07.12.1995

Workers in France show the way

160,000 marched in Paris this week and more workers looked set to join the strikes this Thursday

OVER three million workers have taken part in strikes in France and over one million have been involved in street protests.

Public sector workers began action over pay and students over education cuts but the strikes have quickly developed into a combined struggle against Juppé’s Gaullist government plans, announced in November, to attack welfare provisions.

Workers in the private sector have also been drawn in, the latest being dockers. Lorry drivers have been blocking roads to add to the transport chaos caused by a complete rail and underground shutdown.

The Juppé government attempted to split students off by offering extra cash to education but while the minority rightwing student organisations accepted the deal, the left wing rejected it and the majority of students are continuing the struggle.

A leading communist from the Marseille area told us: “The government is demanding that the working class in France pay the cost of the introduction of a single currency. The working class in France is taking to the streets to say no.” The government has not been able to impose cuts over a period of time, unlike the British government. In fact, in the recent presidential election the winning Gaullist party had promised to solve the unemployment problem and at the same time maintain living standards.

Prime Minister Juppé said he would quit if more than two million people appeared on the streets. But as this looked increasingly likely to happen he modified his position.

The French employers’ federation is however considering the possibility of calling for fresh elections to bring about a coalition with the Socialist Party and even the Communist Party (PCF). Neither is committed to a complete junking of the proposals, but only negotiation. Undoubtedly the employers’ federation sees such a coalition as the safest, if most dramatic way of getting workers back into the workplace.

France has frequently led the way in this sort of militant movement which relies on the strength and discipline of workers rather than the bureaucratic and formal organisational strength of the trade union movement. It could be a harbinger of the sort of struggles that can take place throughout the European Union.

Working class anger at attacks on rights and benefits won through years of struggle is common throughout Europe. There is nothing inherent in the political situation or state of workers’ organisations to say that this anger cannot explode.

French workers are fighting a Tory government. Only six months after its election workers have challenged it, giving a lie to the view put around in Britain that workers are better able to fight for their rights under a Labour government.

Despite the different trade union centres and a level of trade union membership much lower than Britain’s, workers themselves are learning fast how to organise their different demands into a common anti-government fight. Many know they must keep the struggle under their own control to stop bureaucratic sabotage.

All that is lacking at the moment is revolutionary programme, so it remains to be seen how far this struggle can be taken and if it will be sold short by the union leaders, the Socialist Party and the PCF. But whatever happens, it seems certain that the workers’ movement in France will be strengthened by it and the bosses therefore weakened.

The battered workers’ movement in Britain should take strength from the glimpse of what is possible in France.