The dramaturgy of wage negotiations in the context of a strike has often inspired the creators of popular culture, which is more or less tasty depending on the context: here, The Strike of the Orchestra by Ray Ventura and his College students in 1936, with a good-natured smile against the background of the major strikes accompanying the Popular Front.
We do not know if the strike for the wages of refinery workers will leave a trace in our sung memory, but real strikes have left songs in our collective memory. Here is, successively, a song from the Sud Aviation strike in May 1968, recorded a few years ago by the Breton singer Sylvain Girault, then a song of struggle by PTT strikers, recorded during a 1970 strike and the factory strikers Chausson in 1975.
In the second episode of These songs that make the news airing this weekend, you hear excerpts from:
Ray Ventura and the College Students, The Strike of the Orchestra1936
Sylvain Girault, The Strike of Sud-Aviation2007
PTT solidarity, Solidarity user postal workers1970
Chausson strikers, Long live the Chausson strike1975
Fabulous Trobadors, He is lying to us2003
Francesca Solleville, Strike2016
Albert Magister, Strike2008
Jacques Dutronc, The Increase1968
The joyful fuckers, oh my boss2013
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Our series of summer 2022 chronicles, behind our voicescan still be listened to by scrolling down this page.
And you can also find on this link the podcast Behind our voices, with the writing and composition secrets of eight major artists of the French scene, Laurent Voulzy, Julien Clerc, Bénabar, Dominique A, Carla Bruni, Emily Loizeau, Juliette and Gaëtan Roussel.