Three short months and then it’s gone! President Emmanuel Macron only managed to keep in place his stopgap, appointed prime minister, Michel Barnier, and his government, for only three months. His roadmap was clear: to continue the same policies that only benefit the biggest bosses and the richest. Barnier, good riddance! His appointment had been a new stroke of typical authoritarianism in Macron’s toolkit. And above, it has been all a new admission of weakness, after his sudden dissolution of the National Assembly last summer and subsequent general election put his camp, so hated, in a minority.
Barnier out, Macron and all your politics out too!
Most of us are already in a very difficult situation, and it is their policies that have made everything worse. There are 5 million unemployed who can’t find a job, even though the 40 largest companies made €150 billion in profits last year and already €72 billion in the first half of this year. For everyone to have a job, the workers’ movement says: “The money exists: in the coffers of the bosses!” Macron gives large companies so much public money through subsidies and other measures – money which is ours in reality – that the state is simply unable to say how much! And then they pretend to discover a magical deficit to justify their attacks. Since the announcement that the legal clause ‘Article 49.3’ would be used by the government to force through its 2025 budget without parliamentary approval, the capitalists and their media have declared themselves worried about the economic future of the country. As if the economic outlook was good before last week! They are concerned about political and social stability, but at the same time they are focussed on making maximum possible profits, as quickly as possible, by super-exploiting workers and the “markets” created by the chaos of the wreckage of our former public services. Macron will therefore use the pretext of the crisis to try to continue the same policies and impose an austerity budget.
National Rally party (RN)
Le Pen-Bardella’s RN has often found it difficult since September to hide the extent to which they agree with the government’s policies. They had validated the installation of prime minister Barnier. In the debates on the budget, they agreed with all the substance: the reduction of wages, through the reduction of social security contributions for the bosses (thus theft on the backs of the workers and the population), the destruction of public services, etc. To appear to be the opposition and to keep their anti-Macron electorate, they finally voted ‘no confidence’ in the government. But we can see the reality; their policies are just as anti-social and anti-working-class as ever, and even more racist and, without a doubt, more authoritarian and repressive.
How could measures for workers be carried out?
The fall of the government and a call for the resignation of Macron are supported by the left party France Insoumise [LFI], which is welcome. This should be supported much more openly by organisations that defend workers – including trade unions. After all, how else can policies in favour of workers, youth and the population be implemented other than in this context?
The question of a government formed by the New Popular Front [NFP, an alliance led by France Insoumise] is once again on the table. But even more than in September, the Parti Socialiste [a party within the NFP] is tempted to carry out policies compatible with the capitalists and more or less like those of Macron. This is what they are already doing with EELV [the Greens, also in the NFP] or the PCF [Communist Party, in the NPF too] in several local authorities that they lead.
For a massive strike against Macron’s policies!
The end of the Barnier chapter opens a new page. The government has collapsed while at the same time a national civil service strike is taking place this Thursday, 5 December, organised against the budget plan of Barnier and Co and in defence of public services. Anger and strikes are multiplying in all sectors – against layoffs (at Michelin, Auchan, etc), job cuts (in Education, the France Travail employment agency, SNCF rail company, etc), against budget cuts, for wage increases… We are seeing an increase in anger in an organised way.
The only guarantee that a policy in favour of workers will be applied is by workers entering into struggle all together, with massive strikes, supported by a mobilisation of youth for their own future, which would build a balance of forces in favour of the working class. This is what can stop the policies of austerity and wrest measures to really improve our lives, now.
After the civil service strike, we must take advantage of the political crisis to amplify the struggle. Workers must be at the centre of this battle. The workers’ organisations should call for a strike of everyone together, both public and private sectors, on December 10, 11 and 12, building on the mobilisations that have already been announced; A militant strike, for wage increases, more jobs and no layoffs, but also against austerity that will affect everyone – through public services and local authorities. A massive strike against the entire agenda of Macron and the capitalists.
It is up to us to decide: For a workers’ government!
The weakness and crisis of those in power can benefit us, workers and youth, if we enter political struggle and action. Enough of pro-capitalist policies, it’s we who should decide! We need a government with a firm programme against the capitalists, which defends the interests of workers with policies to satisfy the needs of the population, through planning the economy democratically and ecologically sustainably. Workers need to organise, through democratic decision-making in workplace-based assemblies, trade union bodies, etc, supported by left political parties that oppose capitalism, community activists, young people etc, to form the basis of such a new government.
A government formed on that basis would be able to renationalise privatised public services, and take into public ownership, under the control and democratic management of workers and the population, the companies that are laying off workers and all the major sectors of the economy, including finance, energy, transport and distribution. This will allow us to recover the billions of the ultra-rich and multinationals (and tax evasion) so that everyone has a job, a home… A struggle for a socialist economy free of private ownership of the means of production and exploitation is on the agenda.
Join Gauche Révolutionnaire!
A mass workers’ party would be the best tool for workers and youth to be able to organise and defend this class programme. The militants of Gauche Révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Left – CWI in France) put all this up for discussion with young people, workers, in the streets and workplaces, with strikers, militants, trade unionists… Strengthening the struggle and more broadly the organisation of workers and youth, proposing a programme to put an end to capitalist barbarism by building socialism, this is what we are fighting for. Come and chat with us, join us!
December 4, 2024
