While this Thursday is announced as a decisive day for opponents of the pension reform project planned by the government, mobilizations are being organized everywhere in France. Many unions and political parties have called for a day of action, joined by the civil service and energy. A call for a general strike which aims to be “powerful”, long-term, and which aims to affect as many sectors as possible.
Mobilization is also organized on the Internet, in particular through a lot of popularization work and support for strikers: it is in this spirit that the Twitch channel was created. PiquetDeStream.
Use the stream (online broadcasts) in the service of the strike: a formula already used four years ago with the Recondustream, an initiative launched by a collective of streamers during the strike of December 5, 2019. The objective was to support the inter-union and inter-professional strike fund managed by the CGT Info’com. After six weeks of streaming and 470 hours of live, more than 152,000 euros had been collected.
The streamer Yukaino offered to make a Recondustream 2. Klitch Norrisstreamer, then launched a Discord with her and Jimmy Joyeux, says Happy Sociologist on Twitch. This is how the chain was born PiquetDeStream. “We are currently 50 streamers and streamers, but more will probably join us. We are going for three days of almost continuous streaming, ”explains Klitch Norris.
“Keep the strike alive”
In its press release, the Piquet de Stream collective mentions several objectives: to provide popular education on pension reform and social movements, to encourage as many people as possible to participate in the strike, to raise funds to support the strikers, union members or not; but also “bringing the strike to life online and showing that there are many of us who support it”.
More than ever, especially after a presidential campaign focused on social networks, political struggles are happening online as well as offline. The collective hopes to bring together the spectators, with a slogan: “While they hold the picket, we will hold the Piquet De Stream! “.
From January 18 at 7 p.m., the collective will offer streaming on his Twitch channel, starting with an interview with the general secretary of CGT Infocom and a reminder of the history of pensions. Klitch Norris indicates that for the next few days are planned “guests, strike-oriented press review, a little gaming, political analysis on the impacts of this reform and how to do otherwise, a presentation of the consequences on the most precarious, especially women. »
During their stream, viewers will have the opportunity to make a donation. All the money collected will be donated to the strike fund managed by the CGT infocom and Sud Poste 92 unions.
“To educate a young and dynamic public”
The presence of streams and content related to social and political subjects is not new on Twitch: we think of the show Backseat or at HugoDecrypt news side; or the lives of OstPolitik, Usul, Bolchegeek or Modiie which dissect political or social science issues. But the use of streaming as a tool for political mobilization is still rare.
“It is interesting to use the stream because it allows communication outside the traditional media, by people whose precariousness is often life and who will suffer the brunt of the impacts of the reform”, indicates Klitch Norris. Jimmy Joyeux, a graduate in sociology of social movements from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), explains that “streaming has evolved over the years. Charitable events such as the Zevent have emerged and have been able to raise awareness among a young and dynamic public on many social issues. »
The goal is also to promote certain values: “It seemed interesting for us to claim an event that does not hesitate to get politically wet in order to promote inclusive values that correspond to the social struggles in progress. The idea is therefore to allow a whole generation of users of these platforms to take part, in their own way, in a collective action that we believe is necessary”, emphasizes Jimmy Joyeux.
The streamers and streamers at the origin of Piquet De Stream nevertheless wish to recall that “giving money to strike funds does not replace the fact of going on strike, but it allows those who have the financial means but not necessarily professionals to support the strikers”.