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French government’s new war on the workers
ON 29 May, the French establishment suffered a new
electoral defeat. The victory of the ‘No’ vote in the referendum on the
European Union (EU) ‘constitution’ was a big defeat for Jean-Pierre
Raffarin, who was subsequently replaced as prime minister by Dominique
de Villepin. But an electoral defeat is not a decisive defeat if it does
not come on the ground of the struggles. The reshuffled government
launched a big series of new attacks.
Not only by continuing with privatisation. The next
objective is to destroy the labour contract. The CNE (contrat nouvelle
embauche – new work contract) has been decided without it going for
discussion in the National Assembly. It will allow small enterprises of
less than 20 employees to fire any worker on this type of contract
within two days without explanation. This is only a first step towards
it applying to larger enterprises. This direct attack against the old
collective conventions and the CDI (undetermined time contract) shows
clearly where the government wants to go.
At the same time, a new announcement of further
privatisation, along with tax cuts for the rich, dominated September. It
is in the conflict over the SNCM (Société Nationale Corse-Méditérannée)
that this was the most visible. During the month-long negotiations over
opening up the share capital of SNCM, the CGT trade union federation
called for a strike. The government then suddenly announced that it
would go for 100% privatisation. The sailor-workers automatically
reacted by going on all-out strike, mainly under the leadership of the
CGT (the main union in SNCM), but with the other unions also – for
example, the STC (Corsican Workers’ Union) which has links with Corsican
nationalists.
Fearing a lack of combativity from the union, some
workers took over the Paoli ferry, and nationalist pressure transformed
this into a demonstration over what is Corsican should go to Corsica.
The government did not hesitate. It launched the GIGN (anti-terrorist
security force) to take back the boat and arrest the workers. At that
moment, the strategy of the government was absolutely clear: it will go
to the end in search of a defeat of the SNCM workers. At the same
moment, a strike started in the port of Marseille against privatisation,
which was followed a few days later by the national day of strikes on 4
October.
That meant that all the conditions for a united
struggle of two bastions of the working class in Marseille were in
place. The demo on 4 October was huge – at least 70,000 strong. RTM
(public transport) struck, with only 3% of the buses running and no tube
service at all. The RTM strike continued the following day – and is
still on, over the question of privatising the new tramway line.
Some strikes have also started in other companies
about wages. But at no moment did the union leaders, and especially
local and national CGT leaders, argue and prepare united action. They
very quickly changed the demand of the SNCM strike to say that "the
state should keep the majority of the shares" (51%), which is de facto
privatisation. The government maintained its pressure by saying that if
the strike went on, SNCM would be closed down. On 13 October, the CGT
organised a secret ballot on the issue, in order to stop the strike.
Workers were asked to vote Yes or No: ‘Yes, and the company is safe’; or
‘No, and the company will close down’. Of course, by 519 votes to 73,
yes won. It was a bitter defeat for a bastion of the working class, and
followed the end of the port workers’ strike (without any gain) a few
days before.
This was a clear betrayal by the union leaders, and
there was also a total absence of initiatives from the left. The same
day that the anti-terrorist police stormed the Paoli ferry, CGT leader,
Bernard Thibault, accepted the offer of talks with the prime minister,
Dominique de Villepin. On 4 October, the joint appeal from all the
unions involved only asked the government for "open negotiations",
without putting forward any clear demands. On 9 October, Thibault issued
a letter (after a meeting with CGT-SNCM leaders) which did not even
refer to the percentage of shares the state should hold in SNCM. It was
a clear green light for the government that the CGT would not do
anything concretely to support the struggle of SNCM workers. The
government has declared war on the workers, and is not hesitating to go
very far in its attacks. It is doing so because of the needs of French
capitalism, but also because it knows it has nothing to fear from the
union leaders.
The far-left could have played a role – for years,
now – but it seems that it still does not understand the real situation.
Following on from the European ‘No’ campaign, Ligue Communist
Révolutionnaire (LCR) has developed very close relations with the
Communist Party. They organised a ‘support’ meeting for the SNCM
together on 3 October, but without collecting money and without dealing
with the strategy that should be used for the struggles today. Even
though the right-wing mayor of Marseille is preparing a substitute
public transport service to weaken the RTM strike, the last meeting of
the leadership of the LCR and the CP only dealt with "the necessity to
examine possibilities of joint initiatives to fight neo-liberal
policies". Lutte Ouvrière, while more critical of the CP and the union
leaders, hardly proposes anything in terms of strategy for the struggle
and, of course, never deals with the necessity of a new workers’ party.
We are reaching a turning point. It is really
possible that all the strikes that are going on could be defeated. (Or,
like in Nancy, where after 17 days of strikes for a 8% rise in pay, bus
drivers won only 1.7%. The right-wing parties have used that dispute to
ask for a law limiting the right to strike in public transport.)
Villepin is a mix of Thatcher and Blair, which means a government ready
to directly attack the workers.
At the same time, there exists huge but passive
anger against the establishment. The possibility of a wave of new
attacks from the bosses and the government against a working class that
is too demoralised to respond is not excluded. In the next period,
raising that dangerous possibility, and the means to avoid it – a united
and strong day of demonstrations or strikes as a first step toward a
generalised struggle – will be crucial.
Alexandre Rouillard
Gauche Révolutionnaire (CWI France)
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