Search
Close this search box.

France and Belgium: One-day general strikes show need to escalate

The French labour movement has been on the streets in force once again. On 4 October more than a million workers – according to Rouge and L’Humanite – demonstrated in more than 150 cities and towns. Supported by all the main union federations the objective was to protest against the neoliberal reforms announced by the prime minister Dominique de Villepin earlier in the summer. Another major issue affecting private sector workers is falling real wages and the threat of job losses and closures in a whole series of companies.

Workers in both the public and the private sectors struck and demonstrated together. More than half the schools in France were shut as militant youth joined them. This despite the repression, which the police and the courts have been handing out to those, who occupied their schools during the last day of action on 10 March. This September around forty young militants have been in court, charged with taking part in the occupation of schools, threatened with suspended sentences of up to five months, community service orders and heavy fines.

This is the first day of action since 29 May, when the French electorate – under the leadership of the “No of the Left” campaign – voted to reject the EU constitutional treaty, designed to carve in stone the neoliberal policies at the core of the EU project.

Demonstrators packed the streets: 150 000 in Paris, 100,000 in Marseilles, 50,000 in Bordeaux, 35,000 in Nantes, 30,000 in Grenoble, 20,000 in Clermont-Ferrand.

This day of action came against the background of a rash of disputes, as the holiday period came to an end: the SNCM ferry workers, Hewlett-Packard, British Airways and Citroen Aulnay. A strike over wages at Total’s Gonfreville refinery – coinciding with the ferry workers’ blockade of the port of Marseilles – practically shut down production at a string of refineries in the region, owned by Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, as well as Total.

The CGT had launched a strike at the end of September to combat the government’s plans to sell the near-bankrupt SNCM ferry company to venture capitalists. This led to the blocking of the port, whilst seamen belonging to a Corsican union seized a ferry and headed for Bastia. They were stopped at sea by a helicopter assault on the vessel, led by heavily armed counter-terrorist police.

De Villepin, chosen successor of president Jaques Chirac, is attempting to carry out a neoliberal reform programme, based on deregulating employment and privatising the still substantial public sector, particularly the gas and electricity utilities. All this is against a background of an unemployment rate of nearly 10 per cent, and increasing numbers of threatened closures or lay-offs in the private sector. So far, all he has succeeded in doing is selling off part of Gaz de France, and privatising some motorways. He has announced plans for a new labour law that would make it easier for smaller companies to fire workers in the first two years of employment.

The real prize for de Villepin is the privatisation of Electricite de France (EDF). This is scheduled for the autumn. But selling shares in it is only the first step. EDF is a huge public enterprise, in which the unions, overwhelmingly the CGT, occupy major management positions. Large scale redundancies, plus breaking a stronghold of the CGT would be a big boost for de Villepin, and strengthen him against his rival for the presidential succession, Nicholas Sarkozy.

Olivier Besancenot, presidential candidate of the main far left organisation in France, the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire, declared immediately after the day of action:

“This first great social mobilisation since 29 May calls for others, as soon as possible. Without waiting until 2007, it is necessary now to drive out this government with its neoliberal policies.”

In the coming weeks a series of mobilisations are planned. On 19 November, a national demonstration will take place in Paris in defence of public services, aiming to unite the many local campaigns in defence of schools, hospitals, rail stations or post offices. Other mobilisations are planned in defence of the sans papiers refugees, threatened with deportation, and against the Bolkestein Directive, which threatens to set off a race to the bottom in terms of privatisation and outsourcing of services.

Besancenot is right; the LCR is right to call for a huge united day of protest on all these issues. But such days of action are not enough – even if repeated every month. They will not stop de Villepin or Chirac. They must either escalate to all out indefinite strike action – or they will decline as workers become exhausted and feel no decisive result is likely.

A real general strike by the unions, joined by school students and the anticapitalist movement, can bring de Villepin and Chirac to their knees. It would have to be controlled by the rank and file level through co-ordinations – consisting of delegates form all the sectors in action. It would have to put the union leaders under control, stopping them selling out or breaking the unity to do deals with the government as has happened so frequently over the past few years.

The same is true on the political terrain. With neoliberal hard man Nicholas Sarkozy waiting in the wings should de Villepin fail, with the Socialist Party in total disarray thanks to its own support for neoliberal policies, a further turn to the right in 2007 or earlier is a real possibility.

The French working class needs a new political party. The referendum campaign and the two protest general strikes this year indicate that there is a mass vanguard, both of union militants and of youth, who would respond eagerly to a serious campaign for it. Such a party should not be simply an electoral machine – or a machine of street protests. It should be a powerful combat party, a party struggling for power… a revolutionary party.

General strike paralyses Belgium

Meanwhile in Belgian on the 7 October, a general strike brought much of the country to a standstill, with transport, schools and government services all hit. The 24 hour stoppage was the first general strike in Belgium since 1993.

The strike forced the cancellation of trains, including international services such as Eurostar. The protest was called by Belgium’s FGTB/ABVV union in protest at government plans to stop workers retiring early with full benefits. The FGTB/ABVV is linked to the Socialist Party.

The Christian union ACV and the Liberal ACLVB both refused to support the strike. However, the action still hit Belgium badly since FGTB/ABVV unionists mounted roadblocks to stop non-striking workers getting to work. There were also pickets and blockades at factories and ports. Antwerp, Europe’s largest port, was shut for business as dockers walked off work.

Charleroi Airport was completely closed, with no takeoffs or landings throughout the day. Schools, universities and the post office were closed. Postal workers at sorting offices walked out the evening before the strike. Numerous private sector companies joined in, including Opel in Antwerp, Sappi at Lanaken and the BMW factory in Bornem. Much of the Belgian media supported the industrial action.

Jean-Claude Vandermeeren, general secretary of the Walloon branch of the General Federation of Belgian Labour, urged the government to listen to workers’ demands:

“If the Socialist Party can see this for itself and not find it serious and think that there is no problem, then I no longer understand anything in politics.”

The Socialists are in a grand coalition with Flemish Liberal Party, with Guy Verhofstadt as prime minister. His government is pushing through the usual neoliberal package dictated by the EU’s “Lisbon agenda”: tax cuts, a balanced budget and privatisation of the country’s public services. He claims the “nation’s labour costs are too high and harm Belgium”. In addition, pensions are also in the firing line. Verhofstadt’s “generation pact” is designed to prolong the working life.

The Belgian government – just like the French – will not, however, give in to one day general strikes. Further mass actions will be needed to break Verhofstadt’s offensive.

Content

You should also read
Share this Article
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Print
Reddit
Telegram
Share this Article
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Print
Reddit
Telegram