France - A wave of working class mobilisation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- The period between mid-March and 19 June saw the largest wave of industrial protests in France since the Winter of 1995, when a railway strike developed into a full-scale mobilisation across the public sector. This time, the spearhead of the protest was education workers. However, the series of national days of action called by the trade- union confederations provided opportunities for new sections of the public sector to join the demonstrations which were organised in many towns. In some cases, these workers remained on strike for several days, in between consecutive national days of action, or carried on participating in street protests. Such was the case, in the public transport systems of the large towns, in the railways, the post office, the road maintenance service and municipal services, among others. Private sector workers did join many of the marches held during this period and some took strike action, if only for a few hours, to join the protest. But the mobilisation did not really spread to the decisive industrial strongholds of the working class. The strikes and marches which took place during this period involved several million workers in one way or another - that is a significant section of the working population. The most positive side of this wave of militancy was its lack of sectional divisions. Due to the general character of its objectives (the issue of pension rights and to a lesser degree the attacks on education) and due to the determination of a large number of strikers to convince other sections of workers to join in the protest, it appeared as the militant expression of the working population as a whole. For once, thanks to this high degree of unity in purpose and action, teachers - i.e. intellectual workers who do not normally see their fate as being tied to that of the rest of the working population - had to take on board the fact that all wage earners, whether intellectual or otherwise, have the same interests. This wave of protest failed to force the government to withdraw its attacks against the pension system. But despite this failure, it has proved that the working population could raise its head and fight back, even after the past years of on-going attacks from the bosses and their governments. Besides, no-one can tell what the future has in store. It may well be that this militant wave is not over and that what has happened in April-June turns out to be the first phase of a future larger mobilisation, large and deep enough to be victorious this time. In any case this is what can be hoped for. Full story: http://www.union-communiste.org/eng/txt/csg51004.htm
