VSwas a roundabout guy. One of the yellow vests of the “red bridge”, in Bayonne. “I still am. I think we remain yellow vest, ”slips Nordine Medouakh. He first wanted to “check”. “I saw the movement arrive like a citizen in front of his TV. The media treatment quickly caricatured the yellow vests. We didn’t say “these rednecks”, but that was the meaning. It made me jump off my couch. And walk to the Henri-Grenet bridge.
Nordine sensed a “class contempt” in this downward gaze. He does not meet “the idiots on the bridge”, as a passing motorist swung at them. “I did not find what some media were describing. It was more complex. It was people trying to get a…
VSwas a roundabout guy. One of the yellow vests of the “red bridge”, in Bayonne. “I still am. I think we remain yellow vest, ”slips Nordine Medouakh. He first wanted to “check”. “I saw the movement arrive like a citizen in front of his TV. The media treatment quickly caricatured the yellow vests. We didn’t say “these rednecks”, but that was the meaning. It made me jump off my couch. And walk to the Henri-Grenet bridge.
Nordine sensed a “class contempt” in this downward gaze. He does not meet “the idiots on the bridge”, as a passing motorist swung at them. “I did not find what some media were describing. It was more complex. They were people who tried to have a collective reflection. I would almost speak of popular education roundabouts. “He talks with “comfortable” ex-Turbomeca retirees, others on the contrary “very modest”. Fewer executives than temporary workers, that’s for sure. France ”Marque Landmark”. Also “people who came to break boredom and isolation, to resocialize”.
At the time, Nordine made up with the Specific Solidarity Allowance (ASS): 480 euros per month. “I don’t know how we live with that. We survive until the 15th. You don’t have access to culture, you don’t buy clothes. You feed yourself, period. Friends help you a little, “fortunately”. Nordine frowns when career elected officials, compensated by the community, castigate “the assistantship”: “The profiteers of the system are ultra-minority. People would rather work for 1,400 euros than scrape by with 480.”
underground miner
The 59-year-old big man had better fortune. Responsibilities in publishing, then in banking. Comfortable times over which life is spent. “When I arrived in the Basque Country, I was looking for a job. I couldn’t find in my industry. Overqualified. Too old. I just had to create my job. The Covid-19 swept away his self-employed real estate project.
My father was an underground miner in Pas-de-Calais. He died at age 56 of silicosis.
He finds a mission of mediator in the buses, towards the structures of assistance to the deprived. “People in great difficulty rub shoulders with ordinary bus customers. It can cause problems. Nordine rounds off, defuses. “It worked well, it was super interesting. The Atherbea association, his boss, wants to keep him. “I was offered a job as a receptionist in Manuit. The house opens every night to the homeless. ” I like what I do. I feel useful. It makes a lot of sense to me. »
The great question of poverty resonates with childhood. “I come from a working class background. My father was an underground miner in Pas-de-Calais. He died at age 56 of silicosis (1). Without wanting to redo ”Germinal”, he toiled all his life to support his five children with my mother who raised us. He never tasted retirement. It marks you. You understand the sacrifices of your parents to allow you to go to school, to escape… It has forged my identity as a man. »
Union activist
Salaried, Nordine will militate with the CGT. He never forgot workers’ solidarity, “sometimes just a piece of butter given by the neighbors”. It does not fall into some class romanticism, does not idealize the worker any more than the yellow vest. At the bottom of the Grenet bridge, the “fundamentally leftist” man knows that he could come across a far-right activist. “The workers’ vote goes a lot to the National Rally, that’s a fact. They capture anger. People who survive on the minimum and never find a job can switch ideologically. »
Nordine formulates a rhetorical question: “Haven’t we let these most popular classes down? He quotes the report of the Terra Nova think tank, the Socialist Party’s suggestion box, for the 2012 presidential election: “He recommended going more towards the middle classes and middle managers. A form of fatalism ran through this text, which recorded the loss of popular strata for the left.
“Contradictory injunctions”
Perhaps there will be a yellow vests vote next April. “In any case, we are back to the same point. We may have let go of 10 billion at the time, but gasoline is at its highest, electricity and gas are crippling household budgets. Nordine points more generally to “the contradictory injunctions of neoliberalism”. “You don’t have anything, but you have to consume. And eat well. Recently, I walked into an organic store. I left with just a yogurt. “Do not come out empty-handed, give the change socially.
Recently, I walked into an organic store. I left with just a yogurt
He quotes the Bordeaux philosopher Barbara Stiegler (2) whose writings feed his reflection: “Neoliberalism asks you to always adapt. We give nothing other to think than this competition of everyone with everyone. The one who has little fear of having less and the whole holds together.
The yellow vests would have transcended this mechanism? “The movement has been subjected to unprecedented repression in recent history. Eleven people lost their lives (3), there were mutilated, injured. The “nasse” demonstrators, the “GLIF4” tear gas canisters, the defense bullet launchers (LBD): Nordine sees in the doctrine of maintaining order during the crisis of the yellow vests, the signs of this “neoliberal order which protects its interests.
(1) Lung disease which decimated the miners.
(2) Today she is active in the ranks of La France insoumise.
(3) This number is established. It should be noted that it covers 10 deaths related to road accidents, around roundabouts and other gatherings. A woman died of a tear gas canister injury.
After the presidential election: what first measure do you expect?
“Initially, I wanted to talk about the introduction of a significant dose of proportional representation in the elections, a return to the seven-year term in the form of a single, non-renewable mandate. But I’m not sure it makes people want to vote again. I prefer to talk about a real revaluation of the minimum wage and social minima. At least, 200 euros net. This is the emergency for me. »