European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

We Need An Uprising Of ...?

by afew
Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 04:39:54 AM EST

TIME Magazine, 15 February 1954:

It was perishing cold in France last week. Rich women shivered and complained about the difficulty of heating their high-ceilinged rooms, bus riders shivered and told each other that it was the worst winter in two generations, the poor just shivered. By week's end more than 90 were dead of the cold alone--no one knew how many more of pneumonia.
Suddenly Paris was aware that a man was organizing a Resistance against the cold. Bearded and gaunt, wearing a black cape with the flair of an actor, a 41-year-old priest called Abbé Pierre was rocketing through the city in a tiny green Renault, collecting old clothes, setting up distribution points, opening emergency shelters. From radios and the stages of theaters, on street corners and in churches, the soft voice of Abbé Pierre appealed: "My friends, help us!"
And the response was strong. The Ministry of Health doled out 4,000,000 francs. From another ministry came blankets. The army contributed trucks to move supplies, hospitals established dormitories, and municipal buildings were turned into soup kitchens and sleeping halls. The Metro turned over three unused subway stations to Abbé Pierre for shelters against the cold.
The voice of Abbé Pierre went on: "Empty your attics, Parisians. There may be venerable things in them, but they're less venerable than the lives of babies." As the Abbé strode through a tent shelter late last week, a woman in a chic Persian lamb coat handed him $210 collected from friends. "Monsieur 1'Abbé," she cried. "You have awakened us!"

Abbé Pierre, far and away France's most popular individual (he won that silly ranking poll year after year before he asked to be withdrawn from it), died on Monday aged 94. For the French (and beyond France) he was a forerunner of a certain type of activist who uses the media to focus mass attention on human suffering, so that the political world is forced to do something about it. With no guarantee that what the politicians do will be 1) sincere; 2) sufficient; 3) free of unintended consequences; 4) sufficient.

Born Henri Grouès, fifth son of a wealthy Lyons silk merchant, he renounced his inheritance to become a Capucin monk, then was forced by ill-health to become a parish priest. "Abbé Pierre" was his nom de guerre in the Résistance. After the war, he went into politics with the Christian Democrats, then left them because they were too far to the right. Large numbers of people, in the post-war years, were ill-fed, ill-housed, homeless, destitute. He worked alongside them, building temporary "townships" of huts and caravans, and founding the Emmaus Community, which was (and still is) in the business of recycling society's leftovers. He was a deputy in the National Assembly for several years, enough for him to decide that the only way to shift the system was by hitting it hard from the outside. The big hit came in the freezing winter of 1954, when he broadcast an appeal on mass-audience Radio Luxembourg.

... his February 1954 appeal, even more than an "uprising of kindness", was an appeal to citizens to solve the problem themselves: "Every one of us can come to the aid of the shelterless. We need, for tonight, tomorrow at the latest, 5,000 blankets, 300 large American tents, 200 stoves. Thanks to you, no man, no kid will sleep tonight on the tarmac or on the Paris waterfront."

... son appel de février 1954, plus encore qu'une «insurrection de la bonté», est un appel aux citoyens pour résoudre eux-mêmes le problème : «Chacun de nous peut venir en aide aux sans-abri. Il nous faut, pour ce soir et au plus tard pour demain, 5 000 couvertures, 300 grandes tentes américaines, 200 poêles catalytiques. Grâce à vous, aucun homme, aucun gosse ne couchera ce soir sur l'asphalte ou sur les quais de Paris.»

He got his "uprising of kindness" (or of charity). 500 million francs were collected, apart from the gifts of clothes, blankets, etc. What's more, he won his fight with the politicians: a law was enacted (still applied) prohibiting landlords from evicting tenants on any pretext whatever during the winter months. And the government began to move on the vast social housing programme that built the suburban cités the world heard about in November 2005.

