A-Infos (en) France, Monde Libertaire - Ideas and Struggles: The Experience of Factory Life (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

"The life of a skilled laborer is not an acceptable life." ---- Discover 
the world of work, the pace, the order of the machines, the hierarchy of 
the bosses, and life in the factory in the 1930s. Éditions de la 
Lanterne enriches its "Eclairages" collection with a book, *The 
Experience of Factory Life*, which brings together excerpts from Simone 
Weil's Factory Diary and letters addressed to her friends, Nicolas 
Lazarévitch and Boris Souvarine, as well as to trade unionists. The 
originality of the book and the collection lies in an introduction 
written by a specialist on the subject, in this case, philosopher Nadia 
Taïbi, accompanied by a portfolio that, through photographs of the 
workshops and demonstrations, places the reader at the heart of Simone 
Weil's lived experience, allowing her to grasp reality rather than 
imagine it. During the most difficult moments of her work, she was aware 
that this experience would end while her fellow workers would remain in 
those factories for the rest of their lives. She observed that "the life 
of a skilled laborer at Renault or Citroën is not an acceptable life for 
a man who desires to preserve human dignity." And yet, millions of 
workers endured these working conditions and fought to maintain their 
dignity. Even today, it is necessary to modify the technical means of 
production to challenge the oppression of workers, as Nadia Taïbi points 
out.

To better appreciate the significance of Simone Weil's experience, 
Ludivine Péchoux presents a brief biography. Simone Weil was born in 
1909 into a family that valued culture highly. A philosophy graduate, 
she taught literature to young railway workers, then took her first job 
in Le Puy-en-Velay. She became involved in the labor movement and 
contributed to *La Révolution prolétarienne* (see the website of *Le 
Monde libertaire*, "Ideas and Struggles," February 15, 2025). In 1932, 
she wrote there, with remarkable clarity: "Hitler means organized 
massacre, the suppression of all freedom and all culture." The following 
year, she began writing her most important work, *Reflections on the 
Causes of Freedom and Social Oppression*. Wishing to pursue her line of 
thought, she took a one-year leave of absence to work in a factory at 
the age of 25, despite her fragile health. She discovered the Alsthom 
workshops, working as a press cutter, then became a milling machine 
operator at Renault in Billancourt. "Days in the factory are an endless 
repetition of painful gestures, of fragmented tasks performed without 
any known purpose."

"Taking the Floor in Turn"

1936 was a moment of joy for the working class, a surge of immense hope 
that was quickly shattered. Let us read her words: "After always 
bending, enduring everything, taking it all in, in silence for months 
and years, finally daring to straighten up. To stand tall. To take the 
floor in turn." In an article published in La Révolution prolétarienne 
on June 10, 1936, she wrote: "Will we finally witness a real and lasting 
improvement in the conditions of industrial work? Time will tell; but we 
mustn't wait for that future. We must create it."

She left for Spain, briefly joining the Durruti Column. She wrote in Le 
Libertaire, Vigilance. Then came the war, her departure for New York and 
then London to write her last works, Writings from London and The Need 
for Roots, before dying there on August 30, 1943.

"Politics[...]a sinister joke"

The Factory Diary admirably captures the atmosphere of the workshops: 
the heat, the noise, the dust, the fatigue, the aches and pains, bodies 
worn down at 40, the humiliation and contempt, but also the workers' 
solidarity, the helping hand. Her comrades could see that she didn't 
have their stature, their working-class culture, and they helped her. 
She quickly succumbed to pessimism, believing that the pursuit of a wage 
forced one to accept, to endure, to submit. "There, you truly feel like 
a slave, humiliated to your very core." She criticized the Bolshevik 
leaders Lenin and Trotsky, who had never worked in a factory. "Politics 
appears to me as a sinister joke." Simone Weil doesn't mince words; one 
might even detect echoes of Louise Michel in her work. You'll also 
discover innovative proposals for the time, proposals that remain 
relevant today.

The portfolio contains photos of workshops under glass roofs, the cold 
of winter, the unbearable heat of summer, a Renault factory gate 
reminiscent of the one where Pierre Overney was murdered, the funeral of 
a friend killed in a workplace accident, accompanied by his comrades 
with raised fists and rage in their eyes, demonstrations, and the 
poignant image of the gate at Île Seguin with women, men, and smiles-the 
working class looking back at us, still calling us to struggle.

* Simone Weil
Experience of Factory Life
Ed. de la Lanterne, 2025

https://monde-libertaire.net/?articlen=8732
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en