This year, the Fair to self Toulouse has successfully met the activist sphere while
opening the cultural and alternative scene. The discussions were rich and varied, and
relations with the Bazar Bazacle are looking good! ---- For the third consecutive year the
Fair to self is invited under political events of Bazar Bazacle, early May. But not only
because the common desire is to keep a certain mutual independence between the two
structures. Frequently also the self began with opening day the previous Saturday, April
26. ---- Frequently in and out of Bazacle ---- This day was marked by a preliminary
discussion relating to the history of the self and two other workshops suiviabordant the
role of women in the self-management history: the Paris Commune and a strike of workers in
a factory in 1910 Graulhet (industrial city of Tarn). Two comrades from Montpellier
discussed the history of the self from the moments of revolutionary rupture: Paris
Commune, Russian Revolution of 1917 and Spain in 1936 Their conclusion was reflected in
the fact that these revolutionary periods. were very short and that confronting the
realities brought the working classes to take their business themselves in hand. Although
these transient experiments happened during the civil wars that have increased economic
destabilization. Then be required to fast does not always push the experiment to an end.
However, these short-term prove the possibility of an alternative operation to capitalism.
Self and feminism
The other two workshops attracted a female audience who had not moved in the previous
sessions. The workshop on the Paris Commune has a rich and open debate on women's
involvement in this revolutionary period but this has primarily to bounce on social
measures adopted and which still punctuate the lives of French society such secularism,
health or education, a favorite spot of the influence of women in the Commune. The final
workshop is oriented towards the presentation of an unknown but popular strike in the West
at the time, showing the ability of workers to join a dynamic self of their struggle.
The bazaar of the fair
The Fair was invited by the Bazar Bazacle of May 2 to 4, on a run by the EDF committee
business space. The Bazar Bazacle was created, there is a decade by a band of activists
outcome of community associations, unions and the entertainment and precarious. "Le Bazar
Bazacle asserts itself in recent years as a area of confrontation, debates, cultural
experiments, social and political. This is an original proposal to address all resistance
movements in the face of social and economic emergencies and beyond sectoral trade union
and political "differences . The convergence of struggles is the watchword of this
gathering, which this year was held in terms of building solidarity in France, in Europe
and in the world. This event was associated from April 30 to May 4, both speaking themes
of life, poverty, politics, self-management through theater, music, screenings,
exhibitions, conferences shrugged, libraries and workshops / debates. But let's not forget
the youth shows, refreshments and Jacquot (association shared kitchen) with corner brings
his culinary usability on the site.
But back to the Fair. Needless to say that activists converged Fair Bazaar, and forging of
both sides of strong friendships.
Usability has been welcomed participants of the Fair and since they brought a gift of
unity, a self-managed football match on Saturday morning.
Regarding the workshops: the program of the fair on Friday, a workshop was held within the
framework of international solidarity, a videoconference with two women involved in a
self-managed health center in Greece. Saturday outside a debate on self sport, was marked
by the involvement of self-management in the public service and the relationship to the
state. On the menu: Education with representatives of school self in Paris, a film about
the CNR, then, following a workshop on Chiapas, union management committee business site
that greeted us, the Common Front Housing . On Sunday, representatives of the Scop new ice
making Carcassonne (ex-Pilpa) explained their transition from self-control to the recovery
of their factory in productive self.
The self-running?
With regard to housing, since already the previous year, the establishment of a Common
Front housing has enabled the active network year, activists squats, DAL and CGT-building
. This is the first concrete realization of the Fair. For other workshops, self-management
thinking on public service is facing isolation structures and government subsidies, which
show the limits of self-management independence in an economic and social system based on
profit and the intervention of the welfare state. In Chiapas, the absence of the State or
its repressive single face, forcing over a wide area populations to self-organize. But for
our Western economies, in many situations, boost self-management is faced with the role of
the welfare state. For example under the CNR, health - where our Greek lament the
corresponding task almost impossible for self-managed social centers provide access to
care to three million Greek without health insurance - the schools of Paris and Saint-
Nazaire dependent on subsidies, ex-Pilpa who imposed to redeem their factory buildings to
local government.
Filigree is the need appeared politically ask the phase transition can not be satisfied
with an emergency situation, a survival economy between itself and a pessimistic: State or
State is not the answer we need to ask in the context of the revolutionary project of
self-management.
Jean-Marc Izrine (AL Toulouse)
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