Travail partisan et sociabilités populaires. Observations localisées de la politisation communiste

Abstract

Partisan Work among the Working-Class and Labour Modes of Social Relations: Local Observations of the Communist Politicisation Julian Mischi The implantation of political parties simultaneously contributes to structuring collective practices in labour communities and to hiding them, as party actions bring along both homogenisation and compétition. While it is useful to analyse parties within the social groups that back them, it is just as essential to distinguish between activist modes of social relations and overall working-class modes of social relations. The analysis of the French Communist Party (PCF) in local areas highlights the ways in which the party works towards the émergence of labour modes of social relations, which in turn transform the party's own forms of expression. Though the party makes great use of control tools and ensures that the partisan link takes precedence over other forms of social relations, the Communist party must take into account working class forms of social relations at the local level, which can escape its control, even in communist strongholds. A socio-historical approach, moreover, shows that a crisis in traditional solidarity networks (familial, territorial or professional) can have positive repercussions for the PCF which then appears as an ideological vehicle for maintaining that threatened social cohesion.