'I Class Struggle': French Exceptionalism and Challenges for Socialist Studies

Elaine Coburn

doi:10.18740/s4vg6q

Abstract

‘Je lutte des classes’ ‘I class struggle’ – sticker worn by protestors in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Lille, and other major French cities on Tuesday, October 12, 2010, during the 5th day of strike action. The protests aimed to challenge proposed legislation to raise the legal age of retirement in France from sixty to sixty two years of age. As in the English translation, the original French is grammatically awkward, an ambiguous if not ambivalent union between ‘I’ and ‘class struggle’.

Highlights

‘Je lutte des classes’ - ‘I class struggle’ – sticker worn by protestors in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Lille, and other major French cities on Tuesday, October 12, 2010, during the 5th day of strike action
The protests aimed to challenge proposed legislation to raise the legal age of retirement in France from sixty to sixty two years of age
If there is no active and vigorous working class movement, what does this mean – for capitalism, for working class people, for transformations beyond capitalism? In this editorial, I would like to use what looks like a classic, contemporary working class protest in France, where I live, to lay out some of questions and challenges for socialist analyses and activism

Summary

Introduction

‘Je lutte des classes’ - ‘I class struggle’ – sticker worn by protestors in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Lille, and other major French cities on Tuesday, October 12, 2010, during the 5th day of strike action. I would like to use what looks like a classic, contemporary working class protest in France, where I live, to lay out some of questions and challenges for socialist analyses and activism.

Results

Conclusion