82

As follow-up to Patrick Champagne’s seminal paper on “paper demonstrations”, this article analyses the motivations for, and the modalities of, the use of numbers by a shopkeepers’ union, the Confédération des buralistes. Rather than seeing this approach as the radicalization of this trade union’s action, the author shows that it bears witness to trade unions’ importation and reproduction of commercial communication practices. This study of the use of demonstrations is a continuation of research on political communication, in so far as it sheds light on the know-how needed for this symbolic action. It also shows the presence of actors who until now were not, or seldom, identified in studies on mobilization (by events organizers, actors, private security agencies, etc.) on the media-oriented political services market.