France: Towards a General Strike to Bring Down Macron and Fight Capitalism

Since January 19, millions of workers and youth have been demonstrating and striking against Macron’s pension reform. From now on, we have to build for a general strike, renewable upon vote by workers’ general assemblies, beginning in March to do away with Macron and all austerity policies.

Macron’s pension reform, the key and emblematic measure of his second mandate, would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 alongside other actions that will negatively impact workers. The original plan was to go up to 65, but the government eventually lowered this in the hope of mitigating the expected protests and to try to get the support of the right-wing party Les Républicains (ex-UMP, Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) to reach a majority in parliament.

Starting strong, getting even stronger

More than two million demonstrators participated across France in the first day of action against the pension reform, organized by the intersyndicale — the common front of France’s eight largest trade unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU) — What a historic and promising beginning!

[Here you can read more about the anti-working class nature of the pension reform]

From the start, the most combative layers of youth showed a stronger determination than in past years to join the movement and to struggle alongside the trade unions and workers. The 150.000 strong demonstration in Paris on January 21, two days after the first union mobilization, which had been planned and mobilized for weeks in advance by student and youth organizations as well as France Insoumise, added further momentum. In some places, student unions have succeeded in obtaining exemptions for class attendance for those who want to demonstrate; student demonstrations have set off from different campuses to join the trade union demonstrations; and, since February 7, several high schools and universities have been blocked. On February 11, 120.000 youth participated in the demonstration across France and for March 9, the student and youth organizations called for the next nationwide day of action. Some universities have already planned blockades during the whole week of March 6, which might be renewed throughout the month of March by the student general assemblies.

One of the most crucial elements in the development of the movement so far however, are the impressive demonstrations of working-class power and control over private production through the “Robin Hood” actions: Hospitals, public sports centers, libraries, high schools, nurseries or low-income and housing etc. were placed on “free electricity or gas”. What a powerful illustration of what a society led by the working class would look like.

This clearly shows that the movement is even broader than the millions of working-class people who have been able to participate in the mobilizations so far. The anger and rejection against the pension reform and the system that Macron and Borne represent is dominant in society and increasing: Overall opposition to the pension reform grew by 6% over the last month, from 61% on January 18 to 67% on February 15 (poll published by CSA). Among women and young people under 35, the opposition is even higher, currently standing at 71% and 81% respectively.

After the first national intersectoral mobilization on January 19, another four followed: On January 31, 2.8 million participated across France, on February 7, over 2 million, on February 11, over 2.5 million, and on February 16, 1.3 million joined the demonstrations; overall participation in the strike movement is even higher, as some stayed at the picket lines and did not join the demonstrations. The demonstration on Saturday February 11 was the 4th day of mobilizations of the intersyndicale and the 1st organized during a weekend. This was important to be able to mobilize workers in very precarious working conditions and all those who could generally not so easily participate in strikes during the week. It also further strengthens the connection with the youth and wider working-class.

ISA activists participated with a contingent in the demonstration in Paris. The mood was very combative and not only was there a palpable anger against Macron, but a genuine desire to stop him. You could feel that people are ready to go further. At the same time, there is also a basic understanding that a series of mass demonstrations by themselves, without being connected to each other and a strategy of escalation, will not be enough. A 54-year-old unionized railway worker was quoted in Le Monde: “These demonstrations will not be enough to slow down the government”. He calls for “a subversive mass movement” with "three or four days of total blockade, and not only of railway workers, teachers and refiners.”

Shut down France, but not just for a day

So far, the government and Macron are not backing down. They hope for a repeat of the 2019/early 2020 movement, when the struggle, although titanic, had suffered from the lack of a bold plan of action towards a general renewable strike. The movement was running out of steam after nine days of intersectoral mobilizations that were not connected close enough to channel the anger in a way that can create a continuous and escalating dynamic linked to a perspective to win. Everyone knows: without the Covid lockdowns, the pension reform would have been pushed through in 2019–2020.

