
The workers\' strike
poses in a studio,
00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.209
with the tools of their trade.
00:07:55.459 --> 00:07:59.959
The images show us what they
do, but not how they live.
00:08:02.626 --> 00:08:03.999
They lived crammed
into the new slums
00:08:03.999 --> 00:08:08.501
of the industrial cities,
like those in Glasgow.
00:08:08.501 --> 00:08:09.667
Unhealthy ghettos,
00:08:09.667 --> 00:08:12.209
hidden from the eyes of
the happiest classes,
00:08:12.209 --> 00:08:14.999
sometimes a single street away.
00:08:16.501 --> 00:08:17.459
Dilapidated houses,
00:08:17.459 --> 00:08:21.501
rented out for fortunes
by unscrupulous landlords.
00:08:22.542 --> 00:08:25.792
The exploitation
came full circle.
00:08:31.125 --> 00:08:33.667
Historian Stefan Berger.
00:08:34.167 --> 00:08:38.125
Some of the housing was
built by the employers.
00:08:38.125 --> 00:08:40.417
Some of the housing
was built privately,
00:08:40.417 --> 00:08:46.459
but usually, the idea was
to cram as many workers
00:08:46.834 --> 00:08:48.083
into a house as possible.
00:08:48.083 --> 00:08:52.167
And therefore also, to follow
the new capitalist logic
00:08:52.167 --> 00:08:55.999
of making profit from housing.
00:08:56.125 --> 00:08:59.751
And, of course, it also meant,
in many cases, a new diet,
00:08:59.751 --> 00:09:04.042
it was not any longer a diet
determined by agriculture
00:09:04.042 --> 00:09:08.250
and by what was available
through agriculture.
00:09:08.250 --> 00:09:14.292
But the wages allowed the
new workers to buy food
00:09:14.584 --> 00:09:15.709
that then would be consumed,
00:09:15.709 --> 00:09:18.375
but it was often poor diet.
00:09:18.375 --> 00:09:21.083
And I\'ve got one example here
00:09:21.083 --> 00:09:23.000
from the economist
Friedrich List
00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:26.918
who observed in the middle
of the 19th century,
00:09:26.918 --> 00:09:30.167
what the diet of poorer families
00:09:30.167 --> 00:09:32.000
in the German lands looked like.
00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:34.999
And he wrote, and I quote,
00:09:34.999 --> 00:09:36.709
\"Potatoes without salt,
00:09:36.709 --> 00:09:40.626
very thin soup with
black bread, porridge,
00:09:40.626 --> 00:09:43.709
every now and again,
black dumplings.
00:09:43.709 --> 00:09:44.834
Those who are better off
00:09:44.834 --> 00:09:46.999
can afford a modest
piece of fresh
00:09:46.999 --> 00:09:48.999
or smoked meat once a week.
00:09:48.999 --> 00:09:54.125
Yet most know the term
roast only from hearsay.
00:09:54.125 --> 00:09:54.999
I have seen quarters
00:09:54.999 --> 00:09:57.999
in which it was quite
usual to hang a herring,
00:09:57.999 --> 00:10:00.626
fixed to the ceiling
with a piece of string
00:10:00.626 --> 00:10:01.999
just above the table.
00:10:01.999 --> 00:10:05.999
Everyone at the table
could rub his or her potato
00:10:05.999 --> 00:10:06.876
against the herring,
00:10:06.876 --> 00:10:10.292
so as to give aroma
to the potatoes.\"
00:10:13.167 --> 00:10:16.125
The misery of English
workers around 1830
00:10:16.125 --> 00:10:18.125
was so deep that they
compared their lot
00:10:18.125 --> 00:10:21.542
to that of the black
slaves of the colonies.
00:10:23.999 --> 00:10:28.584
In 1833, when the English
Parliament abolished slavery,
00:10:28.584 --> 00:10:30.334
some went so far as to protest
00:10:30.334 --> 00:10:31.375
that the first to be liberated
00:10:31.375 --> 00:10:35.959
should be the white slaves as
they referred to themselves.
00:10:36.999 --> 00:10:39.999
[upbeat music]
00:10:39.999 --> 00:10:42.501
But change was on the horizon.
00:10:42.876 --> 00:10:44.250
The worker population
of the main cities
00:10:44.250 --> 00:10:48.918
had become so vast that they
could no longer be ignored.
00:10:50.167 --> 00:10:53.918
Exploited, hungry,
unhappy, and unknown,
00:10:53.918 --> 00:10:55.501
they struck fear.
00:10:58.751 --> 00:11:00.209
One French journalist wrote,
00:11:00.209 --> 00:11:01.999
\"The barbarians who
threaten us today
00:11:01.999 --> 00:11:05.209
are not in the Caucasus nor
in the steppes of Tartary,
00:11:05.209 --> 00:11:08.042
they are on the outskirts
of our industrial cities.
00:11:08.042 --> 00:11:12.999
Modern society will perish at
the hands of the proletariat.\"
00:11:14.542 --> 00:11:17.417
This was not just
a figure of speech.
00:11:18.250 --> 00:11:20.918
The upper classes were
directly threatened
00:11:20.918 --> 00:11:21.667
by the epidemics
00:11:21.667 --> 00:11:23.999
which broke out in the
slums of the major cities,
00:11:23.999 --> 00:11:27.918
and against which social
barriers were powerless.
00:11:29.959 --> 00:11:32.083
Diphtheria, scrofula, cholera.
00:11:32.083 --> 00:11:36.334
The monstrous children of
the Industrial Revolution.
00:11:38.918 --> 00:11:40.751
In England, militant newspapers
00:11:40.751 --> 00:11:42.167
like \'The Poor Man\'s Guardian\'
00:11:42.167 --> 00:11:45.876
publicly denounced the
living conditions of workers,
00:11:45.876 --> 00:11:47.834
while throughout
industrial Europe,
00:11:47.834 --> 00:11:49.501
parliamentary
commissions debated
00:11:49.501 --> 00:11:53.334
what had become known
as the social question.
00:11:54.209 --> 00:11:58.292
Good society could not carry
on as if it were unaware.
00:11:59.999 --> 00:12:03.250
But for them, it wasn\'t
the fault of the system,
00:12:03.250 --> 00:12:04.999
but that of the workers.
00:12:06.999 --> 00:12:08.999
Each had their own remedy.
00:12:09.501 --> 00:12:13.667
Workers would feel better if
they went to church more often.
00:12:17.417 --> 00:12:19.083
If they drank less.
00:12:22.834 --> 00:12:25.876
Or even, as the
philosopher Malthus put it,
00:12:25.876 --> 00:12:26.959
if they had less children,
00:12:26.959 --> 00:12:29.876
to thin out the available
workforce on the market
00:12:29.876 --> 00:12:32.999
and thereby obtain
better salaries.
00:12:41.959 --> 00:12:44.918
English reformers initially
took a pragmatic approach
00:12:44.918 --> 00:12:46.417
by attacking child labor,
00:12:46.417 --> 00:12:47.959
as denounced by Charles Dickens
00:12:47.959 --> 00:12:51.959
in his 1837 novel,
\"Oliver Twist.\"
00:12:52.999 --> 00:12:55.167
At the time, tens of
thousands of children
00:12:55.167 --> 00:12:59.999
carried out subservient work
in textile mills and mines.
00:13:01.542 --> 00:13:03.125
Under the liberal doctrine
00:13:03.125 --> 00:13:03.999
it was forbidden
00:13:03.999 --> 00:13:05.999
for the state to interfere
in the working relationship
00:13:05.999 --> 00:13:07.999
between workers and bosses,
00:13:07.999 --> 00:13:09.417
which was considered
an agreement
00:13:09.417 --> 00:13:12.918
freely entered into
by two equal partners.
00:13:13.167 --> 00:13:16.626
When it came to children,
this argument collapsed.
00:13:19.999 --> 00:13:23.999
In 1842, despite fierce
opposition from employers,
00:13:23.999 --> 00:13:26.209
parliament prohibited the
employment of children
00:13:26.209 --> 00:13:29.792
under the age of 10 in
underground galleries.
00:13:29.792 --> 00:13:32.292
A victory partially due
to Victorian prudery,
00:13:32.292 --> 00:13:35.709
because the heat in the mines
obliged adults and children
00:13:35.709 --> 00:13:37.918
to work almost naked.
00:13:41.792 --> 00:13:43.792
At the same period,
Great Britain,
00:13:43.792 --> 00:13:46.250
with its habitual advance
over the rest of Europe,
00:13:46.250 --> 00:13:49.209
was the first country to
legalize workers\' unions,
00:13:49.209 --> 00:13:52.334
even though strikes
remained forbidden.
00:13:53.999 --> 00:13:56.999
Priority was given
to political action.
