Last Tuesday, the anti-CPE movement rocked the government with a massive show of strength all over the country. Now we must build on this. Now we can smash not only the CPE but the CNE that prepared the way for it. Now we can throw out privatisation and cuts. Now we can put an end to the whole neo-liberal offensive and the bosses’ Lisbon Agenda.
To do this, workers should bring forward their own demands. Turn the 4th April day of action into an indefinite general strike. There could not be a better time to beat the government and the employers than now. After all, the CPE will undermine all workers’ wages and, if passed, become the new standard.
We cannot rely on the reformist socialist and communist parties to call such action, though we should demand they do. The bureaucratic leaders, too, will always look for a compromise – that’s their role in life! To make sure the government is defeated we need to strengthen and organise the movement so that it can control its own leaders.
The students and the lyceens have shown the way – leafleting factories and offices, calling on workers to join them on strike and in occupation. Coordinations, locally and nationally, should now take the lead in mobilising strike action, whether or not the union leaders call for it.
Joint committees of action – or enlarged coordinations – are the most effective and democratic way of organising indefinite strike action. These committees should discuss and decide on each stage of the struggle, when to call action, when to call it off, whether to accept offers to settle, whether to refuse.
They will also need to organise the defence of demonstrations and occupations from attack, whether from the police, the far right or provocateurs. They can ensure that essential supplies are distributed during a general strike.
In short, they could become the basis of a new kind of government to replace Chirac, Villepin, Sarkozy – the whole rotten lot of them! – with a government of and for the working class. A workers’ government that will allocate resources according to need, give the unemployed work, on trade union rates of pay and conditions, building and repairing schools, hospitals and housing projects. One that reverses privatisation and nationalises under workers’ control the huge multinationals and banks. One that dismantles Sarko’s CRS and replaces it with a workers’ militia. One that taxes the rich and the monopoly companies and seizes their assets, so that production can be planned to meet the needs of the people, not the greed of the elite.
The reformist leaders will object that this would be a social revolution. Yes! That is precisely what the movement – which everyone is rightly comparing with May 1968 – has opened up. If we fail to push home our advantage against a weak and divided ruling class, they will regroup and take back even the minor concessions that Chirac has offered. If we succeed, we can end the cycle of reformist and right wing governments, both committed to the same neoliberal policy, and set about building a socialist society.
Why the CPE?
The CPE is the latest in a line of governmental attacks, stretching back to Lionel Jospin’s gauche plurielle government and even beyond: the increase in workers’ retirement age, the attacks on the 35 hour week, the cuts and counter-reforms in the health service and education, the privatisation of some public services, and the introduction of the market into others, mass unemployment, etc.
This neoliberal assault is the result of the market. It is the latest form in which monopoly capitalism is trying to boost profits at the expense of the working class.
Now the bosses want a pool of cheap, unprotected workers to drive down everybody’s wages and undermine the unions. The CPE is just the thin end of the wedge. The bosses want to inflict a defeat on us, just like Thatcher did to the British workers.
The French bosses are demanding all this, they say, because they need to compete with German, British, American and Chinese enterprises. But workers and youth in all these countries are also fighting back: to defend the 37.5 hour week in Germany, pensions in Britain, the rights of migrant workers in America, public ownership of land and enterprises in China.
Victory against the CPE will rebound across the globe, reinforcing resistance in the other countries. It could become a step towards a Socialist United States of Europe.
Chirac’s plan must fail
The right wing government is weak and divided. Dominique de Villepin is isolated, and in free fall in the opinion polls: 29 per cent and dropping. Even the MEDEF has called for the suspension of the CPE. No wonder Villepin’s tongue slipped in Parliament and uttered “resignation” instead of “decision". Freud could not have put it better!
Nicolas Sarkozy, the rightly detested interior minister, says he would be ready to compromise, and negotiate with the union leaders. But he is simply plotting Villepin’s downfall, so that he can introduce the same attacks – or worse.
On Friday, Jacques Chirac said he will sign the CPE into law, albeit with a reduction in the trial period (to twelve months!) and the employer having to give a (spurious) reason for dismissal. The result is the same: a bosses’ charter to superexploit young workers and sack at will.
Chirac hopes that the occupations and education strikes, which now cover most schools and universities, subside over the Easter holidays.
But with each day that passes, that seems less likely. The occupation movement is mushrooming. The workers’ solidarity has given new impetus to the movement, now capable to shutting down the whole country. Thursday’s blockades brought chaos to the nation’s roads and railways.
The best way to ensure the holidays do not see the movement die down is to set ourselves new tasks, to spread the strikes and occupations, to generalise the struggle.
An Alliance that can win
The student and lyceen movement is more widespread and militant than any previously seen. Governments have massively increased the numbers of students over recent years, but they have done it on the cheap. Large classes, deteriorating buildings, teachers under pressure, inadequate resources: these are the reality of French schools and even universities. More students are more pissed off than ever before.
