France: the fire this time!

The dust seems to have settled on the prolonged “pension reform revolt”. On Wednesday October 27, the new Pension Act which increased the retirement age from 60 to 62 years was passed into law by the French government. This occurred despite a groundswell of general strikes and mass protests which showed the discontent of the immense majority of people in France with the pension reform in particular and the age of austerity sweeping through France, as with the rest of Europe and indeed the world, in general.
This article captures some of the highlights of this pitched class struggle in France and draws possible lessons for an unfolding future as workers and trade unions across Europe and the world as a whole, square up to the challenges of a period of anti-working-class attacks in the garb of “austerity”. These would include: the impact of changing forms of work relations on how the struggle unfolded; the nature of solidarity which buoyed the movement; the evolving strategies of workers/unions; and, the –often unconstitutional- manner of state/employer attacks on workers in the course of the struggle and in the baleful victory of the State apparatuses against the people, overcoming, as such, the revolt.
At the peak of the strike, more than half of French industries were shut down as raw materials and fuel for production were cut off by the strike movement. The number of workers on strike was barely up to one third of the French labour force, concentrated in the densely unionised “old heavy industries” such as: iron and steel; railway; auto-manufacturing; transport; energy &; power. They also encompassed white collar workers in the formal sector such as: teachers; medical and health workers &; staffers of banks. The reason for this is not far fetched. The impact of neoliberal globalisation on the French economy, as with all national economies in the developed and developing world –even if to different degrees- is the expansion of the informalisation of labour relations. There have been a growing number of workers in enterprises that employ less than 50 persons where trade union organising is much more difficult, and in many cases barely existent. The informalisation of labour relations extends also into the formal sector, with a marked increase of atypical workers such as temporary contract staff and “casuals”, a large number of who are immigrants. Going almost at pace with informalisation is the tertiarisation of the economy, with the tertiary sector of services tending to employ more workers, on the whole, than the secondary sector of manufactures. In this sector, as well, casualisation is very salient, marking a merging of the processes of informalisation and tertiarisation. Workers in supermarket chains, shopping malls, telemarketing and other commercial, services and telecommunication “industries”, tend to be less unionised for various obvious reasons, which include the precarity of their jobs. They were thus part of the strike movement in the broad sense, but were constrained from participating in the general strikes, per se.
The French government often tried to seize on this fact in the public discourse that raged in the course of the strike movement, seeking to portray the strike movement as one of a minority within the population. This playing the ostrich was however shown for what it was by the massive support of French people for the struggle. Independent polls showed that for 17 consecutive days, over 70% of the French populace was in full support of the strike actions, including its radical but peaceful ways of bringing the economy to a halt. This reality was demonstrated on the streets as for days on end, millions of working people and youths marched on the streets, protesting alongside the striking workers, with more than 3.5million people marching on September 10, described as the great “10/10” protest.
The struggle unfurled solidarity between striking workers across different sectors of the French economy, and between these and non-striking workers in France, as well as across the international working class movement for the French workers’ stand. In most major cities of France, including Paris, Marseilles, Perpignan and Rennes, on a daily basis, striking workers convened as “General Meetings of all striking workers”, for action; blocking highways, shutting down tax offices and organising demonstrations. In some of these cities, led by striking garbage collectors, the workers gathered piled up refuse and dumped these in front of the houses of leading business people and government functionaries in their localities and in several university towns, striking cafeteria workers made free meals available for students, who were very active in the strike movement.
Donations from working people that could not join the strike were collected all over France, adding up to considerable amounts as strike funds, to support the workers in action. A number of non-striking supporters also aided with transporting strikers to picket lines, making food available and generally cheering them along.
Solidarity for the striking workers went beyond the French shores. From several countries in Europe, Africa, North America, Asia and Latin America, messages of solidarity were sent by trade unions and trade union federations to the French workers and trade unions. But, perhaps the most significant act of international working class solidarity during the struggle was that of the Belgian trade unions. The blocking of fuel depots in France by workers in the energy sector who played a prominent role in the struggle, hit the French economy very hard, bringing transportation as well as industry to a near standstill as car owners could not get gasoline to buy. French gas stations eventually resorted to routing supplies through central Belgian depots in Feluy and Tertre. Belgian trade unions organised around Federation Generale Belge du Travail (FGBT) promptly organised the blocking of these fuel depots in solidarity with their French comrades.
In the course of massive (strike) movements of the working class, as in the recent fires of struggle that rocked France, the creativity of workers comes to the fore along with solidarity and bold actions. There were several of such brilliant improvisations during the “pension reform revolt”. The General Assemblies of all striking workers has been referred to above. They were not only inter-sectoral in dozens of cities and towns across France, they equally linked worker activists from unions affiliated to different trade union federations together, in many cases, for the first time ever. Strategies adopted in practice as well included joint work with other components of the labour movement outside the trade unions. Students and youth activists from radical and pro-worker parties such as the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) and “the Left Party” were active in mobilising support for the strikes and at their barricades. The strike movement targeted the production process, bringing it to its knees. It however ensured that the consumption process, particularly for the rich was as well hampered, particularly with the cut of fuel supplies. But perhaps the most novel of tactics which emerged during the days of revolt was that of “rolling strikes”. In France, every day of strike by a worker is a day for which no wage is paid by the bosses. The long drawn struggle took its toll on the workers, though their spirits were not dampened. To maintain these high spirits though, at some point in time, some workers were allowed to work for some days while others were on strike, after which they would down their tools and some of those on strike days earlier would go temporarily back to work!
The French ruling class and state struck back ruthlessly at the strikers, throwing away even respect for the Constitution of the Republic. The first major reaction of the Sarkozy government against the strike movement was to increase police powers and invoke the “minimal service” law which aimed at restricting the right to strike.
The popular onslaught of the strike movement on French capitalism did not however relent despite these repressive steps taken. The next action adopted was the draconian enactment of a “state of emergency” decree! Subsequent to this, on Friday October 22, in a step unprecedented in the recent history of labour relations in France, striking oil workers at the Grandpuits refinery were arrested by police officers of the paramilitary force and forced back to work! This sparked a wave of anger and indignation across the country. A Judge declared the action unconstitutional, but the State went on with it over the weekend, anyway. And five days after, despite the resounding refusal of the pension reform in general and the increase of pensionable age, by the working people in France, the French state passed the iniquitous reform into law.
The fire this time in France seems to have been smothered by ruthless state reaction. Nonetheless, its embers still smoulder. The age of austerity sweeping through Europe which had earlier ignited popular protests and strike movements in Europe, including the historic pan-European General Strike point towards stiffer struggles ahead. The relations that have been built between rank and file worker activists in this defeated revolt on pensions will go a long way towards buoying the steps of struggles that the French labour movement will have to take when the sparks of attacks on workers rights and working conditions lead to eruptions of the fire next time.

as published in the Global Labour News Issue 001, Oct-Dec, 2010