00:13:57.292 --> 00:14:00.999
In 1832, reformers\' and
workers\' representatives
00:14:00.999 --> 00:14:02.209
signed a charter,
00:14:02.209 --> 00:14:03.876
demanding universal suffrage
00:14:03.876 --> 00:14:06.918
and the democratization
of Parliament.
00:14:08.709 --> 00:14:10.626
As a practical
lesson in democracy,
00:14:10.626 --> 00:14:12.542
the charter was
accompanied by an outline
00:14:12.542 --> 00:14:15.709
for secret ballot
polling stations.
00:14:17.375 --> 00:14:18.999
[upbeat music]
00:14:18.999 --> 00:14:22.999
Chartist petitions gathered
millions of signatures.
00:14:23.125 --> 00:14:27.042
Meetings attracted hundreds
of thousands of protesters.
00:14:27.042 --> 00:14:28.167
It was a mass movement,
00:14:28.167 --> 00:14:30.042
reflecting the scale
of the industry
00:14:30.042 --> 00:14:31.292
within which it was born,
00:14:31.292 --> 00:14:33.459
and at the origin of
the accepted image
00:14:33.459 --> 00:14:35.167
of the working class;
00:14:35.542 --> 00:14:40.209
this compact, homogenous, and
apparently unstoppable crowd.
00:14:42.459 --> 00:14:43.792
But throughout the 19th century
00:14:43.792 --> 00:14:46.834
this image was true for
England and Belgium alone;
00:14:46.834 --> 00:14:48.999
apart from one or
two exceptions,
00:14:48.999 --> 00:14:51.876
France had no large factories.
00:14:51.999 --> 00:14:54.417
Its industry was based
on a dense network
00:14:54.417 --> 00:14:55.417
of small companies,
00:14:55.417 --> 00:14:58.709
comprising a few
dozen workers at most.
00:14:58.709 --> 00:15:00.083
This system was for a long time
00:15:00.083 --> 00:15:02.042
considered as craft industry,
00:15:02.042 --> 00:15:03.999
as though only
large-scale industry
00:15:03.999 --> 00:15:06.834
was capable of producing
authentic workers.
00:15:06.834 --> 00:15:11.292
An argument refuted by the
philosopher Jacques Rancière.
00:15:12.999 --> 00:15:13.876
People of my generation
00:15:13.876 --> 00:15:16.999
grew up with an idea
of the working-class
00:15:16.999 --> 00:15:18.834
as a sort of massive reality.
00:15:18.834 --> 00:15:21.667
There were masses of people
coming out of factories,
00:15:21.667 --> 00:15:22.876
there was strong unionism,
00:15:22.876 --> 00:15:25.334
masses of workers could
be seen protesting.
00:15:25.334 --> 00:15:27.167
So there was this
sort of global vision
00:15:27.167 --> 00:15:28.999
which was centered
around the factory,
00:15:28.999 --> 00:15:31.501
like a sort of stable reality.
00:15:31.918 --> 00:15:35.751
By way of a comparison with
that, people would say:
00:15:35.751 --> 00:15:36.999
\"Before the working class,
00:15:36.999 --> 00:15:38.000
there was something different,
00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:40.292
which was cottage industry.\"
00:15:40.792 --> 00:15:43.751
So as a result, when I
began studying the 1830s,
00:15:43.751 --> 00:15:44.999
people would say to me,
00:15:44.999 --> 00:15:47.375
\"But they weren\'t real workers.\"
00:15:47.375 --> 00:15:48.292
Because for a lot of people
00:15:48.292 --> 00:15:50.667
real workers are people
who work in factories,
00:15:50.667 --> 00:15:52.751
people who work on
a production line.
00:15:52.751 --> 00:15:55.125
That was how people
viewed things.
00:15:55.125 --> 00:15:55.999
So faced with that,
00:15:55.999 --> 00:15:58.042
I tried to change the
perspective by saying,
00:15:58.042 --> 00:16:00.792
\"But the working class
doesn\'t exist as such.\"
00:16:00.792 --> 00:16:03.999
You can always define it
as a sociological reality,
00:16:03.999 --> 00:16:07.292
but the working class is
also a symbolic reality.
00:16:07.292 --> 00:16:09.999
Meaning that in order
to have a working-class,
00:16:09.999 --> 00:16:11.751
in order to have a
workers\' movement,
00:16:11.751 --> 00:16:13.999
you have to have people
who, at a certain moment,
00:16:13.999 --> 00:16:17.167
step back from their simple
condition of being workers,
00:16:17.167 --> 00:16:19.501
in the sense that they
are paid for doing a job,
00:16:19.501 --> 00:16:21.042
which they do, and
then they go home,
00:16:21.042 --> 00:16:23.667
and they start
again the next day.
00:16:23.667 --> 00:16:24.459
If you take a look
00:16:24.459 --> 00:16:26.334
at where the workers of
the 19th century come from,
00:16:26.334 --> 00:16:28.999
you see that they are from
very different regions,
00:16:28.999 --> 00:16:31.167
with very different
working backgrounds.
00:16:31.167 --> 00:16:34.125
Basically, they tend to
consider this condition
00:16:34.125 --> 00:16:36.959
as one which is transitory.
00:16:36.959 --> 00:16:37.876
There\'s a quotation,
00:16:37.876 --> 00:16:39.667
and it\'s a
Saint-Simonianism concept,
00:16:39.667 --> 00:16:43.000
where someone\'s talking about
all the very diverse trades
00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:44.834
which he\'s exercised.
00:16:44.834 --> 00:16:46.375
As he\'s listing them, he says,
00:16:46.375 --> 00:16:48.999
\"And always with
other expectations.\"
00:16:48.999 --> 00:16:52.999
So I\'ve tried to examine
these other expectations,
00:16:52.999 --> 00:16:55.501
from the viewpoint
that the working class
00:16:55.501 --> 00:16:59.584
was invented by people who
had other expectations.
00:17:03.834 --> 00:17:04.999
However it was in this mixed
00:17:04.999 --> 00:17:07.375
and volatile French
worker environment
00:17:07.375 --> 00:17:08.792
that the most radical utopias
00:17:08.792 --> 00:17:12.417
of the 19th-century
were born and raised.
00:17:16.417 --> 00:17:18.334
This was the dream of Fourier,
00:17:18.334 --> 00:17:21.584
where one would only work
according to one\'s desires,
00:17:21.584 --> 00:17:22.667
and where marriage and family
00:17:22.667 --> 00:17:24.999
would be replaced by
a new, loving world,
00:17:24.999 --> 00:17:27.999
governed by the
laws of attraction.
00:17:31.042 --> 00:17:34.999
And this, less amusing,
was the dream of Cabet,
00:17:34.999 --> 00:17:36.999
inventor of the word communism,
00:17:36.999 --> 00:17:40.250
who considered Fourrier
completely immoral.
00:17:40.999 --> 00:17:43.999
Cabet advocated an ideal
community of workers
00:17:43.999 --> 00:17:46.999
where everything was
shared, except the women,
00:17:46.999 --> 00:17:50.125
and where equality
reigned in abundance.
00:17:51.042 --> 00:17:52.375
Here we find Leroux,
00:17:52.375 --> 00:17:55.167
and his religious
philosophy of progress,
00:17:55.167 --> 00:17:58.000
which rejected
egalitarianism and communism,
00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:01.375
and demanded respect
for private property.
00:18:03.292 --> 00:18:06.167
Here, Proudhon, for
whom, on the contrary,
00:18:06.167 --> 00:18:07.999
property was theft,
00:18:08.918 --> 00:18:10.834
and who wanted to
peacefully establish
00:18:10.834 --> 00:18:12.999
a mutualist democracy.
00:18:16.125 --> 00:18:18.959
And Blanqui, the perpetual
rebel, who was to be
00:18:18.959 --> 00:18:21.125
for all the workers\'
revolutions of the century,
00:18:21.125 --> 00:18:25.792
a partisan of clandestine action
and the revolutionary coup.
00:18:26.667 --> 00:18:27.999
His last secret society
00:18:27.999 --> 00:18:32.792
bore the poetic name of,
The Society of the Seasons.
00:18:34.999 --> 00:18:36.834
Saint-Simon, on the other hand,
00:18:36.834 --> 00:18:38.876
wanted an end to revolutions,
00:18:38.876 --> 00:18:41.501
and to replace the
exploitation of Man-by-Man
00:18:41.501 --> 00:18:44.792
with the fraternal sharing
of the benefits of progress
00:18:44.792 --> 00:18:46.876
and large-scale industry.
00:18:47.167 --> 00:18:51.542
Workers gazed quite
sympathetically upon
this utopia market,
00:18:51.542 --> 00:18:53.918
the promoters of which
were mainly members
00:18:53.918 --> 00:18:54.999
of the bourgeoisie
00:18:54.999 --> 00:18:57.709
who were at odds
with their own class.
