the story of his incarceration in Saint-Nazaire in a book

The author will be the guest of the L'Écrit Parle association on Thursday January 23, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at Les Abeilles, for an evening around his testimony “Don't forget anything”.

In 1970, Jean-Claude Martin was a young proletarian left activist. So aged 22 anshe distributed a leaflet justifying the Molotov cocktail attack on the management of Chantiers de l'Atlantique, in response to a series of workplace accidents which resulted in the death of several workers. His action earned him incarceration in the Saint-Nazaire remand center for 2 months. His book Don't forget anything is the story of his “61 days as a coward”.

Volunteer worker after the Sorbonne

Born in Nantes in 1948, Jean-Pierre Martin attended secondary school at the Jules Verne high school, then entered the Lycée Louis le Grand in Paris, and then enrolled at the Sorbonne in philosophy. From 1969 to 1973, he campaigned for the Proletarian Left while working as a voluntary worker in various factories. In Saint-Nazaire, at the Baudet shipyards and at Sud Aviation, then in Saint-Étienne, in a foundry, a steelworks, and finally as a rolling assistant in Creusot-Loire. Don't forget anything parle « of a revolt that has still not been extinguished. From the solitude of the grassroots activist. Of violence, and the desire to change the world. Finally, friendship between a student established in a factory and a worker from Chantiers de l'Atlantique ».

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Renowned teacher and writer

From 1974 to 1987, Jean-Pierre Martin settled in Finistère where he worked odd jobs before taking the CAPES at the age of 39. He taught at the University of Lyon 2 as a lecturer then as a university professor, and in 2007 was appointed member of the Institut Universitaire de France. He currently lives in Ardèche, and is the author of around twenty books, novels and essays, including Henri Michaux (2003, general literature prize of the French Academy), Queneau losophe (2011), Orwell's other life (2013), The new surprise of love (2016), The book of shame (2006, Grand Prix de la critique), Praise of the apostate (2010), Real book, autopianography (2019).