Crossed reading of the following three novels shows that “worker” is not a structural invariant: Le cheval de Troie by Paul Nizan, Beau Masque by Roger Vailland, and Le jour où le temps a attendu son heure by Natacha Michel, the action of which takes place in the thirties, fifties and seventies, respectively.
The points of view of political militants on workers' commitment and forms of action are successively exposed: that of the Communist Party, that of the Communist Party and Communist trade union, finally that of maoist militants and workers.