00:18:57.709 --> 00:18:58.501
But they had no desire
00:18:58.501 --> 00:19:00.999
to get mixed up in
adventurous enterprises
00:19:00.999 --> 00:19:02.209
such as the Icarie;
00:19:02.209 --> 00:19:05.292
the libertarian community
founded in America
00:19:05.292 --> 00:19:06.626
by Étienne Cabet,
00:19:06.626 --> 00:19:08.542
for which he only
managed to recruit
00:19:08.542 --> 00:19:10.876
about 100 men and women.
00:19:13.042 --> 00:19:15.999
A utopia quickly
undermined by conflict,
00:19:15.999 --> 00:19:17.999
but which nonetheless
managed to survive
00:19:17.999 --> 00:19:20.709
until the end of
the 19th-century.
00:19:21.375 --> 00:19:24.042
More popular than the
dreams of Utopians,
00:19:24.042 --> 00:19:25.125
was the new literary form
00:19:25.125 --> 00:19:28.417
which appeared in
France in the 1830s:
00:19:28.417 --> 00:19:29.709
working-class poetry,
00:19:29.709 --> 00:19:33.834
such as that of the
shoemaker Savinien Lapointe.
00:19:34.459 --> 00:19:35.542
These working-class poets,
00:19:35.542 --> 00:19:37.918
who worked by day
and wrote by night,
00:19:37.918 --> 00:19:38.999
chose to express themselves
00:19:38.999 --> 00:19:41.834
in the noble tongue
of bourgeois writers;
00:19:41.834 --> 00:19:46.042
the misery of the worker
chanted in alexandrine verse.
00:19:46.042 --> 00:19:48.584
The concept might
provoke a smile,
00:19:48.584 --> 00:19:49.999
but workers related to it,
00:19:49.999 --> 00:19:51.999
as with this song
by Pierre Dupont,
00:19:51.999 --> 00:19:53.667
which was referred
to at the time
00:19:53.667 --> 00:19:56.542
as The Marseillaise
of the Workers.
00:19:56.542 --> 00:20:00.999
[singing in foreign language]
00:20:37.999 --> 00:20:40.125
The insistence of
this recurrent we
00:20:40.125 --> 00:20:42.876
is the growing awareness
of a common identity,
00:20:42.876 --> 00:20:46.999
despite the disparity of
standing and professions.
00:20:47.292 --> 00:20:48.209
Outside the workplace,
00:20:48.209 --> 00:20:51.959
this became apparent in the
clothing which was worn.
00:20:52.167 --> 00:20:54.125
The blouse, which
was common in France
00:20:54.125 --> 00:20:56.167
in the middle of
the 19th century,
00:20:56.167 --> 00:20:57.876
designated the worker.
00:20:57.876 --> 00:21:00.999
The suit designated
the bourgeois.
00:21:01.417 --> 00:21:03.876
Blouses were often worn
with the sleeves rolled up,
00:21:03.876 --> 00:21:06.999
because the workers showed
what they had to sell,
00:21:06.999 --> 00:21:08.292
their strength.
00:21:08.918 --> 00:21:09.999
The bourgeoisie,
on the other hand,
00:21:09.999 --> 00:21:13.667
were always covered from
head to foot when in public.
00:21:13.999 --> 00:21:16.083
Until the middle of
the 19th century,
00:21:16.083 --> 00:21:17.751
access to the Tuileries Gardens
00:21:17.751 --> 00:21:19.751
was forbidden to
those in blouses,
00:21:19.751 --> 00:21:23.083
and exclusively reserved
for those in suits.
00:21:23.083 --> 00:21:25.375
But with developments
in the textile industry
00:21:25.375 --> 00:21:27.667
reducing the cost of clothing,
00:21:27.667 --> 00:21:28.918
workers in their Sunday best
00:21:28.918 --> 00:21:32.876
could look like the bourgeoisie
when there was a holiday.
00:21:35.999 --> 00:21:37.709
As a reaction to this,
00:21:37.709 --> 00:21:38.501
the young bourgeoisie
00:21:38.501 --> 00:21:41.999
began to venture out
disheveled and unshaven.
00:21:44.999 --> 00:21:45.751
On the other hand,
00:21:45.751 --> 00:21:48.459
if workers started wearing
their blouses even on a Sunday,
00:21:48.459 --> 00:21:50.792
by means of affirming
their identity,
00:21:50.792 --> 00:21:52.709
any perspicacious
police commissioner
00:21:52.709 --> 00:21:56.334
might see it as a sign
of seditious intent.
00:22:00.834 --> 00:22:02.334
But the notion of
wearing work clothes
00:22:02.334 --> 00:22:04.959
in order to affirm
one\'s class identity
00:22:04.959 --> 00:22:06.751
was typically, French.
00:22:07.626 --> 00:22:08.292
A worker in London
00:22:08.292 --> 00:22:09.584
would\'ve been ashamed
to go out in public
00:22:09.584 --> 00:22:13.375
without wearing clothes similar
to those of his employer.
00:22:19.999 --> 00:22:20.999
However one point
00:22:20.999 --> 00:22:23.167
which English and French
workers had in common
00:22:23.167 --> 00:22:25.292
was a certain
resistance to work,
00:22:25.292 --> 00:22:27.999
dating back to the 18th-century.
00:22:28.209 --> 00:22:30.292
Saint-Monday was an
extra day of rest
00:22:30.292 --> 00:22:31.334
which they afforded themselves
00:22:31.334 --> 00:22:34.083
without asking for
anyone\'s permission.
00:22:34.999 --> 00:22:37.209
This custom also
prevalent in Germany
00:22:37.209 --> 00:22:38.834
under the name Blue Monday,
00:22:38.834 --> 00:22:41.751
was the subject of
comic illustrations.
00:22:41.751 --> 00:22:45.667
Here, a wife punishes her
lazy, drunken husband,
00:22:45.999 --> 00:22:48.792
and here, workers take
advantage of the rest day
00:22:48.792 --> 00:22:50.999
to beat up the bourgeoisie.
00:22:51.292 --> 00:22:54.417
This underlines the subversive
nature of this anomaly
00:22:54.417 --> 00:22:55.501
in the industrial new order,
00:22:55.501 --> 00:22:58.999
which carried through into
the early 20th century.
00:23:00.167 --> 00:23:02.999
The factory owners
were very keen
00:23:02.999 --> 00:23:06.999
in implementing order
in the factories.
00:23:06.999 --> 00:23:13.083
So the new factory regimes had
a very tight time schedule.
00:23:14.417 --> 00:23:19.125
Everything had to work
according to the rhythm
00:23:19.125 --> 00:23:20.334
of the machines.
00:23:20.334 --> 00:23:23.792
So everything in the
factory was timed
00:23:23.792 --> 00:23:26.626
from the beginning of
work to the end of work
00:23:26.626 --> 00:23:27.999
breaks had to be timed.
00:23:27.999 --> 00:23:30.542
Even if you wanted
to go to the toilet,
00:23:30.542 --> 00:23:31.584
this had to be timed.
00:23:31.584 --> 00:23:33.167
And it was strictly controlled.
00:23:33.167 --> 00:23:36.999
If we think about
a company like Cope
00:23:36.999 --> 00:23:39.709
already in the middle
of the 19th century,
00:23:39.709 --> 00:23:41.334
they actually employed people
00:23:41.334 --> 00:23:45.459
to control how long workers
spent in the toilet.
00:23:45.459 --> 00:23:48.375
So the workers tried
in many little ways
00:23:48.375 --> 00:23:52.584
to undermine the new
rhythm of the factory,
00:23:52.584 --> 00:23:55.584
to stay at the
toilet for longer,
00:23:55.584 --> 00:23:58.959
to not start work on time,
00:23:58.959 --> 00:24:02.667
to try and have some kind
of sneak little breaks
00:24:02.667 --> 00:24:04.417
in the middle of the work.
00:24:04.417 --> 00:24:06.876
Even sometimes to
sabotage the machines
00:24:06.876 --> 00:24:11.292
in order to stop the
rhythm of the factory.
00:24:11.292 --> 00:24:13.999
So there were many
different ways
00:24:13.999 --> 00:24:15.876
in which workers were trying
00:24:15.876 --> 00:24:17.999
to have their own rhythm
00:24:17.999 --> 00:24:19.584
against the rhythm
of the machine,
00:24:19.584 --> 00:24:21.999
against the rhythm
of the factory.
00:24:32.375 --> 00:24:36.542
Ghislaine Tormos a worker
in the car industry.
00:24:37.959 --> 00:24:41.083
Everyone\'s waiting for
a mechanical breakdown.