With that in mind, parts of the ruling class might wish that the lower turnouts of round three and five of the intersectoral strike mobilizations could signal a peak in the movement, but they should not get their hopes up. The success of the fourth day of mobilizations consolidated the movement and the lower turnout of day five is most likely more based on the fact that this was an intermediary day of action shortly after the big mobilization on the weekend, during school holidays, and with the perspective of an extremely strong mobilization on March 7. Overall, the situation looks different than in 2019/2020 and the dynamic is very promising. The level of cohesion we see among the intersyndicale is the highest since 2010. This is not voluntarily coming from the leadership but due to the massive pressure from below. The fact that the reform is considered the central anti-working-class reform of Macron-Borne, together with the impact of the strong movement against the cost-of-living crisis that developed in autumn, has put a lot of pressure on the trade union leaderships to go further than they had necessarily intended to go. In hindsight, one can say that the movement in autumn had an element of preparation for the movement against the pension reform. Many of those who hoped to win more back then will see their chance for a real battle now.

For March 7, the intersyndicale has called for another nationwide day of strikes and actions to “shut down France”; 6 out of 10 people in France currently support the call, among working and young people the support is even higher with 72%. Several unions from the intersyndicale have gone a step further and called for a general strike, renewable upon vote by workers’ general assemblies. Among those are the RATP (Autonomous Parisian Transportation Administration) intersyndicale (CGT, FO, UNSA, CFE-CGC) and the CGT representing waste, train and chemical industry including oil refinery workers. This is a correct first step, but more is needed. We need to build up momentum and pressure from below to push the other unions that are still dragging their feet to join the mobilization for a renewable strike or make them pay a serious political price if they don’t.

The leadership of the CFDT union federation, which has the biggest membership in France, is not on the “left”. They are clearly opposed to a renewable strike and hoping for an exit from the movement. But the pressure from below has not allowed them to step back from the mobilizations so far. The recent shift in debate on the negotiations in parliament comes in handy for them as they would favor a situation in which, after the reform is voted in parliament, they could say “well, we tried everything, we fought hard, but the parliament has decided and that’s that.” Even better if that comes together with some minor concessions that they could sell as a deal sweetener to their members.

The battle will be won in the streets and workplaces

The Financial Times writes that “it is in parliament where the real risk lies. […] A rebel faction within the LR [Les Républicans, rightwing conservative] has emerged and is pushing for further concessions to soften the impact on people who start work at a young age.” Of course they don’t call for concessions out of benevolence, but to appear “nicer” and appeal to some voters in light of the extremely strong opposition to the reform among the working class in France. The government needs the support of LR to avoid using article 49.3 to push through the reform by decree, as they already did 10 times with the 2023 budget in autumn and winter 2022. Using that undemocratic measure to repress the movement could act as a whip of counter-revolution, further fueling the protests and strikes.

This underlines how weak the Macron-Borne government actually is, which has been revealed several times over the past weeks. In January, two days before the first day of strike action, Macron met with 10 leading editors from different French media in a secret meeting to convey the language and arguments to be used on their part. The clearest revelation of the government’s weakness in this context was probably the exposure of their lies around the false promise to raise the minimum pension from 900€ to 1200€. The group Mediapart had calculated that only 48 people would be entitled to it if all conditions of eligibility are accounted for. After a few days, even the pro-government mainstream media had to accept that it was a government lie. Labor Minister Dussopt then tried to talk about 40,000 beneficiaries, but this was another lie: Those are the people who would receive a 100€ increase of their pension.

The stronger attention on parliament was spurred not least by a blizzard of over 20,000 amendments brought forward mostly by the NUPES (the left coalition, led by FI and including PS, PCF and the Greens) to slow down the process via parliamentary procedures. Recently, the PCF pulled back many of their amendments, focussing their efforts on pushing for a vote against article 7 of the reform which contains raising the pension entry age from 62 to 64. Martinez, general secretary of the CGT union, argued in the same direction. Mélenchon responded “why rush to section 7? Doesn’t the rest of the law matter?”, understanding that a vote on this emblematic article will probably be won by Macron anyway, despite his very small majority.

