by The Commune, French section of the ISL
The workers´ show of force against the pension reform initiated on December 5 continues and some very specific sectors, like railway (SNCF) and public transport (RATP), national education or refineries are on their 12th day of strike. This strike, one year after the yellow vests movement, is proof of the determination of the working class to face a direct and frontal battle against Macron and his politics. The union bureaucracies are being overwhelmed from bellow, the masses demand the total withdrawal of the reform project. And nothing else!
Workers massively adhered to the December 5 strike with very high rates [1]: in railways, 55.6% on average (compared to 33.9% at the height of the Spring 2018 strike against railway reform, company data) and 85.7 % of drivers, 73.3% of controllers, 57% of signalmen struck, that is, less than one out of 10 trains; 10 of the 15 subway lines closed completely (including two automatic and three random), dozens of bus lines stopped and barely 20% of traffic was secured; a historic mobilization of national education workers with 70% striking in primary schools (one in three closed) and 75% in secondary schools (51% and 42%, according to the Ministry); in the electric sector between 50% and 60% (41% according to authorities) with peaks of 85% in the area of nuclear pipes and 100% in thermal pipes; 45% went on strike in the state (32% according to the Ministry). There are also strikes in air traffic control, Air France (20% of flights canceled in the territory, 15% in medium-distance flights and 30% in national ones), refineries (7 out of 8 shut down), ports and docks, road and urban transport, postal service, justice, food industry, metallurgy, commerce and distribution…
The marches were a demonstration of the strike´s strength, with more than 1.5 million in 250 organized mobilizations. Small, medium and large cities, almost everywhere, unlike any strike since 1995 (Juppé pension plan) or 2003 (Fillon pension law). The columns were massive: 250 thousand in Paris, 150 thousand in Marseille, 100 thousand in Toulouse, 25 thousand in Le Havre, 25 thousand in Nantes, 20 thousand in Clermont-Ferrand, 30 thousand in Grenoble, 20 thousand in Caen, 20 thousand in Valence, 17 thousand in Le Mans, 15 thousand in Brest, 15 thousand in Nimes, 12 thousand in Avignon, 10 thousand in Lorient, 9 thousand in La Rochelle, 8 thousand in Dijon, 7 thousand in Angoulême, 7 thousand in Niort, 5 thousand in Belfort.
The development of events since December 5
The decision to initiate a “strike of undetermined time until the reform is withdrawn” on December 5 was born on September 13 with the call by transport unions, with a 90% strike against the liquidation of their special retirement regime planned by Macron, Philippe and Delevoye. That call, issued by unions, activists and grassroots workers, was soon joined by different sectors, like raiway, chemical, transport, electricity, municipal workers and lawyers, who assume the slogan of “withdrawal” through mobilization and strike. That call and that determination contrasts with the benevolence of the entire union leadership of the confederations, who tend toward a “discussion” and “negotiation” of another reform with the government. Announced during the summer, the 24-hour day of action convened by CGT-FSU-SUD on September 24 was weak. The failure is also bitter (as we have already written [2]): only 150,000 people in 170 marches organized in the country, according to the CGT.
The December 5 action began to foreshadow its massive turnout as grassroots unions, local unions, departmental unions and federations of the CGT, FO, LDS and FESU joined the call. Isolated from the rank-and-file, left behind, seeking to “regain control” of a movement that escapes from them, the bureaucracies of the CGT, FO, SUD and FSU confederations and four youth organizations (UNEF, FIDL, UNL and MNL) were forced to call “a first day of inter-professional strike” against the project of pension reform by points, on October 16, almost a month after the transport Intersindical.
After the success of the December 5 march, the Confederal Intersindical meeting on the 6th tried to regain control of the movement announcing a second inter-professional day of action for December 10. Obviously, this new action was based on an antagonistic call of which only the confederations have the secret: withdrawal of the reform and negotiations! Between December 5 and 10, the sectors at the varguard (especially RATP, SNCF, refineries and national education) resumed the strike and maintained pressure on Macron, his government and federal departments with a single slogan: withdrawal!