I'm not going to pick away at Abbé Pierre as a person - he had his admirable as well as his irritating sides - but see him as the first of a line of civil-society activists like Bernard Kouchner (founder of Médecins Sans Frontières), or, other examples, Bob Geldof or Bono. If you don't grab the media, would be the word, then you get nothing done, nothing happens. But what does happen when you reach the masses? Yes, surely, useful things are done. Emmaus, for instance, gives dignity through cooperative work to hundreds of otherwise down-and-out in its recycling of clothes and IT hardware activities. But if the homeless were out on the streets in 1954, so they are today. (Abbé Pierre's own foundation estimates (pdf) at upwards of 100,000 the number of people living in the street in France today.) And the political responses have been mostly gesticulation, with the exception of the cités, which have become sinks.

Not only may we be tempted to ask what (long-term) use is charity, but what use is even hardball political pressure? What should a housing policy be? The French government, over the last fifteen years or more, has offered subsidies for social housing and set targets for municipalities, in a bid to spread social housing around in smaller quantities than the mammoth projects of the 1960s. But the wealthy (right-wing, like Nicolas Sarkozy's Neuilly) municipalities just ignore the targets, while the poorer (left-wing) municipalities end up with a high proportion of social in their housing mix, exactly the "ghetto" effect it was intended to avoid.

As long as society continues to polarise, to drift towards a rich/poor caste system, there'll be no solution. Charity and policy measures look like little more than Band-Aid. Oh, what does that remind me of?

. Home
. About
. Contact
. New User Guide
. FAQ
. ET Editorial Guidelines
. Search
. Search (Google)

Username:
Password:

. Make a new account
. Reset password

We Need An Uprising Of ...? | 22 comments (22 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (4.00 / 6)

Great diary, afew. A really thought provoking vignette.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Wed Jan 24th, 2007 at 12:42:48 PM EST

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (4.00 / 7)

...child support services. Every euro invested in educating and supporting children under 10 saves 100 or 1000 euros in adult crime and poverty alleviation.

The adult is sadly damaged goods, but it is rarely inevitable that they become like that. We are too careless in tolerating bad parenting, impoverished upbringing, allowing children to fall behind in education.

Also, it's one thing to provide shelter for the poor, but if there is no other support to get them out of poverty and equip them with the tools to function within society, then you achieve nothing, it's the fish parable : Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jan 24th, 2007 at 03:25:55 PM EST

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (none / 1)

Then you'll love the item I heard tonight on TV news: apparently (I need to check this) the French government last year spent more on subsidies to business than the entire national education budget.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jan 24th, 2007 at 03:37:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (none / 0)

Sounds sadly typical.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jan 24th, 2007 at 03:42:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The report (none / 0)

provided a comprehensive list of the various machanisms (over 6,000) to help subsidise job creation, from the largest (reduced social charges) to the most baroque and useless.

And the amount was estimated at about EUR 65 bn, which would make it the biggest bit of the budget (but it's not spending, as it's mostly tax rebates, thus lost revenues; less money in rather thna more money out).

I've been wanting to do a piece on this since yesterday but have been quite busy.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 05:39:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (4.00 / 6)

Excellent diary afew, thank you.

The policy measures don't work IMO because they are reacting to whatever is the latest media or topical social issue of the moment. Moral panics, or famous people's pet causes. Lots of people moved into shaking their fists at politicians and shouting "DO something about this, and we expect immediate change".

So a new charity forms and a new policy is written, horrifically short term and isolated from the fact that there are multiple causes and all they are doing is chopping away at the ends of branches and not at the roots.

Give it a bit of time and there is a new government with a 'fresh' agenda, new public concerns to think about and everybody forgets about the issues lurking in the shadows until someone comes back with the spotlight again 10 years later.

We need long term strategies. Strategic throughout and not purely aspirational and heart warming little booklets to placate the electorate and the critics. Long term in the sense of being carried on through a number of successive governments, but the new one always thinks it is better than the old one and continuity of commitment can't be ensured.

