By ATD Fourth World founder Joseph Wresinski (above). This article is based on a talk he gave at the Institut de France on June 13, 1983. It is published for International Archives Week 2024.

The History of Those in Poverty

The history of those in poverty is only told when their lives overlap with others: in wartime, during plagues or major disasters that affect a whole country, or […] through acts of violence or revolt, they represent a danger to the better-off.

Apart from such occasions, their history is only recorded in the archives of welfare services, the justice system or the police. Yet, those in poverty want to hold on to another narrative, their own authentic history that attests to the situations surmounted, the obstacles overcome, and to the lineages of families that, with courage and tenacity, endure. They recall the former emergency housing camp (where ATD Fourth World was founded) as a lost paradise, so that we can better appreciate their courage. They know that the essence of their collective identity is not the harshness of the past, but the resistance that has enabled them to avoid annihilation. When this history can be situated in a wider world, it can be known there. […] Taking the means to achieve this knowledge means reversing our exclusionary behaviour and helping to bring people in poverty into the world in a different way.