UFISC press release against cuts in cultural budgets

Recent announce­ments of dras­tic cuts in the bud­gets allo­cat­ed to cul­ture, sport, com­mu­ni­ty life, pop­u­lar edu­ca­tion and civic engage­ment in Pays de la Loire have aroused deep indig­na­tion.

Reduc­ing sub­si­dies for essen­tial activ­i­ties that pro­mote eman­ci­pa­tion and social cohe­sion in such a bru­tal way weak­ens our col­lec­tive fab­ric, sti­fles local ini­tia­tives and denies the impor­tance of the com­mon good.

Madam Chair­man, in a mes­sage post­ed on a social net­work, you jus­ti­fied this move by ques­tion­ing the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of a sys­tem “depen­dent on pub­lic mon­ey”. This state­ment is tan­ta­mount to a frontal attack on the found­ing val­ues of our repub­li­can and demo­c­ra­t­ic mod­el, and under­mines the very mean­ing of ini­tia­tives serv­ing the gen­er­al inter­est.

Cul­ture and sol­i­dar­i­ty : pil­lars to be defend­ed, not sac­ri­ficed

Cul­ture, sport, pop­u­lar edu­ca­tion and com­mu­ni­ty life in gen­er­al are not super­flu­ous expen­di­tures : they are essen­tial invest­ments. Cul­ture nour­ish­es our minds, sport main­tains our bod­ies, asso­cia­tive life sup­ports our ter­ri­to­ries and civic engage­ment strength­ens our democ­ra­cy. These fields con­tribute to the qual­i­ty of life of the region’s habitant∙es, and to the trans­mis­sion of val­ues of sol­i­dar­i­ty and shar­ing. They are the levers of a diver­si­fied econ­o­my, anchored in the ter­ri­to­ries and gen­er­at­ing local jobs that can­not be relo­cat­ed.

Dis­re­gard for pub­lic respon­si­bil­i­ties

Shared cul­tur­al com­pe­tence has been rec­og­nized by sev­er­al fun­da­men­tal texts of our Repub­lic. Arti­cle 103 of the NOTRe law affirms joint pub­lic respon­si­bil­i­ty between the State and local author­i­ties to guar­an­tee respect for cit­i­zens’ cul­tur­al rights. Sim­i­lar­ly, the LCAP law of 2016 reaf­firms the impor­tance of pub­lic poli­cies built in con­sul­ta­tion with cultural∙les and actors.

Reduc­ing the resources devot­ed to these poli­cies is a vio­lent and pro­found attack on these com­mit­ments. It ignores the fact that cul­ture, sport and com­mu­ni­ty life are the guar­an­tors of the diver­si­ty, inclu­sion and vital­i­ty of our regions.

The price of aban­don­ment

With a 70% cut in cul­tur­al sub­si­dies, local cul­tur­al venues will close, fes­ti­vals will die out, artis­tic teams will dis­ap­pear, with a direct effect on employ­ment in the region.

With few­er resources for cul­ture, sport and com­mu­ni­ty life, thou­sands of res­i­dents will lose out on oppor­tu­ni­ties for sol­i­dar­i­ty, encoun­ters, well-being and eman­ci­pa­tion.

If we deval­ue civic engage­ment, our abil­i­ty to act togeth­er in the face of demo­c­ra­t­ic, social, eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal crises will be erod­ed.

This dis­man­tling reflects a short-sight­ed eco­nom­ic vision, ignor­ing the fact that what is not financed today will cost much more tomor­row, in the form of iso­la­tion, increased inequal­i­ty and loss of social cohe­sion.

Our appeal : a unit­ed front for pub­lic pol­i­cy

We call on all cit­i­zens, cul­tur­al, sport­ing and asso­cia­tive play­ers, as well as all elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives attached∙es to the gen­er­al inter­est, to mobi­lize on Mon­day Novem­ber 25, start­ing at 8:30am, in front of the Pays de la Loire Region­al Hall, against this reduc­tive vision of pub­lic poli­cies. We demand that the Region review its bud­getary arbi­tra­tions, respect its pub­lic respon­si­bil­i­ties and renew its com­mit­ment to the com­mon good.

At a time when we are call­ing for gov­ern­men­tal arbi­tra­tion in favor of the ter­ri­to­ries, we will not tol­er­ate aus­ter­i­ty falling on the most pre­car­i­ous ini­tia­tives, which are not seek­ing prof­it but social util­i­ty, which are not clos­ing their work­places but fight­ing every day to main­tain local employ­ment, which take care of our hearts and minds to build a more serene and shared future.

This unprece­dent­ed attack in the Pays de la Loire region is just the tip of the ice­berg, as we are cur­rent­ly receiv­ing numer­ous alerts from many dif­fer­ent regions. That’s why we’re protest­ing this region­al sit­u­a­tion, just as we will wher­ev­er nec­es­sary, to ensure that the aus­ter­i­ty wind blown by the gov­ern­ment does­n’t spread the fire to the whole of France.

We won’t give up. Cul­tur­al rights, diver­si­ty of prac­tice, asso­cia­tive vital­i­ty and civic com­mit­ment are not options. They are essen­tial if we are to build a desir­able future based on sol­i­dar­i­ty and jus­tice.

Let’s unite our voic­es !

We will remain mobilized∙es and in sol­i­dar­i­ty to demand pub­lic poli­cies equal to the chal­lenges of our times. Togeth­er, let’s pre­serve what con­nects us, what uplifts us, what makes us com­mon !

The 1st signatories

• UFISC — Union Fédérale d’In­ter­ven­tion des Struc­tures Cul­turelles (Fed­er­al Union for Inter­ven­tion by Cul­tur­al Struc­tures)
• ACNAREP - Asso­ci­a­tion of CNAREPs
• ACTES IF — Net­work of inde­pen­dent artis­tic and cul­tur­al venues in the Paris region
• CITI — Inter­na­tion­al Cen­ter for Tour­ing The­aters
• FAMDT — Fed­er­a­tion of Actors and Actress­es of Tra­di­tion­al Music and Dance
• FEDELIMA — Fed­er­a­tion of con­tem­po­rary music venues
• FERAROCK - Fed­er­a­tion of Asso­cia­tive Music Radios
• FEDELIMA - Fed­er­a­tion of con­tem­po­rary music venues
• FNAR - Nation­al Fed­er­a­tion of Street Arts
• FNGEC - Nation­al Fed­er­a­tion of Cul­tur­al Employ­ers’ Groups
• FRACA-MA — Pôle région Cen­tre-Val de Loire musiques actuelles
• FRAAP - Fed­er­a­tion of net­works and asso­ci­a­tions of visu­al artists
• GRANDS FORMATS — Nation­al fed­er­a­tion of large jazz and impro­vised music ensem­bles and artist col­lec­tives
• SMA - Syn­di­cat des Musiques Actuelles
• THEMAA - Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Pup­pet The­aters and Asso­ci­at­ed Arts
• ZONE FRANCHE — World music net­work

► Find the updat­ed list of sig­na­to­ries online : https : //ufisc.org/politiques-publiques/item/485-communique-halte-a-la-casse-des-politiques-publiques-en-pays-de-la-loire.html

► Con­tact Con­tact : Gré­goire Pateau, Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Dynam­ics Offi­cer : gregoire.pateau@ufisc.org