Exclusion is as important to tomorrow's society as the working class was to yesterday's society. One is struck by how imprecise and confused the solutions to exclusion are. Everybody seems to forget that the present unemployment crisis cannot be separated from two other critical points: the crisis of social links and the crisis of meaning. These three aspects are bound, but their relation is lost when questions of society are discussed politically. In fact, in situations of great social exclusion, the reconstruction of identity and of social and familial links are often a prerequisite for a return to employment.

JB de Foucauld, former technical advisor for monetary and financial affairs for Jacques Delors, has been at the head of the organization "Solidarités nouvelles face au chômage" since 1985. D. Piveteau is a lawyer, specializing in social questions. He works as a volunteer for the reception of unemployed people within the non governmental organization Secours Catholique.