Original Post >> Inernational Viewpoint

The mobilization on 10 September was a success. It provides a springboard for building a mass movement for radical change in France.

The French media and the government may try to downplay the success of the day, but it is a success that shows the resources of the working class in France. According to the Ministry of the Interior, there were 430 actions (compared to two to three thousand on the first days of the Yellow Vests), including 157 blockades mobilizing 29,000 people. But we can already say, at this hour, that 15,000 people demonstrated in Bordeaux, about 30,000 in Toulouse (compared to 120,000 at the height of the mobilization on pensions), 600 in Belfort, at least 200 in Angoulême, at least 10,000 in Rennes, and 5,000 in Brest.

In Paris, ther were many actions: blockades of several main entrances to the city, gatherings at République, Gare du Nord, Châtelet, and Place des Fêtes. Most of the Parisian blockades were broken up by the government, which mobilized 80,000 gendarmes and police officers, although some picket lines, where there were a substantial number of strikers, held out. Everywhere, the presence of many young people was noted. A total of 175,000 demonstrators (250,000 according to the CGT) were announced by Retailleau, who had “predicted” 100,000. In the evening, general assemblies were to be held to discuss the next steps of the movement.

A successful day

It can be said that, for a semi-spontaneous movement, it was a great success. It was triggered by a wide variety of individuals and movements, then the radical left wing became involved (France Insoumise and the far left, certain CGT federations, Solidaires and local trade unions, etc.), while the major trade union confederations called for a day of strike action on 18 September. At the end of August and beginning of September, assemblies brought together hundreds of people under the banner of rejecting Macron and austerity, particularly following the announcement of the intention to renew last year’s budget, which will have disastrous consequences for public services and social security, and to remove two public holidays, the 8 May [anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe] and Easter Monday. In the demonstrations, these slogans were combined with calls to reject the far right and increased military budgets, and to show solidarity with Palestine.

The government collapsed on Monday 8 September when Prime Minister Bayrou called for a vote of confidence in the National Assembly, which rejected it, with only 194 votes in favour and 384 against. President Macron’s appointment of Defence Minister Lecornu as Prime Minister on Tuesday 9 September sounds both like a provocation and an admission of immense weakness. It is a provocation because how can one appoint to this position someone who represents both the continuity of all governments under Macron and the transfer of social budgets to militarism? It is also an admission of weakness, showing how difficult it is for Macron to find politicians willing to carry out his policies.

The coming weeks will be very important; anything could happen. If the working classes and the left are not determined enough, it will be the right and the far right that will come out on top during this period of semi-vacation from power. We may see an agreement between Le Pen and Macron to govern and accelerate the anti-social and racist offensive. Or a “government of experts” that will push through this policy with the National Rally, which will let it do so and bide its time until the 2027 presidential election.

Building a movement to win

Conversely, the working class can influence the situation, provided it takes an offensive stance. This requires several conditions.

The first is not to be content with a minority and radical movement. It is essential to build the movement: in the coming days, increase the number of tours of departments, workshops, etc., distribute leaflets, and prepare for a mass strike. The 18th could be a turning point towards a general strike against the government’s policies.

The second is to have clear objectives, slogans that respond to the economic and social situation and the current issues: cancel the debt, increase wages by €400, provide funding for public services, return to retirement at 60, ban redundancies, restore the rights of the unemployed, grant freedom of movement and settlement and equality to foreigners, stop war policies and in particular complicity with the genocide in Palestine.

The third is to answer the question of power. It is not enough to get rid of Bayrou and Lecornu; Macron must be removed. This cannot happen within the framework of the current institutions, which are undemocratic and have failed. We need a government of change, a government of workers, their organisations, trade unions and left-wing parties, to initiate a policy of radical change with the existing order.

This is what anti-capitalist activists can defend in this movement. Through their newspapers, their leaflets and their interventions in assemblies. Activists must defend the unity of the movement – that is, of the entire social and political left, from the grassroots to the top – and its construction on concrete objectives, both in terms of demands and in terms of democratic and militant organisation (general assemblies, picket lines, leafleting, etc.) and an orientation that allows for confrontation with a ruling class that will stop at nothing short of massive, sustained mobilisation. Certain bourgeois circles already see the far right and repression as a recourse against the social movement. We must win in order to avoid a radicalization of anti-social, racist and warlike attacks, and to break with neoliberal capitalism.

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