Do something about poverty, do something about homelessness; but don't offend your middle-class, right-wing electorate or you won't be around to carry it out.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Wed Jan 24th, 2007 at 04:44:22 PM EST

Henri Grouès (4.00 / 4)

He was my mother's cousin. My parents entered the Résistance through him. I have great respect for him.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

by Melanchthon on Wed Jan 24th, 2007 at 07:16:04 PM EST

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (4.00 / 2)

Still kindness I think.

by NNadir on Wed Jan 24th, 2007 at 08:17:28 PM EST

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (4.00 / 2)

Abbé Pierre's own foundation estimates (pdf) at upwards of 100,000 the number of people living in the street in France today.)

100,000 homeless
150,000 living in temporary/emergency shelters/"social residences" (dispositifs collectifs)
150,000-300,000 forced to live with family/friends (chez des proches)
300,000 who live in "irregular conditions" (conditions atypiques)

"Without counting those who have a home but whose residential status is fragile."

In sum, there are undoubtedly 700,000 to 800,000 people who find themselves on housing's doorstep" [<<aux portes du logement>>].

On the one hand,

Charity and policy measures look like little more than Band-Aid.

while on the other hand,

political responses have been mostly gesticulation, with the exception of the cités, which have become sinks.

So "private charity" and "state solidarity" are both failing. How is the situation to be remedied?

It does not have to be one or the other, does it? The two can work together synergistically, and the absence of one may reduce the effectiveness of the other. The activity of private "charity" organizations like Abbe Pierre's and the Children of Don Quixote is galvanizing people -- the state, in fact -- to move on this issue. If no such private organization existed, would the state act in the same time frame?

Also, I had never heard of Abbe Pierre before, but looking at his foundation's website, I see that they are trying to implement practical solutions to help people now -- i.e. without having to wait for the state to move its behemoth rump to help people who are freezing outside as we blog in our warm homes and offices:

Devant l'ampleur des besoins, la Fondation a engagé sur 3 ans un programme exceptionnel visant à la construction ou à la réhabilitation de 1 500 logements à loyers très modérés.

While acknowledging that private "charity" may not be able to do it all, let's not throw the baby out with the bath water, either. For clearly the État doesn't seem to be able to handle the job on its own either.

I encourage you to go shopping more. -- George W. Bush

by marco (cowannar at gmail punkt com) on Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 01:24:47 AM EST

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (4.00 / 5)

Thanks for bringing in this info, that I left out of my piece in order to keep it brief and stir discussion. My point about charity was this:

1954, suffering from homelessness and bad/insecure housing.
2007, suffering from homelessness and bad/insecure housing.

Charitable, or civil-society, or ONG, action does excellent things, but does not change the underlying situation. How can we change that situation?

What's lacking, to say the least, is well-conceived long-term strategy on housing. Do protests force governments to get into the business of well-conceived long-term strategy? I don't see it.

The latest developments in France, with Les Enfants de Don Quichotte (Children of Don Quixote) are imo a case in point. LEDQ (who recognize their debt to Abbé Pierre and received his support) organised the tent villages you show in your photo. Excellent media-shock operation. It got government reaction (above all because elections are looming, but let's put that down to good timing by LEDQ), in the shape of fast-track legislation to accord the "right to housing" coupled with the right to sue the State if you are homeless. Now that may turn out to be useful in some cases, but I predict it won't change the deeper problems. It's exactly the kind of abstraction politicians are willing to hand out a few months before an election.

I didn't write this diary to knock charity or question figures like Abbé Pierre (if it didn't come through, I have nothing but admiration for a person of such courage, devotion, and charisma), but just to wonder how we go about really changing things. Neither am I cynically slashing at the political world -- politicians may be reluctant to oppose the interests of wealth and property (true), but they are at the same time moving within a consensus field of conventional wisdom held in common with their electorate. And, though that consensus field may have room for mass movements of kindness, outbursts of generosity, of indignation, even of anger (such as may be stirred by an Abbé Pierre), it is also largely infused by (imo mistaken) assumptions about individual opportunity, the efficacity of markets, the undesirability of taxes, etc. In other words, the masses accept a system that is currently increasing social dislocation and exclusion, while occasionally getting worked up about the human suffering the system entails.

