She has been very active in activism since a young age. And his departure in October from the post of spokesperson for Attac, will change nothing. “I have always been involved in local, national and international activism, explains Aurélie Found. I think it is anchored in me. I have a huge anger against injustices, which comes from my story ”.
After nearly twenty years in the governing bodies of the anti-globalization association, the teacher-researcher in economics and agricultural engineer, published this summer Le Bloc Arc-en-ciel – For a radical and inclusive political strategy (The Discovery), an essay in which she calls for an alliance of struggles: “the red of unionism and communism; the green of environmental mobilizations; yellow, “yellow vests” and popular insurgencies, the purple of feminism, the multicolored of anti-racism “, to” change the system in depth “. A reflection which led to his new commitment at the head of the “parliament of the popular union”, the citizen body launched this Sunday to help Jean-Luc M élenchon to decline his program in “quantified plans “And” dialogue with the LFI presidential candidate on campaign ideas and strategy. “
A few months before the ballot, Aurélie Found looks at the vitality of social movements, the divisions of the left and his new commitment “for a real left in power”.
In October, you resigned from your post of spokesperson for Attac. What is your assessment today of your actions “for social and environmental justice and against the power of finance and multinationals”?
I think we have advanced ideas. When I say “we”, it is not that the Attac movement, it is the alter-globalization movement, it is the social movements. In 1998, Attac was created on the idea of a tax on financial transactions. At the time, it seemed a “revolutionary” idea or at least an idea which was not at all at the center of the debate. And today, it has become a proposal, including on the table of the European institutions. I could also take the example of the fight against tax evasion. We also had small partial victories, torn away but which allow us to believe in it. Finally, I am thinking of Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport, or even the Affair of the Century which succeeded from a legal point of view in winning a lawsuit against the State. So we have plenty of citizens’ organizations, residents, trade unions, associations, which are getting things done.
Have you ever felt any form of discouragement?
I don’t think I ever got discouraged. Otherwise, I would have stopped. I still had a moment of decline after the 2008 crisis because the alter-globalization movement failed at the time to bounce back and be very offensive at a time when the system was strengthening itself while showing its enormous limits. Then, we had the Holland quinquennium which for me was hard: even if I did not have many illusions, I did not think that a government with a president who said he was “enemy of finance” would pass so much. neoliberal measures. I think that has spoiled the idea of the left and that hurts a lot.
But for ten years, there has been a form of renewal of the social movement – as there had been the alter-globalization movement from the end of the 1990s – which makes me optimistic. It is a movement which, without calling itself an “alter-globalist”, is strongly inspired by it. It encompasses the international feminist movement, the struggles for the climate, against police violence, against pension reform. Social mobilizations are being renewed, as we can see with “the yellow vests”. New alliances are being created, while maintaining a certain form of radicalism, that is to say for me a desire to change the roots of the system, as when the climate movement says “let’s change the system, not the climate”.
What place does activism have in your personal life?
If I have never been discouraged, it is precisely because I have always been involved in local, national and international activism. I think it’s ingrained in me. I have a huge anger against injustices, which comes from my story. I don’t come from an affluent class, far from it. I have always known my father to be unemployed. That or the fact of having lived a very harsh custody. The fact as a woman, of having been the victim like many, of sexual assault makes me have this anger in me and it is multiple. And precisely, in my book, I try, from my experience as an organizer of a social movement, to explain how we can work so that these struggles come together, revolve around the criticism of a same system. Because for me, all these relations of domination – of capital over labor, capital over nature, men over women, whites over non-whites… – these are dominations that are part of a system and which are articulated between them.
Suddenly, I think we can fight together against the same system, and also for the same values and the same policies which undermine all systems of domination. Around the idea of real equality and justice, environmental, social, fiscal.
The stake is now for you to take power by the ballot box?
When I see that in the polls carried out, there is a majority of people who say they are for a significantly increased minimum wage, when I see the sympathy rate for the “yellow vests” at the time, or for social justice measures and fiscal, I tell myself that the left is undoubtedly in the majority from the point of view of ideas. Today, a real problem arises which is that of conquering the institutions.
How do you explain that young people, who are also very committed, vote so little today?
I think there is a huge need for renewal. Politics must be rehabilitated by restoring their nobility. We have to get out of a purely electoral vision. Politics is also all those people who get involved in social movements, who claim to be “yellow vests”, get involved in mobilizations such as Night Standing or for the climate, local struggles … I’m fed up with ‘hear political leaders in parties say that nothing is happening in social movements. It’s wrong. Lots and lots of things are happening and fortunately. And I believe that today the left is rich in all these social movements, all these citizen movements, all these people who do not necessarily become politicized by joining a party, it is true, because they do not can no longer identify with it.
How to reconcile them?
I think that political parties have every interest in being irrigated by social movements and what they demand: for example, a certain form of radicalism. Do not compromise with our demands. Or even by proposing alliances. That’s why I’m talking about a rainbow block (the red of unionism and communism; green and environmental mobilizations; yellow, “yellow vests” and popular uprisings, the purple of feminism. , the multicolour of anti-racism, etc.). We also need a strong will to keep an internal democracy alive, that is to say to be exemplary in democratic matters within our own systems. That there can be an effective participation of the members in the life of their collective.
Is it this convergence between social movements and political parties that you will try to embody by taking the head of the “parliament of the popular union” of the candidate of France Insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon?
Absolutely. We have a small animation team of around ten people who discuss the composition of the first parliament, which is intended to expand to around a hundred personalities. We think about it in terms of the different components that make up all social struggles today, to which is added an artistic component that can convey an important word. This parliament is made up of a large number of union and association activists from all colors of the “rainbow block” mentioned in my book. Personalities of these movements will also be heard while preserving their autonomy vis-à-vis the parliament. We want to reweave links between associations and unions and the electoral world in order to move forward. And to help give meaning to “electoral” politics and to include many components which had moved away from it by giving them a place in the construction of this campaign.
In your book, you ask this question: “How do you get those who think on the left to vote on the left?” ” A few months before the presidential election do you think that Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the candidate most able to do so?
Yes, otherwise I would not support him. The program of the future in common is a disruptive but credible program which articulates measures capable of responding to the social, ecological and democratic emergency and which resolves essential questions such as the retirement age set at 60 year. This measure was developed, like the others, after numerous hearings with specialists and on the basis of scientific arguments. In addition, they are carried by a large part of the union arch on the left. Jean-Luc Mélenchon is also a candidate who has never compromised with the essence of our values. I am thinking in particular of the fact that he did not participate, unlike other candidates of the “left”, in the demonstration called for by certain police unions in front of the National Assembly, last May.
And can he also succeed in reducing the divisions of the left? and rebuild it ?
For a long time, I carried the idea of a joint candidacy on a common program and in particular the popular primary project. And I consider all attempts at reconciliation to be positive. But after the refusal of Anne Hidalgo and Yannick Jadot, then consequently of Jean-Luc Mélenchon to participate, it was necessary today to get to the heart of the matter and accelerate because a few months before the presidential election, I consider that ‘it is urgent to take part in the debate.
You write on Twitter that today you are engaging in the battle for “a real left in power.” »How would you define this project?
I am defending a political project of profound change with the current system because I think that the social issues, and especially ecological issues are such that we cannot do otherwise. We will not rebuild the left by doing Dutch twice. It will only serve to finish killing the left, to finish it off. If I am getting involved with Jean-Luc Mélenchon today, it is to carry out such a breakthrough program: we have to change course. The goal is no longer financial profitability in the service of the richest but the guarantee of social and ecological needs. It is a profound change that Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s program is drawing and can bring to fruition.