The very strong will to fight among CGT activists contrasts with the general attitude of the union leadership, who has one eye on a possible victory in the National Assembly, counting on the division among the ranks of the fragile coalition between Renaissance (Macron/Borne) and Les Républicains. In mid-February, in the media, but especially at a meeting in Montpellier, Mélenchon made a lengthy appeal for everyone to mobilize on March 7: "From Tuesday March 7, we’re blocking everything, everywhere!". He motivated FI activists to discuss with their colleagues, families and in their neighborhoods, to try to mobilize all those around them towards March 7, which looks set to be one of the most important dates since the beginning of the movement and the possible start of an intensification of the struggle.

Besides the real weaknesses present in the France Insoumise leadership, Mélenchon and his entourage have, from the beginning of Macron’s second term, repeatedly stimulated the struggle in the streets and in the workplaces. They called upon the unions to build the fightback and they themselves organized demonstrations with more than 100,000 people, as with the “March against the high cost-of-living and climate inaction” on October 16 2022.

At the beginning of the movement against inflation and the cost-of-living crisis in autumn, the CGT leadership had no intention to generalize the strike movement. Instead, it was the growing anger from below that first sparked the strike actions and then also pushed the union leaderships to go further than they had initially planned. Interlinked with this was the pressure put on the unions by France Insoumise, who gave a voice to the willingness to struggle that exists amongst the rank and file. Martinez (general secretary of the CGT) on the other hand was not amused by this. He rejected Mélenchon’s calls and clearly stated his position against the constructive attitude of the FI when he said in June 2022: “Social mobilisations are the responsibility of the unions".

While it is correct to emphasize the importance of opposing the pension reform as a whole, warning against attempts to divide the movement through offering concessions, Mélenchon should have clarified the point: The battle will not be won in parliament, but in the streets. David, a 37-year-old postal worker from Lille, clearly states the point: "The opposition will come from the streets. We are the ones who produce, we are the ones who decide. There is only the strike that will make things move forward.” And also part of the bourgeois press know very well what will be the decisive factor in the end as stated in a Bloomberg article: “The breadth and dynamics of street protests in France have often proved make-or-break for past presidents’ reform efforts. In 1995, Jacques Chirac’s government dropped a pension overhaul plan after crippling strikes. Prolonged student-led protests forced a U-turn on labor laws in 2006, even after parliament had approved changes.” The latter was actually the last significant victory for the labor movement on the national level.

A renewable general strike does not fall from the sky

It is urgent to organize assemblies of struggle in the workplaces open to all colleagues, unionized or not, and to organize similar committees in the high schools, universities and neighborhoods to build for a general renewable strike.

The plans to block schools and universities during the first week of March as well as the call for a feminist strike of all genders on March 8 are important in this context. The platform “grève féministe” is supported by numerous feminist organizations, unions and political groups and parties including #NousToutes, the CGT, and NUPES. They call for a feminist strike against gender based violence in France and worldwide, against the pension reform and for the right to abortion — “to win equality at work and in our lives, to guarantee our economic independence”. Next to that, around 10 unions and collectives have called for a “Springtime of public service”. They are planning a movement of joint actions in March and demanding more public spending, especially to save the public hospitals. All this can contribute to an intensification of the movement in March. We could see a situation in which the CGT and other unions are pushed through pressure from below to go for a general renewable strike, drawing larger layers of the movement behind them. In such a scenario, the CFDT might be forced to change their course as well.

