The workers, vanquished in British history?

“ The last hurrah of the working class » (p. 59). It is with this clear-cut formula that Owen Jones defines the miners’ strike of 1984-1985, the swan song of the British labor movement according to him. The author, activist of UTC (Trade Union Congressconfederation of British trade unions) and independent journalist, delivers his first work here, with unexpected success across the Channel. This impact is in itself indicative of the United Kingdom’s unease with its working class, and more particularly its young people. As Owen Jones points out, the urban violence and looting which took place in certain British cities in 2011 were the occasion for certain commentators for a real return to the theme of “ dangerous classes “. As in XIX^e century, the most impoverished part of urban populations is perceived as a danger, more than as the possible victim of injustices and inequalities. Young people from working-class neighborhoods, over-represented among the rioters, were even more perceived by part of the British press as a harmful group. Owen Jones highlights how the insult or humiliating metaphor (“ pack of wild orphans » according to the expression of a journalist from Daily Mail) were used to disqualify these young people.

The author in fact recalls that, in addition to a high level of inequality, British society has more hierarchical social relations than many European societies. If the image of the “ Cool Britannia “, that is to say a tolerant, multicultural, and interclassist Britain had been widespread since the 1990s, Owen Jones underlines the permanence of the strong socio-cultural differences in his country. The notion of “ chavs », popularized in the 2000s, symbolizes it.

THE “ chavs »: the construction of a demonized social group

The title of the work, chavs (also topped with a cap, on the cover of the book) is at the heart of the demonstration carried out by the author. Chavs refers to the slang word (from the community gipsy) which originally referred to children in an affectionate manner. From the 2000s, the word lost both its initial meaning and its positive connotation. Indeed, chavs became a term widely used during the decade to (dis)qualify young people of working-class origins, as well as their appearance (slang, tracksuits and caps, swaying gait). In France, the word was presented by Sylvie Laurent in 2007, who compared it to the term “ White trash » in the United States and that of “ scum ” In France. In all three cases, these words are stigmata against the most impoverished and declassed part of the urban proletariat. However, there are very significant differences between these three terms, linked to different national contexts. The notion of chavs is firstly linked to the multifaceted changes of the British working class, which has lost its coherence since the Thatcherite era. The reduction in the industrial base has a direct impact on British workers, both economically and socially (unemployment, job insecurity), but also culturally and politically (crisis of trade unionism, decline of the labor movement, growing dissonance with the Labor Party). There “ worker pride », which was expressed in a claimed culture, ranging from politics to sports, would therefore be, according to the author, today reduced to a few aspects (advertising, football, accent), including ultimatelyTHE chav. While since the beginning of XX^e century, working culture had a form of dignity, well described in the work of Richard Hoggart, the disintegration of the workers’ movement returns it to a situation of social contempt but also of an absence of intelligibility. THE chav is precisely the symbol of social contempt towards the most vulnerable popular classes. However, underlines the author, this contempt has a long genealogy in British history.

As the working class has been economically and politically marginalized since the 1980s, its behavior (real or supposed) has been the target of increasing criticism. Owen Jones, without denying the problems existing within the British working classes, underlines how these criticisms are often cut off from any social context. Thus, he cites the speech of David Cameron, who came in 2008 to support the Conservative candidate for deputy for Glasgow East. It is then the poorest district in Scotland, where the life expectancy of men in some areas is 54 years, and where half of the children live below the poverty line. However, David Cameron’s speech first attacked behaviors “ immoral » supposedly from popular circles: “ social problems are often the consequence of choices people made » (p.74). Young people from poor neighborhoods are presented as primarily responsible for their fate. The image of social dereliction attached to the working class is also present even in mainstream artistic production: the successful television series “ Little Britain » (2003-2006) thus features the caricature character of Vicky Pollard, who combines the supposed defects of the British working world: unmarried mother, delinquent, with incomprehensible speech… Vicky Pollard thus becomes the first figure described as “ chav » in the mainstream media, as well as on the BBCin 2005.

Finally, the British working class would no longer be stigmatized for its attachment to progressive or revolutionary ideologies, but on the contrary for its behavior described as reactionary, backward-looking and archaic. Considered as resistant to modernity, hostile to minorities, it is now seen as an obstacle to social progress. This historical reversal is a European phenomenon, as the theme of “ right-wing of the popular strata » is being debated today. THE chavlike a part of the European working classes, is not only criticized and feared for its supposedly “ antisocial “, he is also the one who would oppose the “ open company », cultural diversity and globalization. However, and Owen Jones concludes the work on this point, certain sections of the British working world risk actually falling into a protest vote, symbolized by the electoral breakthrough of the far-right party. BNPseen as a worker reaction or “ backlash » (pp. 221-246). This idea is similar to that developed, among others, by the demographer Emmanuel Todd, who affirmed that the National Front vote was for certain workers a way of asserting class consciousness.

A stimulating and debatable work

Owen Jones’ essay is a book of militant reflection, something the author makes no secret of. The rich material in the book ranges from statistical work on inequality to individual interviews with British people from different social and geographical groups. By emphasizing how the image of the working classes has deteriorated, precisely in the name of a progressive posture, he joins an idea developed by other essayists. We can cite in particular the American writer Thomas Frank or the journalist ofIndependent Nick Cohen, who in the 2000s denounced the contempt sometimes attached to the working classes.

However, the work can be debated. Indeed, the author himself tends to make “ chav » a generic figure, in a more positive sense of course, but which ends up encompassing all of the working classes themselves, beyond the meaning of the word (which targets young people from working classes). He seems to fall here into the fault he intends to denounce, that of generalization. However, making the British working class a bloc – presented as homogeneous moreover – is problematic because of its diversity (social, economic, political).

Furthermore, Owen Jones seems to idealize the world and the British workers’ movement, underestimating for example the existence of authoritarian or xenophobic tendencies within them since the XIX^e century. From this point of view, recruitment among “ chavs ” of BNP (British National Party) or the organization hostile to Muslims English Defense League is not only the fruit of a social protest, but also a tradition of a minority fraction of the British working world. There is a form of violent popular xenophobia against the Irish in XIX^e century (Karl Marx was an indignant witness). Similarly, the Conservative MP Enoch Powell had acquired a certain popularity in the British working class by giving a famous speech against immigration in April 1968. If the breakthrough of the far right had been contained until then, it was because the Liberal Party and the Labor Party successively organized the majority political expression of British workers until the 1980s.

Owen Jones’ work is, however, doubly stimulating: by showing what the notion of “ chavs » said (or not said), he questions Great Britain in its historically complex relationship with the working world and more generally with the working classes. At the same time, it illustrates through a national example the widespread fear that some Western societies feel towards young people from poor neighborhoods. In this sense, the “ chavs » are not maybe not so « British » than that, and above all seem to be the national variation of a much more widespread phenomenon.

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