The refusal of work inspiring the slogans we have seen , has been present all throughout the “ movement ”, in flagrant contradiction with a part of its components who were showing a will to preserve the status quo , that is to say , the wage system as relation of exploitation , and the labour law in its current form . Nevertheless , such people , primarily the worker and student unions , didn ’ t “ control ” the events , nor could they seize the role of representing the people in struggle . This was shown ( at least in Paris during the demonstrations ) by the emergence of an entity that regrouped people ( up to a few thousands ) that can be difficultly reduced to the usual categories : the front demonstration [ cortège de tête , the people marching on the front of the demonstration ].
Here some samples of texts , leaflets and posters , anarchist contributions which were circulating during the first part of the “ movement ” and which tried to also overcome the question of the refusal of work :
“ We are against work Because we are against a system that is based on the exploitation of all . Because the managers of this world transform all the living into commodity all over the planet . Because this society has no other choices to offer us than going to work , some crumbles to survive or the imprisonment of the undesirables and the rebels . Because work is selling your time , your energy , your body and your mind to managers , bosses and machines . Because capitalism and State pretend to govern all aspects of our lives and dispossesses us ever more of all autonomy and even of our dreams of something completely different . Because this frantic production system doesn ’ t leave any outside where you can freely decide on your activities . Because Daddy State is only guaranteeing rights at the price of our freedom : it is the same one who unleashed its guard dogs on the streets , creates and militarises borders and wages war in the four corners of the world . Because the restructuring ( that they call “ crisis ”) means hardening of misery , social cannibalism , techniques and technologies of control . For all these reasons , and many more , we are not only against work but above all against the world that makes work into an impassable pillar and horizon . If we do not want to rearrange the length of our chains but destroy them , no negotiation or dialogue is possible with whatever power . Therefore , it is about bringing this struggle across the limits all those who have an interest in asphyxiating it in the existing framework ( as the politicians and co-managers of all orders ) want to impose on us .” - A sample of the leaflet We are against work
“ In this whole story , the labour law is not so much the victorious result of historical workers ’ struggles than it is a compromise , concessions granted by the employers , so that , less voraciously but surely , the exploitation of those who only posses their work force continues .
Therefore , unlike the reformists of all sorts , we do not want as horizon to work “ all , less or differently ”. No . We refuse to continue to live in a world where choosing your life means to haggle over exploitation in whatever form ( CDI , CDD , self-entrepreneurship , civil service ,…), administrative policing of social benefits , boredom , prison or death . Neither are we calling for whatever messed-up and demagogic union of “ the workers ” or of “ the youth ”. There are many trades and sectors which are to different degrees responsible for domination and exploitation and therefore the result of personal choice : cops , guards , soldiers , professionals of security , designers of technologies of surveillance and control , often collaborating with academics , architects , advertising agents , all these companies ( big ones as well as small subcontractors ) which are making money with the hunt for people without papers , with real estate speculation , with imprisonment , all this French know-how of preserving public order , with the arms industry , with the nuclear industry ( a source of disgusting pride for patriots ), the scum of ticket controllers in public transports and bailiffs , all this bastards of the human resources that thank us politely to say they are sacking us ,… Do we want to fight to defend the employment of all these honest workers who are “ just doing their job ”? Certainly not .” - Sample of Protestation bénigne contre une loi de l ’ exploitation ... ou révolte contre le vol de nos vies ?, in Paris Sous Tension issue 6 .
“ The different laws power tires to make us swallow aim to alienate us even more and force us to accept the foundation of their rotten society , based on exploitation and war of everyone against everyone : between those who have a job and those who don ’ t ; between the poor without a job and the poor who have no papers , fleeing war and misery , overcoming ultra-secured borders and confronting the guard dogs of the States . All these divisions amongst the exploited which aren ’ t anything but a reflection of this competitive prison world which power is building day after day , are as much barriers to bring down .” - From of a poster pasted in Besançon , Contre ce monde d ’ esclaves et de misère … Engouffrons-nous dans le chemin de la révolte !
“ If we want to quit the wage system … It is to finally choose to manage freely our energy and our time of living . It is to act in our lives according to our aspirations and our individual and collective needs . Therefore , it is fleeing the work dictated by the aspirations and needs of the bosses , the companies and the markt . We believe work , in factories or behind desks , good or well paid , requiring long our short studies , doesn ’ t set free . Quite the opposite , it aims more to keep our minds busy and to disinterest us for the ethical questions of our lives en our societies , to coerce us to survival and consumption .” - Sample of a leaflet handed out by secondary school students in Saint-Nazaire
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