00:24:41.501 --> 00:24:43.876
Because when that happens,
00:24:43.876 --> 00:24:45.667
you can take a breather.
00:24:46.792 --> 00:24:47.584
I\'ve even seen people
00:24:47.584 --> 00:24:50.042
trying to cast a spell
over the machines,
00:24:50.042 --> 00:24:50.999
saying things like,
00:24:50.999 --> 00:24:52.999
\"You have to break
down at some point.
00:24:52.999 --> 00:24:54.792
This has to stop.\"
00:24:54.792 --> 00:24:57.042
That\'s how sick
of it people get.
00:24:57.918 --> 00:25:00.751
Because if the production
line doesn\'t stop,
00:25:00.751 --> 00:25:02.584
you\'ve got three
straight hours work
00:25:02.584 --> 00:25:04.792
before having your
20-minute break.
00:25:04.792 --> 00:25:06.334
That\'s a long time.
00:25:06.334 --> 00:25:07.999
It\'s a long time.
00:25:08.125 --> 00:25:12.417
What with the tiredness,
the thirst, the hunger,
00:25:12.417 --> 00:25:14.709
coffee is indispensable.
00:25:14.999 --> 00:25:18.959
These days you\'re not
even allowed to slip
off for a coffee.
00:25:18.959 --> 00:25:20.584
You\'re allowed two minutes,
00:25:20.584 --> 00:25:22.083
and if you want a second one,
00:25:22.083 --> 00:25:24.459
you have to ask your superior.
00:25:25.876 --> 00:25:27.918
If she refuses, you stay put.
00:25:27.918 --> 00:25:31.000
It\'s the same thing if you
want to go to the toilet.
00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:33.834
They\'ve decreed that you
only have two minutes
00:25:33.834 --> 00:25:35.626
to go to the toilet.
00:25:35.626 --> 00:25:37.417
And only once.
00:25:37.751 --> 00:25:41.209
I wouldn\'t put it past them
to say, educate your bladder.
00:25:41.209 --> 00:25:42.999
That\'s how it is.
00:25:42.999 --> 00:25:45.125
They\'ve gone that far.
00:25:45.125 --> 00:25:45.999
It\'s a new rule.
00:25:45.999 --> 00:25:48.792
It\'s been less than perhaps
eight months since it started.
00:25:48.792 --> 00:25:50.375
Perhaps eight months
since it started
00:25:50.375 --> 00:25:54.083
It was the site manager
who decided that.
00:25:55.834 --> 00:25:57.999
I don\'t know if he
follows the same rules,
00:25:57.999 --> 00:25:59.626
in his office.
00:25:59.626 --> 00:26:02.792
[upbeat music]
00:26:02.792 --> 00:26:03.876
Unlike English workers,
00:26:03.876 --> 00:26:04.959
who were mainly legalist,
00:26:04.959 --> 00:26:06.667
French workers in
the 19th century
00:26:06.667 --> 00:26:09.751
willingly participated
in uprisings.
00:26:11.209 --> 00:26:13.584
Their favorite weapon
was the barricade,
00:26:13.584 --> 00:26:15.375
which was a reflection
of themselves:
00:26:15.375 --> 00:26:19.999
spontaneous, urban, made up
of whatever was available.
00:26:22.083 --> 00:26:23.999
Between 1830 and 1871,
00:26:23.999 --> 00:26:28.083
Paris witnessed three
large popular uprisings.
00:26:29.167 --> 00:26:32.083
The first broke
out in July 1830.
00:26:32.083 --> 00:26:33.542
The workers formed an alliance
00:26:33.542 --> 00:26:34.542
with the Republican middle-class
00:26:34.542 --> 00:26:38.999
to overthrow the authoritarian
regime of Charles X.
00:26:38.999 --> 00:26:39.959
But after this,
00:26:39.959 --> 00:26:41.834
when they demanded
social reform,
00:26:41.834 --> 00:26:44.083
they were snubbed by the
republican authorities,
00:26:44.083 --> 00:26:47.250
who called them
irresponsible children.
00:26:49.501 --> 00:26:51.209
Jumping forwards in time,
00:26:51.209 --> 00:26:53.167
a century and a half later,
00:26:53.167 --> 00:26:53.999
one of the leaders
00:26:53.999 --> 00:26:55.918
of the Czechoslovakian
Communist Party
00:26:55.918 --> 00:26:58.792
remonstrated with workers
from a factory in Prague
00:26:58.792 --> 00:27:02.999
who were striking to obtain
democratization of the regime.
00:27:02.999 --> 00:27:07.584
[speaking in foreign language]
00:27:15.542 --> 00:27:20.999
[workers shouting
and chanting slogans]
00:27:46.999 --> 00:27:50.292
I frequently come back
to this text from 1829,
00:27:50.292 --> 00:27:52.209
by the French writer, Ballanche,
00:27:52.209 --> 00:27:55.709
who rewrote the secession
of Roman plebeians
00:27:55.709 --> 00:27:57.918
on the Aventine Hill.
00:27:57.918 --> 00:27:58.709
What\'s important here
00:27:58.709 --> 00:28:01.542
isn\'t the fact that the
plebeians have demands,
00:28:01.542 --> 00:28:02.999
but that they want to be heard
00:28:02.999 --> 00:28:04.999
as speaking human beings.
00:28:05.334 --> 00:28:08.667
For the patricians, this,
of course, is unthinkable,
00:28:08.667 --> 00:28:11.417
because for them, the
plebeians are like animals,
00:28:11.417 --> 00:28:14.626
they might perhaps growl,
but they can\'t speak.
00:28:14.626 --> 00:28:18.584
And the plebeians want to
prove that they can speak.
00:28:18.584 --> 00:28:22.083
They carry out a series of
symbolic actions to show this.
00:28:22.083 --> 00:28:24.918
To show that they are
speaking human beings.
00:28:24.918 --> 00:28:27.834
It\'s a text which had a lot
of influence at the time,
00:28:27.834 --> 00:28:30.584
and which really corresponds
very, very closely
00:28:30.584 --> 00:28:32.334
to what people were feeling,
00:28:32.334 --> 00:28:34.834
what people were feeling in 1830
00:28:34.834 --> 00:28:36.834
on the cobblestones of Paris,
00:28:36.834 --> 00:28:38.918
what they were feeling in 1831
00:28:38.918 --> 00:28:40.751
during the Lyon uprisings,
00:28:40.751 --> 00:28:43.876
what they were feeling
throughout that period,
00:28:44.125 --> 00:28:47.667
That is to say, from then
on, they want to be heard
00:28:47.667 --> 00:28:48.918
as speaking human beings,
00:28:48.918 --> 00:28:52.334
as people with the capacity
to reflect upon society,
00:28:52.334 --> 00:28:56.459
and participate in meaningful
discussions about it.
00:28:58.999 --> 00:29:01.125
[upbeat music]
00:29:01.125 --> 00:29:04.292
During the three days
of the 1830 revolution,
00:29:04.292 --> 00:29:07.000
classes and symbols intertwined.
00:29:07.999 --> 00:29:09.876
In the famous
painting by Delacroix,
00:29:09.876 --> 00:29:12.125
the urchin wears a
middle-class waistcoat,
00:29:12.125 --> 00:29:15.375
and the bourgeois the
trousers of a worker.
00:29:16.167 --> 00:29:17.918
As for the
blouse-wearing worker,
00:29:17.918 --> 00:29:19.999
he appears to be
waiting for Marianne
00:29:19.999 --> 00:29:21.999
to accord him justice.
00:29:22.501 --> 00:29:24.999
But once the political
revolution was won,
00:29:24.999 --> 00:29:27.501
the bourgeoisie imposed
the return to order.
00:29:27.501 --> 00:29:31.999
The powerless workers had to
renounce the social revolution.
00:29:34.501 --> 00:29:37.584
18 years later,
in February 1848,
00:29:37.584 --> 00:29:40.999
the same scenario was
played out once more.
00:29:40.999 --> 00:29:42.334
The middle-class and workers,
00:29:42.334 --> 00:29:43.999
having once again become allies,
00:29:43.999 --> 00:29:46.292
overthrew the monarchy
of Louis Philippe
00:29:46.292 --> 00:29:48.334
and proclaimed the Republic.
00:29:48.999 --> 00:29:49.959
To occupy and feed workers
00:29:49.959 --> 00:29:53.000
during the deep economic crisis
caused by the revolution,
00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:56.918
the Republican
government created a
system of public works,
00:29:56.918 --> 00:29:58.542
the National workshops.
00:29:58.542 --> 00:30:02.209
But in June, considering that
these were hotbeds of unrest,
00:30:02.209 --> 00:30:03.959
they decided to close them down,
00:30:03.959 --> 00:30:06.042
and the desperate
and starving workers
00:30:06.042 --> 00:30:08.292
took up arms once more.
