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Last Equinox for the Factory-Ship
Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, France
17:39 pm GMT+1
© 2004 Laurent Thion, All Rights Reserved.
- 1992. The Renault Factory on Seguin Island is closing: a symbolical event in industrial and social history in France.
Renault-Billancourt impressed upon the collective memory of the labour struggles and upon the adventure of cars.
- Since the 30s, Seguin Island has become an emblematic place, which will identity itself though half a century of economical increase and labour movement.
The Popular Front, in 1936, the nationalization of the enterprise, at the end of World War II, the strikes of 1947, later, those of 1968, so many strong moments of history. History of mass production of popular cars, history of undeniable social advance, and also of the massive recourse to an immigrated manpower.
- Hard work for the thousands of workers who are on assembly lines. syndical struggles and conflicts which pass beyond the factory frame and will take new shapes, when robotization and subcontracting question the stability of the employment, and the very existence of the Billancourt workshops. Help and solidarity which let a durable print in the memory of those who worked in Seguin Island. Leisure and cultural activities, which made the workers and the poets meet, as well as the writers and the singers.
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