So I suppose I'm saying we won't get any real change till we change the conventional wisdom...

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 05:59:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (none / 0)

For clearly the État doesn't seem to be able to handle the job on its own either.

It should, and it can - and it's the only entitythat can do it on the necessary scale. But there are "other priorities". That does not invalidate the point that it should do it.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 05:35:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (none / 0)

as we blog in our warm homes and offices

Talk for yourself, my home is not all that warm. Cold days, and the landlord saves on heating. If it wasn't for the excess heat from the computer I would freeze. Ah well, I guess it is bourgeoisie to be warm anyway.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 09:12:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (4.00 / 3)

thank you Jérôme for an excellent diary !

but I don't know if charity is the right term in this case. On a TV show "in memoriam" last Monday, Kouchner said that Emmaüs was practically the first NGO. THe difference betwwen Emmaüs and classical charity organisations is that you have to work, to participate to selfhelp. Emmaüs is practically self financing even if they took loans in the beginning.

Personally I think that the program of "social housing" in France is the wrong approach to the problem. In countries like Sweden there is no social housing except for the "outcast" category, that is to say people with so difficult problems (mostly alcoholism) that they cannot live in a normal environment.

The solution is to build sufficient housing (with state or regional funding) and put it on the market at market prices and open it to EVERYBODY. If the renters cannot sustain a rent, the equivalent of the CAF or Social security goes in and pays the rent as long as the person cannot find a sufficient income. Private renting agencies are forbidden, but if you want to rent as a private person, you can advertise privately in the paper. Most of the renting goes through the local state or town agency. No deposit is asked, nothing is asked about your income lilke in France.

That's the reform that should be made here, but nobody has the guts. Of course it would cost money in the begining, but the Swedes did it 40 years ago. And they don't have the French problem today.

by oldfrog on Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 05:11:37 AM EST

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (none / 0)

Hee, I know Jerome writes most of the stuff on the site, but this diary was from afew.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 05:36:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (4.00 / 2)

Thanks, oldfrog, for promoting me to Dear Leader status. Now, if I can get down off that cloud...

I didn't mean "charity" alone, but ONG action, civil-society action, too (see my reference to Kouchner, Geldof, Bono).

Three things occur to me on reading what you say about Sweden:

Sweden is a smaller, more manageable economy than France;
however, I'm not against the idea you suggest, subject only to the market - the more you build, the more you bring down market prices (sale or rent). Subject, then, to smart management (again easier to do in a more compact economy);
there's still the problem of the destitute (alcoholic or not). What kind of housing or lodgings are on offer in Sweden in this kind of case?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 06:09:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (4.00 / 2)

there's still the problem of the destitute (alcoholic or not). What kind of housing or lodgings are on offer in Sweden in this kind of case?

I think the destitute would apply for an apartment through the normal local public rental bureau. Then, if they can't pay, money will be provided. I imagine that if you suddenly find yourself homeless (fire??) some emergency measures will be provided. The general idea is that no one would ever find themselves on the streets because financial assistance will be provided to keep them in their lodgings despite financial problems, as long as those liveing expenses a determined to be "at a reasonable level". Anyway, short bit on your rights to public assistance in Sweden:

From FAQ about Social Assistance, a publication by the social services in Sweden. (pdf, english)