00:30:10.542 --> 00:30:11.959
And for the very first time,
00:30:11.959 --> 00:30:15.167
photographs show a
workers\' uprising.
00:30:18.999 --> 00:30:20.999
It was the 26 June 1848.
00:30:21.501 --> 00:30:23.999
And at the moment this
picture was taken,
00:30:23.999 --> 00:30:25.459
the defenders of this barricade
00:30:25.459 --> 00:30:26.999
on the rue du Faubourg du Temple
00:30:26.999 --> 00:30:29.417
were unaware that the
uprising had failed,
00:30:29.417 --> 00:30:32.999
and that they were amongst
the last resistants.
00:30:35.999 --> 00:30:38.459
A second picture, taken
early the next morning,
00:30:38.459 --> 00:30:41.584
shows the street after
the army\'s assault.
00:30:41.918 --> 00:30:43.999
The soldiers finished
off the wounded,
00:30:43.999 --> 00:30:44.999
shot the prisoners,
00:30:44.999 --> 00:30:48.999
and sometimes also
the inhabitants of
neighboring houses.
00:30:48.999 --> 00:30:50.250
There were 3,000 dead,
00:30:50.250 --> 00:30:52.250
thousands condemned
to hard labor
00:30:52.250 --> 00:30:54.999
or deportation to Algeria.
00:30:54.999 --> 00:30:55.999
A heavy price to pay
00:30:55.999 --> 00:30:58.167
for the failure of
a spontaneous revolt
00:30:58.167 --> 00:31:00.999
without leaders or strategy.
00:31:00.999 --> 00:31:03.792
[upbeat music]
00:31:05.375 --> 00:31:07.792
The barricades of
the days of June 1848
00:31:07.792 --> 00:31:10.709
were like these
haphazardly thrown stones;
00:31:10.709 --> 00:31:13.542
spontaneous, set up
to defend the street
00:31:13.542 --> 00:31:14.501
and the neighborhood,
00:31:14.501 --> 00:31:18.125
uncoordinated, with
neither goal nor strategy.
00:31:18.125 --> 00:31:20.626
They only lasted three days.
00:31:25.999 --> 00:31:28.000
In 1871, the Paris Commune
00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:31.417
learnt lessons from
previous failures.
00:31:31.417 --> 00:31:32.417
Contrary to the impression
00:31:32.417 --> 00:31:34.584
given by this 1920s
soviet filmmaker,
00:31:34.584 --> 00:31:37.959
who got a little carried away
with revolutionary fervor,
00:31:37.959 --> 00:31:40.501
the barricades of the
Paris Commune were neat,
00:31:40.501 --> 00:31:42.334
thought out on a citywide scale,
00:31:42.334 --> 00:31:45.334
and supervised by a
barricades commission,
00:31:45.334 --> 00:31:48.209
by whom the construction
of wildcat barricades
00:31:48.209 --> 00:31:49.542
was forbidden.
00:31:50.999 --> 00:31:53.167
This military discipline
is understandable,
00:31:53.167 --> 00:31:56.584
considering that the Commune
had many soldiers in its ranks.
00:31:56.584 --> 00:32:00.792
It was born out of the
1870 war against Prussia,
00:32:00.792 --> 00:32:01.792
and the French defeat
00:32:01.792 --> 00:32:04.626
which brought about the
fall of the Second Empire.
00:32:05.417 --> 00:32:07.167
Refusing the terms
of the armistice,
00:32:07.167 --> 00:32:10.083
which demanded that
Paris give up its canons,
00:32:10.083 --> 00:32:10.999
the Parisians kept them
00:32:10.999 --> 00:32:13.999
and chased off the new
republican government,
00:32:13.999 --> 00:32:15.999
which fled to Versailles.
00:32:18.999 --> 00:32:21.417
During the 72 days
of its existence,
00:32:21.417 --> 00:32:24.751
the Commune indulged in
some spectacular events,
00:32:24.751 --> 00:32:26.999
like the adoption
of the red flag,
00:32:26.999 --> 00:32:29.292
and the destruction
of the Vendôme Column,
00:32:29.292 --> 00:32:31.876
a symbol of the
overthrown Empire.
00:32:31.876 --> 00:32:34.834
[upbeat music]
00:32:39.209 --> 00:32:41.999
Just as symbolic were
the dozens of decrees
00:32:41.999 --> 00:32:42.999
which the Commune made,
00:32:42.999 --> 00:32:46.250
despite being under siege
from the governmental army,
00:32:46.250 --> 00:32:47.083
and knowing full well
00:32:47.083 --> 00:32:50.417
that it would never have
the time to implement them.
00:32:50.876 --> 00:32:52.584
A decree about rent remission.
00:32:52.584 --> 00:32:55.999
A decree about the separation
of the church from state.
00:32:55.999 --> 00:32:59.667
A decree about free schooling
and scholastic supplies,
00:32:59.667 --> 00:33:03.501
about the suppression of
night work for bakery workers,
00:33:03.999 --> 00:33:05.999
about the Natural
History Museum,
00:33:05.999 --> 00:33:09.375
about the creation of a
workers\' union chamber,
00:33:09.792 --> 00:33:12.459
about a new market
on the Place Monge,
00:33:12.459 --> 00:33:14.667
about the organization
of a great concert
00:33:14.667 --> 00:33:17.417
in aid of the wounded
and prisoners,
00:33:17.417 --> 00:33:18.999
on Thursday, May 25th,
00:33:18.999 --> 00:33:19.999
when the troops of Versailles
00:33:19.999 --> 00:33:23.083
were in the process of
taking back the city.
00:33:25.959 --> 00:33:29.375
The Commune was crushed
in one bloodstained week,
00:33:29.375 --> 00:33:33.918
the Semaine sanglante, at
the cost of 7,000 dead.
00:33:34.209 --> 00:33:36.999
After the massacres
came the insults.
00:33:36.999 --> 00:33:39.209
In this series of
stereoscopic images
00:33:39.209 --> 00:33:41.125
entitled, le sabbat rouge,
00:33:41.125 --> 00:33:44.959
the Commune is depicted as
an orgy of infernal demons,
00:33:44.959 --> 00:33:47.042
sorcerers and witches.
00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:52.918
A few years later,
00:33:52.918 --> 00:33:54.667
the third Republic
permitted the vanquished
00:33:54.667 --> 00:33:57.501
to celebrate their defeat
at the Communards\' Wall
00:33:57.501 --> 00:33:59.626
at the Père Lachaise cemetery,
00:33:59.626 --> 00:34:01.999
against which the last
of the Commune fighters
00:34:01.999 --> 00:34:04.417
had faced the firing squad.
00:34:05.542 --> 00:34:08.959
But even these stones
would not be spared.
00:34:10.292 --> 00:34:13.501
In 1880 the bullet marked
stones were taken down
00:34:13.501 --> 00:34:16.417
and reassembled at the
other end of the cemetery,
00:34:16.417 --> 00:34:18.209
to serve as a support
for a sculpture
00:34:18.209 --> 00:34:20.959
to the memory of
victims of revolutions,
00:34:20.959 --> 00:34:22.083
without distinction,
00:34:22.083 --> 00:34:25.250
a convenient way of
jumbling up oppressed
00:34:25.250 --> 00:34:27.292
and oppressors together.
00:34:29.999 --> 00:34:34.417
[singing in foreign language]
00:35:09.584 --> 00:35:11.083
As the last great revolution
00:35:11.083 --> 00:35:12.000
of the 19th-century,
00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:14.125
the Paris Commune
marked a turning point
00:35:14.125 --> 00:35:16.999
in the history of the
workers\' struggle.
00:35:17.375 --> 00:35:19.542
The memory of it was
to be celebrated,
00:35:19.542 --> 00:35:22.584
as much by the great
totalitarian regimes
00:35:22.584 --> 00:35:24.834
as by simple militants.
00:35:24.999 --> 00:35:28.584
Communardo Tobia, a
worker from Terni.
00:35:28.584 --> 00:35:33.000
[speaking in foreign language]
00:36:23.292 --> 00:36:24.999
There is something
which is specific
00:36:24.999 --> 00:36:28.709
to the culture of this
part of central Italy,
00:36:28.709 --> 00:36:32.542
which had been under the
domination of the church,
00:36:34.042 --> 00:36:36.584
and that is the desire to react
00:36:36.584 --> 00:36:37.918
to this domination
00:36:37.918 --> 00:36:40.959
by inventing
alternative rituals,
00:36:41.709 --> 00:36:45.083
and giving children
alternative names.
00:36:45.375 --> 00:36:50.375
Here, the children are called
Rebel, Ideal, Communard.
