2023-04-25 00:14:17
We have perhaps never heard so much about them. Or maybe they’ve never made so much noise. With its pot concerts, Attac has become one of the major players in the mobilization against the pension reform. The association has already called for new “pans” this Monday at 8 p.m. to “celebrate” the first anniversary of Emmanuel Macron’s re-election. 315 gatherings have already been identified. But what exactly is Attac?
An anti-globalization association at the origin
It was in 1998 that the association officially saw the light of day, a few months after its unofficial birth certificate, an editorial by Ignacio Ramonet in Le Monde diplomatique. The journalist suggested setting up a non-governmental organization, the “Association for a Tobin tax to help citizens (Attac)”. Launched definitively on June 3, 1998, Attac wants to be alter-globalist and present internationally in some forty countries, and militates for a “democratic control of the financial markets”.
With nearly 30,000 members in just four years, Attac is first of all a success. But it will sink in 2006 as a result of governance problems. “Today, we are approaching more than 10,000 members, with between 1,500 and 2,000 active activists who bring the association to life,” recognizes Alice Picard, spokesperson for the association. However, the resources of the association are brought to nearly 90% by its members and donors.
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“The crisis that Attac has gone through is explained by different political orientations, in terms of alliances, strategies, conceptions of what Attac must become (…) Attac could be a major player in its reorientation, or at least of an in-depth questioning of its constituent principles”, already questioned, in 2007, the sociologist Raphaël Wintrebert in “Attac France and the alter-globalization movement”.
“25 years after our creation, there is a revival”
In his work, Wintrebert quotes one of the founders of Attac, Bernard Cassen. “Alterglobalism is over. This is the bottom of my thought. It was a cycle, “said the former honorary president of the association in 2007 who advocated, at that time, a radical left but of government. “That means breaking with a lot of people and practices and I absolutely don’t think Attac can do that. »
Nearly 16 years later, Attac ended up changing combat… and name! The Association for a Tobin tax to help citizens became the Association for the taxation of financial transactions and for citizen action, without changing its original acronym, Attac. “At no time, in 1998, could anyone say that Attac was destined to become what we are today. We now think of ourselves and live ourselves as an association that fights for social, fiscal and ecological justice. We live with our times, and social issues evolve, ”recalls Alice Picard.
Logical, therefore, if the association has taken up the subject of pension reform. “We’ve been talking about it since last fall. It was obvious. The pension reform embodies our fight, explains the spokesperson for the movement. We realize that we are very visible with these pot concerts. We can say perhaps that 25 years after our creation, there is a revival. »
“We won’t give up! »
To explain its success, the association evokes above all its “apartan organization”. “We are not affiliated with anyone. We bring together unions, the media and other associations. We have always been a point of convergence of the social movement, it is the Attac DNA”, deciphers the spokesperson, who assures “not wanting to take the place of anyone”, and says she is “very attached to the union of unions in this fight”.
To do this, the main tool developed by Attac is a map of the movements of Emmanuel Macron and members of the government “for a better organization of the committees of non-reception and casseroles everywhere in France”. It is here that the 315 gatherings of “casserolades” planned, for the moment, this Monday evening at 8 p.m. are listed. “We won’t let them go! (…) A new general casserole is organized in front of town halls and in the streets. Before the popular May Day tidal wave! “, warns Attac on its website.
But isn’t Attac now reduced to these pot concerts? “If that’s what makes people discover Attac, it’s not simplistic. It is a gateway, answers the spokesperson for the movement. Afterwards, they will discover all our daily actions. »
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