DSK Brings Class Struggle to New York

Outrage from colleagues; the powerful image of major hotel employees in uniform, backed by unions — these will mark the opening day of the DSK trial. Not maids from musical comedies but responsible women — often immigrants and claimants. They work like beasts to achieve their American dream, and they want to be respected. The NYT noted and observed the phenomenon. This was not a Stanley Donen or Woody Allen film. It was serious.

The tone totally changed yesterday, and French protagonists and their American lawyers looked a bit unsettled before the turn of events. Shouts of “Shame on you!” set the tone of what the prosecutor seems to want to make of this trial: an exemplary moment of dignity.

The indictment was “improvised” by Kenneth Thompson, the new lawyer for Nafissatou Diallo, DSK’s accuser. He used the most virulent language with regard to the rich hotel guest, who should not get away unscathed just because he is rich and powerful. He offered a new dimension to the situation by stating that the alleged victim would come tell of the wrong that was done to her by her attacker, that she fights for all sexually abused women, and that she is courageous, with accents of Saint-Just and an impressively quiet strength.

Yesterday may have been the first time since May 14 that we felt that the spectacle orchestrated by the media was reclaimed by the legal system with a very political statement whose stake goes far beyond the DSK case itself.