Both dressed in overalls, Anne Passero and Violette Vaucher are, that evening, at the forefront of the meeting against the pension reform which is taking place in Alès (Gard). The two friends, who joined the organizing committee of the event, are mobilizing, this February 3, to roll back the Macron government’s project. They make sure to find chairs for everyone. In the room, more than 500 people came to listen to the deputy La France insoumise (LFI) from Seine-Saint-Denis Clémentine Autain and her colleague from Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) from Paris Sandrine Rousseau.
Anne Passero, a dynamic 50-year-old unemployed, is the co-host of Canaules insoumise, an action group attached to LFI and Nupes, which was born in 2017 in Canaules-et-Argentières, her Gard village of 400 inhabitants. “Action groups are everywhere. Here, we are about twenty. We meet at one or the other to organize the mobilization “, explains this Gardoise, convinced that it is not necessary to act only in the cities, but also in rural areas.
Violette Vaucher, 38, a striking teacher, is part of the same group and no longer counts her hours preparing posters. “Ultra-determined”, the CP-CE1 teacher is ready to “hold on as long as possible”. “In the Gard, there are twenty-eight action groups, account Véronique Soriano-Deresmes, the other co-host. We are in a continuum, after the “yellow vests” and Nuit Debout. The objective is to hold out until the big day of mobilization on March 7. »
A demonstration on market day
In the meantime, at the foot of the Cévennes, meetings follow one another: theatrical performance, film screening, meeting with LFI deputy Michel Sala, distribution of leaflets… 30 kilometers away, in Lasalle, a village of 1,000 inhabitants, the mobilization is also rising. Here bubbles another collective, which mixes trade unionists, political militants and citizens. They are a dozen to meet once or twice a week in the Viala room, made available by the left-wing municipality.
“By grouping together in front of the gendarmerie, we wanted the figures to go back to Paris. Philippe Alverde, leader of the local union Solidaires in Alès
Philippe Alverde, retired and leader of the local union Solidaires in Alès, is one of those who have boosted the dynamics. “The click was the first demonstration in Alès, on January 19. » Nearly 10,000 demonstrators in a sub-prefecture of 40,000 inhabitants. “Nobody, on the union side, had imagined such a scenario. We said to ourselves that we couldn’t let people leave like that. And we started meeting informally. » The collective was born at that time.
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