For many reasons, the 80's, years of the Mitterand socialist gouvernement,
were years in which grass roots mouvements got institutionalised and
traditional activism was "out". The logic of the Republic (everybody is
equal without distinction) allied with traditional individualism and
clanic behaviour ("la guerre des chapelles") forbid the emergence of non
dominant/non normalized subjectivities. This tradition is still alive
today. The 68 generation didn't feel necessary to pass on their knowledge
to younger generations. From their point of view, they created new ways
to go about the world by themselves, so should the new generations. The
notion of alternative and activism became stigmatised. It wasn't a very
tactical in those years to position oneself in terms of an alternative. As
a result, by the begining of the 90, the most visible part of the
intellectuals and the grass roots mouvements seams to be lobotomized.
If there were a strong mouvement in favor of the liberation of airwaves
for free radios in the early 80's, comercial stations quickly and quite
illegally took over those airwaves, only a few are still alive today.
This set a precedent and to this day, there isn't accessible means to
broacast television, outside the breaks of mean stream media. The notion
of public access, fairly understood in most industrialised country, is an
almost unconceivable concept in France. Public access isn't a magic
solution, yet in a contry were diffusion was so controled, it seam to be
an emergency. Free access meant free of all excess for the legislators
who for the longest time suggested that the public wasn't mature enaugh
for such venture. It is only with the generalisation of internet in 95,
and the uncontrolable flux of information going both ways implied in the
medium, that the government had to found an other logic. In june 98,
pushed by a group of media activist, the CSA (french equivalent of US,
FCC) bent the law to allow Ondes Sans Frontières to broadcast for 3 month
as an temporary experiment.
Highly supported by the gouvernment was the mouvement during the 80's was
"Touche pas à mon pote" (don't tuch my buddy) and the creation of the MRAP
(a collectif fighting racism with a strong focus in the media). The 2nd
generation of people coming from emigration had finnaly a new and fairly
good visibility in dominant media for a time. However, it is only a
couple years ago, that the documentary "mémoires d'emigrés" by Yasmina
Bengigi managed to find funding and it's ways on the airwaves. This
documentary is so unique that many appropriated this document and set it
as the only trace of an erased memory. Today, the mouvement take quite a
different turn >>>>Morgnis, or somebody else should writte>>>> after a
highly repressive legislation, the mouvement of the "Sans Papiers" managed
to gain visibility through multiple strategies of resistance. Combining
occupation of churches, out of which they were trown out by police force,
a 2 minute film shown before all feature in most movies theater in Paris
and during the Cannes film festival, hunger strike well mediatised in main
stream media, and a growing international force, this mouvement, if it
manage to escape internal dissention is a mobilisating force in the public
debate.
The women's questions was confined into a ministry of women affairs. If
nowdays they still don't have a strong media strategies, and there is only
crumble left from the ministry of women's affairs, the battle is faught on
the legal ground of parity in political representation. Emergence of the
works of the Penelope through their web site is extremely usefull tool for
mobilisation. However access for women to the net is still a problem.
As for the esthablishment then (government and medical institutions), they
were contaminating part of the population with blood stocks. AIDS wasn't
a concern really since it tuched from their point of view of the
Republique only hatians, and gays. In 1994, a newspaper as "Le Monde"
could still title a short article reporting on the gay pride "le carnaval
du sida" (the aids carnaval). In fact Act Up started to wake up the
native at the begining of the 90's. Their famous media strategies reveled
the distance between political representation, medical potentats and the
people represented and the patient.
In 95 things seams to change, Chirac was elected and descided to test
nuclear weapon in the Pacific. The mobilisation was strong and well
connected to international outcry, this was most visible in the demos
which had high graphic visibility. The department of short programs at
Canal+ descided to schedual an evening of gay and lesbian programs, far
from dealing with the painfull problem of homosesuality, it was an
affirmation with multiple entries. Since the medias works as we know, the
press and TV started to produce a different image of queerdom. On those
grounds, today, a law is being debated in the chamber giving the same
rights to gay and lesbians as to the others...
Since the fall of 95, after the big public transport strikes, the
involvement of intellectuals like Bourdieu in those strikes, we see a new
consciousness emerging.
Unempoyed like AC!, or groups of squatters like Droit Devant, develloped
spectacular strategies which allow to name themselves insted of being
named. Design Department, Nous travaillons ensemble, Graphistes Associés,
Les Périfériques vous parlent... Ne Pas Plier are graphist. Together they
managed to further this consciousness and rendered it visible, to review
what representation is about.
France hasn't been for a long time a place to look for tactical media,
however, Tactic media cannot exist if the social resistance is not. |