Just over a week ago, French President Emmanuel Macron declared war on workers with an unpopular pension reform that raises the retirement age from 62 to 64. It also requires a minimum contribution period of 43 years. Immediately, the union, an organization bringing together the eight French union headquarters CGT, FO, CFDT, CFTC and CFE-CGC, Unsa, Solidaires and FSU, and five youth organizations, called a united front demonstration for Thursday 19 A unpublished union , since it has not taken place for years.
Although 81 percent of French people think reform is necessary, according to the latest Ipsos poll, 61 percent oppose the proposal. “We want to have a good retirement, we don’t want to retire broke, tired, broken. If the government doesn’t come to their senses, there will be more protests,” said Laurent Escure, secretary-general of the National Union of Autonomous Unions (UNSA). to the German agency DW.
After Thursday’s massive mobilization, the union decided to adopt a pressure strategy and announced a new date of 11 days from now. We must seize this opportunity but impose a different strategy: the so-called deflectable strike to defeat Macron and his reform. This form of strike provides that it can be extended indefinitely. To build it we need a 48-hour strike on January 31st, which will act as a stepping stone to resuming it on February 6th along with the refiners!
The fight for pensions begins with a massive mobilization
The numbers are amazing: more than two million demonstrators across France, 400,000 in Paris, more than 100,000 in Marseille, 50,000 in Nantes and Toulouse, but also more than 10,000 in many of the country’s medium-sized cities, which are very unaccustomed to strong mobilizations such as Nice or Perpignan, both of which brought together 20,000 protesters.
Especially since the number of strikers was very high. In the sectors of energy, transport, education, refineries, but also in many private companies, the mobilization through strikes was strong despite the short preparation time. So much so that, as the day progressed, editorial writers had to report to the media numbers of mobilizations comparable only to those of 2010 and 1995.
If the opposition to the pension reform project was massive in the opinion polls, it has just emerged on the streets. Macron now faces a mobilization on an unprecedented scale, far outnumbering the struggles of the previous five years. This is enough to rouse any fears from the government, whose attempts to split the movement by attacking the “blockades” seem powerless to stem the ire of those below.
When announcing the date of January 31, the union relies on a strategy of pressure
Faced with this tremendous success, the inter-union group met to announce a new date for the inter-professional mobilization, January 31st. A distant date that requires massive work, but the choice of which is instructive in several respects. In the first place, it affirms the CFDT’s hegemony in the current direction of movement, adopting the option preferred by central Laurent Berger.
Then the choice of an isolated date on January 31, without proposing a plan for building the mobilization or a perspective for its expansion, clearly expresses the union’s strategy. In fact, an alternative date like January 26 would have allowed to join the battle plan of the refiners who have put a renewable strike plan on the table. The main problem with the inter-union communiqué is the logic behind it.
With their announcements, the union shows that it is committed to a strategy of pressure, through isolated massive mobilizations that exploit the contradictions of Macronism to force them to withdraw from reform. And indeed, the latter shows the first divisions. However, betting our pensions on the parliamentary maneuvers and electoral ambitions of these anti-working class parties is a dangerous game.
On the other hand, the parliamentary strategies of the left are powerless against the determination of the government. We can only count on the strength that we can build with strikes and mobilizations, as in the great historic struggles of 1936-1968 that lasted until 1995 or 2006. This is all the more important because in times of acute crisis like ours, the state and the bourgeoisie will not bring about reform unless they fear losing everything. In those moments we won our most important past achievements, and this is even more true at a time when capitalism continues to show that it has nothing to offer but regression.
We need to achieve a real deflectable strike
Macron is risking his five-year term with the pension reform and will not back down anytime soon. In addition, in the current crisis situation, we must demand more than simply withdrawing the reform. Provided, of course, that the forces of the labor movement and all those opposed to the project mobilize in unison.
As this Thursday’s mobilization has shown, it is possible to build a momentum that combines the power of the massive strikes of the 1995-2010 cycle with the radical nature of the mobilizations of the past five years. To do this, we must use the success of January 19 to generalize about the strike. To do this, the leadership of the union, which only aims to put pressure on the government, must be defeated
A broad strike that will mobilize all sectors of our class, from the most strategic to the most precarious, for a program not limited to the rollback of the reform project, but aimed instead at decent pensions, indexing wages to inflation and wage increases to reach all. To do this, it is important to use January 31 and, following the example of the oil workers, to call a 48-hour strike, which will serve as a springboard for preparing the next actions.
A new strategy for combat
Twisting the union’s hand means making the most of the 11 days left until the next action. First, discuss and fight for this plan, call general assemblies in all of our companies and campuses, and start setting up strike funds. In this sense, the end of the university exam period should be seen as an opportunity to build a massive youth mobilization that can fundamentally change the dynamics of the protest.
Then, so that all the sectors convinced of the strike turn to the most vulnerable sectors or sectors less used to hard conflicts, in an active strike logic. Subcontractors, temporary workers, companies without a tradition of struggle: electricians, refiners, bus drivers, railway workers, teachers must meet him with the same will to mobilize as the RATP and SNCF agents who have prepared the appointment for two months December 5 from the end of September 2019.
A key point is the organization of elements of interprofessional coordination between the sectors. The lack of any element in this sense is a weakness of the emerging movement, which prevents us from organizing and getting more people to strike. We must arm ourselves with the tools that will allow us to build a solid mobilization in an indeterminate perspective, but also manage to impose a different battle plan on the union.
If the most combative sectors use this plan, they can transform the subjectivity and resolve of the majority of our class. Although many oppose the reform, many are scarred by the weight of past defeats led by the union bureaucracies that currently run the movement and believe the government will succeed. Victory is possible, but on condition that we implement an effective strategy combining massiveness and radicalism. At Révolution Permanente we will do everything we can to achieve this.
If you like what we do, join the community
We have set ourselves the goal and propose you to reach 10,000 employees who are connected in the coming months.
Whether we can mirror reality from below and fight the big media of power also depends on you.
To keep growing, join the La Izquierda Diario community.