WEBVTT

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[upbeat music]

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Throughout the 18th century,

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Great Britain
experienced economic,

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industrial and social revolution

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as had never been seen before.

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It invented new
means of production,

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new machines, and a
new class of workers

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to serve these machines
and their owners.

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Exploited, underpaid,

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deprived of the
freedom of association,

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the right to strike,
and the right to vote,

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hundreds of thousands
of these women and men

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possessed nothing but the
strength of their arms

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and the desire to be fully
recognized as human beings.

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The fields of
Waterloo in Belgium.

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In 1815 it was here that
great Britain and its allies

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triumphed over the
Empire of Napoleon.

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Great Britain was at this time

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the world\'s leading
industrial power,

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and Belgium was its
European bridgehead.

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As a symbol of this partnership,

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crowning this pyramid is
a 26-tonne cast-iron lion,

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produced in a Belgian steelworks

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founded by an Englishman
in Seraing near to Liège.

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[upbeat music]

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At the beginning
of the 19th century

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Belgium was the only
European country

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to unreservedly adopt
the English model.

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The two countries had
economic liberalism in common,

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which favored the development
of large enterprises

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employing several
thousand workers,

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which in France and Germany
was still extremely rare.

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So it was that in a few decades,

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Belgium became the world\'s
second-largest economic power,

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just behind England.

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It was said that Belgium was
a paradise for capitalists,

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and a hell for workers.

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Seraing steelworks in 1840.

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The same steelworks a
century and a half later,

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filmed by Jean-Claude
Riga in the 1980s.

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[indistinct chatter]

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[fire blaze roaring]

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[metal clinging]

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The steelworks closed in 1990.

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All that remains today

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of one of Europe\'s
largest factories,

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is this rusting carcass which
no one knows what to do with,

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and the memories
of former workers.

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It\'s lively at the furnace.

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Loading is done from above.

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The raw material goes
into the high furnace.

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All sorts of reactions happen

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because of the gas
which is produced.

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And down below,

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either what is produced comes
out well or not so well.

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The ideal temperature
is 1,480 degrees.

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But sometimes, it would
fall below 1,400 degrees,

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which meant the material
didn\'t flow well.

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They were the most
difficult days.

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Yes, I remember once
when you came to Kessales

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because he was
transferred to Kessales

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to the cold of the
production line.

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He told me a bit about his work.

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You described the
high furnace to me

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as being like a stomach.

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It\'s like a stomach.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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You judged it by
the noise it made.

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Yeah, you always
had to be attentive

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to the slightest sound.

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As soon as there was
a suspicious noise

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you had to react immediately,

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because it could quickly
turn into a catastrophe.

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It wasn\'t always a laugh,

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but my best memories
come from there.

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But the heat isn\'t the
same thing as the cold.

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Heat is much more homelike.

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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.

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If it all started
up again tomorrow,

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and they asked workers to
go back to work in the heat,

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they\'d jump at the chance,

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they\'d run and grab their
tools to work in the heat.

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Most people find it
much more friendly.

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I don\'t know how to put it.

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It\'s more homelike.

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That said, there was
always tension as well.

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It wasn\'t always a bed of
roses in the heat, far from it.

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But there was something,
a sort of helpfulness

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which was different.

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There was more of a team
spirit, I would say.

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True, but in the cold

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you always have to keep a
careful eye on the belt.

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It\'s completely different.

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I think that people are
a bit more isolated.

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They\'re in cabins
along the line.

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Whereas we were-

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We had to work together.

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We had to work
together in the heat.

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And now, well, Mr.
Mittal\'s last restructuring

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found that there were
still too many of us.

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So people had to be laid off.

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So I was,

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I was shown the door after
30 years as a steelworker.

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And now?

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Now, I\'ve found a new job.

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I\'ve converted to
logistics and transport.

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At 53 that\'s not bad,

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because there are a lot of
youngsters who can\'t find work.

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So I count myself lucky.

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[upbeat music]

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Back to the past.

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Workers at the same
company in 1886.

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They can\'t speak, so we don\'t
know what they are thinking.

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But none of them are smiling.

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We see the weariness of age.

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The weariness of
children, apprentices,

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and that of an old man
who has no other choice

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but to keep working,

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because there is no
retirement for workers.

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20 years earlier still, 1868.

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Workers at the same foundry.

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An extraordinary
portrait gallery,

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dreamt up by the directors to
show off the company\'s wealth

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in terms of human material.

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The workers\' strike
poses in a studio,

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with the tools of their trade.

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The images show us what they
do, but not how they live.

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They lived crammed
into the new slums

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of the industrial cities,
like those in Glasgow.

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Unhealthy ghettos,

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hidden from the eyes of
the happiest classes,

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sometimes a single street away.

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Dilapidated houses,

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rented out for fortunes
by unscrupulous landlords.

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The exploitation
came full circle.

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Historian Stefan Berger.

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Some of the housing was
built by the employers.

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Some of the housing
was built privately,

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but usually, the idea was
to cram as many workers

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into a house as possible.

