“Is Everything Changing after Tonight”?

While the link between generational change and changes in the collective action taken by political organizations is often noted, the causal mediations between these two forms of transformation are more rarely studied. Based on the concepts of generational location, generational group, and generational unit developed by Karl Mannheim, this paper aims to provide an understanding of how a change in generational situation within the French Tobacconists’ Association was used strategically in the fight for access to power within this professional organization. Using both structural and situational analysis, we show how the addition of demonstrations to the repertoire of collective action was a symbolic act of display by what is defined as the “new generation.”