Reclaiming the Society:

Urban Poor and Anti-Globalism Movement in France

Abstract

Poverty, which appeared to be an old issue of the social movement came back again on the stage. It seemed to replace the identity politics. Since the beginning of 1990s, the social movements against the social exclusion has gained large support from public opinion in France. Especially a movement for the housing rights (Droit au Logement) mobilized many actors. Their strategy was the occupation of the vacant buildings owned by local government or global company. Majority of the participants of this movement were migrant workers and their families who came to France after the 1980s. They are incorporated in the urban precarious labor like construction, cleaning, security guard, and care work etc. The movement could have reclaimed justice of the redistribution based on the post-colonial claim: existing inequality has its roots in the colonial inequality. But the movement reclaimed only the housing rights for everyone without mentioning specificity of the migrants. This is because the movement was situated in the anti-globalism movements which stood up for the defense of public service. The housing is one of the symbols of the public services to be defended against the neo-liberal policy. Reclaiming the rights for everyone is easy to gain support from the middleclass which is vital for the success of the movement. The strategy of the movement was such a success that several legislations and policy which assured the housing rights for everybody have been adopted. But post-colonial claim which is necessary to change the structure of power relations was not included in the anti-globalism movements. Without reclaiming the recognition of discriminated identities of minority groups, the anti-globalism movement could not change the existing power relations.