00:36:51.125 --> 00:36:53.584
We\'re talking about
the end of the 19th
00:36:53.584 --> 00:36:55.999
and beginning of
the 20th century.
00:36:55.999 --> 00:36:58.999
Another important thing
with regards to names,
00:36:58.999 --> 00:37:01.250
is talk of the proletariat.
00:37:01.999 --> 00:37:05.250
The word proletariat
precisely refers to someone
00:37:05.250 --> 00:37:08.542
whose children are
all they possess.
00:37:08.959 --> 00:37:13.501
So naming one\'s children was
an affirmation of autonomy,
00:37:13.501 --> 00:37:14.375
the only one possible
00:37:14.375 --> 00:37:18.083
for someone who
possesses nothing other
than their children.
00:37:20.417 --> 00:37:21.000
And this is why,
00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:24.167
in all this secular
part of central Italy,
00:37:24.167 --> 00:37:28.083
Emilia, Tuscany, Marche, Umbria,
00:37:28.083 --> 00:37:30.999
it\'s very common to
give alternative names
00:37:30.999 --> 00:37:31.999
to one\'s children.
00:37:31.999 --> 00:37:34.792
In Terni, you find
people with first names
00:37:34.792 --> 00:37:37.167
which are not
necessarily political,
00:37:37.167 --> 00:37:39.167
but also fantastical.
00:37:39.167 --> 00:37:41.042
Adamante, Orneore.
00:37:41.709 --> 00:37:45.876
They are chosen simply
for their musical quality.
00:37:46.042 --> 00:37:48.250
This is an example
of workers\' culture,
00:37:48.250 --> 00:37:51.167
which in a certain
sense is pre-socialist.
00:37:53.334 --> 00:37:54.876
In these alternative rituals,
00:37:54.876 --> 00:37:57.542
festivals have an
important place.
00:37:58.083 --> 00:38:01.667
The anniversary of the
Paris Commune is celebrated,
00:38:01.667 --> 00:38:03.584
and above all the 1st May,
00:38:03.584 --> 00:38:07.417
is proclaimed International
Workers\' Day in 1890.
00:38:09.999 --> 00:38:10.876
Throughout Europe
00:38:10.876 --> 00:38:13.042
the 1st May became a day
of workers\' protests,
00:38:13.042 --> 00:38:16.375
which were forbidden and
violently suppressed,
00:38:16.375 --> 00:38:17.999
like at Fourmies in 1891
00:38:17.999 --> 00:38:22.209
when the army fired on
protesters killing nine of them.
00:38:23.834 --> 00:38:25.876
[upbeat music]
00:38:25.876 --> 00:38:27.999
In Italy, people
took to the streets
00:38:27.999 --> 00:38:29.542
singing the hymn of 1st May
00:38:29.542 --> 00:38:32.042
to the tune of Verdi\'s Nabucco.
00:38:32.042 --> 00:38:36.584
[singing in foreign language]
00:39:08.626 --> 00:39:09.999
Other, less passive songs,
00:39:09.999 --> 00:39:12.834
celebrated the struggles
of the great revolts,
00:39:12.834 --> 00:39:16.626
like that of the
weavers of Lyon in 1832,
00:39:16.626 --> 00:39:17.584
who fought the army
00:39:17.584 --> 00:39:18.876
on the streets of
the Croix-Rousse
00:39:18.876 --> 00:39:21.999
to the cry of live
working, or die fighting,
00:39:21.999 --> 00:39:26.417
an uprising immortalized by
the famous Chant des canuts.
00:39:27.125 --> 00:39:31.709
[singing in foreign language]
00:40:00.250 --> 00:40:03.542
But in reality, this song
was composed 60 years later
00:40:03.542 --> 00:40:06.999
by the anarchist
songwriter Aristide Bruant,
00:40:06.999 --> 00:40:10.292
taking inspiration from
a poem by Heinrich Heine
00:40:10.292 --> 00:40:12.000
dating back to 1844
00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:14.959
and celebrating a
different revolt;
00:40:15.209 --> 00:40:18.501
that of the German
weavers of Silesia.
00:40:19.417 --> 00:40:21.834
This was another
revolt in desperation,
00:40:21.834 --> 00:40:23.083
caused by famine.
00:40:23.083 --> 00:40:25.334
Spontaneous and disorganized,
00:40:25.334 --> 00:40:26.209
suppressed by the army
00:40:26.209 --> 00:40:29.167
after three days of
demands and looting.
00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:31.999
However, this revolt,
00:40:31.999 --> 00:40:36.250
reconstructed here in the 1920s
German film \'The Weavers\',
00:40:36.250 --> 00:40:37.375
had its own song,
00:40:37.375 --> 00:40:39.918
composed by the
weavers themselves,
00:40:39.918 --> 00:40:43.334
the Blutgericht, the
tribunal of blood.
00:40:43.667 --> 00:40:45.584
A song in the form of a sermon,
00:40:45.584 --> 00:40:49.375
referring to the exploiters
as mischievous demons,
00:40:49.375 --> 00:40:51.250
and sons of Satan.
00:40:54.459 --> 00:40:56.417
Two revolts, three songs,
00:40:56.417 --> 00:40:58.375
which became intermingled
over the years
00:40:58.375 --> 00:41:01.999
in the twists and turns
of workers\' memories.
00:41:05.999 --> 00:41:07.501
And as if this wasn\'t enough,
00:41:07.501 --> 00:41:09.167
here is something
written at the time
00:41:09.167 --> 00:41:10.918
by a young German exile,
00:41:10.918 --> 00:41:12.834
taking refuge in London.
00:41:12.999 --> 00:41:16.542
\"Not one of the workers\'
uprisings in France or England
00:41:16.542 --> 00:41:17.999
has been of such theoretical
00:41:17.999 --> 00:41:18.999
or knowledgeable character
00:41:18.999 --> 00:41:21.501
as that of the
weavers of Silesia.\"
00:41:22.209 --> 00:41:24.834
Signed, Karl Marx.
00:41:26.999 --> 00:41:27.999
When he wrote these lines,
00:41:27.999 --> 00:41:30.999
Karl Marx was still just a
young German revolutionary,
00:41:30.999 --> 00:41:32.999
living in exile in London.
00:41:33.751 --> 00:41:36.999
But the theories
which he elaborated
in the following years
00:41:36.999 --> 00:41:38.042
were to throw their shadow
00:41:38.042 --> 00:41:39.250
over working-class history
00:41:39.250 --> 00:41:42.000
as a whole for the
century to come.
00:41:50.459 --> 00:41:53.792
Criticizing the utopian
socialism of his rivals,
00:41:53.792 --> 00:41:57.167
Marx advocated a rigorous
and scientific socialism,
00:41:57.167 --> 00:41:58.792
which would make
the class struggle
00:41:58.792 --> 00:42:01.626
the driving force
behind human history.
00:42:03.083 --> 00:42:05.751
This struggle was to
set up the bourgeoisie,
00:42:05.751 --> 00:42:07.834
owners of the means
of production,
00:42:07.834 --> 00:42:09.709
in opposition to
the proletariat,
00:42:09.709 --> 00:42:12.626
which owns nothing
but its workforce.
00:42:15.918 --> 00:42:17.999
His analysis concludes
by an act of faith
00:42:17.999 --> 00:42:21.334
in the redemptive mission
the working class;
00:42:22.125 --> 00:42:22.999
having nothing to lose,
00:42:22.999 --> 00:42:26.250
it was the only class capable
of freeing society as a whole,
00:42:26.250 --> 00:42:29.542
and abolishing the
very notion of class.
00:42:32.751 --> 00:42:35.375
The revolutionary
process was inevitable.
00:42:35.375 --> 00:42:37.834
Capitalism was
condemned to disappear,
00:42:37.834 --> 00:42:41.542
undermined by its
internal contradictions.
00:42:41.542 --> 00:42:43.999
[explosion]
00:42:43.999 --> 00:42:45.000
The theories of Karl Marx,
00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:48.999
developed in the Communist
Manifesto of 1848,
00:42:49.209 --> 00:42:52.334
spread thanks to
the International
Workingmen\'s Association
00:42:52.334 --> 00:42:53.042
which he founded
00:42:53.042 --> 00:42:57.000
with other European socialists
and anarchists in 1864.
00:42:59.209 --> 00:43:03.709
However, Marx himself was
nearly refused membership,
00:43:03.709 --> 00:43:04.834
the French section considering
00:43:04.834 --> 00:43:08.125
that only manual workers
were true workers.
00:43:09.042 --> 00:43:12.667
After bitter debate, a
compromise was reached,
00:43:12.667 --> 00:43:14.209
letting each national
section decide
00:43:14.209 --> 00:43:18.918
if it also accepted
intellectual workers and women.
