At the Feast of HumanityFabien Roussel achieved the double feat of making the « buzz » and to unite against him all the members of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), including those from his own camp. The exit of the national secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF) on “the labor left” in front of « the left of allowances [et] social minima” will have fueled the Time.news all weekend, in Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne), and aroused a wind of hostile reactions.
Saturday, September 10, Jean-Luc Mélenchon stood out from the communist leader, by returning the status of assisted to large companies that affected “140 billion euros” during the health crisis. “The assistantship is them”he launched during his speech, recalling his desire to “tax superprofits”. A few hours later, Mathilde Panot took off with “brotherhood” his arrow against Fabien Roussel. “We cannot fight the liberals or the far right by using their words”launched the deputy of La France insoumise (LFI), immediately applauded.
“Assistance”, what is this word, anchored on the right and the extreme right, having to do with the return of the communists and of the left in general? “There is the obvious observation that everyone is faced with: the RN [Rassemblement national] is established among the workers, details PCF historian Roger Martelli. This category feels despised. It is a population tempted by the idea that we are in a welfare society. » A paradox in the form of a drama for a party which, historically, was that of the working class.
On the left, two deputies speak of “assistantship”; they campaigned against the RN in constituencies in northern France, former mining areas: Fabien Roussel and François Ruffin. However, the second separated from the first. “To oppose the France that works to the France of the allowances, these are not my words”reacted the deputy of the Somme on Twitter.
A sesame
If the way of expressing this theme differs in substance, their analysis has many points in common. “From the ‘party of employees’, here we are, in the common spirit, the ‘party of assisted people'”writes François Ruffin in his latest book, I am writing to you from the front of the Somme (Links that liberate, 144 pages, 10 euros). The “assistantship” becomes the sesame to access the reading grid of the world of RN voters.
The sociologist Olivier Schwartz notably theorized this new so-called “triangular” social consciousness, in his text entitled “Do we still live in a class society? » : for the working classes, “the feeling of being under pressure not only from above, but also pressure from below, from below them”. The new working world, rather than being reduced to the opposition between rich and poor, would henceforth include those poorer than oneself, the “assisted” and the “case soc”viewed with resentment by the working poor who do not receive state aid.
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