In the next two weeks we need to go all out with mobilization in our workplaces, schools, universities and neighborhoods. This is how we will be able to stop the whole pension reform and to bring down the Macron-Borne government and their austerity policies. Grassroots organizing is key to guarantee control over the movement and ensure that it does not run out of steam. The strike of the train ticket collectors at SNCF during the Christmas holidays showed the way. They organized the strike through the Facebook page “collectif national ASCT” (Agents, service commercial, trains), which confronted the union leadership, who refused to mobilize for the strike, with facts on the ground and thereby forced them to file the strike notice. Actions like these evoke memories of the Gilets Jaunes movement. Another important example of workers’ democracy are the renewable refinery strikes at TotalEnergies last autumn. The continuation of the strike was assured by a daily democratic vote of the workers themselves. It is with these kinds of methods that one ensures the involvement of all the workers and thus the success of the struggle. Unfortunately, the refinery strike movement, with some minor exceptions, was kept in isolation (despite a large passive support), which allowed the authorities to impose the requisition of personnel. This only underlines the need to build a broad movement based on the maximum involvement of the whole working class in France and internationally.

The weekend mobilization on Saturday February 11 and the attention on mobilizing in smaller cities were good first steps to broaden the movement. In addition to mobilizing workers and youth who are eager to struggle (but could not participate during the week), it is crucial to try everything possible to convince those layers who so far have not taken part, potentially not seeing the possibility for a victory. Politically it would be important to take up the question of the cost-of-living crisis and link it to the struggle against the pension reform and the Macron-Borne austerity regime. To have the strongest impact possible with your politics and to counter the bourgeois press, strike delegations could produce leaflets and strike papers as well as organize visits to workplaces, especially to those that have not yet joined the strikes. Sectoral and intersectoral assemblies should be held across the whole country to strengthen and democratize the intersyndicale from below, as a way to seize and retain rank and file control over the movement, its demands and its key decisions, including those over strikes. In this way, such assemblies can greatly strengthen the collective learning process of the working class.

Strike movements are taking place in many countries. Why not coordinate them internationally? At the end of September, the struggle of the refinery workers received the solidarity of several unions in Europe. Important trade union struggles are developing in neighboring countries. In Britain, December 2022 saw the highest number of workdays -1.5 million — lost through strikes since July 1989. This led up to Wednesday 1 February’s coordinated strike action, the single largest day of coordinated strike action since 2011. Belgium has also been experiencing strike action in various sectors for several months, culminating in a 24-hour general strike on November 9. An internationalist approach should be part of every struggle. Why not build towards a European strike day against austerity policies and for wage rises above inflation? As a start, strike delegations could be sent to and invited from Britain, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal where there are also strikes and protest movements taking place. Moreover, discussions around a future pension reform have also started in Belgium.

For a democratic socialist society

There is no lack of financial means. TotalEnergies has just announced a net profit of 19 billion euros in 2022, the largest in its history. The companies of the CAC 40 (benchmark French stock market index) have paid out 80.1 billion euros to their shareholders in 2022, while they are also the ones that the state cajoles the most with 157 billion euros of public aid per year. These climate criminals and rapacious companies must be expropriated and nationalized under workers’ control and management. Alongside the further nationalization of the key sectors of the economy (finance, energy, transport, agriculture, construction, large companies…) we can develop a rational and democratic planning of the economy that ensures a decent future for all while respecting the planet .

In order to apply such a program and move towards fundamental societal change, the organized working class needs to play the central role in this struggle and establish itself as the leading class in society by organically linking up and integrating the struggles and demands of the feminist, climate, and other social movements. This is an absolute prerequisite for forging the type of unity among the working class that we need to lay the foundation for a possible overthrow of the capitalist system. The “Robin Hood” actions are a step in this direction. The striking energy workers have for the first time taken nationally coordinated action to establish free gas and electricity for schools, hospitals, low-income housing, public sports centers, and public interest associations. They also re-established the distribution to users who had been cut off because of unpaid bills and offered a reduced rate of up to 60% for small traders, who received no comparable help from the government in the face of soaring prices. These actions are initiatives taken and coordinated by workers across the country in their workplaces. Decisions and actions are voted on democratically by the rank and file. This gives an idea of how the wealth produced by the working class could be managed under a democratic socialist society. Moreover, having helped the small traders, it will likely make this layer of society look to the working class and greatly increase their support for the strike movement and willingness to join the struggle.