ABSTRACT
There existed the analyses of technical change and automation undertaken by the sociologues du travail, whose bearing on class structure had never been systematically explored. These were the broad circumstances which favoured the production of 'new working class' theory and helped define its content: the establishment of Gaullism, the loss of authority of the Parti Communiste Francais, the creation of the Parti Socialiste Unifie, economic prosperity, and an optimistic interpretation of the trend towards automation. The arrival of Gaullism coincided with, and partly encouraged, a new phase in French economic growth, a mood of optimism and 'modernity', and an acceleration of marxist revisionism. 'If by "revolutionary" one understands the wish to modify fundamentally existing social relations, the objective conditions in which the new working class acts and lives makes it par excellence the vanguard of the revolutionary socialist movement'.