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And therefore also, to follow
the new capitalist logic

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of making profit from housing.

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And, of course, it also meant,
in many cases, a new diet,

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it was not any longer a diet
determined by agriculture

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and by what was available
through agriculture.

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But the wages allowed the
new workers to buy food

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that then would be consumed,

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but it was often poor diet.

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And I\'ve got one example here

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from the economist
Friedrich List

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who observed in the middle
of the 19th century,

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what the diet of poorer families

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in the German lands looked like.

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And he wrote, and I quote,

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\"Potatoes without salt,

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very thin soup with
black bread, porridge,

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every now and again,
black dumplings.

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Those who are better off

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can afford a modest
piece of fresh

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or smoked meat once a week.

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Yet most know the term
roast only from hearsay.

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I have seen quarters

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in which it was quite
usual to hang a herring,

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fixed to the ceiling
with a piece of string

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just above the table.

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Everyone at the table
could rub his or her potato

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against the herring,

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so as to give aroma
to the potatoes.\"

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The misery of English
workers around 1830

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was so deep that they
compared their lot

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to that of the black
slaves of the colonies.

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In 1833, when the English
Parliament abolished slavery,

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some went so far as to protest

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that the first to be liberated

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should be the white slaves as
they referred to themselves.

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[upbeat music]

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But change was on the horizon.

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The worker population
of the main cities

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had become so vast that they
could no longer be ignored.

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Exploited, hungry,
unhappy, and unknown,

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they struck fear.

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One French journalist wrote,

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\"The barbarians who
threaten us today

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are not in the Caucasus nor
in the steppes of Tartary,

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they are on the outskirts
of our industrial cities.

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Modern society will perish at
the hands of the proletariat.\"

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This was not just
a figure of speech.

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The upper classes were
directly threatened

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by the epidemics

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which broke out in the
slums of the major cities,

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and against which social
barriers were powerless.

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Diphtheria, scrofula, cholera.

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The monstrous children of
the Industrial Revolution.

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In England, militant newspapers

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like \'The Poor Man\'s Guardian\'

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publicly denounced the
living conditions of workers,

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while throughout
industrial Europe,

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parliamentary
commissions debated

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what had become known
as the social question.

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Good society could not carry
on as if it were unaware.

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But for them, it wasn\'t
the fault of the system,

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but that of the workers.

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Each had their own remedy.

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Workers would feel better if
they went to church more often.

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If they drank less.

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Or even, as the
philosopher Malthus put it,

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if they had less children,

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to thin out the available
workforce on the market

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and thereby obtain
better salaries.

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English reformers initially
took a pragmatic approach

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by attacking child labor,

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as denounced by Charles Dickens

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in his 1837 novel,
\"Oliver Twist.\"

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At the time, tens of
thousands of children

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carried out subservient work
in textile mills and mines.

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Under the liberal doctrine

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it was forbidden

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for the state to interfere
in the working relationship

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between workers and bosses,

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which was considered
an agreement

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freely entered into
by two equal partners.

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When it came to children,
this argument collapsed.

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In 1842, despite fierce
opposition from employers,

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parliament prohibited the
employment of children

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under the age of 10 in
underground galleries.

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A victory partially due
to Victorian prudery,

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because the heat in the mines
obliged adults and children

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to work almost naked.

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At the same period,
Great Britain,

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with its habitual advance
over the rest of Europe,

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was the first country to
legalize workers\' unions,

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even though strikes
remained forbidden.

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Priority was given
to political action.

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In 1832, reformers\' and
workers\' representatives

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signed a charter,

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demanding universal suffrage

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and the democratization
of Parliament.

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As a practical
lesson in democracy,

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the charter was
accompanied by an outline

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for secret ballot
polling stations.

00:14:17.375 --> 00:14:18.999
[upbeat music]

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Chartist petitions gathered
millions of signatures.

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Meetings attracted hundreds
of thousands of protesters.

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It was a mass movement,

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reflecting the scale
of the industry

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within which it was born,

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and at the origin of
the accepted image

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of the working class;

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this compact, homogenous, and
apparently unstoppable crowd.

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But throughout the 19th century

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this image was true for
England and Belgium alone;

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apart from one or
two exceptions,

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France had no large factories.

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Its industry was based
on a dense network

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of small companies,

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comprising a few
dozen workers at most.

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This system was for a long time

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considered as craft industry,

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as though only
large-scale industry

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was capable of producing
authentic workers.

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An argument refuted by the
philosopher Jacques Rancière.

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People of my generation

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grew up with an idea
of the working-class

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as a sort of massive reality.

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There were masses of people
coming out of factories,

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there was strong unionism,

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masses of workers could
be seen protesting.

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So there was this
sort of global vision

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which was centered
around the factory,

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like a sort of stable reality.

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By way of a comparison with
that, people would say:

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\"Before the working class,

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there was something different,

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which was cottage industry.\"

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So as a result, when I
began studying the 1830s,

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people would say to me,

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\"But they weren\'t real workers.\"

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Because for a lot of people

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real workers are people
who work in factories,

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people who work on
a production line.

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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]