Protesters in Place de la Bastille in Paris (Picture: Gareth Jenkins)
Another day of massive demonstrations and strikes in France has confirmed the revolt isn’t going away just because the attack on pensions has now passed through parliament.
The CGT union said 800,000 marched in Paris on Thursday and 3.5 million across the country. Much of the media report huge turnouts of young people—workers and students.
When president Emmanuel Macron ordered the use of article 49.3 of the constitution to ram the pension age increase through parliament this week, he didn’t break resistance. He took it to a higher level and a more aggressive character.
Now many strikers aren’t just confronting an attack on their pensions, but are at war with the government and the system.
Sophie Binet, a rep from the technicians’ union, told the Liberation newspaper, “The 49.3 was an electroshock that rocked a lot of people, but draws hope for the future. The convergence between young people and employees is one of the ingredients of winning mobilisations.”
There were 250,000 demonstrators in Marseille according to the unions, 110,000 in Bordeaux, 55,000 in Lyon, 50,000 in Clermont-Ferrand, 24,000 in Tarbes, 24,000 in Bayonne, 15,000 in Puy-en-Velay.
In many places there were unprecedented numbers on the streets. In Toulon, the unions claimed 30,000, in Bayonne 24,000, Avignon 30,000, Agen 6,000 and Nice 40,000. All of these are record turnouts.
Indefinite strikes continue at four of the seven major refineries—and bin workers in Paris and some other cities are out. Large piles of rubbish choke parts of the capital. From the bin and sewer workers’ bloc on the Paris demonstration, Christophe says, “There are mountains of waste. People become aware that we exist when we’re not there—only then”.
From early on Thursday morning, “dead city” operations saw activists take over roundabouts and road junctions to close off areas from all traffic. They included Lille, Lyon, Chambery, Lorient and Toulouse.
As Fos-Sur-Mer refinery in southern France, workers fought the CRS riot police on Wednesday and beat them back, at least for a while. Hugo told Socialist Worker, “It was magnificent. As trade unionists we asked people to come to our picket line and several hundred came. We forced back the CRS because we were many more than them.
“Then the CRS hit back with lots of tear gas and batons. They drove us off a bridge we had occupied, but the strike goes on. We felt more confident afterwards, we can stand firm and we can get support from others.”
Workers’ solidarity and militancy also headed off an attempt to break the strike at the largest refinery in France on Wednesday night. The government had “requisitioned” some of the strikers at the Normandy refinery—giving Total the power to order them back to work or face fines and jail.
The CGT Total Normandie union branch called trade unionists in the port city of Le Havre to a rally in front of the refinery at 8pm. Over 300 strikers from all the industrial areas of the region—dockers, ports, rail workers, Chevron and others—as well as students turned out. They stood outside the site all night to stop any return to work and to prevent police assaults on the pickets.
Alexis Antonioli, CGT Total Normandie secretary general, said on Wednesday evening, “We must not delude ourselves. The government will do everything to blow up the strikes. They will do everything to get kerosene, whether from us, or other refineries.
“They are in a complete panic. Because the strikes continue, the mobilisation hardens, the dynamic among young people continues.”
Bosses tried to negotiate with the strikers, offering to lift the requisitions if the workers agreed to end the strike. The pickets refused outright.
Antonioli explained, “We have no intervention by the police or requisition, because we prevented it. But if there were to be an intervention by the police, it would be similar to what happened in Fos-sur-Mer, we count on solidarity to prevent requisitions.”
Macron’s hope is the cops’ truncheons, the jail cell—and the union leaders. They called for Thursday’s mobilisations. But they won’t push for sustaining and spreading the indefinite strikes that are the real power, or the open-ended general strike that would break the government.
They were slow to respond to the use of 49.3 and won’t extend the movement to demanding Macron must go—now a popular demand. They won’t take up issues of pay and conditions that could make it bigger and involve layers not yet mobilised.
The movement has radicalised but the rank and file alternatives to the national union leaders are still limited. It’s a race between the growth of these networks and the lethargy, cowardice and limited vision of the union leaders that could strangle the resistance.
In Montpellier, cops with batons and a flash-ball grenade launcher confronted the photographer for a left wing website. “I don’t give a shit about your press thing,” shouted the cop as the photographer snapped this picture and ran. Such is the freedom of the press (Picture: @lepoinginfo on Twitter)
Riots began in many cities after the use of 49.3. Protesters set fire to barricades made up of bins and piles of rubbish. It wasn’t just left wing activists or students involved. In many areas workers took part.
The police responded with vicious repression and many hundreds of arrests. In most cases people are not even charged with illegal acts, but just swept up for being on the streets.
On Thursday a police flashball grenade tore off a woman’s thumb in Rouen. On Friday 17 March, police patrolled the Chatelet district of Paris, checking and arresting those they arbitrarily deemed to be protesters.
Last Saturday the cops in Paris humiliated dozens of demonstrators and made them sit against a wall before arresting them. Among them, a protester testified on Twitter to his re-arrest just after his 48 hours in police custody. It was simply because he looked, in the words of the police, like a “fucking leftist”.
Last Saturday in Nantes, police sexually assaulted student protesters. A riot cop brandished an assault rifle during a demonstration. But people are still going on to the streets—still resisting.
Ten minutes into a TV interview on Wednesday, Macron surreptitiously removed a watch he was wearing. Social media accounts said it was worth £60,000. He was worried the posh timepiece didn’t strike quite the right notes as he lambasted the poor in the streets.
His office had to rush out laborious pseudo-explanations that claimed he had taken it off because it was making a noise when he banged the table. They said it was worth “only” £2,000—as long as you have the version without the official coat of arms.
His interview was a complete failure. A poll showed 76 percent of people were not convinced by his performance, his worst-ever score. The previous low was December 2018 when 63 percent were against him.
More and more people are questioning French democracy. “Macron gets his way without a vote in parliament and then his police batter people on the street because they protest. OK, we are not living under Stalin or Hitler, but this is not a democracy,” said Noah from the Paris demonstration.
“It has been like this in the housing schemes for a long time, where young people, especially Muslims and migrants, get beaten for nothing. Now many more realise it.
“What are our rights? Every five years we get to choose between a fascist and a centre-politics tyrant. It’s a con. We can wail on social media but it’s meaningless if you can’t make things happen.”
Many activists also point to the government’s attack on the right to strike. When refinery workers walk out and picket the government accuses them of violent blockades and uses requisition orders.
Macron has tried to counterpose his own rule, supposedly legitimate and sanctioned by a vote, to the power of the “foule”—a dismissive word for “crowd”. He wants to outlaw the “lower orders”. They won’t play the game of capitalist politics and challenge the violence of the state with their own militant refusal to obey the cop, the government minister and the judge.
People can see through him, and even some parts of the establishment worry what Macron has now set off. Charles de Courson, a right wing MP who moved a no confidence motion against Macron said, “This government can no longer govern. I am not sure that the president of the republic has measured all the consequences of his decision. The country will become more and more ungovernable.
“I think the current government is dying. We are talking about the change of prime minister—that seems obvious to me, but that will not solve the fundamental problem.”
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