What can I receive social assistance for?
What is social assistance?
Social assistance is financial support under the Social Services Act. You can receive support for your upkeep and for other items that you need to have a reasonable standard of living. Help with your upkeep is called income support and consists of a standard (the national standard) plus reasonable costs for other common needs such as housing and household electricity. Items not included in income support are other living expenses. These are things that are not part of income support but which are necessary (see also the question about other assistance than help with upkeep).
What does income support consist of?
The national standard includes expenses for food, clothes and shoes, leisure and play, health and hygiene, insurance of children and young people, consumables, and a daily newspaper, telephone and TV licence fee. If there are special reasons, the Social Services can decide in individual cases to calculate costs at a higher or lower level than the national standard. The national standard is based on calculations from the National Council for Consumer Affairs. Income support also includes reasonable expenses for housing, household electricity, work-related travel, home contents insurance and membership fees for a trade union and unemployment benefit fund. What is calculated for these needs is assessed individually, but the usual procedure is to count your actual expenses if they are reasonable. "Reasonable expenses" means costs at a plausible level.

by someone (s0me1smail(a)gmail(d)com) on Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 06:45:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (none / 1)

This is not to say that there are not homeless people in Sweden. Quick googling gave me this report (in swedish) from 2000 but it is probably roughly the same situation now.

It estimates 8000 being homeless as in lacking their own permanent residence. Approx. 700 of these lives in shelters and 500 more or less on the streets (must of them in Stockholm with serious drug problems). The rest lives at friends or relatives or jumps between different non-permanent solutions.

For the homeless in Stockholm there is the Stockholm homeless association (in swedish too) which delivers some pretty harsh critique of the failures to adress the issue in a constructive manner in Stockholm. While having a 70 million euro budget not enough (in their view, and I agree) on actually getting some apartements and way too much on programs to "teach proper behaviour"...

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 09:34:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Poverty (4.00 / 3)

The fundamental question is why does poverty exist in wealthy countries?

I always try to trace things back to an economic cause, so there must be some reason why those in power feel there is a (self-interested) economic reason to not solving the problem.

In the US dislike of government "charity" is partly due to the strong Calvinist/Puritan strain of belief. This means that people believe that the poor are responsible for their conditions and also responsible for getting themselves out of it.

In today's NY Times there is this story:

Childhood Poverty Is Found to Portend High Adult Costs

Children who grow up poor cost the economy $500 billion a year because they are less productive, earn less money, commit more crimes and have more health-related expenses, according to a study released on Wednesday.

I've written that the best way to eliminate poverty is to give people money. Even in the article there is an undercurrent that such actions will just promote bad behavior, as if Paris Hilton is such a good example of the virtue brought on by wealth...

So the first step to solving poverty in the developed world is to understand why it exists and why there is so little willingness to eliminate it. Fixing poverty in poor countries is a different problem.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Thu Jan 25th, 2007 at 10:47:18 AM EST

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (none / 0)

I had few guests tonight. Some have visited USA last year and are talking about how positive atmosphere is there in their public life and it's pushed everywhere (positivism) so that everything looks possible and people are looking kind of happy for this reason. They have a good standard of living and they are certain that they will have even better one in a future. My friend liked this. I mentioned homeless people and other friend came with a some incredible numbers. I tried to look at Internet for these numbers but hardly found anything there. Can anybody tell what the approximate number of homless in USA is?

by vbo on Fri Jan 26th, 2007 at 10:24:10 AM EST

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (none / 1)

Quote:http://www.prb.org/template.cfm?template=InterestDisplay.cfm&InterestCategoryID=238
New poverty estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey indicate that about 13 percent of people nationwide were living in poverty in 2005.
---
If this is right about 39 milion people live in poverty.

Quote :

The average poverty threshold for a family of four was $19,971 in 2005; for a single individual, it was $9,973.
-------
I dont know for USA but with that kind of money you are already dead from hunger here in AU...

by vbo on Fri Jan 26th, 2007 at 10:42:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (none / 1)

Another one I'd love to see you cross-post. Your diaries are wonderful.

ProgressiveHistorians: History For Our Future

by Nonpartisan on Fri Jan 26th, 2007 at 04:27:27 PM EST

Re: We Need An Uprising Of ...? (none / 0)

Thanks, NP, and will X-post.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Jan 28th, 2007 at 12:51:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

We Need An Uprising Of ...? | 22 comments (22 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Go to: [ European Tribune Homepage : Top of page : Top of comments ]