00:43:21.999 --> 00:43:25.751
[factory chimney honks]
00:43:27.999 --> 00:43:29.375
From 1870, Marx rejoiced
00:43:29.375 --> 00:43:32.709
in the victories of the
Prussian army over France.
00:43:32.709 --> 00:43:35.250
They underlined the
new status of Germany,
00:43:35.250 --> 00:43:37.501
an essentially rural country,
00:43:37.501 --> 00:43:38.834
which in the space of 20 years
00:43:38.834 --> 00:43:41.626
had become an
industrial superpower.
00:43:42.459 --> 00:43:44.584
An example of this metamorphosis
00:43:44.584 --> 00:43:45.501
were the Krupp factories
00:43:45.501 --> 00:43:48.999
which produced the canons
which had bombarded Paris.
00:43:49.667 --> 00:43:51.999
For Marx, the new
German proletariat
00:43:51.999 --> 00:43:54.999
was theoretically
superior to any other.
00:43:54.999 --> 00:43:56.334
It was, therefore, with pleasure
00:43:56.334 --> 00:43:58.209
that he wrote of
the envisaged move
00:43:58.209 --> 00:43:59.334
of the center of gravity
00:43:59.334 --> 00:44:01.250
of the European social movement
00:44:01.250 --> 00:44:03.751
from France to Germany.
00:44:04.209 --> 00:44:05.083
After the defeat of France
00:44:05.083 --> 00:44:06.959
and the failure of the Commune,
00:44:06.959 --> 00:44:09.999
the facts seemed
to agree with him.
00:44:10.626 --> 00:44:15.292
In 1875 the Social Democratic
Party of Germany was founded,
00:44:15.292 --> 00:44:17.999
which became the first
mass workers\' party,
00:44:17.999 --> 00:44:20.250
numbering up to 1
million members;
00:44:20.250 --> 00:44:24.334
the prototype of the great
parties of the 20th century.
00:44:24.334 --> 00:44:27.250
[upbeat music]
00:44:35.876 --> 00:44:40.250
In 1880, the party
adopted Marxism as
its official doctrine,
00:44:40.250 --> 00:44:42.999
drawing a paradoxical
conclusion from it.
00:44:42.999 --> 00:44:45.876
Since the collapse of
capitalism was inevitable,
00:44:45.876 --> 00:44:48.292
there was no need
for a revolution.
00:44:48.918 --> 00:44:50.959
It was just a
question of waiting,
00:44:50.959 --> 00:44:51.751
and in the meantime,
00:44:51.751 --> 00:44:53.459
in order to be ready
when the moment came,
00:44:53.459 --> 00:44:56.709
workers owed it to themselves
to become respectable
00:44:56.709 --> 00:44:58.042
and to adopt the
habits and tastes
00:44:58.042 --> 00:45:02.999
of the petty bourgeoisie,
even in their worst excesses.
00:45:07.042 --> 00:45:09.999
The ideas of the working class
00:45:09.999 --> 00:45:12.999
that are championed
by social democracy
00:45:12.999 --> 00:45:15.834
also work very much
with a differentiation
00:45:15.834 --> 00:45:18.125
of different parts
of the working class.
00:45:18.125 --> 00:45:21.918
So you have, at
the highest level,
00:45:21.918 --> 00:45:25.000
the class conscious proletariat,
00:45:25.626 --> 00:45:28.125
the person who is a member
00:45:28.125 --> 00:45:30.000
of the German social
democratic party,
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:33.834
who has joined a
social-democratic trade union,
00:45:33.834 --> 00:45:34.501
who is a member
00:45:34.501 --> 00:45:37.999
in a social-democratic
consumers cooperative,
00:45:37.999 --> 00:45:39.125
who is maybe a member
00:45:39.125 --> 00:45:42.792
of the local social
democratic cycling club,
00:45:42.792 --> 00:45:47.999
and who spends his
time educating himself,
00:45:48.375 --> 00:45:49.999
being more knowledgeable
00:45:49.999 --> 00:45:53.042
and working towards the
overcoming of capitalism.
00:45:53.042 --> 00:45:56.876
And then you have various form
00:45:56.876 --> 00:45:58.918
of working-class
existences, if you like
00:45:58.918 --> 00:46:02.999
below that highest form of
working-class existence.
00:46:02.999 --> 00:46:03.792
And at the very bottom
00:46:03.792 --> 00:46:06.125
you have the so-called
lump and proletariat.
00:46:06.125 --> 00:46:10.125
So the people who
drink, who gamble,
00:46:10.125 --> 00:46:11.999
who beat their wives,
00:46:11.999 --> 00:46:16.167
who don\'t give a about how
their children are educated
00:46:16.167 --> 00:46:17.918
and who, if you like,
00:46:17.918 --> 00:46:22.542
are portraying the
mission of their own class
00:46:22.542 --> 00:46:25.999
in the eyes of German,
social democracy.
00:46:26.792 --> 00:46:29.375
[upbeat music]
00:46:29.375 --> 00:46:33.999
Lumpenproletariat proletariat,
the proletariat in rags,
00:46:33.999 --> 00:46:35.999
as seen in all its metaphorical
00:46:35.999 --> 00:46:36.999
and caricatural richness
00:46:36.999 --> 00:46:41.250
by the 1920s Russian
filmmaker, Eisenstein.
00:46:42.667 --> 00:46:44.792
The word and what it represents,
00:46:44.792 --> 00:46:46.501
are an invention of Karl Marx;
00:46:46.501 --> 00:46:48.542
a new social category
of his creation
00:46:48.542 --> 00:46:51.626
to explain the failings
of workers\' revolutions,
00:46:51.626 --> 00:46:53.501
betrayed by this underclass,
00:46:53.501 --> 00:46:57.501
the sparkles displaced
rabble, as he put it,
00:46:57.501 --> 00:46:59.042
always ready to sell themselves
00:46:59.042 --> 00:46:59.999
to the bourgeoisie
00:46:59.999 --> 00:47:03.209
to sabotage the endeavors
of conscious workers.
00:47:03.999 --> 00:47:05.709
For German social democracy
00:47:05.709 --> 00:47:06.667
this also had the advantage
00:47:06.667 --> 00:47:09.250
of rendering the
worker respectable.
00:47:09.584 --> 00:47:11.209
The unfortunate underclass
00:47:11.209 --> 00:47:12.999
was the unique heir
to all the faults
00:47:12.999 --> 00:47:14.834
which the 19th-century
bourgeoisie
00:47:14.834 --> 00:47:18.375
had attributed to the
working class as a whole.
00:47:20.792 --> 00:47:22.999
A more complex image of
the German working-class
00:47:22.999 --> 00:47:25.792
was revealed by an
astonishing sociological study
00:47:25.792 --> 00:47:30.125
carried out by a dissident
social democrat in 1910.
00:47:30.459 --> 00:47:34.542
He sent 8,000 questionnaires
to steel and textile workers.
00:47:36.999 --> 00:47:37.876
We learn from this
00:47:37.876 --> 00:47:39.959
that they read Darwin,
Marx, Nietzsche,
00:47:39.959 --> 00:47:41.125
the Bible and crime novels.
00:47:41.125 --> 00:47:45.334
But they also spoke of their
conditions and their hopes.
00:47:49.209 --> 00:47:52.959
I dream of a more humane
and dignified life.
00:47:52.959 --> 00:47:55.209
Mine is not so different
from that of a slave
00:47:55.209 --> 00:47:56.959
or a beast of burden.
00:47:58.999 --> 00:48:00.417
And as only the idea of freedom
00:48:00.417 --> 00:48:03.584
pushes me to wish for
another existence,
00:48:04.042 --> 00:48:07.709
my most ardent desire is
to fight for this freedom.
00:48:08.709 --> 00:48:11.999
And to carry on this
fight with a single motto:
00:48:11.999 --> 00:48:15.042
rather die than
become a slave again.
00:48:17.751 --> 00:48:19.709
But the best-intentioned
investigator
00:48:19.709 --> 00:48:20.999
cannot know everything.
00:48:20.999 --> 00:48:24.167
It took a young German
evangelist preacher,
00:48:24.167 --> 00:48:26.834
becoming hired as a
simple unskilled worker
00:48:26.834 --> 00:48:27.999
in a large factory,
00:48:27.999 --> 00:48:28.999
to discover the practices
00:48:28.999 --> 00:48:33.292
which the historian Alfe
L üdtke called Eigensinn,
00:48:33.292 --> 00:48:35.417
a sort of worker\'s aloofness.
