The incipit must crackle. That of Make justice, first try by the young Frenchwoman Elsa Deck Marsault, respects the rule by going as follows: “As a dyke, I have long navigated in communities queer and feminists, and have witnessed numerous processes of exclusion and collective relentlessness. […] I no longer count the testimonies written by people excluded from their environment after years of struggle; nor those written by relatives after the suicides of activists. »
A footnote specifies that the term “dyke” is assumed by “self-definition”, while remaining “discriminatory when speaking about others”. The rest of the primer explores the very delicate subject of internal violence within groups and organizations in which the struggles against violence take place, and in particular against that against women and members of LGBTQ+ communities.
The psychosociologist Elsa Deck Marsault works as a volunteer within the mutual aid collective queer and feminist Fracas, which she founded in 2019. She helps community organizations struggling with conflict and violence. Around a hundred people and associations have already been helped by Fracas.
The essay is inspired by this field experience. “I have an intervention practice, and it’s really because I am a practitioner, an intervener, that I was able to write,” she says, contacted in France. “Everything in the book comes from there. »
Decrying denunciation?
Let’s take the example of public denunciation, one of the most used tools to make harassment, or even attacks, visible.
The #MeToo movement is based in part on the culture of banishment, the famous cancel culture. Public accusations leading to banning and boycotts have hit hard again in France recently against directors, actors and publishers. It’s the #MeToo of arts and culture. Faced with men removed from legal justice, media and public opprobrium can become necessary – and even the only way to counterbalance the balance of power -, says Mme Deck Marsault.
The formidable weapon of call out » is sometimes also used within groups and organizations that support victims. Denunciation can be based on rumors and lead to the exclusion of activists, including for the use of a simple hated word. She even cites the case of a queer person anathematized because of their infidelities.
“I criticize when we end up using these tools in spaces where power relations are not that unbalanced,” said the essayist in an interview. “As a result, it has completely deleterious impacts on the people against whom it is used. It becomes the mechanism, the reflex, without trying anything else first to help people see what they are doing wrong. »
The feminist author knows that some of her extremely severe salvos will shock. She writes that she personally ended up breaking with the collectives she went through, because she was terrified by what a group could do to its members. “I am trying to understand why circles which criticize the police, the prison and the carceral and penal institutions sometimes ultimately do worse than the police when it comes to administering justice within their own ranks,” she says.
In the book, she has this other shocking formulation: “In view of the punitive practices underway in the name of abolitionist feminism, it seems that we have moved from trials without penalty to penalties without trial — a reversal characteristic of neoliberal society. »
The author is also well aware of the challenge – not to say the danger – posed by this friendly fire. “Before releasing the book, I was quite afraid of its reception. I was afraid that the criticism would be perceived in the wrong way, when my goal is really to strengthen progressive circles. I was afraid of the possibility of political recovery. But hey, there you have it, we have to be able to think self-critically and remain reflective about our practices. »
Mme Deck Marsault is primarily aimed at activists in feminist organizations, and more broadly at progressive circles. She also wishes to fundamentally distance herself from a certain left-wing anti-wokism, such as that of sociologist Nathalie Heinich, who speaks squarely of a new totalitarianism concentrated in the culture of banishment and public denunciation.
“The difference is that I position myself from these backgrounds to produce a critique which is ultimately a self-criticism,” says Elsa Deck Marsault, explaining her non-use of the term “ woke », which is not found in his book. “I ultimately say that once the criticisms have been made, we must go elsewhere: in a direction that is better, in a direction that is more effective on a political level. It is really to strengthen the left political struggle that I produce this critique. »
Dangerous purity
The analysis extends to “progressive moralism”, a concept borrowed from the American Wendy Brown (Politics Out of History2001) to describe individual prohibitions or condemnation of certain words, arguments or actions.
“Activism tends more and more to become a place where we will be able to prove to ourselves and to others that we are good activists, a place of individual performance to try to present ourselves as the person the purest morally. This performance of militant purity comes at the expense of common struggles. We could instead get along despite our disagreements, despite the words we use. »
This trend could be explained by a great feeling of powerlessness within organizations — and even the left in general — which do not win many sociopolitical battles. “Faced with this feeling of powerlessness, there is a sort of principle of communicating vessels with the attempt to find power in our own environments, to try, therefore, to be as rigorous as possible. »
The reflection also focuses on the usefulness of punishment to ultimately defend the project of restorative justice which focuses on the victims and the community, on power relations. “The way of punishing in state justice or in activist circles, for me, does not allow for the improvement of people who have made mistakes. Rather, I believe that the idea of encouraging people’s transformation by helping them to recognize what they are accused of, by helping them to try to repair the fault and by supporting them in the long term is much more conducive to avoiding recidivism. It’s really from a feminist perspective, in fact, that I bring this idea forward. »
“Honestly, I don’t think that punishment will allow us to achieve objectives such as reducing the recidivism rate and ensuring that people can understand what they are being accused of. »
The book was released in France in September 2023. More than 6,000 copies have already been sold. Its author will be visiting Quebec in a few weeks to promote her publication by Éditions du reguage-ménage. A Spanish version is also in the works. “I did five months of touring with around thirty presentations,” says Mme Deck Marsault. “I think it was a necessary book. »