On Tuesday, February 7, a new day of strike and mobilization took place in France, once again demonstrating the rejection of Macron’s pension reform project. Between 750,000 people (according to the police) and close to two million (according to the Interunion) mobilized throughout the country. A third round that indicates that this fight is far from being over.
By Gustavo Galeota and Tamara Yapura
From the unitary call of all the trade union centrals (CFDT, CGT, Solidaires, FO, CGE-CGC, CFTC, FSU, Unsa), last Tuesday hundreds of thousands of public and private sector workers, students of all educational levels and retirees mobilized. In the case of Paris, the march went from the Place de l’Opera to the Place de la Bastille, around four kilometers. Thus, in the capital and in all the cities, the streets were once again the meeting point of our class to wage a new round of massive rejection of the pension reform bill.
In spite of this, the debate in mainstream media revolved around the “weakening” of the strike and movement. But even acknowledging that there is a decrease in the number of strikers, due to the distrust of the rank and file in the bureaucracy of the Interunion, it’s massiveness demonstrated that there is a will to fight throughout the country to defeat the reform:
– In addition to the national call on the 7th, in departments like Sarthe or Dordogne at least four more calls were organized on different days and the same in regions like Normandy and Brittany.
– Participation is also sustained in cities such as Albertville or Pau, considered strongholds of the right.
– The sum of the three marches held in such a short period, less than 20 days, is comparable only to historical milestones such as the great struggle of 1995.
Macron’s mess, capitalist profits
The presentation of Macron’s bill took place on Monday, February 6, and the National Assembly has a deadline of next February 17, to then pass to debate in the Senate between February 17 and March 26. A hurried agenda which shows the presidential obstinacy, which bastardizes the mechanisms of bourgeois democracy itself and is absolutely alien to the debates and concerns of the labor and youth world.
In the ruling bloc there are deputies who ask for some changes to the project. Today the government had a hard parliamentary setback when in the session the ruling party withdrew from the chamber while all the opposition (on the left and on the right) approved the renationalization of EDF, the public electricity company.
It is logical that there should be a deep mass indignation in France, when at the same time the intention is to make people work and contribute more years to cover the “deficit” of the pension funds, a large private company like TotalEnergies, which sells liquid gas, has just announced today that last year it had record net profits of 19.5 billion Euros. As it is chanted in the marches, “there is money in the bosses’ coffers”.
For the general strike to defeat the reform
Although the main slogan of the demonstrations is the rejection of the pension reform, they channel the strong social discontent accumulated during the crisis, later aggravated by the pandemic and the war. For example, although an annual inflation rate of 6% is talked about, in some foodstuffs it represents 40% while salaries always lag behind the cost of living. For this reason, in the march of the 7th, together with the debate on how to continue the struggle, slogans such as “No to the increase of the retirement age, Yes to the increase of salaries” were popularized.
This Saturday, March 11, there will be a new day of struggle and the Interunion has already called for another one for Thursday, March 16. In some unions the proposal to call a general strike for an indefinite period starting on March 7 is beginning to emerge. It is necessary to push for greater pressure from below, from each workplace to force the union leaderships to harden the struggle or to overcome them. The streets of France confirm that it is possible to defeat Macron and his damned reform.