Donald Reid - Opening the Gates - The Lip Affair, 1968-1981

All who work on Lip are indebted to Michel Jeanningros. He had an office at the entry to the occupied factory and welcomed visitors, introducing them to workers inside. As I can attest, he has continued to play this welcoming role. In 1973, he was the Lip employee who took responsibility for compiling a wall mural of press coverage of the movement and a wide diversity of other documentation. Jeanningros has never stopped, creating an archive that one militant at the time referred to as manna for a university thesis, now housed in the Archives dpartementales du Doubs (ADD).

I am deeply grateful to leading figures in the Lip conflict I interviewedJacky Burtz, Dominique Bondu, Raymond Burgy, Fatima Demougeot, Michel Jeanningros, Claude Neuschwander, Charles Piaget, Jeannine Pierre-mile, Monique Piton, and Roland Vittotand to all who spoke to me about these events. Charles Piaget and Dominique Bondu let me consult their papers; Claude Neuschwander shared his unpublished manuscript, Ils ont tu Lip; Anne-Marie Martin provided transcripts of her films on Lip. Over the course of researching this project, I have benefited from assistance that I found myself thinking of as expressions of support characteristic of, and in some cases rooted in, the Lip experience. I would like to thank Gaston Bordet, Pierre Bouvier, Richard Copans, Caroline Dehedin, Dominique Dubosc, Thomas Faverjon, Mathieu Firmin, Frank Georgi, Guillaume Gourgues, Laurent Kondratuk, Dominique Ladoge, Sbastien Layerle, Anne-Marie Martin, Jolle Mauerhan, and Pierre Thom. In true acts of scholarly solidarity, Jolle Beurier and Christian Rouaud shared transcripts of interviews they conducted with important figures in the Lip Affair.

I want to express my deep appreciation to a number of archivists, including Myriam Cour-Drouhard and the director of the ADD Nathalie Rogeaux; Camille Abbiateci, Brnice Hartwig, and Michel Hitter of the Archives municipales de Besanon (AMB); Rosa Olmos of the Bibliothque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine (BDIC); Marie Eugnie Mougel of the Confdration Franaise Dmocratique du Travail (ACFDT); lise Mavraganis of the Fdration Gnrale de la Mtallurgie of the CFDT (FGM-CFDT); and Aurlie Mazet of the Confdration Gnrale du Travail (ACGT). Brooke Andrade of the National Humanities Center (NHC) and the interlibrary loan department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) fulfilled my seemingly insatiable desires.

I benefited greatly from discussions of my work with the French History and Culture Carolina Seminar at UNC-CH and the Joint French History Seminar at the University of Toronto/York University. I am indebted to Dominique Bondu, Hlne Chuquet and Holly Russell, who read a draft of the manuscript and provided very helpful critiques. It gives me special pleasure to thank Patrick Fridenson and Jacques Rancirescholars who have shaped and inspired my work since the very years I examine in this bookfor their readings and perceptive comments on the manuscript.

I would also like to thank the NHC for the John G. Medlin, Jr. Senior Fellowship, and UNC-CH for the W.N. Reynolds Leave, which provided me with the opportunity to complete this project. I am deeply appreciative to my editor, Sebastian Budgen, for his support and guidance, and to Mark Martin and the staff at Verso Books who brought this book into existence.