For seven decades, our newspaper has covered and analyzed all the highlights of our contemporary history between decolonization, the Cold War, European construction, the advent of the Fifth Republic… It is committed to social struggles such as the abolition of the death penalty or the emancipation of women and welcomed great feathers like François Mauriac, Albert Camus or Jean-Paul Sartre. Turning the pages of our archiveswe invite you to relive the news of the past seventy years.
The 80th Congress of the Socialist Party is part of a long list of congresses under high tension. In 1990, Dominique de Montvalon and Bernard Mazières went to meet Julien Dray. Then 35 years old, the deputy of Essonne co-signatory of a motion alongside Jean-Luc Mélenchon, represented the young guard of the party. With 20 years of activism behind him, he was not a “rookie” but testified: “The PS is much worse than the Unef.”
L’Express of March 16, 1990
Congress shenanigans: a socialist tells
” Quarrels between people, for twenty years, I have known. But what the last few weeks have taught me is that today, at the PS, we are beyond the irrational. Few tinkering matters: between Fabius and Jospin, it’s a fight to the death. And that, two months ago, frankly, I never imagined it for a second!”
Socialist MP for Essonne, co-founder of SOS-Racisme, in court at the Elysée, the former Trotskyist Julien Dray is the co-signer of one of the seven motions submitted to socialist activists: the youngest, the “leftist”, an obviously ultra-minority motion. At 35, the annoying Dray, who may be one of the leaders of the party in the year 2000, already has twenty years of militant life behind him. And dirty tricks, at the Revolutionary Communist League, for example, he experienced some and he mounted some.
However, listening to him recount the two months of campaigning – passionate, violent, sometimes hateful – which preceded the Rennes congress, we discover a young man amazed and worried. “Juju” thought he was a pro of agit-prop and manipulations: the maneuvers, tricks and tricks of the PS elephants make him measure that he is still only a “rookie”. “For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Isabelle Thomas and me, it would have been easier to go into battle on a left front, allied with Jean-Pierre Chevènement and Jean Poperen. But neither of them had wanted from us. Obviously, it is already very beautiful that, thanks to the help of the “Old” [comprenez François Mitterrand], we were able to enter the big leagues. Some had only one idea: to break our heads! We disturb.” However, Dray refrains from playing the martyrs: “We are young. We learnt a lot. This congress will have been a training school. We are vaccinated!”
“The president likes Fabius, okay. But then?”
First surprise from the leader of the New Socialist School (NES): Mitterrandism is definitely not what it used to be. In 1988, the head of state had already failed to impose Laurent Fabius as successor to Lionel Jospin at the head of the PS. By 1990, whatever ultimately happened, his influence waned again. It is no longer enough that he speaks for people to listen to him. To the mitterrandists, on one side or the other, the responsibility for the worst excesses. Do they still support each other? Dray’s testimony is not suspicious, signed by an activist who measures what he owes to the Château and who constantly tries to decode the secret wishes of the “boss”. Which, apparently, is not an easy task: “At the Elysée, the computers gave the impression of being disconnected! The president appreciates Fabius, okay. But after?”
Second surprise: the party is no longer what we believe. “We were frequently the youngest in sparse rooms, where the middle classes dominated. The PS is aging. The forties, who have only known power, are willingly condescending, even contemptuous, towards us. “fédés”, old people who had distanced themselves in recent years have come back to lend a hand. How many times have we heard it said: “We don’t agree with you, but, you, at least, you believe in it!” This says a lot about the frustrations of a party which has 200,000 members, but which only has around fifty thousand truly mobilized! We must open doors and windows.”
All shots are allowed
Third surprise, for the “youngster”: the brutality of the methods. On the ground, clientelism now triumphs. Everyone has “his” men, and it would be nice to see an intruder showing up! “The PS, testifies Dray, it is much worse than the Unef.” Clearly: we fight dry, all the blows (or almost), are allowed and the ideology has a good back. The representatives of the seven competing motions were theoretically entitled, in each departmental federation, to a joint meeting and to a speaking time of at least ten minutes, before a general discussion began. Practically, in several cases, the leader of the vintage, whatever his label, managed to summon (and even then, at the last moment!) only a barely representative audience, reserving the best of his efforts. Average attendance at general meetings: only 20%.
As for section meetings, which are also in principle “open”, they have often been de facto forbidden to minority currents. Anyway, the main thing happened each time before and after, by telephone: when the local boss “advised” his people to go to a meeting held for “untimely” or reminded them, if necessary, that they were. .. its obligated. “You come to present your ideas, says Dray, you are applauded, you have the impression of having made a splash. The problem, when you go to collect the signatures, is that there are none at the bottom of your sheet. Why? Because too many people are afraid to give their name.”
So Dray, somewhat reluctantly, became the advocate of voting by secret ballot: “In principle, joining a party means taking a voluntary step. Therefore, having the ability to publicly assume one’s choice. Since we are among comrades, why not vote by show of hands? That is democracy. Only, the clientelist system makes it possible to identify who votes for whom: the best way to exert pressure! Prize list, according to Juju, of the most “concreted” sections: the large Fabiusian bastions and, in particular in certain Parisian districts, the Chevènementist strongholds. “Jospinists and Mauroyists have nothing to learn, but they know how to put the forms in it. Which did not prevent the mayor of Massy from firing two of his directors overnight for the simple reason that they had chosen our movement!”
But the great revolution called for by Julien Dray is the one that would consist of putting an end to the biased system of mandates at the PS. An activist up to date with his contributions pays, on average, 200 to 250 francs per month. A federation, according to the number of its members, has a given number of mandates. With the current organization, if a federation x has 100 mandates, it does not matter whether, on the day of the vote, a quarter, half or all of the militants show up. Anyway, the 100 mandates will be distributed. “Let’s adopt the principle “One man, one vote” and the shenanigans will take a hit!” launches Dray. Aimed primarily: the mayor of Châteauneuf-lès-Martigues (Bouches-du-Rhône), brutally passed, with all the mandates of his section in his pocket, from Camp Chevènement to Camp Fabius. Explanation: having locked his section for his benefit, he just had to bring together a few friends from the same side as him – without a representative of an opposing motion being present – for them to decide, “unanimously”, of their new label and, consequently, of the fate of the whole federation.
Dray, who does not want to play the little saint, says that friends pointed out to him, in the Paris suburbs, an exclusively “Drayist” section, and added: “Let’s buy cards: we will have more mandates.” The member for Essonne refused. Not by virtue, but because the purchase of an up-to-date card, if it can usefully inflate the number of mandates of a fed, costs, at the very least, 1,600 francs. However, according to the leader of the NES, there is no need to hide your face: everyone has offered such mandates at great cost. We can’t wait to turn this page! Yes, notes, fatalistic and a little bitter, Julien Dray, “post-Mitterrand has begun”. Rude shock for those who note the state of the “old house” and yet want to be, more than ever, the nephews of “Tonton”.