France on strike: 1,500 walkouts and 250 marches for a different future

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of France today as unions mounted a massive wave of strikes against government cuts, falling living standards and attacks on public services — piling pressure

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A third of the country’s schools were closed and work stopped at oil refineries and nuclear plants. Transport ground to a halt in many regions, and hundreds of thousands marched against the government despite last-minute police instructions rerouting many of the planned demonstrations.

The CGT, CFDT, FO, Unsa and FSU union federations issued a joint statement calling for political change.

“Fuel, food products, rent, gas, electricity… everything’s going up except wages and pensions,” it said.

“Anger is immense. The situation in this country is fragile. The pressing social and environmental challenges must be addressed without delay.”

CGT leader Sophie Binet said: “Nothing will stop us — the only thing that will end the mobilisation is a response to our demands. The longer you wait,” she warned the government, “the higher the price will be.”

Union demands include a rise to both the minimum wage and wages across the public sector, the abandonment of the government’s attempt to force through €54 billion (£45bn) in cuts, higher taxes on the rich and corporations and more money for public services.

“This day of strike action has a dual purpose — to obtain wage increases and to counter a budget that makes workers, those in precarious situations and retirees pay the price for policies in favour of the ultra-rich and large companies,” said the CGT’s Thomas Vacheron.

The government has promised to abolish the controversial Parcoursup university admission system in one of several partial concessions to demands, but its default response is still repression.

Riot police charged marchers on the huge Paris demo early in the afternoon, with footage showing them seizing banners and knocking protesters to the ground.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez deployed 70,000 officers to police the protests, and unions sounded the alarm at the restrictions on the right to assembly. Police switched the assembly point for the main Paris march from the Place de la Bastille to the Place de la Republique just a day ahead.

CGT Ile de France secretary Vincent Gautheron said the union had “responsibly called on people to join the route imposed by the police.” But in 20 departments unions reported the demos being rerouted away from city centres altogether.

Turnout was nonetheless huge. “Macron, you are finished: the people are in the streets,” left-wing La France Insoumise (“France Unbowed,” or LFI) leader Jean-Luc Melenchon declared.

Mr Melenchon received a political boost today when eight MPs of the Democratic and Republican Left group, including four of the French Communist Party’s eight MPs, announced they would support his presidential candidacy in what they said was the “spirit of the New Popular Front” which briefly established left unity around the 2024 legislative elections. The position contrasts with the French Communist Party’s position nationally, as it plans an independent presidential bid under its leader Fabien Roussel.

The French government’s loss of control was clear on Wednesday night when the National Assembly unanimously rejected its proposed budget, 458 votes to zero.

Amendments from different parties had resulted in a budget even the government would not support, explaining the figure, but it dramatically exposed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s weakness — and that of President Emmanuel Macron, who has continued to appoint neoliberal, cuts-focused prime ministers despite their inability to muster majorities.

The government may force the budget through without a vote under Article 49.3 of the constitution, but this could prompt motions of no confidence.

The mass strike is the latest stage in a protest movement that began with school students protesting at cuts to education and had swelled to a general mobilisation against cuts and militarism by mid-October.

Authorities have presented the protesters as rioters, seizing on individual acts of looting and vandalism, while unions and left parties say the police response has been brutal, maiming some young people for life.

But the huge response to the first mainly trade union-organised day of action suggests repression alone will not save the government. Placards in the street proclaimed “Less Macron, more bonbons” and “We are the republic!”

For French rail union SUD-Rail national secretary Fabien Villedieu, the message was more general still.

“Bosses in general are not reasonable,” he said. “When they are not reasonable, we simply do what we’ve always done in France, which is go on strike.”

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