Paper short abstract:

After being mutilated by the State during the yellow vest protests (France), a group of citizens organize to seek truth, justice and recognition of the violence they have suffered. Through their struggle they create bonds and practices of care that repair and make their daily lives habitable again.

Paper long abstract:

At the end of 2018, the augmentation of petrol prises provoked the rise of the yellow vests in France. Through the daily occupation of roundabouts in suburban areas, and weekly protests in the centre of Paris, the movement of the forgotten voiced the unrest of low and middle classes in the country. The movement, labeled as violent by the State and the media, met harsh repression from the police, with a count of 36 protesters mutilated during the manifestations. Those affected, endure till the present day the psychological, physical and social consequences of the wounds inflicted on them. Although the mutilated have access to State health services, they are refused official recognition as victims, situation that is experienced as further physical pain. This paper is based on a year of ethnography amongst the association that musters people in this situation. This has allowed me to observe how lack of recognition enacts an exclusion from the community of the nation for my interlocutors. Also observing how the creation of a network of mutual aid, serves to create the acknowledgement the State is unable to provide. Moreover, my interlocutors voice an understanding of each other's pain and loss, which leads them to feel in their own bodies the hurt of the others. Indeed, the incorporation of the poisonous knowledge (Das,2007) of State violence bolsters care practices between them, allowing the creation of a community that serves as an alternative social project, and that helps heal social wounds present before the mutilations.