France: La lutte continue with brass bands, songs of resistance – and more strikes!

Well over a million people took to the streets in more than 200 towns and cities on Thursday 5 November, in support of school students and demanding wage increases, more jobs and an end to cuts in public service budgets. Health workers, dockers, teachers, journalists, municipal staff, train drivers, bank workers and many others joined the one-day strike. Two days later, hundreds of thousands marched again.

Student assemblies attracted over a thousand participants at many universities, including Marseille, Rennes, Bordeaux and Paris-Cité. In some towns, notably Rennes and Bordeaux, and in sectors such as university staff and healthcare, general assemblies of workers (known as ‘interpros’ or ‘coordinations’) are taking the lead in organising the struggle, hoping to overcome the horrific inertia of the national union leaderships.

In Paris on Monday high school student representatives walked out of a government consultation session on university admissions policy when they discovered that ministers had invited fascist MPs to take part.

There are three strands to the present revolt.

First, high school and university students are in their sixth week of blockades, and are not giving up despite the police beating thousands and mutilating dozens. Secondly, the Yellow Vest networks are back, and they worry government because they seem leaderless and prefer wildcat demos. Most importantly,  there is the workers’ movement, which holds, in strike action, our most powerful weapon, but which is held back by catastrophic national leadership from a band of professional ‘Bordeaux and sandwiches’ negotiators.

On the demos, people wave thousands upon thousands of home-made cardboard placards, with slogans from the bawdy to the philosophical, quoting poets, rappers or constitutional documents. My favourites include: ‘Let’s do a poo on the fascists!’ ‘You thirst for power, we thirst for beauty!’, ‘Class struggle begins in high school!’,  ‘Looters in hoodies make you angry? Looters in suits are your government!’, ‘Plan A: protest in a dignified manner. Plan B: smash everything up.’, ‘Have you forgotten how we became a democracy?’ and ‘This is getting expensive in cardboard!’

The now traditional demo song rang out across France: ‘For the honour of the workers, and to build a better world! Although Macron doesn’t like it, here we are!’

Brass bands and orchestras were present everywhere, following a call from the New World Orchestra, who were tear-gassed while playing mid-October. They have popularised a brand new demo song: ‘I’ve two great loves: the brass band and the revolution! Long live blockades and sabotage, occupations and wildcat demos!’ Groups of thousands were filmed singing this and dancing.

Massive public support

Last week, a new opinion poll found that 57% of the entire population approved of the movement, and 88% considered the demands concerning purchasing power and the cost of living legitimate, while 75% approved student demands. Impressive, given the massive government propaganda campaign against the revolt.

With such support, even the mainstream media feel obliged to feature in their reports interviews with inspiring high schoolers explaining their demands in detail, even if the channels make sure to get rapidly back to their preferred fare – interviews with headmasters, policemen and shopkeepers who are upset by the movement, and political experts who want to discuss supposed personality clashes between left politicians.

This crisis is not going to go away. Macron’s minority government must push through the national budget before Christmas. Massive tax cuts for the rich mean they are short of money, so their initial proposal is for €50 billion in budget cuts. The international bankers are breathing down their necks, already charging France more than neighbouring countries to borrow money.

Union leaders behind the curve

The situation is extremely fluid. On Monday, the government met with unions and bosses and then declared that the national minimum monthly wage would be raised … by €24 euros! The CGT union demands €150. Later this week a decision will be announced about public sector wages. Public servants have lost 20% of purchasing power since 2010, and nearly a million are on the minimum wage.

The national union leaders are following their habitual hymn sheet of ‘days of action’. The dynamism of Thursday’s social explosion should have convinced them to call more action immediately, but they waited to see the results of the negotiation’ which were of course pathetic. Monday’s talks with unions took place behind closed doors – they should have been livestreamed! We could do with rallies outside the weekly meetings of the leaders of the six different union confederations, to help them concentrate!

Not all the union leaders are identical. The more radical, like Sophie Binet of the CGT confederation, say they would like to see strikes spread further, while the CFDT is not calling for more strikes right now. But all generally move in practice very slowly.

The movements are enthusiastically supported by the radical left organisation La France Insoumise (France in Revolt). The result has been that LFI presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélénchon, has gained a couple of percent in the opinion polls. It is unheard of to have such a huge movement within a few months of presidential elections, and the stakes are very high indeed. More mass strikes have been called by some union leaders for the 17th. We need to go further.

*John Mullen is a revolutionary socialist living in the Paris region and a supporter of La France Insoumise

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