00:48:42.250 --> 00:48:45.125
This goes from skiving
time at the factory,
00:48:45.125 --> 00:48:47.999
to strange rituals
in the workshop:
00:48:48.542 --> 00:48:51.792
the bucket of icy
water over a door,
00:48:52.584 --> 00:48:54.959
the glue put in shoes,
00:48:59.792 --> 00:49:00.792
the Polish kiss,
00:49:00.792 --> 00:49:02.250
where a worker
spends long minutes
00:49:02.250 --> 00:49:03.999
rubbing his rough
and prickly beard
00:49:03.999 --> 00:49:07.000
against the cheeks of
an unshaven worker.
00:49:12.999 --> 00:49:15.584
A host of saucy tricks
and cruel farces,
00:49:15.584 --> 00:49:19.834
through which the workers\'
community affirmed its autonomy.
00:49:20.792 --> 00:49:23.999
Thomas Lindenberger,
a historian.
00:49:26.626 --> 00:49:29.417
It\'s an affirmation
of interior autonomy
00:49:29.417 --> 00:49:32.125
that you can\'t take
away from them.
00:49:33.792 --> 00:49:35.999
And that\'s the
whole point of it.
00:49:36.999 --> 00:49:40.042
These moments also demonstrate
a strategy of survival
00:49:40.042 --> 00:49:42.751
in situations of dependence,
00:49:43.292 --> 00:49:46.626
which seek to render
this dependence bearable.
00:49:51.000 --> 00:49:53.959
In this context, Eigensinn,
00:49:53.959 --> 00:49:56.417
this workers\' \"aloofness,\"
00:49:57.042 --> 00:49:59.334
shouldn\'t necessarily
be assimilated
00:49:59.334 --> 00:50:00.999
to an attitude of revolt,
00:50:00.999 --> 00:50:04.083
or of resistance
faced with domination.
00:50:06.751 --> 00:50:09.375
No, in fact, it\'s generally
00:50:09.375 --> 00:50:12.751
what makes this rapport
of domination liveable.
00:50:13.876 --> 00:50:16.792
[upbeat music]
00:50:17.999 --> 00:50:21.250
As an alternative to
overthrowing the system,
00:50:21.501 --> 00:50:22.834
protection from it can be found
00:50:22.834 --> 00:50:25.751
by creating an interior
parallel world,
00:50:25.751 --> 00:50:28.167
run by the workers themselves.
00:50:28.751 --> 00:50:31.501
Workers cooperatives began
to flourish in Germany,
00:50:31.501 --> 00:50:35.834
England and Belgium at the
end of the 19th century.
00:50:36.042 --> 00:50:39.083
At the outset, it was about
providing workers with bread
00:50:39.083 --> 00:50:40.999
at a reasonable price.
00:50:41.459 --> 00:50:45.167
But the offer quickly spread
to all common consumables:
00:50:45.167 --> 00:50:48.999
to cafes, to theatres,
to healthcare.
00:50:51.999 --> 00:50:53.250
These cooperatives were accused
00:50:53.250 --> 00:50:55.918
of turning workers
away from the fight,
00:50:55.918 --> 00:50:56.999
but it was also a way of proving
00:50:56.999 --> 00:51:00.584
that they were capable of
running their own lives.
00:51:02.918 --> 00:51:03.999
The objects on this table
00:51:03.999 --> 00:51:07.292
are also the product
of workers\' autonomy.
00:51:07.292 --> 00:51:08.292
None of them is a car,
00:51:08.292 --> 00:51:11.999
and yet they were all made in
a large automobile factory,
00:51:11.999 --> 00:51:14.209
with the tools and
materials of the factory,
00:51:14.209 --> 00:51:18.999
by workers from the factory
and on the factory\'s time.
00:51:18.999 --> 00:51:20.999
In France, this sort of side-job
00:51:20.999 --> 00:51:24.292
is best known as the
\'perruque ouvrière\';
00:51:24.292 --> 00:51:26.042
literally the \'workers\' wig,\'
00:51:26.042 --> 00:51:29.125
a productivist
version of Eigensinn.
00:51:29.125 --> 00:51:32.792
Robert Kosmann, a former
worker at Renault.
00:51:34.501 --> 00:51:36.167
This is one of the
technical side jobs
00:51:36.167 --> 00:51:38.542
that a few of us made together,
00:51:39.334 --> 00:51:41.792
because we didn\'t do
individual side-jobs,
00:51:41.792 --> 00:51:43.459
but worked as teams.
00:51:44.542 --> 00:51:47.999
It\'s a small elephant
which is in several pieces.
00:51:48.918 --> 00:51:51.459
If I remember rightly,
there are 11 pieces,
00:51:51.459 --> 00:51:54.999
for which the key that
locks them is the ears.
00:51:54.999 --> 00:51:55.751
The funny thing
00:51:55.751 --> 00:51:57.375
is that you can only do
straight cuts with a reamer,
00:51:57.375 --> 00:51:58.876
so making a very
rounded elephant
00:51:58.876 --> 00:52:01.834
just using straight
cuts was quite a laugh.
00:52:01.999 --> 00:52:04.209
At least 40 hours
work went into that.
00:52:04.209 --> 00:52:05.417
So there it is.
00:52:05.999 --> 00:52:07.167
In the same part
of the workshop,
00:52:07.167 --> 00:52:08.209
there was a sheet metal worker
00:52:08.209 --> 00:52:09.417
who made a little
copper wheelbarrow.
00:52:09.417 --> 00:52:11.626
And the interesting
thing about this barrow
00:52:11.626 --> 00:52:14.999
is that the wheel was
rounded using a hammer,
00:52:14.999 --> 00:52:16.542
and not using a lathe,
00:52:16.542 --> 00:52:18.999
and it turns beautifully
without a sleeve.
00:52:18.999 --> 00:52:21.542
A side-job is about
having a sense of oneself,
00:52:21.542 --> 00:52:23.626
getting back a sense of oneself.
00:52:23.626 --> 00:52:25.042
And in my opinion,
that corresponds
00:52:25.042 --> 00:52:26.999
with what a side-job
is really about,
00:52:26.999 --> 00:52:29.167
in the sense that you
work for yourself,
00:52:29.167 --> 00:52:32.375
you find your personality,
your creativity.
00:52:33.584 --> 00:52:34.417
Or, to put it more simply,
00:52:34.417 --> 00:52:36.334
it\'s like repairing your cutter,
00:52:36.334 --> 00:52:37.999
or repairing your brush,
00:52:39.375 --> 00:52:42.999
but it\'s working for oneself.
00:52:44.167 --> 00:52:45.999
I think there\'s
something of a revolt,
00:52:45.999 --> 00:52:48.000
something of a transgression.
00:52:49.334 --> 00:52:51.250
Even for those who
aren\'t militant,
00:52:51.250 --> 00:52:52.999
who aren\'t in unions.
00:52:53.999 --> 00:52:56.209
I was teamed up,
working at a saw,
00:52:56.209 --> 00:53:00.626
with an old Portuguese
worker, Pedro Da Silva.
00:53:00.959 --> 00:53:04.542
He made all his own tools
with which to build his house;
00:53:04.834 --> 00:53:07.501
the shovels, the picks, etc.
00:53:08.542 --> 00:53:10.999
And I knew him well
because we worked together,
00:53:10.999 --> 00:53:12.501
he never wanted to go on strike.
00:53:12.501 --> 00:53:14.999
He never criticized the factory.
00:53:14.999 --> 00:53:16.876
Never criticized the bosses,
00:53:16.876 --> 00:53:18.250
but when he left
with his side-job,
00:53:18.250 --> 00:53:19.918
he had this broad smile,
00:53:19.918 --> 00:53:22.375
because he\'d
transgressed the rules.
00:53:24.209 --> 00:53:25.999
A side-job is ambiguous.
00:53:25.999 --> 00:53:26.626
You can\'t say
00:53:26.626 --> 00:53:29.000
it\'s just resistance to
the established order.
00:53:29.000 --> 00:53:31.000
You can\'t say: you\'re
just compromising yourself
00:53:31.000 --> 00:53:34.959
because a factory isn\'t only
about the class struggle.
00:53:36.209 --> 00:53:39.209
And it\'s not just the
bosses boot either.
00:53:40.501 --> 00:53:41.709
It depends on the moment.
00:53:41.709 --> 00:53:43.751
It depends on the times.
00:53:43.751 --> 00:53:44.999
It depends on the days.
00:53:44.999 --> 00:53:48.999
It depends on, like
in the morning,
00:53:48.999 --> 00:53:50.999
if you\'re riled up or not.
00:53:50.999 --> 00:53:52.999
You have a go at the boss.
00:53:52.999 --> 00:53:54.751
It\'s just life.
00:53:54.751 --> 00:53:57.709
[upbeat music]
Distributor: Icarus Films
Length: 52 minutes
Date: 2020
Genre: Expository
Language: English; French / English subtitles
Color/BW:
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Closed Captioning: Available
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