Added to this, the movement has struck a chord with young people of African and Arab descent. November’s national uprising against Sarkozy’s racist police, mass unemployment and the run-down state of the banlieues has left its mark: a new generation, confident of fighting back, politically as well as courageously against the cops.
Tuesday 28th March proved a turning point for the movement, because the five union federations took strike action. Not only did this add numbers to the demonstrations, it brought a whole new dimension to the struggle. Workers, who have been resisting this neoliberal assault for years, have seen the chance to get a small piece of revenge – and taken it.
Out with the lot of them!
The national papers and television stations talk of France being in a political crisis. It is. That’s why the movement cannot rest content any longer with simply the withdrawal of the CPE. So long as the right remain in office, they will simply bring back the attack in another form.
Even the resignation of Villepin would not signal an end to the attacks. Who would replace him? Sarko? Of course the CGT and SUD leaders point to the presidential elections in 2007. The problem here is that we’re still only at the beginning of 2006.
That’s why we need to demand not only the withdrawal of the CPE (and the CNE), but also the resignations of Villepin, Sarkozy and Chirac. Out with the lot of them!
So, how do we do it?
The key to the struggle remains the workers. So far, the union leaders have been forced to call five days of action. Previous movements have stalled at this stage.
The bosses are prepared to sit out any number of single day stoppages, knowing that the workers will be back the next day, and that overtime and speed ups can make up for lost production.
The students and militant workers should of course demand that the union leaders call such a strike immediately. But if we wait for Bernard Thibault and co. to call the general strike, we will be waiting a very long time. We must hurry them up by organising one from below.
Many militants report that the workers are not ready for an indefinite strike, that they may come out for a day, even once a week, but sustained strike action is not supported. That may be so, but then most lyceens and students were not ready to occupy their schools and colleges a month ago.
The movement must sweep up and carry forward all the demands of the working class: against cuts and closures; for decent pay and the restoration of pension rights; for re-nationalisation and the end of the market in public services; for a programme of public works on union rates of pay and conditions to provide jobs to the unemployed and much needed resources to the banlieues and the workers’ districts.
This way, the workers will use the movement as an instrument to win their own demands, not just to support the youth. It can even reach those parts of the working class that the unions have failed to organise. If just one or two enterprises or sections of workers took up the methods of the students – demonstrations, strikes and occupations – others would follow. If it worked for the students, why not for the workers, too?
The coordinations need to go directly to the workers and call on them to bring forward their demands and take strike action, as part of a movement for a general strike. And, of course, workers should send representatives to the coordinations, which can develop into organising centres of the class struggle against the government’s neoliberal offensive.
Indeed, the coordinations can lead the movement independently of the union leaders, should they move to head off the movement. At a national level, they can demand that they, not the union leaders, represent the movement. This could be vital in ensuring that our official leaders do not negotiate an inadequate settlement behind our backs.
Question of power
The anti-CPE movement has raised the question of who makes the laws: the parliamentarians or the street. By generalising the struggle to encompass the whole of the working class and paralysing society, it will now pose the question of who rules.
Without the labour of the working class, the bourgeoisie cannot make their profits. By stopping work, collectively, as a class, we are objectively challenging their “right” not just to exploit us but to control the whole of society.
To counter this, we must organise the general strike by building councils of action and workers defence guards. Councils of action could emerge from democratic and enlarged coordinations, linked up regionally and nationally. They are the best guarantee of unity and can swiftly implement democratic decisions, and convey accurate news.
We will need to transform our services d’ordre into workers militia, serving the whole movement, not just individual contingents. Likewise, we must give political direction to the brave youth, who are prepared to battle it out with the CRS in the banlieues and on the demonstrations. They too could become part of such a militia.
But a general strike cannot simply remain defensive, no matter what the starting point of our struggle. We know we can shake their power. But, unless we seize it, they will regroup and retake much of what we have won. The general strike movement has to go on the offensive. Councils of action will have to declare rights for the workers, and restrict those of the bosses. A workers militia will have to effectively disband the police and CRS, and maintain order against far right provocations.
The general strike, in other words, will pose question of who will run society in the affirmative: we, the working class, will!
Fight racism
Many of the unemployed youth, who have joined the movement, have suffered years of discrimination in school, employment opportunities and housing allocation. They are daily harassed by the cops and other officals. This is either because of state racism or discrimination based on where they live: the banlieues.
We demand state funding to regenerate the banlieues with youth clubs, housing, health centres, schools, nurseries, etc. The communities themselves should plan these projects, creating unionised jobs for the unemployed.
We support the youth fighting back against the racist police: self defence is no offence. The police have no place in our communities. Workers should take immediate strike action whenever the cops go on the rampage. The youth must not be left to fight alone.
It is a great strength of the movement that it has swept up the enthusiastic support of these youth, but now their demands for equality and freedom from state brutality need also to be taken up. And that also means a fight against racism within the working class movement.