Contenu du sommaire : Luttes de classes

Eustache Kouvélakis, Michel Vakaloulis, The "Return " of the Class Struggle The question posed today by the class struggle is not so much its existence as its visibility. Its "return" is occasioned by the reemergence of certain symptoms of class struggle in capitalist society as it occurred in the 1980s, provoked by the "modernization" of capitalist production, such as class polarization and increased pressure on the "middle classes". From another angle, the weakening of the dominated classes 'capacity to act in their own interest has contributed to the displacement of the problem of class oppression from the conflict between capital and labor towards ethnic antagonisms or towards the question of "exclusion " or "social fracture". The real problem is not between social pacification or confrontation, but rather between the productive expression of the essential antagonism between capital and labor and the proliferation of anomic and destructive forms of conflict.

Jean-Claude Delaunay, Capitalism and Class Struggle : Historical Perspective and Present Time There are different models of the class struggle. The model worked out during the nineteenth century has been difficult to apply in the twentieth because of the deficiencies of socialist systems and because of the success of the welfare state. Beginning in the 1970s with the intensified globalization of the economy, a new strategy for social struggle appeared necessary. But this was difficult to analyze because social conflicts were displaced towards other sites, taking different forms.

Jacques Kergoat, Class Struggle : Some Problems Social classes have not at all disappeared, but the history of the class struggle should not be presented as the history of working-class victories. Still, the great events of this century cannot be understood without direct reference to the class struggle. The class struggle is present every day in a variety of subtle and different ways.

Jean-Pierre Durand, Entreprises : How Can We Still Speak of the Class Struggle ? The class struggle is the most visible manifestation of the main contradiction between social classes which powers all social and economic formations. Within capitalist enterprises the ways in which the class struggle is expressed has been modified as much as social classes and the class struggle have been changed themselves over the past fifty years. Since capitalism has not disappeared, it is still appropriate to speak of the class struggle. However, it cannot be spoken of as Marx did or, more recently, as have the theoreticians of the labor movement. appropriate to speak of the class struggle. However, it cannot be spoken of as Marx did or, more recently, as have the theoreticians of the labor movement.

René Gallissot, Class Struggle and Social National State The class struggle is mediated by the national state and virtually disappears, except for the consciousness of dominant and directing classes. Social struggles are politicized within the confines of the nation state (that we can now refer to as the national social state). Social struggles are transformed into ethnic struggles by nationalist ideologies. The social violence that unequal international relationships engender has been incorporated into national struggles. In light of the globalization of the national state and the nationalization of the labor movement, the power of the state over the forms taken by the class struggle seems to be greater than that of economic production or consumption.

Gérard Prévost, The Lessons of a Social Crisis ou the Rupture of a Consensus (The Strikes of November and December 1995) Weberian sociology has eliminated the questions posed by classical political philosophy and has made it difficult to incorporate class analysis into social science. The "modernization " advocated by recent socialist governments in France provided President Chirac with a watchword justifying a reactionary program : "reform ". In fact, the disorientation of the social sciences is related to that of the general population. But today the social crisis has reintroduced an essential dimension : the question of the social classes which have Just broken the intellectual consensus.

Pierre Ansart, From Trade Identities to Class Identification : A Paradoxical Development ? (1820-1848) Is it possible to explain the relations between affectivity and identification, between the emotions, sentiments and passions and social or political identities ? How do reinforced or weakened feelings reinforce or weaken collective identities ? How do hostile feelings towards a rival group reinforce an identity, and for how long ? In the midst of conflict, what fears, elements of pride and affective memories contribute to the construction of identities, and how are they mediated ? These questions are inscribed in historical development. Study of the transformation of the working class in France from 1820 to 1848 reveals how.

Laure Pitti, Worker Image and Engagement in the National Liberation Struggle : The Algerian Workers at Renault-Billancourt during the Algerian War Socio-historical study of the Algerian workers at the Renault factory at Billancourt during the Algerian war for independence indicates that the term "worker" functioned as an element of discrimination in the relations between French workers and Algerian workers. For the Algerians, the term implied a common struggle, for the French (who distinguished between "Renault workers" and "militant Algerians") such an idea was, in practice, eliminated. common struggle, for the French (who distinguished between "Renault workers" and "militant Algerians") such an idea was, in practice, eliminated.

Danielle Cohen, William Kornblum, Chicago : between class and race This paper argues that Chicago 's recent history of racial conflict and gang violence is largely due to changes in the class stratification system of the city and, especially, to negative changes in the class structure of Chicago 's African-American ghetto community. The authors review the history of class identification, segregation and desindustrialization in this well studied North American industrial city. Drawing on the classical ecological methods of the "Chicago School" and more recent quantitative work by Wilson, Massey, and others, the paper provides evidence the African-Americans bear an unequal burden of negative consequences due to the rapid economic social change the city has experienced in the past generation.

Pierre Guerlain, The Mosaic of American Separatisms : The Case of the Walled Cities Although the urban segregation represented by the American ghettoes is well known, the flight of the privileged is not so well understood. Social separation, often accompanied by racial discrimination, takes some original forms in the United States. It has resulted in the construction of opulent and well-guarded ghettoes for the rich. The ideology of security justifying this flight and enclosure of the wealthy constitutes an attempt to coopt social conflicts and reinforce the abandonment of run down neighborhoods in the inner cities. All the various groups end up isolated according to class and racial criteria. The American mosaic take the form of socially homogenous islands which contradict speeches about diversity and assimilation. Ultimately, this situation threatens a democratic polity.