Poorly prepared, the December 10 strike had a smaller turnout, with 885 thousand protesters according to the CGT. The night of the 10th, before the announcements Prime Minister Philippe was to make the following day, the CGT tweeted a call for a new day of local actions on the 12th and he postponement to the 17th of a national inter-professional day of action! It is the tactic of spaced out days of strike and dividing workers against striking “all together at once.”
The next day, December 11, Philippe presented the government’s project to reform the retirement system, without surprises: the end of the distribution system in favor of a system of points and, therefore, the abolition of the general regime and 42 special regimes; calculation of open rights throughout the entire career, implementation of an axis age of 64, discounts, penalties, etc.
The CFDT, trade union branch of the MEDEF employer’s center that is totally addicted to the reform, then entered the game and criticized the government’s decision to place 64 years as axis age. A false “red line” to justify its late alignment with the December 17 day of action… A great masquerade played by Laurent Berger, practically co-author of the reform, who knew about the agreement on the axis age before the prime minister’s speech, as an Elysium source indicated [3]: the CFDT “was aware of the general agreements and guidelines, including the age axis, and knew the orientations that the prime minister intended to give the reform.” Of course, Berger-Macron-Philippe’s plan is to place the reformist unions in the category of opponents of the reform for a while and then have them sign an agreement that can put an end to the movement and the strike.
The December 12 protests were true Persian markets, in which each sector “amplified the mobilization” in its own way. They were not, in nature and function, a great success. However, anger is intact and new sectors try to break through. The Police Alliance union took the opportunity to press Philippe-Castaner and signed an agreement in principle with the government, guaranteeing to maintain the special pension regime for the police, which exploded the police inter-union [4]. They also decompressed national education: Minister Blanquer received the unions to announce that their pensions will not fall … because their contributions will increase! This barely convinces the UNSA and even the CFDT is doubtful.
Today we are on the 12th day of strike, the inter-union of railways and public transport maintain the strike despite the pressure of the bureaucratic UNSA leadership, which wants to negotiate on their own. Together with oil refinery workers and longshoremen from Le Havre, Marseille, La Rochelle, with significant support from the population, transport strikers paved the way to the general strike. Will it be sufficient against the anti-strike plans of the union apparatus, which call spaced out actions and divide the sectors and the strikers to avoid launching the slogan of “inter-professional renewable strike” by all means?
December 17 promises to be a day of great strikes and marches. Only three days later, school vacations begin, a time when the correlation of forces will necessarily be less favorable.
The challenge in the next hours and days lies in strikers´ ability to counter and overpower the apparatuses to impose the slogan of “general strike until the reform is withdrawn”!
The government, on the verge of rupture, even weakened by a new scandal that, this time, touches the heart of its pension reform, in the person of Jean-Paul Delevoye, high commissioner for retirement [5], suspected of the crime of conflict of interests, is in an unsustainable position and only remains in his position thanks to the support of the government and the divisions orchestrated by the union bureaucracies.
The fight against Macron cannot be delayed any longer! It’s time for everyone to strike together!
It’s time to call the general strike, the only slogan to win the withdrawal of the Macron-Philippe-Delevoye reform!
Paris, 12/16/19.
[1] Figures
taken from Infographics: rates of strikers, sector by sector, on the website
la-croix.com, 12/13/19.
[2] Manifestations of September 24: a failure for
the trade union bureaucracy, on the web lacommune.org, 9/26/19.
[3] On the web challenges.fr, 12/12/19.
[4] “For the French Police Union-Angry Policemen,
this agreement is a ‘treason ’. The union denounces the fact that ‘police
unions are the first to kneel before the government without any guarantee on
the issue of retirement’. The union added: ‘Until the latest news, the French
Police Union-Angry Policemen was part of the Intersindical. But the Macronist
police unions did not ask us for our opinion and speak on our behalf as a phony
Intersindical! After that unilateral announcement, the French Police
Union-Angry Policemen obviously closes the door to this pseudo-Intersindical!’.”
On the web blogs.mediapart.fr, 12/12/19.
[5] “The minister responsible for the pension
reform acknowledges having exercised 13 functions in external organizations,
including 11 in which he is still in office despite his ministerial position.
In his first statement he had only reported three. He also reassessed the
salaries he received.” On the website mediapart.fr, 12/14/19.