Lt is a time of civil disobedience. Far from being a marginal phenomenon, it is at the heart of the repertoire of social and political struggles in the 21st century.e century. And it worked: in 2012, the Calais illegal immigrants associations obtained the abolition of the “solidarity offence”; Carola Rackete, Captain of the Sea Watch 3, forced his ship to dock in 2019 to disembark forty surviving migrants in the port of Lampedusa; Cédric Herrou, imprisoned for helping migrants and recently released. The Extinction Rebellion movement or the “yellow vests” claim the model. Why this resurgence?
Civil disobedience is a form of action that responds to a clear definition: refusing, in a non-violent and public way, to fulfill a legal or regulatory obligation on the grounds that it violates a higher principle in order to be sanctioned so that the legitimacy of this obligation is assessed on the occasion of a legal appeal. It calls for an extension of the rights and freedoms that a democracy must guarantee to its citizens.
The revival of this mode of action coincides with a change in democratic requirements. And with the idea that democracy is not restricted to a political regime, but that it has to be realized in practice – as a form of life. Nevertheless, the refusal to obey a law does not in itself constitute an act of civil disobedience. To deserve this title, it must include a request: the repeal of a state of affairs or a provision deemed unworthy, and the increase in freedoms and rights for all.
History is not lacking in factious actions that have used insurrection as a means of destabilizing democracy. This was the case in Chile, in 1973, with the military coup that brought down Salvador Allende, and a year ago in the United States, with the invasion of the Capitol by Trump supporters. For Martin Luther King, a law is unjust when a majority submits a minority to the yoke of a law that itself does not respect. Thus, citizens who refuse the Covid-19 vaccine for themselves and their loved ones are not fighting to extend the rights of others. They do not demand a right for all to die by exposing themselves to the virus.
Equality as a watchword
The mobilizations of the present (#MeToo, Black Lives Matter, “yellow vests”) have been formed around a watchword: equality. It is no longer presupposed and prejudicial, nor a “given” that justifies real injustices, but an equality of votes, otherwise demanding. The feeling anchored in each or everyone of “his” equality, which makes it the constant object of a claim.
Civil disobedience is the intrusion into the democratic conversation of people who are not welcome there. As Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman candidate for the Democratic nomination in the United States, said: If they don’t give you a place at the table, bring a folding chair. This is an opportunity to confront here the question of the compatibility between republic and democracy, at a time when it is taking on a caricatural and violent form in the United States. A radicalization of the republican idea leads to fixing the perimeter of those who have the right to take part in civic life, as if it were a select club. Like any demarcation, it is meant to be crossed and contested by those who wish to enlarge the public space; and to see people establish themselves as guardians of the line.
This line now appears on the question of “minorities” whose place we would like to reduce still further under the pretext of a dangerous power. Which ? “Pure” Republicans have a whole list of constraints and conditions for others to be worthy of citizenship. The strength of democracy is that it imposes no other value than that of equality, and the expression of the greatest number.
We therefore see the risk of a disjunction between republic and democracy. A threat made possible by the manipulation of institutions and education systems and the election of tyrannical and racist leaders. Our “place” can only be found in a republic of democracy.
Sandra Laugier is a philosopher, professor at the University of Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is the author of “In confinement. Care in series” and “On the second wave of American feminist series” (combined in the same book published by AOC) and “Praise of the ordinary. Interviews with Philippe Petit” (ed. du Cerf).
This platform is produced as part of the “Place de la République” event, in partnership with the City of Lyon.
“Place de la République” in Lyon | A day of debates on the notion of republic and citizenship
The world organizes on Saturday January 22, 2022, at the Hôtel de ville de Lyon, a day of conferences, debates and workshops on the issues of the republic and citizenship in France.
Free admission on registration from this link
“Republic Square” | Conferences, debates, workshops
Saturday, January 22, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Lyon City Hall, 1, place de la Comédie, 69001 Lyon
lemonde.fr/placedelarepublique