Statement of the International Socialist League—France regarding the day of action on 17 October, state repression and the social crisis

The government and employers must stop feigning surprise at the massive day of mobilisation on 17 October. The staggering deterioration in the living conditions of the working class and the working people — a direct consequence of the Macron administration’s policies of austerity, precariousness and plunder — coupled with increasingly brutal police repression as the state’s primary response, could not have ended any other way. The lack of prospects to which we are condemned and the backlash unleashed in the streets really should come as no surprise to those responsible for it. What is truly surprising is that the pent-up rage was directed only at a few rubbish bins and monuments, and not directly at the political leaders responsible for our misery.

We are emerging from several weeks of student protests, and Saturday 17th was the day when several ongoing struggles converged. 880,000 people took to the streets across France, despite the government’s campaign of fear, repression and persecution, with rallies continuing throughout the weekend.

Faced with the unequivocal message from young people and workers, Emmanuel Macron has chosen to step up his authoritarian measures. He continues to restrict the right to protest, calls on political and trade union leaders to condemn the direct action that his own policies have provoked, and attempts to steer the conflict into the trap of ‘social dialogue’. Why does Macron not read the 76,000 messages from school pupils posted on the official platform that his government – seeking to divert the anger – set up for this very purpose? One need only ask any pupil as they leave school to understand the widespread sense of frustration. It is a disgrace, this policy of a repressive government that does not hesitate to maim and tear-gas adolecents and children to secure the budget for debt, wars and genocides.

For their part, Marine Le Pen and the far right, who are seeking to capitalise demagogically on the social discontent that has built up after nearly a decade of Macronism, are criminalising grassroots organisations, the far left and migrants. They talk of ‘order’, but remain silent in the face of police provocations and infiltration aimed at stigmatising social protest. Yes, Marine, those who violate the rights of the majority must be held to account for their actions, but you are standing for the presidency after having been found guilty of corruption and embezzlement of public funds. And yes, those who undermine social life must pay, and those primarily responsible are your friends, the big business bosses, who have enriched themselves by worsening the living conditions of millions of families across the country.

No monument, no shop window, no supermarket chain will ever be worth more than the lives of young people and the working class. The objective reality we face is dire: 20 per cent of young people report having had suicidal thoughts over the past year; 45 per cent of those living in poverty in the country are under 30; job insecurity affects 60 per cent of the young population; and one in three students does not have enough to eat. This structural deprivation is hitting the entire working class hard, with more than 9 million people surviving below the poverty line, more than 2 million workers classified as ‘working poor’ because they are unable to meet their basic needs despite having a job, and more than 85 per cent of new hires being on temporary and extremely precarious contracts. Whilst the multinationals listed on the CAC 40 are breaking all-time records, with profits exceeding 150 billion euros, the cumulative loss of real income in recent years has been around 1,200 euros per year per family since 2024, forcing 60 per cent of low-income households to cut back on essential expenditure on food, electricity and heating. Added to this is the barbaric treatment by employers in factories and workplaces: France holds the grim record for workplace fatalities in Europe, with more than 700 workers dying each year at their place of work and more than 600,000 workplace accidents annually. This is the real violence that should be ashamed of!

The International Socialist League (ISL), believes that there are no parliamentary shortcuts or any possibility of compromise with the bosses to defeat this austerity plan. We must resolutely unite all the ongoing struggles, linking the mobilised anger of young people with the strategic strength of the working class through joint assemblies in every workplace, every secondary school and every university. We demand that trade union leaders immediately launch a unified plan of action to prepare a general strike that paralyses the economy and strangles the bosses who are enriching themselves at our expense. To guarantee victory, we must take the struggle into our own hands through grassroots self-organisation, setting up grassroots strike committees with delegates elected and removable by the assemblies themselves.

We must organise to bring down the capitalist state, the police and the fascists. This movement is beginning to raise the question of power in various ways. In this sense, we must embrace and widely disseminate the idea that only a workers’ government, based on workers’ own organisations and those of young people, can change society and provide a lasting response to these demands which we so desperately need and for which we have been fighting for so long.

That is why, in principle, we continue to demand:

• An immediate general increase in wages, pensions and benefits, with a sliding scale and automatic monthly indexation in line with real inflation.
• More funding for education, healthcare and social welfare.
• An end to job cuts and precarious contracts.
• A price freeze and popular control over the cost of essential goods and services, rents and basic public services.
• An end to repression and the prosecution of activists, and the immediate release of all those detained for taking part in the struggle.

“There’s nothing better than the streets, after all!” said a young protester in a video as a homeless person was given a pair of shoes in the midst of the protests on the 17th. In the face of the hypocrisy of bourgeois morality, which cares more about property than people, the streets demonstrate profound class solidarity: nothing is better than mobilisation and collective struggle to shake this regime to its core and conquer what we so deserve – a life worth living.